A tragedy has hit our little church family. While away on vacation with people he loved, and doing things he loved to do, a lovely man slipped off a pier and into the water of a lake. He was found there an hour later, lying on the bottom of the shallow water "On his side." his wife cried on the phone to me, "Just like he always slept."

G. was larger than life. Everyone who knew him knew this about him. It took about three seconds to know this, however, because G. radiated love and kindness and generosity from a body that was small and hunched over from many surgeries to his back. In physical stature he was about 5'4" to his wife's 5'9". In terms of the human spirit, he was a giant of a man, a strapping ironman of a friend.

When I think of him down in the water, I can't help but think of the others down in the water, the ones who weren't found within an hour, the ones who aren't found yet, and the ones who have no one to mourn them, no church family to stand and say "He/She was a beloved child of God."

Our church wanted to be able to put a personal hands-on touch onto helping a family through tragedy. But O God, O God, we never wanted this.