Manila Hostage Crisis - Where Was God?

Sad and frightening news greeted my Monday morning with the hostage crisis in downtown Manila by former policeman Rolando Mendoza. Demanding to get his old job back, Mendoza held 22 Chinese tourists hostage inside a tour bus for more than 10-hours and fatally shooting several of them.

While many Filipinos filled the internet with reactions that the incident will once again embarrass the Philippines to the rest of the world, I can’t help but think about the people who lost their lives and their families and friends who are facing a painful reality that they will not see their love-ones anymore. What a tragedy!

I'm sure many Filipinos have lots of questions about the events and would like to find out why God would allow such a terrible thing to take place. Truly, there's sin in the world and a man’s heart is bent on it. What happened inside the tour bus was committed by a man who made an evil choice. But if there’s anything good to come out from this sad incident, it is the assurance that God can bring good out of evil, and he often works best through great adversity.