He was a little wild man when he was a toddler, tearing around in the house like a ball of fire in pursuit of whatever it was he desired, usually it was a toy that his twin sister had stolen or something special that all his sisters had conspired against him to take away. He never let go of the pursuit of his goals and he never tired, wearing the girls to achieve his desired goal, he defiantly was my little ball of fire. He was the middle child of four female siblings, he was a total boy in the midst of four feminine tomboys, always holding his own not overwhelmed by their femininity, and often showing them the way through the difficult paths of life by his example, and with his brutal honesty. Oftentimes with his leadership abilities shining out when others were despairing or lacking in confidence, he was living under my influence of living outside the box, and outside the house as well. when I cared for the kids we often roughed it we would visit the beach almost daily, we would explore the tide pools and experience sea life at its best, we also played on the cliffs at the sunset cliffs, climbing the sandy slopes and daring ourselves with precarious steps along treacherous trails, and running through the caves and experiencing the oceans pull on our bodies as the waves pushed and pulled against us, it changed our lives in so many ways from day to day, he grew into a young man before my eyes emulating me in so many ways, and devoting himself to being an example to others of what a Christian should be He started his quest in life playing sports, and running long distances, it was a product of us as his parents encouraging him to perform his best. But I sensed it was not really his love for running, or soccer, or basketball that really drove him. Instead his love was running the river rafts down the white water rivers, fighting the larger rapids these were his thrill the wilder water was the better it was for him, and his goal was doing it to near perfection, these rafting trips were also his ministry where he introduced God and his creation to many a young person’s life by his personal example. It was also where my wife and I saw how dangerous it truly was and we experienced the fact he was safe in God’s hands constantly. One day we had gone to visit our three wilderness adventure guides at work, our kids had grown and now the roles were reversed, they led while we obeyed their guidance. They wanted us to experience the life they were now living, because we had led them in that direction. We went rafting one day then we went on a canyon hike on another day, hiking into a bolder strewn stream and into some caves with waterfalls in them. We were filing through a cave and my son slipped on a slick wet rock feet first, and into the stream disappearing under the supposedly shallow water, his hand repapered up out of the streams surface and my oldest daughter grabbed it and pulled on it with all her strength, watching it slip away again into the watery depths. She said to us mom dad, pray he got pulled into a sink hole! Which is an underwater stream pulling into the rocks with huge force. She then ran down stream looking for a place where the water could exit but finding none, I put my arm down into the water feeling the tremendous pull of the water that had drug my son through the small 14” hole, all my wife and I could do was prey, and place him in God’s hands. What happened to him was he was pulled under water squeezed between rocks and trapped under a huge bolder field, he was able to find an air pocket and then was shoved between more boulders again, to be stuck there while his breath was compressed out of him, and then he slid free from them, only then to be pushed again against another large bolder, where he climbed to the surface as the current tried to rip him from the slick rocks surface. Here he could gain his breath again and see sunlight coming into the cracks of the rock field, and so he called out to his sister. His friend that had come with us fallowed the sound to the caves entrance and helped him get out, and we hugged our son again knowing he was now safe. His chest and back were severely scraped up from being squeezed against the rocks and we worried about him having a concussion but soon he was ready to continue on hiking after that. We returned to camp exhausted and yet happy for our son who appeared dead to us was again alive, I felt this is how Abraham must have felt when he was on mount Moriah with Isaac. Really our son built our faith because he placed the value of his own life in God’s hands. To this day I see him serving young people trying to show them how not to waste their life on needless things, but to enjoy life to its fullest, and give God credit for giving this life to them to enjoy. In the winter he spends his time with foster boys as a counselor, during the summer he is a whitewater river guide at rock n water adventure camp. My greatest wish is for him in the future is to truly be in love with the girl God has for him, I know he is not in a rush to get married, but I feel he could make an incredible dad for his children.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 13:53:19 +0000
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