400 students gather outside their cancer-stricken teacher’s house to serenade him
When students at the Christ Presbyterian Academy in Nashville felt impressed to sing to their ailing Latin teacher, Ben Ellis, who has been battling with cancer, 400 of them left classes and tests to go do just that.
The moment was captured on video as Ellis could be seen looking out the window and even occasionally singing along as the students stood outside his house singing “Holy Spirit.”
According to English teacher Leslie Ponder, the whole thing was “spur of the moment” as students “dropped everything for a bigger lesson on life, love, community and compassion.”
The touching moment has since gone viral, garnering over 16 million views after it was shared online by country singer Tim McGraw.
— Television psychic Miss Cleo passes away from cancer —Â
“A friend sent this to me today. Ben Ellis is a Nashville area high school teacher battling cancer,” McGraw wrote alongside the video, which he had posted to his Facebook page. “The entire student body (400+ students plus HS faculty) drove to his house to worship with him. Â Our thoughts and Prayers are with him and his family….. So precious and kind.”
A letter from the principal at the school explained that they changed the school schedule just to be able to make the trip:
“Over the course of last night and into this morning, three separate and unrelated people approached me saying that while praying they received a vision of the high school students and faculty singing praises on the front lawn of the home of Ben Ellis, our Latin teacher who is battling cancer and who loves a good hymn sing.
“So, we loaded the buses and cars and went.
“It was a powerful and moving outpouring of love that our students were able to bestow upon a man who loves us well.
“We returned to campus and went straight into chapel, where we prayed and praised God. It was broken and beautiful.”
