Through laughter and tears community says goodbye

Young man always had a song in his heart

By Rob Cullivan

The Gresham Outlook, Mar 10, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

Jim Clark / Gresham Outlook

Pastor Rich Butler, right, talks near a photo of Nathan Vredevelt during Nathan's funeral Tuesday night at East Hill Church in downtown Gresham. Nathan, who had Down Syndrome, left a Blazer's game and wandered on onto the Interstate 5 where he was hit by two cars. He later died from his injuries.

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On Tuesday night, March 10, hundreds and hundreds of people came to East Hill Church to bid farewell to a minister.

He wore no clerical collar and was never formally ordained, but his life bespoke things unseen — love, compassion, maybe even heaven — yet sensed by many, including his parents, his clergymen, his friends and his caretakers.

The minister’s name was Nathan Charles Vredevelt, a 16-year-old Gresham High School sophomore with Down syndrome who was struck by two cars on Interstate 5 the evening of March 1, and who died Thursday afternoon, March 5, at Legacy Emanuel’s Children’s Hospital in Portland.

Nathan was honored Tuesday night at East Hill where his father, John Vredevelt, had served for almost 31 years as an assistant pastor. John is now leading Radiant – A Jesus Church, which held its first service on Sunday, March 8, in the Portland Adventist Elementary School, 3990 N.W. First St.

Friends and family members said Nathan loved heroes, including Spiderman, James Bond and Jesus Christ. They say he enjoyed singing “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands,” and would get feuding folks to make up with each other by chiding them to reconcile.

Pastor Jason Albelo set the gently humorous tone for the service — which was attended by an overflow crowd — when he noted Nathan routinely embraced him, even when the pastor didn’t know he needed a hug.

“Anyone who’s been hugged by Nathan knows what I’m talking about,” Albelo told the congregants, who chuckled in response. Nathan’s life was a “ministry of tenderness,” the pastor said, but Nathan also was “a warrior because he fought through all kinds of challenges in his life.”

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