Ryan Mikeal
I have always been a friendly person and have cherished the friendships I have made. The Lord has blessed me with great friends, and for most of my younger life, I never thought about losing one of my friends. I never thought just how quickly life could end. That mindset changed the summer after my sophomore year of high school.
Six years ago, I traveled on a youth group mission trip to the Philippines. After a week of going around to the local schools talking and ministering to the students, we finally got a day to go sightseeing and to just have fun.
The day started quietly. We slept till 8:30 a.m., which was good considering we had been going to bed around 1 a.m. and waking up at 6 a.m. for a week. After the typical breakfast of a large pile of rice, a small piece of meat, and a cup of hot but rather bland coffee, we were off to have fun. We started down the road heading towards the highly anticipated Dunkin Donuts, which was the only American food we were allowed to eat on the trip. Warren, my best friend, and I split a dozen cream filled donuts, which satisfied our longing for sugar.
Next on the agenda was swimming at a mountain lake, which was a terrifying two-hour drive from town. The driver swerved all over the road, completely ignoring the traffic lines. Amanda, one of the girls in the group asked, “What’s with the traffic lines?” the driver replied, “What? You don’t have those in the U.S.?” Amanda laughed and said, “Well yes, but we stay inside the lines.” The driver, who we had named Uncle Sam for the way he took care of us, just shook his head and said, “Where is the fun in that?”
A couple minutes later we reached the area where we switched from vans to three little 125cc dirt bikes crammed with four people each. We went screaming down the narrow, winding mountain road. Along the way, we swerved around pedestrians, cars, and animals. Warren and I were nervous riding on the back of one of those dirt bikes, which was carrying more weight and people than it was designed for.
We finally made it to our final destination – a pristine crater with two lakes in the middle. Oddly enough we were greeted by several stray dogs, one of which was sadly missing part of its nose.
The water called our names, and we answered. Warren and I went and found a perfect cliff to jump off. After a little while of jumping off the cliff and splashing around, we noticed a floating dock out in the middle of the lake and had the bright idea to swim out to it and rest on it for a few minutes.
On the swim out to the floating dock, we soon realized just how far of a swim it actually was. I was swimming beside Warren for a little while but failed to notice that he had started falling behind. Warren is not the best swimmer and became tired quickly. He decided he was going to head back to shore but realized that he was half way between the shore and the dock and started to panic.
I had no idea what was going on. All I could hear or see was the commotion from the shore. I quickly realized that Warren was no longer with the group. Immediately, I knew what was happening behind me, but I was too far away to offer any kind of help. All I could do was float there in the luke-warm water and know my best friend was drowning.
For by God’s grace Josh, my youth pastor, wanted to jump off the cliff one more time, so he was behind the rest of the group and quickly rushed to Warren. Josh miraculously got to Warren, pulled him up to the surface, and held him up till an old, wooden rowboat, which was operated by a the missionary who had been watching us, reached Warren and Josh.
After a few minutes (which felt like an eternity), I finally saw Warren get pulled up into the boat. I waited for a few minutes on the floating dock to regain my energy then headed back to shore to check on Warren. When I reached the shore, I quickly gave Warren a bear hug and said, “I thought you were a goner there.” He quietly said, “Me too.”
After that near tragic day, I have never taken for granted the friendships I have with others, especially with my best friend Warren.
