Chris Freeman sent this great story along to the blog today … worth the read:

A few weeks ago one of our former high school students named Hunter was hit by a car as he was walking on his college campus.  He was immediately flighted to a hospital in town and has been in the ICU ever since.  He’s slowly starting to show some signs of recovery, but he’s nowhere out of the clear yet.  Our entire church community has been covering him in prayer like crazy.  His mom started a Facebook page called “Pray for Hunter,” and she posts updates on it daily.  The community has really rallied around Hunter, and people are praying for him all over the country now.  A group of high school and college students ordered hundreds of “Pray For Hunter” wristbands, and everywhere I go I see people wearing them.  Groups have been meeting up at local high schools to pray for him.  People have been meeting at our church to pray for him.  Business owners in our community are wearing the bracelets and praying for him too.

But it doesn’t stop there.  That same group of students who made the “Pray for Hunter” bracelets decided they wanted to do something to help.  You see, Hunter has always been an extremely active and athletic guy.  He loves playing soccer, snowboarding, and all sorts of other athletic endeavors.  But the doctors aren’t sure if Hunter will be able to walk or regain use of his legs again.  So these high school students decided the best thing they could do in Hunter’s honor is put together a dodgeball tournament to raise funds for his recovery.  They are calling it “Play for Hunter.”  It’s $30 for a team of six to play, and it looks like we are going to have several hundred people playing.

I went to see Hunter in the hospital the other day.  It’s really difficult to see him like this.  But he’s able to whisper short sentences and move his arms around.  When I talked to him about the dodge ball tournament, he lit up.  He was slowly pumping his fist in the air, and he was able to utter the words, “I love you guys.”  It’s pretty incredible how such a simple thing like a dodgeball tournament can make such a difference.  I walked away realizing that sometimes dodgeball is more than dodgeball.  It reminded me that as youth workers, nothing we do is insignificant.  God is using it all, even dodgeball, to show his love, mercy, and grace to young people.

Thanks for reading this and for saying a prayer for Hunter tonight.