Sacred Digital: Chuckk Gerwig

It's great to be back after a week of hot sun and big fun houseboating with my students at Wakefest. 

We had a great week overall and an excellent opportunity for prayer because --> Wednesday evening one of my students went into a mega-asthma episode.  His meds wouldn't work and we were camping in a remote location far from the marina and even farther from a town and medical help.  His breathing became so fast and shallow that we picked him up and threw him into a speedboat and raced him to the docks.  The 10 minute boat ride felt like an eternity as he got worse and worse.  After the crazy breakneck boat-ride through the dark we arrived at the dock - his breathing was ultra fast and very shallow, and his pulse was racing.  Everyone remained calm but it was intense.  We prayed the prayer of desperate men, men in need of a great and merciful God. 

Then...

When we pulled in to the dock my student stopped breathing.  Just like that, he ...  just ...   stopped ...      breathing ... as the boat bobbed quietly in the darkness by the dockside. 

One of my staff guys is an emt and gave the boy mouth to mouth, no response for about a minute...  then a cough, a gasp and breath!  Soon a medical helicopter descended to rush him to the hospital.  In the air they administered meds and a breathing treatment.  I jumped into a car and headed down to the hospital. 

An hour later my kid was up text messaging his pals, smiling and joking with me in the emergency ward bed.  When I told him he had stopped breathing in the boat at one point he said  " I what?".  Wheeeeew.  We think he needs a cool special t-shirt that reads:  Wakefest 2007 : It'll Take Your Breath Away.

The punchline: in a fluke event we just happened to have a speedboat with us when he got sick, we normally have only a slow row boat with small motor at our camp, if God had not placed a speedboat at our disposal that evening this would likely have been a much different post.  God is worthy of praise.  Now for a 2 week rest before I head out to Denmark with my student mission crew - by then my adrenaline should be back down to a normal level.