Remembering Sean Trank
Tribute video by Gwenn Danae Schley
Here you’ll see a collection of photos and videos that tell his story, as well as comments others have made about him.
Even if you never met Sean, we think you will be blessed and inspired by his life.
Sean was great at introducing himself, so if you have a few moments, here are things he’d want you to know, via excerpts from blogs and his Jews for Jesus staff page:
“I am an adventurer and truth seeker. Husband, brother, son, friend, co-worker, you name it.
“I was born in Sacramento in 1985 to a loving family of messianic Jewish believers in Jesus. I prayed to receive Y’shua in my heart when I was five years old. In school my Jewish friends would say I could not be Jewish and my Gentile friends would say I could not be Christian. At a very young age I would engage in debate with classmates about the Jewishness of Jesus and how all of Jewish scripture has pointed to Jesus as the Jewish Messiah.
“I have spent a considerable amount of time reading through the scriptures and seeking God throughout my life and though my faith was very real in my life I found myself wandering away from God in the way I was choosing to live during my high school days. Like many in my generation who were raised in the church or Messianic congregation I became disillusioned and disinterested for a time until one day at Camp Gilgal God showed up in a miraculous undeniable way and set me straight. Since then I cannot doubt the power of God.
“I went to various schools growing up and the same with colleges until I went to Point Loma Nazarene University where I graduated with a degree in Media Communications Production. I was given an amazing opportunity to travel to Israel, India, Nepal, Laos, and Thailand through the Massah program. During that time God introduced me to my wife…another great story.
“God has given me a gift in storytelling and out-of-the-box thinking which I have dedicated to serving Him. My faith in Jesus is of most importance in my life, next my wife, and then family. Friends are of much importance as well. I am now the media producer of Jews for Jesus since 2010. My passions are film, sales, and spearfishing… yes, you read correctly.”
Spearfishing?! Yes! Let us introduce you to . . . Sean the shark wrestler! This is a guy, who wrestled a shark as a college student and he doesn’t tell you “I got away.” He tells you “The shark got away.”
Here’s an excerpt from Sean’s shark story:
“BAM! Something as hard as a baseball bat hit me right in the leg where my fish bag was, I felt my leg numb quickly to the pain. As I turned to look at what happened I was pulled under water and my bag was being pulled by a 6 foot thresher shark. He was thrashing the bag AND EATING MY FISH! I shot him right in the gill and immediately he began to thrash like crazy.
My bag got torn off my waist and as the shark began to swim away I was pulled under water about ten feet before the line on my gun snapped. I took a breath and dove right back down. My thought was completely on getting back my spear. I grabbed the spear rod from the shark’s gill and pulled the beast close to get a grip on it. It was pure muscle, an incredibly strong animal. As I grappled around the head my right hand felt a very sharp pain. My pinky finger had slipped into the shark’s mouth and he had bit down slicing right through my gloves and into my finger. I let go and watched the shark with my spear still attached swim into the murky trash collection along the bottom. He got away!
I spent another 15 minutes trying to find my bag but now it dark and I my adrenaline rush was subsiding. I swam back to shore with no fish, a broken gun, and a nice flesh wound; but with an awesome story to tell my roommates.
The next day I went to the shore to see if the shark had died and washed up, but there was no sight of him. To this day I still believe he is alive swimming around with a three foot rod hanging out of his gill. He probably has a cool story to tell his roommates too.”
Sean’s faith sustained him to the end, and his heart’s desire was for others to experience all the hope, joy and adventure of knowing Jesus. We hope you’ll be blessed by this excerpt from Sean’s blog, some weeks before the Lord took him home:
“Bless the Lord oh my soul, oh my soul, worship his holy name. Sing like never before oh my soul I’ll worship His holy name.”
“My heart cannot even process the feelings I have right now. But I think this song says a lot about how awesome our God is. I am not coming home with any good news; just the plain fact that I will be home makes me so excited.
“I have been hospitalized for almost two weeks, and in these two weeks I have had so many ups and downs and I feel as if God has been holding me firmly to Himself keeping so close I can feel His heartbeat.
“Two days ago I was told that my cancer has spread to my brain. In the midst of such devastating, scary, surprising news I felt the Lord’s presence wrap around me and whisper, “Do not fear; I am bigger than this.”
“Yesterday, I was told that the cancer has spread to one of my ribs. I listened to the news but my focus was on Jesus and how big his love is and how powerful he is. Jesus wins.”
Sean was not a martyr. He didn’t want to suffer and he did not want to die so soon, yet he did have peace because he trusted God. And because he wanted so much for others to trust God, he was very open with his experiences. His family has been so generous as to allow these personal and private experiences to be shared, knowing that was Sean’s desire.
That generosity includes allowing the posting of this video. Here you see Sean praying aloud with family and friends, just before being intubated on June 29. Sean was a champion fighter who wanted to do everything possible to live for God and stay with his family and friends . . . but in addition to this prayer, he told his wife and family, “If I go, let me go. And remember, we love Jesus.”