The church suspended community service activities Wednesday but expects to resume the camp Thursday. Pastor Mike Ross said Evan’s parents, who were too grief-stricken to speak with the media, asked that the camp go on.

It was the end of a long, hot day spent volunteering in one of Charlotte’s low-income neighborhoods, and Evan Wolfe and his friends wanted to have some fun.

So as a powerful thunderstorm approached Matthews’ Christ Covenant Church late Tuesday, 15-year-old Evan and some buddies laid on a driveway and watched the lightning above.

Moments later, with rain now falling in sheets, 43-year-old church volunteer Patrick Keaton pulled into the driveway in an all-terrain vehicle. Everyone but Evan apparently saw the vehicle’s approaching lights and jumped up.

The ATV struck Evan, who died a short time later on the way to Carolinas Medical Center.

“It was just teenagers, horsing around as teenagers do,” said Michael Ross, senior pastor at Christ Covenant Church. “But it turned tragic.”

Evan was among about 300 teens participating in Christ Covenant’s annual Seek The City, a weeklong community service camp in which youths sleep each night at the church and spend their days helping with projects in the Charlotte area.

Evan had spent Tuesday at Jackson Park Ministries in west Charlotte, helping with a Vacation Bible School and other volunteer work.

Matthews police are investigating his death and said Wednesday they have not decided whether any charges would be filed.

Ross said both families – Evan’s and Keaton’s – are “taking this very hard.”

Evan, of Weddington, had finished his sophomore year at Metrolina Christian Academy in Indian Trail but was transferring this fall to Covenant Day School, on the church campus. Ross said the young man had made an impact in the community.