We mourn the sudden death of Elward Ellis last Saturday May 12 in a car accident.  Elward was an early InterVarsity pioneer for racial justice and reconciliation and IV’s first director of Black Campus Ministries.  Added to his resume of bravery is being among the first African-American members of our Blacknall Presybterian Church in Durham, when he was a student at Shaw University in Raleigh (a group of people left the church, yet most welcomed him and his friends).  I came to know Elward as friend and mentor during my early days at Voice of Calvary in Mississippi.  He was close to Lem Tucker, another brother who died too early.  “The visible Church has lost a prophet,” wrote a friend.  Elward truly laid his life down for others.  He incarnated the immense courage and sacrifice which reconciliation requires.