Author Archives: John Tiller
The Empty Playroom
Hometown Heroes
Hero – noun – A man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities. (Dictionary.com) Eli was designated a “hometown hero” by our local Christmas parade organizers and was asked to lead the parade last Saturday with one of our heroes. Photo Courtesy of Gina @ Essex Bank (the parade’s [...]
Eli’s Story on Television
Just Released! Eli’s Debut CD: Nothing Is Impossible
Eli has loved music all of his life. He loves to sing country music and worship music. We have received countless testimonials that he inspires people when he sings. Over the past few years he’s been writing lyrics to his own original songs. Today we are releasing his debut CD (actually three-song EP) of original [...]
5 Ways To Show Up and Give Up
This weekend I was privileged to deliver the message at my home church, PCC, during a series called Close Encounters. I shared an account of how the Jesus feeding the 5000 might have looked from the perspective of the boy whose meal He used to perform this miracle. From this story, I encouraged folks that [...]
Brain Surgery Tomorrow – Pushing Through Fear
On Friday, Eli will have neurosurgery to repair the shunt placed after his accident almost ten years ago. Assuming that the surgery goes well, the worst-case outcome will be that we avoid major problems in the future. The best-case outcome will be that Eli’s recent setbacks get resolved. We’ve blogged about the surgery, spoken publicly [...]
A Tattoo and a Kickstart (One-Year Update)
One year ago I left my real estate career so that our family could pursue the ministry of sharing our son, Eli, and our extraordinary story to help others overcome their past and present challenges and discover new purpose in their own lives. Since then, we have been privileged to share our core message, Burn [...]
Nothing Is Impossible: Tough News & Eli’s New Song
It’s been a very difficult few weeks for our family. We have been surprised by negative, unexpected developments in Eli’s recovery process. Eli has been recovering from the accident for almost ten years now. He has worked hard and we have also seen dramatic improvements, but he still has significant symptoms from the resulting brain injury. [...]
The Last Shall Be First
Last month my twelve-year-old son, Eli, raced in his sixth and final one-mile Kids Run (for those ages five to twelve) in Richmond, VA. Immediately afterwards my wife, Tricia, and I will ran one of the most popular races in the country, the Monument Avenue 10k. Over 1200 children ran the Kids Run and over [...]