HOOD RIVER, Ore. — We’re waiting to hear more about what happened during a youth group along the Columbia River when a youth pastor and a young boy drowned.
It happened Wednesday afternoon at Marina Beach in Hood River. The pastor died trying to save the lives of others who were struggling in the water.
Forty-four-year-old Andy Inskeep had only been a youth pastor for a year with Ridgefield Church of the Nazarene. In just a year, Pastor Jason Matters says said he made a big difference in the church.
“Andy would always go to the one who was lost, he would find the kid who was overlooked, he would find those kids and get to know them and love them,” said Matters.
Andy was with a group of nearly 20 who went swimming Wednesday at Marina Beach along the Columbia River in Hood River. The area the group was swimming in can be extremely dangerous according to Sergeant Pete Hughes with the Hood River County Sheriff’s Office.
Hughes says the sand bar can go from a 3-foot drop off to a 30-foot drop off almost immediately. Nearby swimmers got to shore safely or were rescued by a nearby boat or windsurfers. An 11-year-old boy who was with the group but from a different church also drowned.
Matters said Andy did all he could to help those kids.
“Andy did go into the water to rescue some of the students who were struggling and lost his life in the process of rescuing others,” said Matters.