Thank You, Mrs. Ellis

Saturday afternoon, one of the most wonderful people joined her Lord and Savior in heaven.

Mrs. Andrea Ellis, though I knew her for only a short time, touched me deeply and my daughter thought the world of her - as so many others did also. Mrs. Ellis was a child of God, and there was no mistaking that, and she shared her love for Him with hundreds of people both at First Baptist Christian Academy during her 20 years there, and at our church where she taught children's Sunday School. She brought many a child to Christ through her wonderful chapel stories, and played a big part in teaching my daughter what it means to love Jesus. For this, I thank you, Mrs. Ellis. I don't know why God chose to take you from us so early as there are so many more lives you could have touched, but I know you have taught people well and they will carry on your legacy. For it is not our plan to understand and fulfill, it is God the Father's plan for us to accept for only He knows the plans He has for each of us. You will be greatly missed.

Mrs. Ellis and Grace on her first day of school

At the Tucson Children's Museum
With her Kindergarten class after their field trip to the fire station

This picture was taken just before Christmas Break.

She had an MRI done just before Christmas that found five tumors on her brain, and was diagnosed with brain cancer in early January.

Grace and I were fortunate enough to see her on a couple of occasions after her diagnosis - we ran into them at the mall one day after church and we took dinner to her and her husband one evening and had an opportunity to visit and pray with them. I am thankful for those brief extra moments we got to spend with her and show her how much Grace loved her.

When I told Grace that Mrs. Ellis had died, she didn't show much emotion (I wondered if she understood what I had said, because I was still in a state of shock, even though we had been anticipating it for some time), which was exactly the opposite of what I had expected since we have had several tearful evenings when we have talked about the reality of the situation. I had to make it clear to her early on that God always answers our prayers, but He doesn't always answer them the way we want Him to. She had been praying for her healing so that she might come back to school because they all missed her so much - so I told her that God had healed Mrs. Ellis, but he had healed her by taking her to heaven to be with Him. I asked her to tell me how she was feeling about all this and asked her if she was sad. She said, "Yes, I'm a little sad, but I'm really happy because now she's with someone who loves her even more than we do. She's with Jesus." Amen. All of this anxiety David and I felt about telling this precious little girl that one of her favorite people had died, and that is the response I got. I do not know how, at 5 1/2 (that 1/2 is important - just ask her!), she understands so much about God and His love for us, and salvation, but she gets it, and I only hope as she grows she says that I had at least a little bit to do with that!

Even though we will mourn the loss of a great teacher and friend, every cloud does indeed have a silver lining...

Mrs. Gord and Grace

The loss of Mrs. Ellis has allowed us to have the opportunity to have this other beautiful soul in our lives.

Mrs. Gord had retired from the Academy, but was doing some substituting here and there, when she got the call telling her there was a need for a long-term substitute in one of our Kindergarten classes. The children were already familiar with her as she was with them for a few days when Mrs. Ellis had to be out earlier in the school year. She has come in and done a wonderful job with these kids, and has been very careful not to step on anyone's toes. She promised Mrs. Ellis that she would take care of "her kids" for as long as was needed and has made sure (with the help of the children) to do things as Mrs. Ellis would have done them. Some of the stories she tells are really amusing - listening to her tell how the class would say "Mrs. Ellis wouldn't have done it that way" or "Mrs. Ellis wouldn't like that". The kids had their routine, and they weren't about to deviate from it - even if Mrs. Gord had wanted to. She made sure that prayers were said daily for Mrs. Ellis and that there was always something in the works to send to Mrs. Ellis at home. The last project she did was to record each of the children read something to her out of one of their reading books - I do hope she enjoyed listening to the fruits of her labor before she left us. Thanks to her firm foundation, the majority of the class has begun reading in first grade level books. So, I also want to send a huge thank you out to Mrs. Gord - thank you for stepping up to take care of "Mrs. Ellis' kids". Thank you for loving them, teaching them, and for making sure that they were prepared to deal with this loss. You took on an enormous task and trusted that God would lead you in the right direction, and you have done wonderfully! Mrs. Ellis will be dearly missed, but I know that my daughter and I are thankful for getting to meet you and have you for her teacher too.