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In this week's sermon, Pastor Mark told us about meeting Ella Mae, a young pastor's daughter in eastern Washington. Ella Mae has spina bifida, but has always dreamed of being a ballerina. When Pastor Mark mentioned this in an early sermon, a young woman who was in the service and is a ballet dancer with the Pacific Northwest Ballet came up afterward to say that they would love to have Ella Mae come meet all the ballerines next time she was in Seattle. So Pastor Mark wrote her dad to let them know the good news. This was Ella Mae's reaction, as told in her dad's reply:

Dude. Huge. I don’t even know what to say. I read your note to her this afternoon. Ella Mae’s eyes got big and she exclaimed, "Really??!! Truly? I get to meet a REAL BALLERINA? Mom, Mom, guess what Pastor Mark did for me!" Oh man, I should have videoed it … it would have put gas in your tank for miles. Her face was priceless. Good stuff. We’ve sometimes wondered whether or not we should "encourage" the whole ballerina thing, for obvious reasons. And then I overheard her telling Levi a couple days ago driving home, "Levi, do you know what will make heaven so wonderful?" "What?" he said. "Heaven will be wonderful because there won’t be any walkers, braces, wheelchairs, or Spina Bifida, which means I’ll finally get to run and play with you like I’ve always wanted to do," —said in her excited voice, as only she can— "and I’ll be able to dance for Jesus too. He’ll love it. He’s amazing you know, and he really likes ballerinas. I can’t dance now because my legs don’t work, but he’ll fix them in heaven, and then I’m gonna dance my heart out. He can’t wait to see me dance." Word for word, from her mouth. My eyes watered and I almost drove off the road. So bring on ballerinas. One day, here or there, my daughter’s gonna dance. So thanks for blessing our family with this gift. It’s a little like Christmas in April. Seriously, we’re overhwhelmed, humbled, and grateful. God is so good.

Read Pastor Mark's full story about Ella Mae in this week's sermon transcript.