2/27/2005 07:01:00 PM|||Joel VandenBrink|||

A week ago now an acquaintence of mine fell 20 feet from his sailboat. His boat was in drydock so we landed on cement instead of in the water. One of his good friends was with him and saw the whole thing happen, he remembers thinking that Greg was surely dead. But he grabbed his phone anyway and called 911, some time later air-med arrived and carried him off to the hospital.

In the last week Greg has spent 90% of it unconcious. He had severe bloood clotting in his brain so the doctors removed a piece of his skull to help alleviate the pressure. He had lost motor skills on this left side for the majority of the week, but those, thank God, are back. On friday he spoke his first complete sentence since the accident.

It is going to be a long road of recovery for Greg, but it appears as though he will be ok. Hundreds of people have been up to his hospital bed and whispered words into his ears. Prayers have been non-stop being sent to God. His family flew in from Virginia and his sister from Florida. All of his intimate friends have put their life on hold this week while they sat with him.

How can God handle this? How can he watch, yet another one, of his children suffer?

I'll leave you with a story about Greg that was sent to me by his dear friend Paul

On Febraury 8, 2005 in a port in San Diego, CA, Greg was beneath the deck of the boat he would eventually buy, working through the internal/external chaos of pursuing one of the wildest dreams of his life. At some point, in the midst of his anxiety, Greg took a sharpie and on a torn piece of paper wrote what would become the overwhelming prayer of his family and friends in a mere eleven days. With blue tape, he fixed the prayer to his boat, a semi-permanent call to live into an unknown future. If you were to come aboard Greg's boat, walk below the deck to the forward bulkhead, there you would see a piece of paper mounted on its wood with the words: "Faith is hope for things not seen. . . . . Have faith, she will sail again, and be beautiful!! 2/8/05 Greg" Amen.

If you want to read a complete progress report on Greg go here

God, I come into your presence on behalf of Greg. I can see your hands massaging his head and whispering in his ear telling him that you are with him and that you never meant for this to happen. It wasn't your design and it wasn't in his story. But thank you God, for being a God of the resurrection and not a God of death. Redeem this accident, for your glory. Amen.

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