Elora

Well, my life is no longer full of time to just sit around and blog about random things.  I've posted a bunch of stuff recently, but that's mainly stuff I'm writing for class.  

But tonight I got a taste of the real world at our first Jr. High youth group.  Let me first say how awesome Jr. High youth group is.  I love these kids; they're really cool and a lot of fun to work with.  Needless to say it's good to be back.

But, one of them is missing.  Her name is Elora, and she's currently hospitalized after being diagnosed with Stage 3 Leukemia.  Elora is a 7th grader, who when she was young was hit by a car and suffered permanent brain damage from it.  Because of this Elora is quite a bit different than her peers in youth group, but many of them welcome her and a few of them take special care of her.  It's really cool to watch.  Sadly, Elora wasn't there tonight, and it just wasn't the same.  Someday when the Saints are lined up in Heaven, Elora will go in far ahead of me.  Tonight, Sean, our Youth Director, had the difficult task of talking about this with the rest of the group, and helping them realize that we need to be ready for God to take Elora home with him.  He did an excellent job and I think a lot of the kids took his message to heart.

This has also been a great opportunity for the kids to step up and show they care.  Tonight, at the kids request, we did a video card for Elora, and they want to have a Walk-A-Thon for her.  Both of these were entirely the kids' ideas, and it shows how awesome these kids really are.  

But, I am going to ask everyone to pray for Elora.  If you're reading this, please right now, say a short prayer for her.  Even if you're not sure of what you believe or if you're not sure you believe in God at all, please pray in spite of that.