An Educator Who Has Clearly Made a Difference in His Community

UPDATE: John Griffis passed away at 10:30 am, November 19th, as a result from the injuries he received in the accident described below. My prayers go out to the family.

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One of the interesting things about Facebook is you find out about stories and people around the country you might never have otherwise heard of. I noticed the other day a posting by one of my cousins in Oklahoma concerning prayers for "John". I didn't know who John is other than he wasn't a family member, but her posts intrigued me a bit so I did some searching around to find out the story.

It turns out the man she was praying for is John Griffis, a father of four and a sixth grade teacher at the Bethany Middle School in Bethany, OK. He was working on the roof of his home and fell, suffering a serious brain injury. Griffis is currently in ICU with critical injuries.

Someone in the community set up a Facebook group asking for prayers and support for John and his family, and as I write this 816 people have joined the group. Yesterday hundreds of people from the community gathered at the school for a special prayer meeting for John. I grabbed these two photos off the Facebook page:

I'm sure the sight of prayer in school sends shivers up the limp spines of some liberals in the audience, but you'll just have to get over it.

Reading through the comments at the site it's clear that John is one of those special teachers who make a real difference in the lives of the kids he teaches. And from the posts many people are also expressing their thanks to John's wife for her work in the local elementary school. These are a couple of people have who probably had more impact on families in their area than they'll ever know.

I join them in their prayers for recovery. America needs teachers like this in our public schools. And I love seeing a community rally around one of their own.