On Monday afternoon this week, April 15, Renee Griffith Grantham was on her bicycle, training for her next triathlon. She was almost back to her home on Highway YY, which is called Division Street in the city of Springfield.
It was sunny and warm — like summer.
Grantham, 34, needed to get home and then head off to New Covenant Academy, in Springfield, where she coached track. In the fall, she coached cross country.
Grantham was born in California, raised in Butte, Montana, where her father was a police officer.
She was an Evangel grad, where she ran cross country and track. She was once an Assemblies of God missionary in Moldova, once a part of the former Soviet Union. She was a licensed minister.
She taught in the James River Church Leadership program and was an adjunct professor of theology at Evangel.
Steeped in her faith since making a declaration at age 3, she and her husband worshipped at Central Assembly of God, 1301 N. Boonville Ave.
“If you spent five minutes in her presence, you would instantly recognize that she was truly a unique individual,” says Mark Grantham, 42, her husband. “Her zeal for life was amazing.”
Griffith did not make it back home Monday.
She is remembered through her rock-solid faith, her family and friendships and through the words and photos she leaves behind on her Facebook page.
(Mark Grantham granted the Springfield Daily Citizen access and permission to share those posts and photos.)
Jan. 1, 2024 (Facebook)
“Next week the spring semester begins (‘spring’ is used loosely here), but this Christmas vacation has afforded me time to think about the end goal behind not only my role as professor but all my roles (wife, daughter, friend, coach, reverend, writer, and more): as I move through my life, am I looking more like Jesus? The older I get, is it true that I am growing closer to Him? The question isn’t, ‘What am I resolving to do?’ but ‘Where do those resolutions ultimately lead me?’
Griffith Grantham met the man who would become her husband in 2019. He sought her help in creating a video that would better express his faith. He had suffered an injury in 2006 that had paralyzed him from the chest down and had become a motivational Christian speaker.
She was someone who had written often about her faith.
They collaborated electronically for 2 1/2 months before they actually met.
It was case closed.
“Our courtship did not last long,” Mark tells me. “We got married May 10, 2020. During COVID. So only 15 people were allowed to attend.”
In November 2022, they founded a nonprofit called Ozarks Wheelchair Adventures, and recently led an outing to Dogwood Canyon.
“We both had an incredible amount of passion and love for the outdoors,” Mark says.
6/10/2022 (Facebook)
June 9, 2006: “16 years ago today, an inflatable waterslide collapsed under Mark, causing him to hit his head on concrete and catapult into a swimming pool. He instantly became a C5 quadriplegic.“…Today … Mark is focused on this weekend, when he will welcome many people in wheelchairs to a lake for a day of accessible boating, kayaking, canoeing, and fishing. Months of planning have gone into this day that fittingly takes place two days after the 16-year anniversary of Mark’s accident.
“… Just yesterday as I read devotionally, I came across these lines from poet and Benedictine oblate Kathleen Norris: ‘We do not know what will happen. Disasters will strike, and great blessings will come. Our difficult and glorious task is to live through it all.‘”
According to the accident report compiled by the Missouri State Highway Patrol, Griffith Grantham was riding a Cannondale bicycle when she collided with a 2004 GMC Yukon driven by a 50-year-old man from Strafford at about 2:35 p.m. April 15.
The accident was on Highway YY. The report states that she did not yield to the driver of the GMC Yukon.
She was rushed to Cox Medical Center South, where she died at 3:10 p.m.
11/23/23 Thanksgiving (Facebook)
“In the midst of global sorrow, we still gathered and thanked God for His unchangeable nature and for his grace in bringing generations of the Griffith-Granthams together today. We’re grateful for the fleeting moments and for the very great and precious promises. Wherever and however you found yourself today, I pray that you can close out the night with glowing hope: He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:13 NASB).
She started a Bible Club in elementary school and was one of several valedictorians her senior year in high school in Butte, Montana, says her father Lew Griffith.
“She wanted to thank everyone in the speech that she wrote, including Jesus,” he tells me.
But the school said no; she would not be allowed to thank Jesus because it was a public school.
So she sued and, as a result, did not give a speech at her graduation.
She and her parents, who met in the Air Force and are both pastors, soon had the legal help of the Rutherford Institute, a conservative Christian public interest law firm dedicated to civil liberties, human rights and religious liberties.
Years later, while enrolled at Evangel, her father says, she won.
11/12/22 (Facebook)
“This week in New Testament class, a ‘problem passage’ on women in ministry hit the same day as midterm elections, and the parallels were hard to miss: they share an underlying theological principle that spills over into every area of life, far beyond the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.
“… As a woman in ministry, I wondered if my students expected me to ignore the passage and let my life speak to my interpretation, or if they expected me to share only one view. I did neither.
“Instead, I walked students through five main views on the ‘women should remain silent in church’ passage (1 Corinthians 14:34-35). … “The first question should never be, ‘What does this mean to me?’ Our asking should begin in humility: ‘What did this mean when it was first written?'”
I ask her father where his daughter acquired her skill as a writer.
“I think that was a God-given gift,” he tells me. “She was just blessed with it from early on. She could just write; that’s the way she processed things when she had to figure something out. She’d sit down and write it out. And she just developed it.”
8/27/23 (Facebook)
“My last triathlon of the season is in the books! Ever since I found the song ‘Triathlon Polka’ earlier this year, I want to put accordion music on my tri reels. I was grateful that I PRed on a hard course (hilliest bike course I’ve ever raced) to end the year! I am so grateful for my husband and parents who rose extra early this morning to cheer me on. Receiving first in my age group and fourth female finisher was a happy cap to a year in which I pushed my limits, set new records and ended with even more expectation than ever. Can’t wait for tri season’s start next April!”
This is Pokin Around column No. 176.
