The Body

In light of the news we received regarding our friend Ellie this morning, we as a school have been very flexible throughout the day. We ended up spending almost the entire hour in chapel praying for Ellie's dad and brothers, who we gathered around and laid hands on. So so so many students prayed out loud over them as well as many teachers and other community members. Two things that really struck me as awesome in this are:

1. Ellie's whole family used to live here. They moved here about a year ago. Ellie had just graduated from high school and stayed here for a semester working as a volunteer at our school before heading back to the States to work and go to college. In recent months, her mom has been having a lot of health problems, and due to that, went back to the States to receive treatment while Ellie's dad and two younger brothers (in 8th and 7th grade) stayed here to continue studying language, coaching soccer, and attending school. So thing number one that is good: Ellie was not alone after her accident and through the amputation. Her mother was there with her. We didn't understand why her mom had to leave the family and go back to the States when they were doing so much good here. But God knew what the future held. (Also, since their mom has been so healthy in America, the family was planning on letting the boys finish out the semester here, then moving back to the States to decide what their next steps should be - that has now been moved up. To tomorrow. They were able to get tickets back to America for tomorrow morning. So those boys and all their classmates just found out that this is their last day at our school.)

2. It took so long for both our principal and assistant superintendent to explain to the student body what had happened because they were both so emotional. This ended up being a bad thing in the short run because everyone was sure that Ellie was dead. At first all they managed to get out was that she'd been in a horrible accident, and they were both crying! By the time they managed to get to the part about her being stable, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, but everyone was in tears. I have never seen high school boys cry like they did today as they took in the news, as they prayed over Bill and the boys, and as they gathered together in groups to continue praying well into their lunch break. And what is beautiful in this is that I see the Body. When one of us rejoices, we all rejoice. And when one of us hurts, we all hurt. I had teenage boys coming through the lunch line today still shaking with silent sobs. And one boy, who generally likes to pick on other kids, came up to me and asked, "Teacher, can I take some extra napkins to share? The people are crying." In fact, he walked right up to one other boy - who is often the target of his angst - took off the other boy's glasses, handed him a napkin, and said, "Here. Clean up your crying". English isn't his strong suit, but I almost lost it as I watched him hold the other boy's glasses for him while he wiped his eyes and nose. What a sweet moment! And what an awesome community I get to live in!

Please pray for Bill and the boys as they deal with being far from their daughter/sister at this time, and as they pack up everything and say all their goodbyes in the next 18 hours or so.

On a somewhat lighter note, immediately after lunch, I have Algebra 2, which is a 9th grade class. Many of them are close to the two boys, and so several of them had approached me at lunch, teary-eyed, and said they didn't know if they could take their test scheduled for today. That had already crossed my mind, so I told them we'd talk about it during class. As we talked through our options, they ended up deciding that since they had already studied and prepared for the test, they would rather just take it today, but they asked if we could all pray together first. I said sure, and I asked if one of them would like to pray, expecting that none of them would. But alas, one boy in the middle of the room raised his hand and said that he would pray for the class. This was his prayer:

"Dear God, thank You that we get to take an algebra test again. We know that this has been a sad day, but we know that You are a God of awesome power. And we know that You will share that power with us so that we can get 100 on our algebra test. Mostly especially the smart people. But then everyone else too. And even US. And we want to pray for Ellie. Amen."