Prayer for Caleb
A Newcastle family is thankful that their son’s story shares the message of the power of prayer.
Prayers and encouragement for a teen battling a brain injury are being lifted up from well beyond the youth’s tight-knit city of Newcastle.
The social media phenomena “Pray for Caleb” on Facebook, with the hashtag “butGod,” has propelled Caleb Freeman — and the power of prayer — to prominence, and his family couldn’t be more delighted. The Facebook page has more than 41,000 followers.
“Believing with you!” posted a woman from Bartlesville.
“I am praying and our Church is praying all the way from Guyana” said a man posting from South America.
“Praying for Caleb and family” a woman from Hannibal, Missouri, wrote in a recent post, while a woman from Kennesaw, Georgia, posted her prayer group’s plans to pray: “You are now connected to the Georgia prayer warriors!! We will start our prayers for a miracle right now!!!”
Caleb, 16, received life-threatening injuries in a Dec. 19 car accident while he and his brother Clayton, 15, were on their way to a University of Oklahoma men’s basketball game in Norman. He is currently undergoing rehabilitation at Craig Hospital in Colorado, but the road to recovery is still far from over.
“It was just one of those crazy things. You’re just going through life and you get that phone call that your boys have been in an accident,” the Rev. Jeremy Freeman, the boy’s father, said Wednesday. “It was just panic. It threw everything in the air.”
Clayton wasn’t injured as severely as Caleb, who sustained a brain injury.
Jeremy Freeman, who is senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Newcastle, said he asked a medical staff member about his son’s
prognosis while the family waited in the hospital emergency room where Caleb was being treated. He said the woman told him frankly that the teen needed a miracle to survive.
“That’s when I knew it was serious,” Freeman said.
The preacher said he sent a message to his church staff to update them on Caleb’s condition. He included the details about the serious nature of his son’s injuries but also his faith that the Lord would heal the teen.
“I said they’re saying he needs a miracle but God ... !” Freeman said.
Out of that simple phrase came the hashtag “butGod” connected to Caleb’s story.
His dad said its entirely appropriate.
He said the family knows that the Lord doesn’t always heal the sick because they dealt with the tragic death of one of their own just four years ago. Jeremy and Elizabeth Freeman’s son Trey, 7, died of leukemia. The family also includes daughter Brittany, 17, and two adopted children, Luke and Addi.
“We’ve experienced loss. We’re not saying that God heals all the time but sometimes He does. We’re trusting that God will do that this time,” Freeman said.
That’s where “#butGod” comes in.
“I know there’s still a battle but God is bigger than the battle,” the preacher said.
“Medicine says this, science says that, but God is the One who has the final say in Caleb’s life.”
Sports figures reach out
The Rev. Nathan Presley, executive pastor of First Baptist-Newcastle, said members of the church, which averages about 900 in worship, are thrilled that so many people from around the world are praying for Caleb.
“It has been incredible to see people latch on to Caleb’s story and just really ask God to go to battle for Caleb as only He can,” Presley said. “
He said Jeremy Freeman’s recent Sunday sermon was viewed online by more than 30,000 people, a testament to the widespread interest in Caleb’s progress and the family’s committed faith.
“God is using it to draw people to Himself,” Presley said. “It might not be the way we wanted it to happen but He often acts in ways that we don’t understand.”
Among the people who have reached out the Freemans are Lon Kruger, OU head men’s basketball coach, OU’s star point guard Trae Young and Buddy Hield, former OU men’s basketball star who now plays in the NBA for the Sacramento Kings.
Jeremy Freeman said Kruger came to OU Medical Center and prayed with the family. Young inscribed words of encouragement to Caleb on the athletic shoes and posted a picture of them on Twitter soon after Caleb’s crash.
“Get better Caleb!! Can’t wait to see you soon here at one of my games!! Tonight’s game is for you! #GodsHands” Young said in his tweet.
Freeman said the family is “huge” OU fans and they were touched by the kindness of Kruger and Young.
Then, they were thrilled to learn that Hield, who the family had met before, wore a “Pray for Caleb” wristband during the Sacramento King’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday at the Chesapeake Energy Arena. Freeman said Hield came to First Baptist-Newcastle a few times while he was an OU player.
“That has all been pretty neat. It was so awesome.”
Hope in the Lord
Freeman said he and his wife feel blessed that the Lord “stepped in early” and encouraged them through words of faith and comfort from a variety of people.
He said they were approached in the emergency room by a woman who said she saw the car accident and left her car to go over to Caleb and pray for him as they waited for help to arrive.
“She said she began to pray over him from head to toe and that God is going to do some amazing things through Caleb,” Freeman said.
He said he created the “Pray for Caleb” Facebook page to be able to share Caleb’s progress with everyone who expressed interest.
Freeman said he was surprised when the page became so popular, with people from around the world reaching out to the family with encouraging words and promises to pray for them.
Many of them have shared their own “butGod” stories the family has been grateful for these real-life stories of miracles.
Freeman said Caleb is an avid cross-country runner and the best runner for his school. He said his son has an amazing endurance and great faith in the Lord. He will need to call on both of these attributes to recover but the family is trusting in God that he will.
They want others to have that same trust and hope in God and they are hoping Caleb’s story leads them on that path.
“My greatest hope, honestly, is that people will see our hope in the Lord,” Freeman said.
“We want people to know that God loves them and He is faithful. There will be trials that you go through. You can choose to go through the trials without the Lord or with the Lord. We’re choosing to face it with the Lord.”