Praying when words fail

Last night members of Holy Trinity came into church to pray, having learned of the tragic road accident that had taken away one of our long-term mission partners, and left another fighting for his life. Two other leaders of A Rocha also died in the accident.

These words from a press release were all that we knew:

On Monday, 28 October, Peter and Miranda Harris, co-founders of A Rocha, and Chris Naylor, A Rocha International CEO, together with his wife Susanna, were involved in an horrific car accident in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Miranda, Chris and Susanna did not survive. Peter and the driver of the car are being treated at a local hospital and are in a stable condition. We await further news on their progress.*


Peter and Miranda Harris have been our Crosslinks mission partners since 1984, visiting us on numerous occasions over the years to report on their work in creation care and conservation. It was a niche project for a mission society back then, but one which has come into its own in recent years. Peter and Miranda were the founders of A Rocha in 1983, and had just - last year - begun to hand over to others as the scale and significance of the ministry continued to grow.

Peter and Miranda had made friends at HT as well: Miranda was a great letter-writer, preferring to write long hand rather than type; Peter was superb at keeping in touch and making things happen. Under God's good hand they built A Rocha into a global family.

In November 2018 they made their last visit to us before going into semi-retirement, and their visit was an inspiring one. Miranda spoke to the children about ringing birds - they reckoned that Peter had held something like 100,000+ birds in his hand as he ringed them. Peter spoke about the significance of the gospel message to a world that is suffering climate-anxiety.

But it was also personally significant for us as a family. Peter and Miranda came to lunch at the Vicarage after the morning services, and as we ate they wanted to know about our family, and we learned about theirs. We also chatted about their work in Kenya - the coastal conservation work, and the connected work with birds and forests in Kenya really caught our imagination...so much so that Fergus and I travelled there just 3 months later. I blogged about the trip on our return.

So last night, as I knelt, sat, and wandered around in church it was hard to process what we had heard. And it was hard to know how to pray. Hard to pray because we didn't have a lot of information and hard to pray because I was angry and confused. 
Sometimes all you can do is to sit quietly before God with people on your heart and in your thoughts. To trust that God is in this situation for good, despite the tragedy. To trust the gospel that promises and reveals that his power can bring light out of darkness, hope out of despair, victory out of defeat, life out of death. To trust that faith in him will sustain those who are infinitely more deeply affected than we are. 

As we prayed, a member of HT who grew up in Port Elizabeth was able to be in touch with the Bishop who was sitting by Peter's bedside. He was also able to tell us that the local church was preparing to offer support and pastoral care to members of the family who were about to fly from the UK to Port Elizabeth. In these two ways (at least these two ways) God is present in the situation, in the form of his people. 

We continue to pray for Peter, in St George's Hospital Port Elizabeth, and for the Harris and Naylor family members in their tragic loss. We will remember them on Sunday in all of our services.

A Rocha have created a blog page for any who wish to contribute a memory or to send condolences to the Harris and Naylor families. Click here to access the page.

'Weeping may stay for a night, but joy comes in the morning' Ps.30 v.5

* See this fuller report in Christianity Today.