My part was really not a big thing. I did what I was trained to do," Jack Stom said after administering medical help to a child that fell into a camp fire.
Jack and his wife Lori are both avid kayakers. They spent a recent weekend camping and kayaking up at Bear Valley. On Saturday morning they heard the group camping next to them singing "King of Kings and Lord of Lords." Jack is familiar with the tune having recently learned it in Spanish while in Rio Bomba, Ecuador. Jack and six other people from Vineyard Boise's Compassion In Action Team went on a short-term mission to Ecuador to pray and teach CPR and First Aid to 10 house parents of El Arca Orphanage. This is the same orphanage where Lupe Gamboa is now ministering - (see the
October 27 edition of Inside The
Vineyard).
Jack contributes experience and knowledge to the CAT Team, with 10 years as a Lifeflight worker and 13 years in paramedics.
Jack and Lori's motto is "load and go" when it comes to kayaking, but this particular morning they were moving kind of slow and decided to have one more cup of coffee.
At the campsite next to them, the same voices that were singing the night before suddenly were shouting. A child was crying, and someone was screaming, "Take him to the river!"
Jack hurried over to the camp to see what was happening. He observed the mother sitting in the river holding her son, who had fallen into the campfire. While the mother held the child, he assessed the situation. Then he went in the river to help.
Jack cut off the child's T-shirt to avoid pulling it across the burned areas, and allowed the wounds to cool slowly in the water. The boy was burned on his right arm from his hand to his elbow, his left palm, and his knee down to the calf. Jack took the little boy to a nearby table and dressed his wounds. He crushed up a tablet of Ibuprofen, put it in liquid and encouraged the boy to drink it to help relieve the pain.
He convinced the parents to have someone drive them to the nearest hospital. Jack says that too often when a relative or close friend drives the victim to the hospital, they have a tendency to drive too fast, putting even more people in jeopardy. The parents agreed to let a friend drive them.
Jack and Lori later learned their new friends were from Church of the Harvest, a church in Boise. They were spending the weekend on a leadership campout at Bear Valley.
Days later, the staff at the Vineyard received phone calls from Church of the Harvest and also the boy's parents. They said how grateful they were that Jack was there to help the boy, who is recovering well.
"Obviously, I was not in control of it all; God was in control" Jack said. "My part was really not a big thing."
That's often how God works: He gives us gifts and talents, and then He gives us opportunities to use them. It might seem like a small thing to us, but it's usually a huge thing to those on the receiving end.
It's important to keep our eyes and heart open at all times for areas where we can be of help to someone, regardless of the size of the situation. It's really all about being available.
There are many ministry opportunities available at the Vineyard such as Feeding God's Children, Compassion in Action team, Food pantry, short-term missions, Children's ministry and much more. If you are interested in utilizing your gifts and talents in this way, please see the Getting Connected brochure in the lobby.
