During the night of November 8th 2004,
in an old farmhouse near Pelham, Ontario,
Monika Woerlen and her 7 children
perished in a fire that consumed the home.
It was a story that gripped an entire nation.
Newspapers across the country carried story after story
of Monika, a 39-year-old mother
who gave everything for her 7 children,
ranging in age from 11 to 1 years old.
Monika was a beloved wife, daughter, sister and friend.
She lived a Godfearing and faithful life,
and was a living example to those who knew her.
Susanna,
Ellie,
Marcus,
Sammy,
Paul,
Nathan,
and Debora,
were happy, bright and lively children
who lived life to the fullest.
They were beloved by their aunts, uncles, grandparents, many cousins and friends.
Their sudden loss was staggering to the family, community and friends of the family.
But they live on in the hearts of all those who knew them.
As the days went by,
the stories shifted from details about the fire,
to focus on Marc Woerlen,
a husband and father who is now without his family.
The night his family died, he was in Ottawa,
preparing to move his family to a new home and a new life.
Many were amazed at the strength that Marc had to face this unspeakable tragedy.
In the interviews and newspapers, he constantly spoke of his strong faith
and how it sustained him in his darkest days.
How did he preserve that faith
in the midst of such a tragedy?
What helped him to survive those dark days?
And what would he say to someone who needed encouragement
in the midst of their own tragedy?
Right after the fire was ...
different thoughts that came through my mind.
At first of course,
you wonder why God would do something like this to you.
You're looking around at different people around you and you're saying
Why not him?
His kids wouldn't miss him.
Or his wife wouldn't miss him.
So I was tempted to be...
have some self-pity and feel sorry for myself.
You look at the situation and you wish it could be different.
but it is what it is
and you have to find a way to deal with it.
We have God's Word.
And God's Word is true.
And you look around and you meet people and
they tell you their story.
And it's a huge help
when you meet people that have been faithful in their lives
and they can tell you their story.
And they've gone through their situations
and you know that God's Word is true.
I was reading my Bible and I was on my knees
praying for help.
The other thing is,
there are many prayers that go up for a person in his life.
Other people are praying for you
and there's a huge amount of strength in that.
I realized that
there's lots of prayers that go up for a person
in that kind of a situation.
People from all over the world were praying for me.
Kids were praying for me.
It's written in 1 Peter that you can
"Humble yourself under God's mighty hand.
so that He may exalt you."
It worked in my heart that, He doesn't have to raise you up,
but if you humble yourself,
He can raise you up.
And that's what He wants.
It says, "Cast all your cares on Him and He will care for you".
So, that's how it was.
I had to just
humble myself under God's mighty hand and
I knew. He promises that He will care for us.
He loves us.
And that's how I've experienced it over the years.
He's been good to me.
I've experienced that God's Word is 100% true, so
if a person doesn't for example, humble yourself under God's mighty hand
If a person doesn't want to humble himself
and knows better,
it doesn't go well.
You have to believe God's Word.
So that means give up your own reasoning
and your own ideas and your own
"know it better" and
"my case is different."
I have met many friends
that have been very faithful in their trials
and they told me their stories and they were amazing stories.
I understood that I wasn't the first person to have a trial in their life.
So, it was a huge strength for me to see that
I wasn't alone in this trial in my life.
There were many tested friends that have been faithful in their lives.
God gives power to become a happy,
happy individual for the rest of your days on earth.
So, it was an encouragement for me.
Some dear friends of mine told me,
"Eternity is a long time, so there's no rush to get there."
That was a real help for me too.
A real life-changer at one point.
When you felt like you were tempted to give up.
I was encouraged you know,
"Eternity is a long time, so there's no rush to get there."
So I'll have eternity with all those that have been faithful
and all of the faithful saints.
People who have been disciples of Jesus Christ and
have been faithful in their lives.
You'll spend eternity with those people –
with your wife and with your children.
My children were young. They were pure.
I'll spend eternity together with them.
They've been saved from a lot of trials in this world.
So that was a huge comfort for me as well.
They are in a better place, really, and it was
when I thought about that, it was a huge comfort for me too.
They are in a much better place than I am.
I often think about ...
Sometimes you think, if I could only die,
and get to heaven as fast as possible and see them again.
But then you realize that you are thankful that God has given you more time.
You realize that there are many situations in life where you need that extra time.
That's why He's giving you extra time so that you can ...
There are many things that need to be brought into death in my own life.
And I've been so thankful many times that He gave me the extra time.
But the future is
going to be exciting.
I can hardly wait.
In one sense I can hardly wait to see them again,
but in another sense I'll have eternity together with them
if I'm faithful. So the main thing right now is to be faithful to the end.
Whenever the end comes.
But I have been very thankful that He has given me more time.
But it's good. God is good.
God is gracious. I have a wonderful wife, a Godfearing wife.
Two wonderful children that are precious, happy boys.
Full of energy, keep me motivated.
God is good. Very good to me.
If you were to ask me what I could say to strengthen
a person who's gone through a tragic situation in their life.
The only thing that I could say that I mean with all my heart is
dig into God's Word and go before God on your knees.
His Word is true.
He cares for those He loves
and if you come before God's face with a pure heart, in your need,
He will care for you.
So that's been my experience
and I know that's been other Christians' experience that have been faithful to God.
They have experienced that as well.
It's not about trials being easy.
God gives us power to overcome.
He doesn't give us anything we can't bear.
As long as we stay connected with Him.
That's our only hope.
Outside of that, I know I wouldn't have had any hope.
All I had was the Word of God
and I heard the Word of God clearly, from others.
I drank from fellowship with other Christians.
It was a huge help.
There's no help outside of God's Word,
outside of being around disciples of Jesus, because
people have problems but they don't have answers.
And it's disciples of Jesus that have experienced answers.
They've experienced that God's Word is true so they can give you true help.
That's how I experienced it.