Tragedy and Triumph

We have a small team visiting from the states. The team is primarily made up of deaf people and they have a strong passion to minister to the kids. So, the team helped with Wednesday night chapel. Several from the team shared testimonies and I couldn't believe what I was seeing as this women told her story. She was born hard of hearing but functioned in a completely hearing world with the assistance of hearing aids. She was a teacher working at a school district in Texas. Then, through an illness/accident, she suddenly lost all of her hearing. Simply while she was teaching, she noticed her hearing evaporate. She explained how by the end of the day, her coworkers and students were coming up to her and talking to her, but she had no idea what they were saying. While she was not afraid of the deafness, the social transition was extremely difficult. As she was dealing with the illness and the sudden loss of her hearing, another tragedy struck. Her school district was having a special dinner to honor their administrators at a local restaurant named Luby's. It was October 16, 1991 and she was supposed to join her colleagues for lunch, but couldnt because of the recent illness. It was that day at that restaurant at that time that 21 of her colleagues were killed in a massacre by a crazed gun man. Her friends and her coworkers were gone, but why not her. She was thrown into this struggle. This resulted in an extended period of her life in which she was simply angry with God. She packed all of her things in her car and just drove around the country. But, through this time, her Savior continued to pursue her with loving gentleness. Her face beamed as she expressed the wonder and amazement of His mercy on her life. The pain from recounting the experiences was still evident as scars remained, but I also witnessed profound healing through her testimony. Give Praise to our God!

Here is a little excerpt from the Wikipedia page about the massacre:
The Luby's massacre was a mass murder that took place on October 16, 1991, in Killeen, Texas, United States when George Hennard ″Jo Jo" ^[1] drove his pickup truck into a Luby's cafeteria and shot 23 people to death while wounding another 20, subsequently committing suicide by shooting himself. It was the deadliest shooting rampage in American history until the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre.