KNOXVILLE, TN (July 19, 2006) – Three weeks ago, 16-year-old Zack Stuck learned he would not be attending CHIC 2006 as he had dreamed for several years. The cancer that briefly had been in remission following nine months of chemotherapy had returned, having metastasized from his leg into a lung.
The opportunity to go to CHIC, now in progress on the campus of the University of Tennessee, had inspired Stuck during his chemo treatments. “It was the one thing that he really looked forward to,” said his mother, Sherry. But when the doctor broke the news on June 23 about the cancer’s return, he told Zack that the experimental treatment the young man would undergo also would make it impossible for him to travel with his youth group from Iron River, Michigan.
Imagine the shock when Zack walked out on the main stage at CHIC Monday evening to the resounding applause of the several thousand teens and adult counselors who had filled the Thompson-Boling Arena for the evening worship service. No one knew of the last-minute arrangement – not even the other Iron River youth at CHIC.
The change in plans was put into motion on Wednesday last week after Marti Burger, director of youth and family ministries for the Evangelical Covenant Church, learned of the situation. She called Sherry and asked if CHIC could pay for an airplane ticket. “It was just one of those things that we thought we just had to make happen,” Burger said.
“I was shocked,” said Sherry. “I didn’t know what to say.”
There was never any doubt, however. “Of course the answer was yes,” said Zack. “I’ve been looking forward to this for years.”
None of the members of Zack’s youth group could have anticipated the turn of events as they boarded the bus for Knoxville on Saturday, leaving Zack behind. “This has been a very hard time for us,” said Youth Pastor Anders Johnson.
The youth group was invited on stage thinking that Johnson was going to tell Zack’s story to the gathering and then everyone would pray. Worship leader Matt Lundgren then announced that CHIC leaders had other ideas, teasing the audience with the suggestion that a special video call might have been set up to allow Zack to converse live with his friends and others at the CHIC event. Instead, Lundgren invited Zack to join his friends on stage to the delight of the entire audience.
Led by his crying girlfriend, the entire group ran and embraced him. All of the students were shaking as Zack disappeared into a large prolonged group hug. In the arena, 5,000 people stood and applauded.
Three weeks earlier, Zack had cried when he learned that he would not be going to CHIC. Joining his youth group on Monday was “overpowering,” he said. “I never would have expected it in a million years. I never would have thought it was this big.”
Sherry began to tear up as she shared what it was to be a mother escorting her son onto the stage. “It meant everything that Zack could experience this with his youth group,” she said. “Zack worked so hard to get here.”
Burger said the organizers of the main stage events “have such a big heart, and they really wanted to make this happen.”
Sherry also was surprised when she and Zack were waiting backstage, and a member of the CHIC prayer team told them that she had been praying for the teenager for months. The team initially had heard about Zack from his pastor Bill Fish while the teenager was undergoing chemotherapy.
“That was the most amazing thing,” Sherry said, “to know that there were all these people praying for him.”
Zack leaves this morning for the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and is expected to undergo surgery to remove the tumor on Friday.
Burger began crying as she noted that there will be 5,000 people praying for Zack Friday morning. “I just feel like I got to be part of a God story.”
Johnson said some of the students still are struggling with theological questions surrounding Zack’s illness; however, on Monday, they and Zack had ‘No Ordinary Day.’
Covenant Communications is providing daily coverage of CHIC 2006 from the University of Tennessee campus in Knoxville as part of this online Covenant news report. For additional articles, photo galleries, and daily blogs (with Spanish translations), please see CHIC 2006.
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