Here's an update on my late brother-in-law, Gordon Patterson. A nicely done story. I emailed the journalist to thank him, and he wrote back to tell me why he wrote it. His own daughter was a student at Gordon's high school. Her name was Anne Elizabeth B-something. Apparently Gordon, recognizing in her someone nervous about starting high school, saw her out in the hall and called out "Hi, Anne Bolelyn!" When she was weepy about missing the vigil for him tonight because it conflicted with a competition, her dad knew something special from the soul of the school had passed.

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/09/vigil_planned_thursday_night_f.html

Please pray for a course correction in the life of the young man who hit him. He was, according to one source, actually a former student of Gordon's.

I just talked to my sis for about an hour. She said Gordon was known for telling the students, "I love ya--in a positive sort of way."

Last night a bunch of kids from the school attended the youth group where Gordon often taught in a white coat in his persona as Gordon the Science Warden. One girl told my sister, "On my first day of high school, I planned to go home and kill myself. But Mr P saw me in the hall, and since he didn't recognize me, he said, 'Hey! What's your name?'"

"Jennifer." (Or whatever her name was--I forget.)

"Hey, Jennifer, I love ya! In a positive sort of way."

"Mr. P saved my life."

My sis said he was always frustrated that he was not allowed to boldly proclaim the gospel in the classroom. Now, she said, he gets to reach these students with the message of Jesus' love. They get to share the true Source of their hope.

"He gives and takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord."