Why did August Burns Red write a song about David Clapper?

Answer 1

Matt Greiner (drums) in an interview in Hopecore Magazine - July 2009 (Issue #2)):

"[...] One of the songs, entitled "Indonesia", is about a friend of mine that passed away in a tragic accident. His name was David Clapper, father of four children, happily married for over 20 years, a missionary to a remote tribe in Indonesia. He owned a small single engine plane, which he'd fly injured folks in from their tribe to the nearest hospital, a four-hour flight away. He was returning one evening from the hospital after dropping off the latest patient that day and got caught in a terrible windstorm on the way home. The storm blew his plane into the side of a mountain where he was pinned beneath the plane and died shortly thereafter. I had jotted down something at church the night before finding out about the accident, and it was eerily similar to the story of the plane, the missionary, and the family left behind. "Indonesia" tells the story of a family who surrendered all they had to minister to a remote tribe, the story of a husband and father killed in a tragic accident, and most importantly, the story of a widower and four children that kept their faith in God, even when all seemed lost."

[...] You mentioned that you wrote something down in regards to that same plane crash scenario the night before. What do you make of that?

"It was a 24-hour worship and prayer service called Gateway that night the 'story' came to me. I was on my feet praying when I suddenly felt dizzy and lightheaded. I sat down and felt the need, the prompting, to write something down. I didn't have anything in particular in mind to write but nevertheless put pen to paper and started jotting words as they came to me. I drove home, went to sleep, woke up the next morning and was told of David Clapper passing away in a tragic plane accident. Instantly I thought of what I had written the night before, the first line of which is, "This plane's going down in flames, and this time there's no black box to capture your last words."

I think that God gave me a prophetic word that foreshadowed the news I'd hear the next morning. In addition however, I think He wanted to highlight how the family would react to the news of their father/husband passing away. My favorite line from the song is, "...the white on his flag brings colors to shame." It then goes on to talk about the cycle of life, how the earth will swallow the water and the clouds refill the oceans. David's family can't possibly understand why he died that day. But they also can't fathom eternity; they can't even explain their own chemical make-up. What's most profound is that they get it. They understand that they'll have to settle for now in not knowing why David passed away. They are still living in Indonesia where they've devoted their life to ministering to the tribe David died lending his own hand."