The involvement of a Sydney Anglican youth leader in a tragic accident in Uganda has left family members and a local congregation deeply disturbed but praying for a miracle.
Twenty-six-year-old James Coulter from St Paul's, Wahroonga, was participating in a two-month mission to Africa when he slipped and fell into a waterfall on Monday this week.
The well-respected youth worker had been working with local church groups in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, as part of a 26-member contingent organised by African Enterprise.
"Five of the group stayed on after the mission to visit an orphanage in eastern Uganda, near the city of Jinja," says African Enterprise Executive Director Mike Woodall.
"James and another boy went to see Griffin Falls which is a bike ride away from where they're staying. But while trying to take a picture James slipped and fell into the water and was swept away."
The accident has deeply distressed Mr Coulter's family and friends, as well as staff at African Enterprise.
Parents Tony and Margaret Coulter have told The Daily Telegraph they are proud of their son's desire to help others in a troubled nation.
In the midst of such an anxious time, they prefer to hope.
"All I know and believe is that he’s missing, nothing more," Mrs Coulter has told the Sydney Morning Herald.
This is the first serious accident the missionary organisation has suffered since it began sending interns overseas in 1965, and Mr Woodall says every step possible has been taken to secure James' safety.
"We’ve been undertaking searches with police and the local fire brigade," he says.
"From yesterday we had Ugandan army divers joining the search but so far without success."
African Enterprise has also commissioned ads on local radio stations offering a reward for assistance in locating Mr Coulter.
"He has a lot of experience in bushcraft and is a very outdoor person so we’ve been hoping he might have dragged himself ashore," Mr Woodall says.
And while the efforts to locate the 26-year-old continue, his disappearance has galvanised his home church in Wahroonga.
"We’ve got groups of people praying for him," says St Paul's rector the Rev David Reay.
"We’re praying that a miracle might occur and that the same time that his family will be supported and we as fellow Christians would approach this situation from a faith perspective," he says.
Mr Reay says the Sydney quarantine inspector is heavily involved in the church's youth work and often leads evening services.
"We're only a small church, so he is an integral part of our church life," he says.
"He was very excited about this mission and asked that we pray for him " and we blessed him and sent him on his way."
Mr Reay says Mr Coulter's disappearance will raise questions for some about God's goodness and the effectiveness of prayer which will require sensitivity and time to answer.
"We don’t abandon our Christian faith because we’re faced with such a situation but don’t offer a simplistic, easy explanations," he says.
