Noah Whittaker
| Noah Whittaker | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Sex | M | |||
| Spouse | Crystal Chladek | |||
Children
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Noah Whittaker, often called Preach, is a recurring character in the Spearfish Lake Tales universe. He is first introduced as the youth pastor at Glen Hill Road First Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In 1996 he was a ministerial student at a Christian college in the south but working as a Senior Guide on the Ocoee River with Crystal Chladek. Like Crystal, he wasn't a partier and didn't like the bunkhouse there. Both tented up the hill instead.CF10
Noah and Scooter had already known each other from the previous year, their paths crossing in the same area. Both share a southern accent, although Noah was originally from Michigan.
Noah was on one trip when Crystal and Randy Clark had two drunk kayakers pull knives on them. He assisted Pastor Mark Jordan, an EMT, in providing first aid.DW23 After the dramatic introduction Noah was later hired by Pastor Jordan to be the youth minister at his church and Mark continued to mentor him. In 2001 wasn't actively looking for a church of his own, but waiting for the Lord to call him.
Noah was recruited by Crystal for Canyon Tours. He rode on Al Buck and Karin Chladek's wedding trip, helping to qualify him as a full boatman, plus he officiated at the wedding.CF19 His uncertainty before agreeing to officiate at the wedding is recounted in The Temptation. Crystal has serious plans of keeping him in the Canyon. He was described in 1996 as "a tall, thin, bearded young man". By 2001 he is still called "lanky", but the beard isn't mentioned.
At the end of Canyon Fires he has decided to stay in the Canyon as a boatman rather than try to find a church of his own, and he and Crystal become closer. At some point in River Rat he acquires the nickname "Preach".
On November 24, 2001 he and Crystal are married by Pastor Jordan at Lee's Ferry.RR63
Preach married Joy and Ben Russell in the Grand Canyon, affirming their rash but ultimately durable Las Vegas civil marriage.GT12
In early 2002, while Preach was still a minister, he was on an extended and possibly permanent leave from his position as an associate pastor of Glen Hill Road First Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Through much of previous December and January he and Crystal had been making a tour of churches, mostly in the Southeast, talking about the Grand Canyon and their adventures there, both physical and spiritual. Along with that, they'd spent a good deal of effort at spreading the good word at church groups and outdoor shows about taking a trip with Canyon Tours down the Grand Canyon. Crystal and Preach had taken off on the trip the morning after their wedding, and that meant their honeymoon had mostly been spent traipsing from one church speaking event to another. Only after the first of the month had they spent two weeks on a sailboat in the Bahamas for their "official" honeymoon.GT9
Crystal and Noah had two children. Their first, Bucky,HR6 was born in October 2005,DBR38 their second (name and gender not reported) was born in February 2007. CR4
