Students surprise cancer-stricken teacher with heartwarming gesture of faith

'Our thoughts and Prayers are with him and his family.'

English teacher Ben Ellis was diagnosed with cancer, prompting over 400 students to gather outside his home with a touching surprise.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Ellis not only taught English at Nashville's Christ Presbyterian Academy but he also led the school's Latin and Bible studies courses.

Unfortunately, the chemotherapy became too much for him to continue teaching last week, which led to an amazing display of unity and affection from the student body.

Nate Morrow, the school's headmaster, told CNN Ben received difficult news Tuesday night and Wednesday admitted he was going to have to stop teaching for a bit.

Morrow stated: "The high school principal said, 'Ben has loved us well. Stop what you're doing, load up the buses. We're going to his house to worship with him.'...He found peace worshiping with others."

The idea was in response to Ellis' love to gather people for singing praises to God.

The staff and entire student body loaded themselves onto buses and drove to Ellis' home, where they sang Tim McGraw's "Holy Spirit You are Welcome Here."

Ellis was surprised but happy and was recorded singing along with the students in a video sent to Tim McGraw and reposted on his site.

"A friend sent this to me today," McGraw wrote. "The entire student body (400+ students plus HS faculty) drove to his house to worship with him...Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family."

Bob Ellis, Ben's father, responded with a written statement reading: "Ben is my son. Through his ministry and teaching, he has positively touched countless hundreds of lives directly and many thousands indirectly. He, his wife and children are a beautiful family."

The video has been viewed over 18 million times and thousands of commenters reported they would be praying for Ben. Please keep him and his family in your prayers as well.

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