She had been a TAG (Talented and Gifted) teacher in the Knoxville system for five years. She was working on a master’s degree at Carson Newman College. God turned this tragic loss into a blessing in the Knoxville community. Let me explain how.

I had been at a Prayer Summit (retreat) with around 80 men (mainly pastors) from the greater Knoxville area for three days. A day after I returned from this mountain-top experience, I came home to find a chaplain and two policemen waiting to tell us "some bad news"—that Meredith had died at her home.

The chaplain prayed for me and asked whom he could call. I thought of two pastors who are part of a prayer cell I meet with and had been at the retreat. The chaplain did not have their phone numbers, but had the number of Gordon Adams, who had prayed with me at the retreat and is a part of our prayer cell.

Gordon runs Vision Foundation and is also a police department chaplain. He and his wife (who knew Sandee from a women’s Prayer Summit) wept with us, prayed with us and made some calls to members in our congregation.

Gordon proposed that he or one of our pastoral prayer cell partners would be willing to help with the funeral arrangements. He also offered to help me by speaking at our service. (He spoke a week later.)

The next day, our congregation spent nearly two hours praying for our family, singing and reading scriptures. I was so pleased with them. How much we have grown!

I asked Doug Banister, pastor at Fellowship Church (Evangelical Free Church denomination), if he would help with the service. I had come to know him as part of the pastoral prayer movement in Knoxville and I meet regularly at his church with a few other church leaders so we can talk and pray together.

He agreed to help, so he met with our family at a funeral home. After looking at the chapel and lobby area, we worried that the 250 seats might be a little crowded. Doug offered a wing of his church that could seat up to 400. A women’s event was planned for that date, so he offered his sanctuary. It seats around 1,700, but we felt that it would be comfortable.

What a blessing that facility turned out to be!

More than 1,000 people showed up to pay their respects to Meredith and to support us. Meredith had made a profound impact on many lives. Hundreds of her students and parents offered condolences and notes and essays about her.

Pastor Doug explained why he was conducting a memorial service for the family of a WCGpastor. I also thanked Doug and his congregation for offering that facility and to propose that what was happening was one of the wonderful kinds of events that happen as the walls come down between denominations.

The service was a celebration of the life of a wonderful young woman. Terry Smith, our elder, read moving excerpts from notes and essays students had written. Many of them mentioned that Meredith was their favorite teacher.

Bob Persky, district superintendent in Florida, and his wife, Kay, came because of many family connections. We asked him to give the final prayer.

We have heard that dozens of congregations in the Knoxville area offered prayers for our family because they heard through their pastors and through friends we had in the schools and community.

This sad event in our lives has been a wonderful testimony to what the Body of Christ can be. Not only did we have the support of our own congregation and denomination (and so many who left us), but we had many in the Knoxville church community support us with their visits, calls, notes and prayers.

The community of Fulton High School, where Sandee teaches resource math, supported her in a marvelous way that has also reflected the love of God.

How wonderful the Body can be when it begins to forget about our differences between denominations and just loves each other because we are one in Christ!