A Wrecking Will

I don’t even know what set me off. I was furious. I jumped on this guy, I’m not sure the button that got pushed even existed before it was done and like toothpaste out of the tube what was done could not be undone. If I remember correctly it was a warm fall day with the sounds of crinkling leaves beneath your feet. As we walked along, a group of us stomping home together, we noticed some other kids behind us, also on their way home from Angell Elementary School. What happens next is very cloudy in my mind and I am not sure if what I am remembering is what really happened or what I think really happened. I remember some pushing and shoving, but not the reason behind it all. I kind of think Will’s younger brother, Eddie, started running his mouth. I didn’t know these kids, they were obviously outsiders to my second grade world but I was determined not to let Eddie but in on my turf, except his older brother Will, who was in the same grade as I was, stepped in and was not going to let me have my way with his younger sibling.

I don’t get this part. I was never an outwardly aggressive person nor have I ever been. I mean sure my buttons have gotten pushed a few times and I have had some fist fights along the way growing up, but none were like this when Will and I squared off on the corner of Wiltshire and Elwood on that autumn day. I think it may have been a combination of me feeling pretty confident that I had two older brothers, Jeff in seventh grade and Mark in ninth grade at the time. Will, well he was the oldest child in his family and besides I am sure my dad could easily take his dad! So a confident new school year buoyed by the fact that my two older brothers had started taking Korean Karate lessons, I was the master of this little universe.

It wasn’t much of a fight really; no little kids fights really are, thank God. I think in less than a minute I had knocked Will to the ground and punched him three or four times in the face. Game over. The new flyweight champ of the corner of Wiltshire and Elwood, was me Craig Coon! I whooped it up all the way home with my friends and little Will and Eddie ran home to their momma!

I was greeted at the door with the obligatory “How was your day?” every schoolboy just loves to hear from their overprotective stay-at-home mothers! I am certain I must have responded with a “Great!” on this particular day. Then came an odd question from my mother:
“Do you know who Will Weckwert is?” Gulp.
“Umm, I think he’s a kid at school, why, why do you ask?”
“His mother just called and said that you beat him up today on the way home from school, is that true Craig?”
Man that was quick! I am certain that an entire litany of excuses proceeded from my lips trying to leverage against any sort of punishment, to no avail. My mom wasn’t buying any of it.
“I want you to go over to his house right now and apologize to him and his mother!”
What? Could anything be worse that? Didn’t she know that I was the new flyweight champ of the street corner of Wiltshire and Elwood? Hadn’t anybody told her of the “street cred” that I earned that day? Oh wait; “street cred” wasn’t even invented yet and I lived in the suburbs of Detroit.
So I made the long humiliating walk around the block and met Mrs. Weckwert that day and told Will that I was sorry for hurting him. His mom wasn’t very impressed with me then, but the funny thing is, Will Weckwert and I were best friends for the rest of our tenure at Angell Elementary School.

“At every stage of our Christian development and in every sphere of our Christian discipleship, pride is the greatest enemy and humility is our greatest friend.” John Stott

Man I miss you Ryan.

Man I miss you Ryan. I just can’t believe that you are gone. There are days when it seems like everything is the way that it had always been. I go through my day subconsciously believing that real soon you’d come home smelling like pizza and asking me to crack your back. I loved giving you those great big bear hugs, even though in these last few years it was getting harder and harder to reach around you’re broad shoulders to do it. It was during this time of year we would start throwing the football around, talking about if the Lions would ever win anything again, since Barry retired. Or how we would do everything we could to get the TV remote and then crash on the floor after church on Sundays to watch the game, often wrestling around at halftime for control of the couch.

This is a really weird time for me. It’s a special bond that a man has with his children. I know that I won’t do it justice by the words that I birth on this page. Sons and daughters are so different. Daughters steal your heart away on the first hug and never give it back again and sons, well sons, are like a little pieces of you walking around that you hope and pray will “do” life more “right” than you did. I think that is why dads can be hard on their sons when they are growing up. I pray that God gives you many sons and daughters in your life. You need to have a lot of kids, you will be great with them Ryan.

I am so proud of you and I know beyond knowing this is exactly where you need to be, and that this separation isn’t the end of the story, but I still cry for the way it used to be. Tears roll down my face today, because while you were here, I acted like it would never end, never considering these days of separation that are now upon us. I long for your call as I never have before and that is a harsh and sad reality.

“Wherever you are be all there.” Jim Elliot.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

It’s been a long blogging absence for me and I am going to try and rectify that a bit. As many of you know our oldest son Matthew recently got married and moved out and then nine days after that our youngest son, Ryan, left for two years on the mission field with Operation Mobilization, to be serving on their newest ship the “Logos Hope.” That coupled with a few other changes in my life: My dog died unexpectedly while I was in Mexico, my long-time assistant Emily took a teaching job down in the Detroit area, Peter my friend, and ministry partner is on sabbatical and in a couple of months Matthew and his wife Kenisha are moving to California. This has proved to be quite the season of loss and change for Connie and I. Many moments are filled with warm tears streaming down my face. It’s not like I don’t think that all of the before mentioned things are good, right and salutary (except Samson the mutt dying) they are, and God’s hand was in all of them. It just seems like his hand was on the grenade that blew up in the face of my life. then during a walk a couple of days ago I was meditating on this verse from John:

“In him was life, and that life was the light of men.” John 1:4

color: rgb(153, 153, 0);So that beget the question: where is my source of life really from? I am trusting Jesus in all of these things and I feel pain. I know that God’s hand is in this and I don’t like the separation. I do trust you Lord, help me in my days where that trust is lacking!

Raiders Of The Lost Ark

(reaching back into the archives from December 2004)
While I was reading this morning in Psalm 20 a random thought passed through the confines of my brain. The verse reads “Some trust in chariots and some in horses but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.” 20:7
And reading the text note I saw that this was a confession of an army not to trust in there finest weapon of the day with the realization that the power for victory is in the name of the LORD our God.
Which took me back to the movie, The Raiders Of The Lost Ark because of the desire of the Nazi’s to possess the relic, the actual Ark of the Covenant that contained the set of stone tablets that God had written for Moses on Mount Sinai. They wanted the Ark to be taken into battle with their army to empower it to be unstoppable, undefeatable. They were dead set to use the things of God to justify their conquests. Where they erred in judgement was they wanted the power of without the presence of God. They wanted the things of God with out wanting God himself!
We do the same stupid things! We want the results of knowing God with out knowing him. We want peace, prosperity, hope, health and so we put an icthus on our cars so we can have great parking opportunities. Let us run away from the apperarance of Godliness with out Savior at the center of it all and let us run the desperate race to the cross yearning for Him above everything.

posted by C.M. Coon at Monday, December 06, 2004

A Miracle Update

On Tuesday April 22^nd I traveled to Ypsilanti to visit the final member of the “Miracle Six” that still remains in the hospital, the driver, Alex Eagling. She had just returned from physical therapy and was pretty tired. As it turns out Alex had much more extensive issues in her neck and back than what originally thought. As she put it, “There is a lot of hardware in there!” and as a result she will be in the hospital for another two weeks. She is looking at an extended rehabilitation process before she is back to functioning how she would like. Her spirits were good and she is very thankful to God for sparing everyone and for all of the prayers that have been offered up on her behalf. Please continue to pray for her physical healing and spiritual well being. She puts a lot of blame and shame on herself over the whole incident, that was in fact, just an accident.

Last Sunday evening, with the high school youth group, we stopped into Joe Mundt’s house to pay him a visit. He was very happy to see everyone. His infection is receding and he is glad to be home. Insurance is covering the van but two insurance companies are fighting over the wheel chair, that is very expensive and was only a month or so old. So Joe’s mobility is limited because a couple of companies are fighting. Please pray for continued healing and a solution to this situation.

The other passengers in the van are progressing along. Last Friday Tim had the stitches removed from his forehead and he his doing much better, still at home from college and happy to be alive. Joey Richter is back in school, still in quite a bit of pain and he showed up last Sunday and went to Joe house. It seems that he and Alex Mirkin and Joe have become quite the pals through all of this and the week in Florida. Alex Mirkin still had the staples in his head on Sunday thought they were supposed to be removed this week. My son Ryan had all but two of his stitches removed on Tuesday and has returned to work, scarred and thankful. Thanks for all of your prayers and concern for these folks and me too.

The Accidental Miracle

It was like watching a movie in slow motion right outside my driver window in the rearview mirror. Many of you have heard about the tragedy that has struck our youth group with our accident this past Saturday afternoon on our return trip from a Florida spring break trip. We were traveling north on interstate 275 and as I was driving the lead vehicle pulling a trailer and Alex, who is Joe Mundt’s personal caregiver, was driving Joe’s van with Joe in his wheelchair in the back, Tim Obertien sitting next to Joe. In the front was my son Ryan riding in the passenger seat. Two young men from Port Huron Northern High School, Joey Richter and Alex Mirkin occupied the middle two seats.

Two lanes of traffic exit I-275 onto I-94 I was in the right lane and Alex’s van was in the left and as I glanced back in that mirror is when it all began to unfold. I saw Alex’s van make a quick movement right then left and on the second sudden turn it left the road way moving across the soft grass and reentered I-275 where immediately it was met by the front end of a semi-truck. The semi truck met the drivers side of the van somewhere around the front door and it seemed to explode right before my very eyes. All the glass was blown out and it began to roll violently, flipping three or four times. It was about the second flip that I noticed two bodies fly out of the van and a second later the van quit rolling and ended up on the passenger side. During those few seconds of watching I was yelling “No no, no!” slamming on the breaks and throwing the van into park on the side of the entrance ramp I yelled for everyone to stay where they were. I jumped out and ran as fast as I could back to the scene. While running I was still saying “No” and they prayed God please come, please come now! My gut was telling me that I was going to be running up on dead kids and I was thinking that my son Ryan was among them.

The first person that I saw was Joey Richter who was walking around I talked to him for a moment and then told him to sit down. I saw Alex Mirkin who was bleeding from the head and he was coherent and talking to someone. I turned and noticed my son Ryan had blood on both of his arms he was looking for his best friend Tim. As I ran up to him he was very upset that he couldn’t find Tim. I yelled at him to sit down and I reassured him that I would find Tim. I prayed for him that God would protect and heal him and that God would get the glory in this. He started crying for his friend. At this moment I called my wife and told her quickly about the accident and asked her to pray and to call others to pray. As I hung up I looked around for Tim and in the center of the median he was laying on his stomach and not moving. As I ran to him I noticed a large gash in his forehead from above his eye to his hairline that was laid open, I checked to make sure that he was breathing and I fell on the ground and put my hands on his head and started praying for him. That God would heal him and watch over him, protect him. He started groaning and moving trying to get up and I was yelling at him that he was OK and to lay still. It was about this time that some EMT’s came and were beginning to attend to him and they had to hold him down because he wanted to get up in his confusion.

Getting out of the way I went to the van and saw Alex laying in the passenger side door window with blood coming from her head and her right eye was already purple and swollen shut. Alex was conscious, already blaming her self and asking about everyone else, especially Joe. Joe, as it turns out, was laying on what used to be the sliding door to the van, right behind Alex. Yelling to him, he answered me, seemingly able to understand and respond. I reassured Alex that Joe seemed to be pretty good and that everyone was alive. She asked me to pray for her, which I did. I then yelled for Emily, my assistant, who had followed me out of the van to come and comfort Alex while I went and prayed for everyone else. The ambulances and fire trucks were arriving now in force along with a helicopter. I told Ryan that I had found Tim, that he was fighting to get up which was a good sign and that he should pray for him. Two guys that I don’t know asked if they could pray for us so we paused in the middle of I-275 and prayed for God’s help in the middle of this disaster.

I found Joey Richter again and prayed for him as he was being attended to and then I prayed for Alex Mirkin while someone was applying pressure to his head wound (he also had been thrown from the vehicle). I really have no clue how much time had passed when my phone rang it was Peter calling me from Scotland where he had just finished spreading his mothers ashes on a mountainside when he had gotten a text message that something bad had happened. We talked for a few moments and then police and firemen wanted to know who all of these people were and where thay came from and it seemed like Emily and I told everyone’s identities ten different times to different people. There were two Joe’s and two Alex’s in that one van which was confusing for a time. The first one to leave was Tim then joey and Alex Mirkin, and then Ryan. Alex and Joe in the van had to have the back of the van cut off with the jaws of life. They removed Joe and put him on a gurney where I was able to ask him about his injuries. Alex was the last one removed from the wreckage and then airlifted to St. Joseph’s in Ypsilanti. The firefighters had believed that she had been tossed about the cabin but Ryan informed them that he had let her down out of her seatbelt and layed her on the ground before he left to find Tim. Three others were taken to Annapolis hospital in Wayne and the final two to the University of Michigan Hospital. As the helicopter takes off I cried, Emily and I hugged. It was like a dream, a very bad dream. We looked around at the devastation and debris strewn for at least hundred yards and began to pick up identifications and important documents and things of value like laptops and Ipods and everything we could think of that would matter….

Emily and I spent most of the next two days with our spouses in and around Ann Arbor trying to care for the wounded. Monday I said to my wife that was the day that we could have been having a lot of funerals to perform but instead people were getting released from hospitals.

Ryan was treated and released late Saturday night with two cuts that required stitches a mass of bruises and road rash all over his right arm and shoulders and knees and feet.

Joey Richter who was thrown from the vehicle was released Sunday evening with a fractured vertebrae in his neck that wasn’t threatening his spinal chord, road rash a sore lower back and a twisted ankle, he went to school on Monday!

Alex Mirkin, also thrown from the vehicle, sustained a fractured sternum and a punctured lung and some road rash was released from U of M on Monday.

Tim Obertien thrown out up and over two lanes of traffic into the middle of the median into the soft mud, suffered facial fractures that do not require surgery, severe facial laceration, bruised liver, six broken ribs and severe sprained ankle was released on Monday afternoon.

Joe Mundt was thrown out of his wheel chair has a fractured vertebrae in his lower neck that is on the outside of the bone and is not threatening to his spinal chord. Joe developed an infection in one of his wounds on his leg that requires stitches and may be released Wednesday.

Alex Eagling the driver has suffered the worst. She broke her neck and Sunday doctors performed seven hours of surgery installing rods and screws in her neck. Tuesday she walked a few steps and sat in a chair before they took her in for surgery on her wrist that was smashed in the accident. Still Doctors are expecting a full recovery.

As a tribute the six were given superman shirts but God gets all the glory for His miraculous hand in the middle of this disaster. Thank you Jesus for answering the desperate prayers from many people.

Desperate Grace.

Having just returned home from a men’s retreat weekend with a group of guys from the Cornerstone, I needed some time to myself so I could rest, reenergize and reconnect with my family so I have taken a couple of days off. Today was a nasty March day here in Michigan with clouds, rain, melting snow and slimy mud. I slept in and looked outside and wanted to sleep in some more so I did! I have spent time reflecting on some of my motives in relationships and also spent time confessing my sin too. As I was walking today I was hit with the realization that no matter how “good” I get at life, no matter how much I kill sin inside me, no matter how many walls and obstructions that I overcome, I will always need Jesus. I will never get beyond a desperate need for Jesus. So we struggle with figuring out life and how we are supposed to act toward God and others. We confess our sin or maybe we run away from God in pursuit of fulfillment, identity, intimacy and admiration because life has become so hard and meaningless without these things. The truth is, that no matter where we find ourselves we will never outrun our desperate need for Jesus. Sure we go through seasons where circumstances have led us to believe that the whole Jesus thing was in our past and then grace smacks us right between the eyes and we understand again our desperation. May God fill you with a desperate grace to be connected with him today and all of your tomorrows too!
"Relying on God has to begin all over again everyday as if nothing had yet been done." C.S. Lewis