Les Ferguson lost his desire to preach the Gospel after the murder of his wife and 21-year-old son in 2011, but just three years after the tragedy, he was able to return to the pulpit and ever since, has been sharing how he regained his faith while dealing with his loss.
On the day of Fergusons' 24th wedding anniversary - Oct. 24, 2011 - a man shot his wife Karen and his son Cole at their home in Gulfport, Mississippi.
The assailant, Paul Ellis Buckman, had been attending services Orange Grove Church of Christ, where Ferguson had been preaching.
Buckman, who had been charged three months earlier for attacking Cole, was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on the same day as the murder of Ferguson's family.
Ferguson says that he could not bring himself to proclaim the Gospel because he had lost trust in God.
He started avoiding church and soon decided to leave the Gulf Coast community, where he had preached for 13 years.
"I didn't want someone to pat me on the back and tell me it was going to be OK. I didn't want somebody to quote a Bible verse to me. I just wanted to be left alone," Ferguson said, according to Religion News Service (RNS).
After moving to Vicksburg, 200 miles away from Gulf Coast, the minister began working on an online journal called "Desperately Wanting to Believe Again" as a way to help him cope with his loss.
"I never quit believing," the minister explained, as reported by RNS. "The name probably should have been Desperately Wanting to Trust Again because it was more about my journey of learning to trust God again. I used the blog to rant and rave and whine and fuss and praise as it came to me," he went on to say.
Things started to get better when in 2012, Ferguson married Becki Berryman, whom he had dated during his teenage years, and with the help of his friends, Ferguson soon returned to the pulpit to talk about how he struggled with his faith after the tragedy.
Ferguson was then asked to serve as a minister in Lake Harbour in the spring of 2014. The elders at the church believed that Ferguson had the insight and empathy to lead the congregation because of his experiences.
"We felt like Lake Harbour could be a big help to him, too, personally and in his faith," said Greg Palmer, an elder at Lake Harbour, according to RNS.
Ferguson has written a book titled "Still Wrestling: Faith Renewed Through Brokenness" to help him deal with the loss of his family. But the minister is also hoping that his book will also help others with the same struggles.
The minister said that he is now in a better place, but he has realized that he will be wrestling with his faith throughout his life.
"That's what God is looking for — for us to wrestle with him and to continue to grow. That's a part of the struggle," he said, according to RNS.
