In Memory

Reunions.
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Brazil is familiar. V-Team is re-uniting with friends that they met two years ago. Marconi Silva (pictured right) and Kener and Kaique Paulo (pictured below) are some of the friends they have had since their junior year in high school. V-Team first came to Natal in the summer of 2006 with a youth missions team from Woodland Park, Colorado. That trip became the genesis of this trip.
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One hot June night in a Brazilian restaurant, the 2006 V-Team -- then made up of 4 friends -- dreamed of this return. Apparently, they sat around the table, ate pizza, and talked about the dream of traveling the world, together. They spoke the beginning of the plan, and shared the passion to see it happen someday after graduation. Two weeks after their return to the States, Andrew Yarger was struck by lightning on a soccer field, and killed.

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Shortly after the tragedy, in an interview with the Denver Post, Andrew's sister Esther summed it up this way:

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"Esther Yarger said that about 150 youngsters gathered at a church Wednesday night to pray for her brother Andrew and the Yarger family. She said Andrew, the sixth of 11 children, had recently gone to Brazil with the youth group from Woodland Park Community Church.

'He came back very much impacted by that. It was a good experience for him,' she said. 'He was also affected by how God works in the weirdest ways but also the most powerful ways imaginable and how God uses anybody and everybody - powerfully.'

(Article Link -- http://www.denverpost.com/mobile/ci_4076232 )

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The impact of Andrew's life and death were enormous. Stories of his Christ Following life and faith have impacted many people in far-flung and miraculous ways. Andrew's parents, Chip and Sibbi, picked-up and carried on Andrew's legacy. They have graciously and faithfully supported V-Team. A subset of the Yarger family even came to the airport to love and pray and send-off the guys, in Denver. (see blog 9.16.08)

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And this week, the 2008 V-team -- now made up of 3 -- are following their original vision, birthed with their friend, here in the streets of Brazil. They share his belief that God works in weird and unimaginable ways and can use anybody and everybody -- powerfully. Always, the Team carries the inspiration of the one member that travels with them, everywhere they go, in their memory. It's really their story to tell. They have better words, memory, and insights about it all... about the loss of their friend. Those deeper things are for them to speak when they choose. But, no doubt now that the team is back in the familiar places where they walked and laughed and served with their friend, his absence is bound to feel more real. The memories of their times with Andrew Yarger are probably closer to the surface in Natal. In that town, Evan, Andrew, and Christian are reuniting with friends. But they are also walking in familiar places without one.

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So, in this moment we pause to look forward with them to joyfully meeting Andrew Yarger again,

in the best sort of reunion,

face to face, in eternity.

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But we also pause with them in the present,

to acknowledge his absence,

to honor their friend's bold Life,

and to affirm their shared passion,

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in a dream birthed in Brazil,

to show the love of Jesus Christ

to the world.

"Struck Down but not Destroyed"

Andrew Yarger

V-Team

~kjl