400 students gather to sing to teacher with cancer

When Latin and Bible teacher Ben Ellis received the news that his cancer was growing despite treatment, the entire student body of his school came to his house to cheer him up.  

Ellis, who taught at Nashville’s Christ Presbyterian Academy, was serenaded by 400 students who gathered outside his window, singing hymns, while he and his wife looked on. A video of the touching moment was filmed by a family friend and uploaded to YouTube.

Country singer Tim McGraw shared the video on his Facebook page, where it received over 28 million views and 43,000 comments.

Writing on his CaringBridge page, Ellis thanked the students and staff at CPA: “Last Wednesday, the entire CPA high school came and sang songs of praise and worship under my bedroom window. It was beautiful and unforgettable. A video of the worship time has circulated. Since then almost 20 million people have viewed the video online world wide! God has blown the doors off of this prayer request! This is far beyond our wildest, biggest dreams.”