While hundreds of Utahns searched in vain last week for 5-year-old Destiny Norton, another search was taking place in the rugged mountains of Idaho for a Utah youth minister who went missing the same weekend.
Neither search turned out as family and friends had prayed it would.
Jon Francis, 24, a youth minister at Ascension Lutheran Church in Ogden, went hiking in the Sawtooth Mountains near Ketchum, Idaho, on Saturday, July 15. He was working for the summer as a youth counselor at Luther Heights Bible Camp, some 40 miles from Ketchum, and had a day of personal time after a group of youths left the previous day and the next group was scheduled to arrive on Sunday.
An experienced hiker, Francis had previously scaled several nearby peaks and set out to climb one called Grand Mogul. He was scheduled to return to the camp around 6 p.m., but when he failed to return by early Sunday afternoon, the Custer County Sheriff's Office was contacted.
Officials believe Francis actually reached the summit of the peak — which is ranked as a highly technical climb — where he recorded the words "Glory to God" in a visitor log. They have yet to determine what happened to him after that entry. Searchers and family members scoured the rugged area on the ground and from the air for two days, but the search was called off on July 18.
Francis' family appealed to the governor of their home state, asking for help in persuading Idaho officials to resume the search. Meanwhile, about 20 members of Francis' congregation in Ogden traveled to Idaho to help the family look for him. The official search also resumed, but both the sheriff's office and the family agreed on July 23 to call it off.
Several prayer vigils were held during the search efforts both in Ogden and in Idaho, but at press time there was still no word on Francis' whereabouts.
On Wednesday, two men from his Ogden congregation continued to comb the area, according to Pastor David Kiel, who worked with Francis at the Ogden church. "He left notes in his climbing journal that his plan was to go up and down the east side of the mountain. They were trying to see whether he changed plans and went a different way.
"From what I hear the mountain is very technical and boulderish. If he fell, he could have easily fallen into the boulders or into a crevice. They could have been inches from him and not seen him, and if he was incapacitated, he couldn't yell back."
Pastor Kiel met Francis at the Luther Bible Camp a previous summer and hired him to work as the church's youth director.
"He was wonderful — he just loved people and kids, and loved to just hang with them. People were drawn to him, because there was no pretense about him. He was just who he was and very down to earth."
Youths at the church have been the most hard hit by his disappearance, Pastor Kiel said, and are in shock and mourning. "They were very involved with the prayer vigil (last) Saturday night. Some of them even wrote prayers and served as ushers."
The church has tentative plans for a memorial service honoring Francis, as does the Luther Bible Camp, according to the camp director, Pastor Eric Olsen. Both he and Pastor Kiel are debating the appropriate time for such an event, but anticipate it could be fairly soon. They're trying to be sensitive to the needs of Francis' family and friends, they said.
In the meantime, they're both fielding questions — both verbal and unspoken — about prayer and faith at a time when it seems neither were enough to bring Francis home. They're undoubtedly some of the same questions that many of those involved with the highly publicized Norton case are now dealing with.
"I think prayer is a process. I don't think that trying to rationalize this is helpful," Pastor Kiel said. "We need prayer more than God does — we need it to process things. What I believe is that God is present in the midst of all that — he calms our hearts and fears and anxieties and walks with us."
Such prayers — even when seemingly answered with the return or healing of a loved one — are simply "a temporary fix to our ultimate reality," that all will die, he said. "You've got to believe that God sees the bigger picture and knows the outcome. You just have to trust that Jon or that little girl is ultimately in God's hands. I believe that God truly grieves and mourns when these kinds of things happen — but he does allow them to happen.
"And in the midst of that, our trusting in God and leaning on each other, it brings out the best in humanity and allows us to search again for our need for God."
The pastor said it's especially hard to explain such events to children. "I'll let them talk and vent and tell them that I don't have all the answers. I don't know why God lets these things happen, or why he didn't seem to respond in the way I'd like him to. But I believe he sees the bigger picture."
Pastor Olsen said he's also grappling with Francis' disappearance and how to deal spiritually with all the questions that come. The lack of a body means there's a lack of closure, he said.
"I think there is a combination of prayers of thanksgiving for Jon and his life and the gift he shared with all of us. There is also the question of why, which really isn't answerable. I think those questions just have to be given to God, and we pray for God to give us the direction to deal with the situation."
He said such questions don't damage people's faith as much as prompt them "to question their faith. The outcome can go in different directions for different people. I think the primary thing is to stay connected with their faith and with God during the anxious times."
E-mail: carrie@desnews.com