The Beauty of a Life Laid Down

On August 5th, 2011, after a full year of training, Daren Wendell swam 50.6 miles (twice the distance of the English Channel) in 36 hours across Lake Michigan from a small beach in New Buffalo, MI to Navy Pier in Chicago, IL to raise awareness of and money for the water crisis in Zambia. On August 19th, he gingerly unbuttoned his shirt and let me see the damage the swim had caused his body. Underneath was shocking. 

It looked like he had been scourged. Several deep cuts ran the length of his back from shoulder to tailbone 4 inches apart. He told me that they were burns from wetsuit seams. Turning around I saw his chest had scars haphazardly spaced in across it, generated from who knows what. His body was sunken and weak looking.  He had lost 8 pounds during the swim. That was not the worst, though. His armpits were destroyed, the results of wetsuit burns from the continuous friction. The mess of scars and open wounds made me actually look away. Wendell could not lower his arms to his side.

Daren Wendell directs a non-profit partnered with Blood:Water named ActiveWater. ActiveWater works to combat the world water crisis with a focus particularly on Zambia. Through their partnership with Blood:Water, they bring sanitation & hygiene education, filters, and wells to the their friends in Zambia. ActiveWater has a fascinating approach. It allows you to partner with it to use whatever talents, skills, or abilities you have to make a difference. In its 3 years of existence, ActiveWater has partnered with many athletes, a girl who gave up every drink but water for a year (and donated the money she would have spent on the other drinks), artists, kids selling $1 hugs, and many others. They all have one thing in common: personal sacrifice. Wendell himself is an endurance athlete. He has walked across America, ran marathons, completed half iron mans, biked long distances, and now, swam Lake Michigan. He does this to lead by example.  "It's worship," said Wendell. "Pushing the body God gave me to the limit for Him is worship. Even if no one cared or no money was raised, it would still be a success." 

Swimming Lake Michigan is no joke. Just looking at Wendell's scars confirms the toll it takes on a body. Only a couple handfuls of people have ever done it. More people have climbed Mount Everest than swam Lake Michigan. As it was, the crossing was not easy.  Wendell left in calm waters at noon on August 5th. Ten hours in, 4-5 foot waves hit.  Even though his support kayakers flipped over in the rough water, Wendell swam on. Four hours and many prayers from supporters during the middle of the night later the Lake went dead calm. Five miles from shore, Wendell started to uncontrollably vomit. Wetsuit burns felt like a lighter was being held to his underarms. Wendell stripped his wetsuit off knowing he would get hypothermia just so he could continue. During the next hours he would hallucinate and become incredibly disoriented. Despite extreme danger to himself, he swam on and finished at 10 pm. He was rushed to the hospital where it was confirmed he had hypothermia and hypoglycemia on top of the mass of open wounds, both potentially deadly conditions. The Swim, and Daren's sacrifice, raised $13,500 for Zambia.

When you ask Daren Wendell why he does these things he simply says "A life lived for others is the best life...sacrifice inspires." He means it, you can tell. Just talking for a few minutes with him you can tell that it is not enough for him to just send money.  He must share in the suffering of the people going through the water crisis. His body is a painting of their pain; a gallery of their wounds.  He tells their story with it. Because sacrifice inspires, thousands of others have joined in with him through ActiveWater in carrying the burden that those in the water crisis carry every day. Collectively they are a tapestry that powerfully depicts the plight of those affected by the crisis. 

When asked "What next?" Wendell laughs and says he's not ready to think about that yet. Getting his arms next to his sides is the first order of business. Still, even when he says he's not ready, a glimmer is his eye tells you that he is already thinking of how to paint his body with the story of the water crisis next.

Here's an interview with Daren on PBS in Chicago 2 days after his swim. Also, to read more about Daren's swim, view his blog here.

 Blog post written by Todd Tipton, a close friend of Daren Wendell's