Losing someone you love is heartbreaking no matter what the circumstances. When it’s unexpected we often find ourselves asking, “Why, God?”

Dean VanderMey, Executive Director of Set Free Ministries, says that’s the wrong question. When we don’t understand what God is up to instead of asking “Why, God?” ask “What, Lord, would you have me to learn?” 

Dean has learned this firsthand as a young father having lost his first-born daughter, Katie. And more recently in the loss of two dear friends and colleagues and an 8 day old baby boy.

When Dean changed the question God began to teach him about living with eternity in mind and leaving a legacy.

Twenty years ago, in Africa Dean was face to face with 42 orphan children with distended bellies sitting in the front row at a training he was doing. When he found out they had come for a free meal he wept. “God, what do you want me to do?” he asked.

When we’re filled with compassion & ready to obey, anything is possible.

Here how that encounter led to thousands being housed, fed and baptized!

Also, at a time when Shawna could have lost everything that mattered most she found an unshakeable foundation in her relationship with God.