(CP) Members of the Lakes Area Vineyard Church in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, where the late Beau Shroyer and his family were longtime members before moving to Lubango, Angola, to function missionaries in 2021, are actually reeling in a posh web of emotions after learning that Beau’s wife, Jackie Shroyer, was arrested in connection along with his murder within the southern African country just over per week ago.
“It’s been a fairly heavy and emotionally complicated week. The news of Beau’s death together with now the heartbreaking news of Jackie’s arrest in connection along with his death has overwhelmed us with grief and speculation and confusion,” Troy Easton, lead pastor, of Lakes Area Vineyard Church, said in a message to his congregation Sunday.
Easton’s comments to his congregation on the 44-year-old Beau Shroyer’s death got here lower than 48 hours after he announced in a letter that Jackie Shroyer had been arrested.
“As you all know, our community has been deeply saddened by the death of our dear brother and friend Beau Shroyer, who was killed in a violent, criminal attack in Angola, Africa on Friday, October 25. Today, our grief and sadness has deepened immeasurably as we have learned that his wife, Jackie Shroyer, has been arrested in connection along with his death,” Easton wrote. “I’m so sorry and easily don’t have words to specific my disbelief and sorrow about this news.”
The Shroyer family had been working with the missionary organization SIM USAÂ during their time in Angola and Easton said the couple’s five children were being “well cared for” despite the tragedy.
“What I can let you know is that the Shroyer children are well cared for, and we are going to work alongside SIM USA and SIM Angola to be sure that continues to be the case,” Easton explained.
In a presentation on their missionary work in Lubango to Country Faith Church in June which has now been made private by the church on YouTube, Jackie Shroyer, also 44, revealed that she and her family moved to Angola about three years ago. She said it was their first time as a family living overseas and their first time working as missionaries and so they struggled to regulate.
She explained that of their first yr in Lubango, they focused on learning Portuguese and the culture and consistently battled malaria and security issues.
“We battled many other sicknesses. We had loads of security issues. Mistrust with guards. We went through so many guards, and we had several break-ins in our home through the night while we were at home sleeping,” Jackie Shroyer said.
“On top of the whole lot else, attempting to work out the way to live on this culture, we had so many changes, so many difficult experiences that caused loads of fear and trauma,” she added.
The couple said they’d returned to the U.S. this summer for the primary time since they relocated to Lubango in 2021, and Beau Shroyer, who previously worked as a realtor and police officer, quickly announced on his skilled realtor Facebook page that he was open to work during his time stateside.
“I’m back in Detroit Lakes for the summer, and still licensed to assist you to buy or sell your house in Minnesota. […],” he wrote on June 1.
While ministry of officials have confirmed that Beau Shroyer’s death was “violent,” it remained unclear Monday how exactly he was killed because the church asked for privacy during their time of grief. And while he doesn’t understand how exactly God will work this tragedy for the church’s good, Easton said he believes that God will work things out.
“I get that losing my friend this week, our friend and brother, to a senseless and harsh crime was already so painful, especially in light of the family that he left behind and the sacrifices that we all know he already made to like and serve God but now that grief is compounded by news that’s unthinkable,” he told his congregation on Sunday.
“I’m so sorry church to your loss, for our loss, and for a way much this hurts. I’m sorry for all of the unanswered questions and the confusion this creates for us, and I’m just deeply sorry that that is what we want to walk through and face as a community at once.”
