Beautiful voice has joined choir of angels

To the editor:

Bollinger County lost one of its most talented young men when Lance Fahrenkrog was killed in a tragic highway accident.

After my husband and I moved to Southeast Missouri, we were led to New Salem Baptist Church. We had the privilege to meet Lance and hear his beautiful and powerful singing voice. That such a voice could come from a 16-year old astounded us. In the intervening three years, that talented voice continued to mature and to be heard. I'm convinced Lance could have become one of the great voices of Christian ministry of our time.

We enjoyed knowing Lance and seeing him at church and with his friends and classmates at New Salem Baptist Academy and, more recently, as he led the congregational singing and directed the choir.

When any of our children visit, they try to schedule their trips to include attending church with us, especially if it happens to be a Sunday when Lance would sing a special.

A memorial service at the church the evening after his death closed with a recording of one of Lance's most recent Sunday-morning specials where -- with uncanny timing -- the words of the song had the singer imagining what it would be like in Heaven. Lance can answer that now, because he is singing with the angels.

The world will be a poorer place without him, but we who had the privilege to know him and to hear him are remarkably richer.

LINDA BANGER

Burfordville, Mo.