Emphasis Preaching Journal

The encounter with a transformed life is powerful to those who know a person well. Perhaps that is why the demoniac is asked to remain in his hometown. In his book, Four Trials, presidential candidate John Edwards tells the story of an expedition he and his late son, Wade, took to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa. The trip was a birthday present. They departed the United States with his son having just returned from an Outward Bound camp. As they began the journey his son, Wade, was struggling with feet that were badly blistered and swollen from the Outward Bound experience. Despite the obstacle the injured feet posed, Wade persevered. The climb was very challenging. The mountain is over 19,000 feet tall and difficulties related not only to the demands of climbing and weather, but also altitude sickness abounded. The team continued and eventually all achieved the summit, with Wade's encouragement of the others a key component of their success.

Less than a year later, Wade was dead, killed in an automobile accident. Among the many powerful stories about the type of young man he was that emerged in the wake of the accident, one story came forward from a high school English teacher. Wade had been a student in her class. One of the works they studied that year was Hemingway's, The Snows of Kilimanjaro. Throughout the discussion of the work Wade participated regularly, but she noted it was not until the funeral that she discovered that he had himself managed to scale the mountain. Wade had never once imposed his experience on the other students.