Children’s deaths called God’s will

With her five children dead and her husband in a hospital bed, Carolyn Schrock – eight months pregnant – found solace in the one place that always gave her answers: Her faith.

“It was God’s will,” she told her close friend, Melody Stoltzfus, just hours after a crash in north Spokane County wiped out almost her entire family Tuesday afternoon. “God doesn’t make mistakes.”

Her faith, even in the midst of heartbreak, has been bolstered by Stoltzfus and other members of Pine Grove Mennonite Church, a close-knit community of 10 families that lives on the outskirts of Chewelah.

The deaths of five children – all under the age of 13 – is heartbreaking enough. But to this intimate group of Mennonites that clings to simplicity and religious tradition, the loss of these little ones is a catastrophe beyond words.

In a blink of an eye, in those few minutes it took a truck driver to swerve across the median and straight into a pickup full of kids, 10 percent of Pine Grove’s congregation was gone.

Jeffrey and Carolyn Schrock lost all their children. Kids at the church lost their playmates. Pine Grove Mennonite Church lost a piece of its future.

“Why, Lord?” they ask as they mourn and pray alongside Carolyn Schrock and her husband.

“We don’t know why,” said Daniel Hertzler, a member of Pine Grove who has known the couple since they were children. “But God is in control. He is the one who sustains us and gives us the strength and courage to continue. …

“We ask why, but it’s with a submissive heart, not one that rebels against God.”

Despite the loss of the children, the Schrocks and members of Pine Grove are also praying for Clifford Helm, the Deer Park resident who was driving the pickup that crashed into the Schrocks.

“Carolyn has expressed no plans to sue him,” said Ruth Hertzler, wife of Daniel Hertzler. “We feel great sorrow for him and his family. Our church will be praying for them.”

As they prepared meals, helped with funeral arrangements and shared memories of the children, several of the Pine Grove women couldn’t help but cry.

Carmen Joy, 12, was the dependable big sister who took care of her siblings, they recalled. She was a tough girl. Seven years ago, she survived a cougar attack that fractured her skull and required more than 100 stitches.

Two years younger, Jana Louise was the quiet, intellectual one who always had her nose in a book.

Carinna Jean was a bouncy, bubbly 8-year-old who was always ready to do something fun. She and her two older sisters attended a church school with only eight students.

Jerryl Burdette, who would’ve turned 5 this month, was the young man of the house, who loved nothing more than to hang out with his dad.

And then there was the littlest one, 2-year-old Craig Alan, who was just starting to talk a lot, who always had a big smile for everyone at church.

“They were all very excited to have a new baby in the family,” said Stoltzfus.

Carolyn Schrock had planned on bringing her boys along while she ran errands in Spokane Tuesday but changed her mind, according to Stoltzfus.

Jeffrey Schrock and the kids were heading for Spokane to pick her up when the accident happened about 4:20 p.m. on U.S. 395 near Hatch Road.

Although Jeffrey Schrock was conscious after the crash, it wasn’t until he awoke this morning at Sacred Heart Medical Center that he learned his children were dead, according to several church members. Carolyn Schrock spent the night at his bedside, they said. After hearing the news, members of the church immediately drove to the accident scene, then later accompanied Carolyn to the hospital.

About 800 of their Mennonite brethren from across the country and Canada will travel to Spokane to attend the children’s funeral, which has been scheduled for Monday morning.

One of about a dozen independent churches that belong to the Western Fellowship of Mennonites, Pine Grove Church was established in the Puget Sound area 16 years ago. In 1991, several families decided to move the congregation to the east side of the state so they could farm and live in a rural setting. A few more families, including the Schrocks and the Hertzlers, moved to the area nine years ago from Tangent, Ore., a small farm town about halfway between Salem and Eugene.

Members of Pine Grove Church are more conservative than the congregations that belong to the General Conference Mennonite Church in the United States and Canada. They’re pacifists who don’t get involved in politics. Although they’re not as strict as the Amish, who abstain from automobiles, electricity and other modern conveniences, this group of Mennonites tries to live as simply as possible. The women of Pine Grove never wear pants; they cover their heads and sew their own dresses, which are long and fit their bodies loosely.

Their mission in life is to obey God’s word, which is conveyed through the Bible.

About six years ago, the 10 families built a church – a simple, wooden building painted white – in a forested area near Jump Off Joe Lake, about nine miles south of Chewelah. “Everyone Welcome,” states the sign with the church’s name and their 10 a.m. Sunday service.

The Schrocks live relatively close by, in a gray house with bright blue trim on a rural dirt road five miles west of Highway 395. Shortly after moving to the area, the couple started a small business called North Country Furniture, specializing in wooden tables and chairs.

Although she’s still in shock, Carolyn Schrock, 35, appeared strong Wednesday, according to her fellow church members. “She will use this pain to minister to other people in sorrow,” said Ruth Hertzler.

Prayer has given her courage, said Stoltzfus. “She finds comfort in the knowledge that God has his arms around her.”