November 4, 2026
BLACKSHEAR, Ga. — Sarah Ellington Stone, the 19-year-old daughter of Emmanuel Baptist Church pastor Mike Stone and his wife, Andrea, died Tuesday, Nov. 3, following a lengthy illness and 12 weeks in hospice care.
“With heavy hearts upheld by our Christian faith, we want to share that our precious Sarah has gone to be with the Lord,” the Stone family said in announcing her death.
“Though we grieve, our hope in Jesus gives us absolute confidence in her eternal state. Sarah’s faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ means she has now passed from the land of the dying into the land of the living.”
Sarah was born Sept. 3, 2007, and became a Christian at age 6.
“Christ was her hope in this life,” the family said. “He is now her hope in death.”
Just two days before Sarah died, Stone wrote that she had remained in hospice far longer than the family or her medical team had expected.
“We entered Hospice 12 weeks ago today and neither we nor the medical professionals had any idea she’d last more than a few days,” he wrote. “But my Sunshine is a fighter. And God is Sovereign. His ways and timing are always best. Still, we are preparing ourselves, believing she will soon be with our Savior.”
Stone said the family needed nothing beyond prayer and expressed gratitude for the care they had received from relatives and their church family.
Sarah’s death came two months after her family announced the creation of the SonShine Foundation on her 19th birthday.
Stone said Sarah wanted the ministry to support international missions and families of pediatric patients with chronic illnesses who need long-term care.
“Sarah really has a heart to use her life and legacy, indeed her own money, to help minister to those kinds of families in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,” he said.
Sarah helped launch the ministry with a personal gift of $25,000 from birthday and high school graduation money and a small investment fund she had cashed out.
The name SonShine, Stone said, was chosen as a reminder that “Jesus is the light of the world” and that the ministry would be gospel-centered.
Sarah's health struggles began while she was still in grade school and eventually led to years of specialist visits, feeding tubes, surgeries, and treatment for what Stone said was ultimately diagnosed as intestinal failure.
Through those years, Sarah frequently used social media to encourage others and speak about the sufficiency of God’s grace.
Earlier this year, she wrote, “Maybe your miracle isn’t a healing. Maybe your miracle is God showing you how to have faith, contentment, and joy in spite of your circumstances. That my friend, is even better than a healing.”
Her father said Sarah often returned to 2 Corinthians 12 and the promise that God’s strength is displayed through human weakness.
When the family announced in August that Sarah had entered hospice care, Stone said the hope of the resurrection sustained them.
“As Paul told the Thessalonians, we grieve but not as those who have no hope,” he said. “We have a hope that is steadfast and sure, an anchor for the soul, that is the Lord Jesus.”
A special worship service celebrating Sarah’s life and legacy will be held Sunday, Nov. 8, at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Blackshear. A video commemorating her life and music ministry will begin at 2:30 p.m., followed by the main service at 3 p.m.
Beneath Sarah’s photograph in the family’s announcement were the words of Job 1:21:
“The Lord gave. The Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
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