Latest / The Daily Article / Camp Mystic director dies trying to save kids during flood

Transcript

Camp Mystic director dies trying to save kids during flood · The Daily Article

• 0:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's Monday, July the seventh, twenty, twenty, five, greetings.
• 0:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: And welcome to Denison forums daily article podcast.
• 0:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm narrator Chris Elkins, voicing to days daily article written by cultural theologian CEO and good friend Dr. Jim Denison.
• 0:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: A powerful storm caused the Wadalupe River in the Texas Hill Country to rise twenty-six feet in forty-five minutes before dawn Friday, washing away homes and vehicles.
• 0:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Camp Mystic, a nearly century-old Christian camp for girls, was in the path of the flood.
• 0:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: At least eleven of its young female campers and counselors died in the flooding.
• 0:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Ten campers and one counselor from the camp are still missing at the time of this riding.
• 0:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: In Kirk County, where the camp is located, the flood killed at least sixty-eight people, including twenty-eight children, Sheriff Larry Leitha said yesterday.
• 0:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: In total, at least eighty are dead and many more are missing according to officials.
• 1:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: I know there are tragedies elsewhere this morning.
• 1:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: From wildfires in Crete and California to another mass shooting in Chicago to a devastating heat wave in Hungary and China.
• 1:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I know that flash floods, like the one that swept through central Texas can happen anywhere and are, in fact,
• 1:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: the nation's top storm-related killer.
• 1:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: But this is different for me because it is personal for me.
• 1:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: Dick Eastland and his wife have owned camp mystics since nineteen seventy four and have been with me to Israel twice.
• 1:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: He was one of the most loving, gracious people I know.
• 1:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: When the flood hit, he died trying to save some of the children.
• 1:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: A camp counselor said Dick was among the most selfless men in
• 1:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: in the whole world, he was an inspiration to so, so many.
• 1:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: He was a father figure, a comforting force in the uncertainty of everything, in quote.
• 1:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: A former camper added in a tribute to him, Dick was the father figure to all of us.
• 2:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: He was the father of four amazing boys, but he had hundreds of girls each term who looked up to him like a dad.
• 2:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: She had, and it doesn't surprise me at all, that his last act of kindness and sacrifice was working to save the lives of campers.
• 2:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: He had already saved so many lives with a gift of camp mystic, in quote.
• 2:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: It is hard to imagine how this could be more tragic.
• 2:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: A Christian camp with seven hundred and fifty innocent precious children was devastated by a disaster they did nothing to cause.
• 2:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Many others in the area were killed by flooding on our nation's birthday.
• 2:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: There are families this morning who do not yet know if their children are alive.
• 2:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: But this story is all our story on some level.
• 2:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: My granddaughter is the same age as some of the girls who died.
• 2:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: A dear friend of mine is battling a recurrence of cancer that breaks my heart.
• 2:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: We all face grief and pain that we do not understand.
• 3:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Tomorrow, I plan to focus on the question we ask at times like this.
• 3:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: If Jesus could cry from the cross from Matthew, twenty-seven verse forty-six, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
• 3:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: We can ask the hardest questions in the hardest times of life.
• 3:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: But today, I'd like to center on the practical.
• 3:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: How could the Lord want us to respond personally to this horrible tragedy?
• 3:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus taught us in Mark twelve verse thirty two, love God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
• 3:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let's apply all four to this horrible tragedy as we seek from verse thirty one two, love your neighbor as yourself.
• 3:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: the heart.
• 3:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: Join God as He grieves with and for all those affected by this devastating disaster.
• 3:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: As Jesus wept at the grave of Lazarus in John XI verse thirty five, so from Romans twelve verse fifteen, we weep with those who weep, including our Lord, feel His grief for the precious children and families and respond to their suffering with the compassion of Christ.
• 4:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: The soul, be constant in prayer taught in Romans twelve verse twelve,
• 4:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: interceding perfectly to the one who is interceding for them right now, according to Romans eight verse thirty four the mind continued to believe from first John four verse eight that God is love and that circumstances cannot change his character know that one day we will know what we do not know today promised in first Corinthians thirteen verse twelve and pray for the faith to have faith encouraged in mark nine verse twenty four and finally strength
• 4:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Romans twelve thirteen tells us to contribute to the needs of the saints.
• 4:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: My wife and I have already donated two Texans on mission.
• 4:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: They are responding to the tragedy and are one of the finest ministries I know.
• 4:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: Pray about ways you can support them or other groups who are helping those in crisis.
• 5:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Seek ways to comfort all who mourn in the power of the spirit taught in Isaiah sixty one versus one and two.
• 5:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: In the face of all we do not know,
• 5:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Paul testified in first Corinthians, Thirteen, verse thirteen, that faith, hope, and love abide.
• 5:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: Choose all three and hold them out to the world.
• 5:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: We're promised in Isaiah, sixty, verse twenty, that one day the Lord will be your everlasting light in your days of mourning shall be ended.
• 5:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: One day from Revelation twenty one verse four, death shall be no more.
• 5:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away.
• 5:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: But today is not that day.
• 5:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: Today is a day to grieve, but not to grieve as others who do not have hope from first echelonians four verse thirteen.
• 5:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is because when we can find hope nowhere else, we can say to our father along with the Psalmist in Psalm thirty nine verse seven, my hope is in you.
• 6:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Rick Warren, who lost his son to suicide, said, what gives me the most hope every day is God's grace, knowing that his grace is going to give me the strength for whatever I face.
• 6:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now we can claim the same hope.
• 6:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: I cannot put into words the horror of this tragedy.
• 6:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: I can hardly look at pictures of the devastation, much less imagine what today is like for so many grieving souls.
• 6:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: But as Emily Dickinson said, hope purchase in the soul and sings the tune without the words, in quote.
• 6:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: even when we feel pain that has no words with the assurance of our Father's love and the help of His Spirit, our hearts can sing the tune of hope.
• 6:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is the invitation and the promise of God.