In the late summer of 2011 Esther was diagnosed with bone cancer.
She was only 12 years old and had just over one year to live. She died in December 2012. But she died in Christ and ‘her hope in God was incredible’, says her sister Miriam.
As a child of the manse, the daughter of Pastor Gavin Childress and his wife Kathy of Grace Baptist Chapel, Tottenham, in North London, Esther did not take to church to begin with. ‘Before I became a Christian’, Esther said, ‘I came to church because I had to, not because I really wanted to. I’d rather stay at my friend’s house or at home.’
The re-emergence of heavy shepherds
What would you think if you received a letter from your church leaders that read like this? ‘Are church members …