>
>For those who don't remember, this young man was a friend
>of David's through Campus Crusade for Christ.
>
>
>> Whether you are an aggie or not....well worth the
>> read.......
>>
>Please take the time to read about the 12th student who
>lost his life during the Bonfire tragedy. It is very
>moving, and girls you may want to get a kleenex, I sure
>needed one. Hope you enjoy! Even though it's sad, it's a
>good one.
>
>The Twelfth Man
>
>The twelve young people who died were truly remarkable
>kids.
>They were scholars, student athletes, active in Boy Scouts,
>4-H, Church groups, they were leaders. If you had to chose
>a
>dozen students to represent the best of Texas A&M, you
>probably wouldn't do much better than these. I have just
>learned about Timothy Doran Kerlee, Jr. He was the twelfth
>student to die, when his life support was disconnected last
>Friday evening. Let me tell you about this amazing kid.
>Tim graduated last year from Germantown High School in
>Germantown, Tennessee. He was an Eagle Scout, graduated
>third in his class, and was elected to his High School Hall
>of Fame. He was a student athlete, and a member of the
>National Honor Society. He was active in the youth group
>and drama club at his Methodist Church. He was actively
>recruited by Texas A&M, and when he enrolled he tested out
>of his entire freshman year. That is how this 17-year-old
>could be classified as a sophomore. Tim's father said that
>he was thrilled to be at A&M, and especially excited about
>bonfire. When the stack collapsed, his pelvis was crushed,
>his arm was broken, and his internal organs were scrambled
>like an omlette.
>On the front page of Friday's Dallas Morning News is a
>large
>photo of the collapsed stack taken during the early part of
>the rescue effort. You can see a team working at the base
>of the logs to save a trapped student. About five feet
>above the rescue team is Tim Kerlee, reclining on a pile of
>logs, propped up on one elbow. Unless you look carefully at
>the photo you will probably not notice that his legs are
>laying in an odd position. What was happening, according
>to the rescue teams, was that Kerlee was directing the
>teams to other students trapped in the stack. He kept
>telling them that he was O.K., and he directed rescuers to
>at least five
>other students before he allowed them to take him down from
>the stack.
>He was taken into emergency surgery, and when they opened
>him up they found his organs so badly damaged that they
>couldn't identify much of what they saw. They closed him
>up, wrapped him in a sheet to hold him together, and placed
>on life support. He lived long enough to see and speak to
>his parents. He was aware that he was dying and asked to be
>removed from life support. When his parents asked him why
>he wanted to, he asked them why he should fight for a few
>more
>days of life when he could be in Heaven with Jesus right
>now. Well, he got his wish.
>I feel sorry that I never had a chance to know Tim Kerlee,
>but I praise God for kids like Tim Kerlee. If you had to
>pick a twelfth man you couldn't do much better.
>
I need to tell you that my youngest son has been difficult to rear. He
began making wrong choices almost from the womb. He was the only one of my
kids to make it to the principal's office in the first grade. In his
sophomore year of high school, he became suicidal and we had to hospitalize
him. In his Junior year of high school he began taking drugs (although we
didn't know the full extent of it) and once was nearly killed by
something--no one knows what it was. After an abysmal freshman year at
A&M, I told him that if he flunked out at the end of his first semester
Sophomore year, that he wouldn't be living with us or on our money--his
adult life would have just begun. David turned his life around, returned to
the Lord and started attending Campus Crusade meetings. It was there that
he met Tim. In October, David called us to tell us the full extent of his
involvement in drugs. He did this because Campus Crusade was wanting him to
publish his testimony in the Texas A&M Battalion--the school newspaper. He
wanted us to find out from him what he had been up to. By a fluke of
timing, David's testimony was published in the Nov 18th, 1999 Battalion on
the center page.This was the day of the bonfire collapse. The front page
has a picture of David's friend,Tim Kerlee (which was published in the
Dallas Morning News mentioned above). People usually throw the Battalion's
away, as we all do with newspapers. But, the November 18th is one most
will probably keep. My son's testimony will be there, inside behind his
friend's photo. They will have an opportunity to hear the gospel. And
indeed, given the shock on the campus, David's testimony has been
noticed--because the death of the 12 students has made the Campus more
receptive to the gospel.
Here is my son's testimony(published with his permission):
"I grew up in an American home with an American family. I never felt like
my peers cared about me much, and I felt ignored. My life was a day by day
exercise in boredom and repetition. Shortly before I entered college, I
decided that I had enough of the daily bore that life seemed to be to me.
I was sick and tired of the way life never changed, one miserable day after
another, with nothing new or different to make life interesting. So I
decided to make a change.
"I discovered that I could have friendships with people if I did what they
did, went along with the crowd and did drugs, so that's what I did. For 2
years of my life I lived with my drug habit, and then when I decided to
quit, I found I couldn't. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't drop the
habit. I was addicted.
"I began praying to God, the God I believed in when I was really little,
asking Him to change me, because I couldn't change myself I felt absolutely
hopeless, and the drugs seemed to have control over me. I eventually found
myself in an AA meeting, the first of many that helped me regain my
sobriety. It was a benefit for me to talk to people who knew what I was
going through, and understood the grip that addiction can have on a person.
While sobriety was very beneficial, I found that I needed something more
than just freedom from drugs.
"What I needed was a God who offered forgiveness and mercy; someone to help
me through my hurt and pain. I needed Jesus. Only He offers the true life
and fulfilling love that we all look for. I am not perfect, and life is not
always a bed of roses, but I now know that only Christ's love can bring
true peace and unconditional acceptance.
Peace of Christ,
Dave Morton (Class of '01)
*end of testimony*
Because of Tim's death, that testimony will be saved for years awaiting the
opportunity to influence people across the years.
glenn
Foundation, Fall and Flood
Adam, Apes and Anthropology
http://www.flash.net/~mortongr/dmd.htm
Lots of information on creation/evolution