Friday, June 16, 2006

A very surreal past few days

Sunday morning our high school group set out for Camp Willow Falls in Blue Ridge, GA. for a week long camp experience. Everything was going pretty well despite a flat tire on the way down. Had a great Sunday night worship service…again, good stuff and a great group of teenagers. We have been linking up with a friend of mine’s youth group at Pleasant View Baptist in Waynesburg, KY. the past five years.

A long story short...one of Pleasant Views youth, Shane Noakes, drowned in the lake on Monday. He is in a hospital in Chattanooga, TN. still unconscious and in critical condition.

Several guys were playing in the lake at the camp after we had just got back from tubing. They weren't in deep water, but Shane had gone under and didn’t come up. We're not sure for how long ...he was found and pulled out and we immediately started CPR until the ambulance arrived and took him away.

They took him off the respirator on Tuesday and he is breathing on his own...he is somewhat responsive to some stimulation. So far all of the reports that we have gotten have been positive.

We decided to leave our camp on Tuesday and come home…wasn’t sure how effective we could have been throughout the rest of the week and I know that parents were wanting to see there babies and vise versa.

Please continue prayers for Shane and his family and for our each of our youth ministries. Tonight we had a bon fire at our house for our youth who were there. We just wanted to be together…we talked about how we have been feeling after two days of being home…shared some thoughts and read some passages from scripture. I think it was helpful in processing everything.

Lot’s of lessons have been learned and will be learned from this. Maybe in the weeks to come I’ll blog about them. I know one thing is for sure…as James 4:14 says "For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.” Make the absolute most of everyday of your life…what’s really important? What are we investing our lives in? Who are we investing our lives in? I pray that God will receive glory from all of this.

4 comments:

+ Alan said...

Oh man - that's crazy. I pray God knits him back together and wakes him up soon - and Peace to your bunch too.

Lydia said...

Best post I've read in a long time. Thanks for sharing, Jeff. And we will continue praying for Shane and all involved as well. We love you guys!
Lydia

Anonymous said...

Praise God that Shane is awake. We are all praying for a complete recovery for Shane and for all of you. We love you.

Anonymous said...

Jeff, I haven't seen you for a while, but I just wanted to let you know how much I, and many others, have been praying for Shane's full recovery. I have also been praying for you through this. It has to be shaking emotionally to go through something like that.
One of my best friend drowned my senior year of high school (Kim Wilson's twin brother, Keith). It's a shocking experience. I was supposed to be with him at the lake but my mom wouldn't let me go at the last minute. He died that day.
Shane is still alive because of you, George and others and God's grace. He has been glorified in this situation. This is an experience that, though tragic, has brought those youth who were there closer to God. I'm sure that they have felt the presence of the Holy Spirit through the past few days.
Praise God for His mercy and healing! Hang in there,
Devon