She was one of the best young friends our family could ever have.

She was one of the brightest and most insightful students I have ever taught.

She was one of God’s greatest gifts to those who needed a dose of beauty, truth, and goodness in their lives. 

Sara Elizabeth Gummo
May 3, 1990 – July 10, 2023 

Today we laid Sara to rest after a private funeral service in her hometown of Fleetwood, PA. Tomorrow we begin discussing the public celebration of life service at her home church. Someday we will rise together and be forever with the Lord. 

“She was beautiful. She was brilliant. She was broken. She needed a Savior. And she had one—Jesus Christ. You need a Savior, too.”
– Rev. Randall Grossman 

Job 19:25-27a
I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God. I myself will see him with my own eyes. 

Psalm 27:4
One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.

Isaiah 42:3
A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.

John 14:1-3 
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” 

The empty tomb of the risen Christ changes everything. Let it change you, too, and give you hope beyond the grave. Abounding grace will be yours forever.

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Death, Be Not Proud
By John Donne 

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee 
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so; 
For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow 
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me. 
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be, 
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow, 
And soonest our best men with thee do go, 
Rest of their bones, and soul’s delivery. 
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men, 
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell, 
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well 
And better than thy stroke; why swell’st thou then? 
One short sleep past, we wake eternally 
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

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Goodnight, dear friend.

Joy comes in the morning.