Let’s all send some prayers and good thoughts to a family here in Springfield who is currently undergoing a pretty heart-wrenching situation.

Last month our small college/Baby Birds beat writer Matt Baker wrote a story on Christopher Banks, a young boy who is battling a brain tumor. I had the privilege of shooting video for the story and meeting the family, and I can tell you they’re all great people.

Worse yet, the boy struggles with health issues brought on by the tumor, such as seizures and other maladies. Doctors in Columbia and St. Louis have refused to operate for a litany of reasons, so his parents Chris and Kimberly have taken him to Memphis already for evaluation.

Pretty sad situation, but there is some really good stuff coming out of all this: since Christopher has to be home-schooled because of his health problems, he takes a physical education class at Evangel. That P.E. class helped him forge a friendship with the Crusaders’ men’s basketball team, and they have adopted him as one of their own — allowing him to hang with them at practice, help out the coaches and even encourage the guys in the locker room before and after games.

Today I was at Evangel for a game against Culver-Stockton, a game that they should have won handily but allowed them to keep hanging around. The coaches for both teams wore tennis shoes with their suits as part of Coaches vs. Cancer weekend, the players wore T-shirts that proclaimed “I hate cancer,” and the gym wasn’t packed per se, but it was loud in there.

So imagine my surprise as I’m standing outside the gym at the Ashcroft Center, waiting for the men’s game to begin when I feel something whack the back of my leg, then this kid runs in front of me and starts giggling.

“Hi, Chris!” It was Christopher Banks! “Remember me?”

“You nut,” I said, acting angry when I actually wasn’t. “Man, you could have cut me down right there, and I wouldn’t have been able to shoot your video today.”

“No way,” he said. Then he ran off and chatted it up with his buddies from the team as they got ready to shoot around.

Christopher and his parents come to as many Evangel games as possible because it’s a true source of joy in his life. Seriously — when he feels down he reads notes sent to him from the Evangel guys on his CaringBridge site, and it perks him right back up. He truly loves the environment at the games and practices, even if he doesn’t understand the intricacies of a perfectly-executed layup off a backdoor cut or a high pick and roll to free up Jackson Capel for three.

Back to the game…amid all the hubbub of the Culver-Stockton matchup, and the Coaches vs. Cancer weekend, Evangel helped out the Banks family in a big way.

Their athletic staff collected a good amount of money to help defray the cost of Christopher’s continued medical treatments. After the game I was able to shoot a bit of footage, and the lines going out of the gym were full of people pulling out a buck or two, all the pocket change they had, some guy even handed over a ten dollar bill — and it all helped a family most of these people probably didn’t even know from Adam.

Springfield’s a great city, it really is.

I don’t know how much money exactly Evangel was able to collect, but I’m positive it will do some good things. It’s one more way that Evangel has been able to be a very positive influence in Christopher’s life and provide some relief for Chris and Kim as well.

Today let’s all say a prayer for the Banks family and for Christopher. They are headed back into Memphis for some more tests, and hopefully the doctors can operate and remove this dogged tumor that is severely affecting this young boy’s help.

I know I will be asking for prayer for Christopher at Crimson House tomorrow night and I ask those of you reading this who pray, to join in the prayer that the doctors would be able to operate and remove the tumor, and for the Banks family to have peace once and for all…that this time would pass and their trial would end.