Hundreds of family members and friends of 18-year-old Lisa Herman waited anxiously for the next medical bulletin. One day she was improved, the next day she was decidedly worse. One day they were thanking God for answered prayer; the next day they were sobbing, "Why, Lord, why?" For her immediate family it was an emotional roller-coaster experience beyond anyone's imagination.

Lisa had only recently returned from the Philippines with her missionary parents and enrolled in Cedarville (Ohio) University, intent on a lifetime of service as a nurse in India. Her sudden hospitalization on March 20, 2002 left doctors and her family perplexed but as her conditioned worsened, so did their grave concern.

Lisa was finally diagnosed with germ cell cancer manifested by two large fist-size tumors in her lungs.

Eighteen days later, on April 8, came the dreaded Email that left everyone staring at their computer screens in disbelief. Lisa Herman had passed away.

Across the United States and in several countries where Lisa and her family were known, a single question was raised in unison to heaven through tears of torment. "Why, Lord, why?"

Lisa's uncle, Rev. Jonathan Schaeffer, senior pastor of Grace Church in Middleburg Heights, Ohio, was one of those who had prayed at Lisa's hospital bedside, held her hand, encouraging her to remain steadfast in the faith. Lisa and her family, who were on a one-year furlough from their assignment in the Philippines, attended Grace Church.

It took awhile, but several months after Lisa's death, God gave Pastor Schaeffer at least one valid and very poignant answer to the nagging question, "Why, Lord, why?"

Heidi, a young hair stylist who had been hired by the funeral home to help prepare Lisa's body for burial, was struck by her youth, her lovely long, blonde hair and quiet beauty. But something else caught Heidi's attention: In Lisa's hands, as she lay in the satin-lined casket, was a well-worn Bible. The hair stylist cautiously picked it up and leafed through its dog-eared pages, stunned at the number of verses Lisa had carefully highlighted and underlined during her short time here on earth.

Heidi, by her own admission not a Christian, couldn't get Lisa off her mind. She jotted down the name of the church Lisa attended and decided to visit the church to see for herself what had produced the kind of faith this beautiful young girl possessed and seemed to exhibit even in death. Heidi desperately wanted this kind of faith for herself and for her young family.

But she procrastinated and several months passed before finally one Sunday, Heidi asked her husband to accompany her to Jonathan Schaeffer's church where Lisa had been attending before her death.. She gasped when it was announced from the pulpit that the visiting speaker that morning was none other than Lisa's father, Rev. Jack Herman, a missionary to the Philippines.

Heidi listened intently as the story of Lisa's life, sudden illness and death was recounted in numbing detail by her father. Heidi learned of the large group of college students, Lisa's friends, who had clustered tearfully together at her memorial service eight months earlier. One had dedicated a website to her memory, complete with photos of her brief college career. Heidi heard about Lisa's life, her total commitment to Christ, her dreams and goals, and her unexpected and seemingly untimely death.

Heidi sobbed openly. At the close of the service, the young hair stylist made a life-changing commitment to follow Christ. Her husband and two children made similar decisions and they became part of Grace Church which under Jonathan's capable and caring leadership now holds four Sunday services. After months of being discipled by church members and her pastor, Heidi the hair stylist, is now a Bible study leader at the church.

Why, Lord, why was Lisa Herman taken so suddenly, her life inexplicably interrupted when it held such promise?.

Could Heidi and her family be part of the reason? God clearly saw the larger picture, which as finite beings, we could not. Lisa and her testimony have stretched beyond her life here on earth. Even in death, she ministered convincingly to others of her abiding faith in Christ.

With loving submission to the sovereign will of God, her family quietly stated at Lisa's memorial service, "We don't always understand God's ways but we can always trust His heart."