Faces
Prayer in thin air M
ike Gibbons has had plenty of tough times during his ascents on the world’s highest mountains, but few were as rough as his trek up Mount Ever- est. Feeling banged up and exhausted at an altitude of 22,000 feet, the experienced climber wasn’t sure he could continue and asked God for guidance. Less than an hour later he fell into a crevasse and thought he broke his arm. What might seem to some like God say- ing it was time to give up, Gibbons took as a sign to keep going. Twenty days later he was on top of the world—29,000 feet. Gibbons, a member of Messiah
Lutheran Church, Yorba Linda, Calif., has been climbing most of his life, including guiding ELCA Pacifica Synod Bishop
100 plus
106: Mildred Coene, Grace, Rochester, Pa. 104: Ruth Campbell, Faith, Sidney, Mich. 103: Ethel Ruth Beyer, Holy Trinity, Thou- sand Oaks, Calif. 102: John Folkers, Trinity American, Waterloo, Iowa; Joseph Leone, St. Stephen, Pompano Beach, Fla. 101: Vi Chamberlin, St. Paul, Beloit, Wis.; Minnie Rathkamp Pietsch, Holy Cross, Yoakum, Texas. 100: Carol Blackwell, Holy Trinity, Lafayette, Ind.; Elizabeth Bragunier, Trinity, Hagerstown, Md.; Margaret Cundy, Beth- lehem, Cedar Falls, Iowa; Hilda Fedeler, St. Paul, Waverly, Iowa; Vivian Fillbach & Earl McClaren, St. Paul, Beloit, Wis.; Evelyn Folkers, Trinity American, Waterloo, Iowa; Marie Juhl, Bethany, Askov, Minn.; Eleanor Kaske, St. Stephen, Silver Spring, Md.; Elizabeth Lightner, Trinity, Connellsville, Pa.; Nola Lucius, Ebenezer, Columbia, S.C.; Leona Sonderegger, Bethel, Madison, Wis.; Dorothy Speer, St. John, Farmington Hills, Mich.; Lars Steinnes, First of Richmond Beach, Shoreline, Wash: Anita Weeder, St. Mark, Van Wert, Ohio; Amelia Krapf Wil- liams, Christ, Hilton Head Island, S.C.
Mike Gibbons began an expedition to climb Mount Everest in Nepal on March 23. Despite a fall, he completed his trek on May 24.
Murray Finck to the top of Mount Whitney. But it wasn’t until the mid- 1990s when he took it to the next level. “I sold a company in 1993, so I had enough money to go beyond
climbing in the Sierras and the Rockies,” Gibbons said. “I went to the Andes, and then I started meeting other climbers. Someone said, ‘Come with us to climb Kilimanjaro.’ Then it was just one mountain after another.” Finally, Gibbons and a team headed to Everest. The excursion takes many weeks.
Since the group was on the mountain this year at Easter, Gibbons held a multidenominational service at 22,000 feet. “It was a humbling and fantastic experience all at once,” he said. “I had asked our pastor for some ideas, and I took other ideas from my days as a scoutmaster. The service itself lasted 40 minutes, but we had such interesting discussions that the talk afterward lasted two hours.” After Gibbons’ fall he was transported back to the U.S., where he
learned he had sustained tissue damage that would heal with exercise. A day after returning, he caught a plane back. A helicopter dropped him on the mountain, where he met up with his team at the base camp from which he had been evacuated. “After that fall I knew everything was going to be all right,” he said.
“We still had a lot of problems, but from that moment I knew we were going to make it.” Still, Gibbons said he needed every prayer he received from friends
and members of his congregation. “I don’t think I would have made it with one less prayer,” he said.
Jeff Favre Favre is a contributing editor of The Lutheran.
September 2011 43
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