9/19/2007

Rev. Isaias Lara (1931-2007)

my father passed away this afternoon. he was a month shy of his 76th birthday. his condition has been frail for the last few years so it wasn't really a surprise. but as is the case with any death, it catches you off guard.

it's hard to describe what my feelings were when i first found out (by a call from my sister) or even in the hours afterward. i mean for the past 10 years or so there have been various times that i've thought about what my reaction should be when i first heard and now it's finally here.

i felt my heart sink. not because my father had died necessarily but because the time i knew had been on the horizon, was finally here and i would have to face all the feelings that come along with that in the days, weeks, and years to come.

i didn't really feel like breaking down and crying the moment i heard. in fact i don't think it really hit me what had happened until i had to explain it to some of the school staff as to why i was leaving early. it was actually saying the words out loud. "my father just passed away." i said those words and i felt my voice start to quiver. and a lump in my throat swell.

but i think my highest point of grief (thus far) came when we got to my dad's house. we were all in my parent's bedroom; my dad lying dead on his recliner chair. none of us were really sure what to say. besides our family some paramedics and a police officer were in the room. but there was a moment that deborah left the room and went to the piano and began playing the old hymn: "i'll fly away." and some other hymns like "it is well with my soul".

i started to cry, others in the room began to cry as well. it was very fitting.

we have family in southern california and minnesota that will be coming to the funeral. so it will probably be next week sometime.





// today i'm thankful for:
1. family
2. faith
3. memories
4. friends
5. my dad

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old and new news

well time for my monthly post.  :-)

let's see . . . since the last post my sister has gotten married.

we went to idaho. to visit our friends.

and school has begun for me. and i was greeted by deborah with this selection of pictures today.

oh and in case any of you can't read what it says . . . she was basically telling me that she's pregnant!


oh and school for the girls begins tomorrow. i don't have any pictures of this yet. but probably tomorrow. for those who don't know our kids will be doing school through achieveonline.org this year. so technically it's an online "public" school, but we'll get all their assignments online and we'll be the ones who make sure they have their assignments done. so we tell everyone we'll be homeschooling. but technically it's not. (oh and we got a used eMac for the kids to use)

oh and we hired an au pair! although she's not really foreign and she only stays the night with us 3 nights a week. her name is vernice and she's a young person that goes to our church. we had her babysit for us this past summer overnight when we were on our staff trip. she did such a great job with the kids, and cleaned the house, and our kids loved her too. so we decided to ask if she'd be willing to stay with us 3 nights a week. we can't afford to pay her that much considering all the help she is to us. but she was eager to do it and we love it. she started with us sept. 1st and is here sat, tues, and thur. nights. today deb and i went on a date to see "the bourne ultimatum" because we had 'built in babysitter!

anyways it's late now and i've got work tomorrow.



// today i'm thankful for:
1. new beginnings
2. an internet connection at home again
3. life groups launching at our church next week
4. grape nuts flakes
5. buffalo wings (deb's been craving them for like 3 weeks)

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back home

(pictures at the bottom of the post)

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7.16.07 -- 8.35 am
well a lot has happened since my last update. saturday we did a youth outreach. it was the church's first attempt at doing an outreach specifically for youth instead of kids. i don't know if it went as well as they might have hoped. attendance was low and the location was odd. let me explain.

members of the congregation had gone into the neighborhood the night before to pass out flyers to invite people. so when we got to the neighborhood they didn't have us go out to invite people, they did announce the event was about to start over the loud speakers, but that only reached those within earshot.

and then the location was odd because i don't think it was where they (the members of the local church that set up the event) originally intended it to be. i think they wanted to do it at a park in the area but because we were going to have "live" music for this youth event we needed to get a special permit. i don't think they were able to get it or didn't hear back from the officials in time. so we ended up having it in the parking lot or courtyard of another church. which may not have been so bad but that church was having their youth worship band practice for their service later that evening. so there was noise coming from inside the church. we were making noise in the courtyard. the people from the other church didn't really seem interested in what we were doing there. and then the fact that we were inviting those that came to go to a different church, not the one that they were at. weird, huh?


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7.17.07 -- 8.29 am
anyways back to the "weekend wrap up". also on saturday we got to go out to eat for the first time. we went to a little taco stand type place. it was a little bigger than a taco stand but not very much seating and even that was outdoor seating. but the place was packed and once you tasted the little tacos you could tell why. they were mmm mmmm good. that's all they served was little tacos about 4 inch diameter and then beverages. i wasn't sure if danielle was going to like them or not. but she had some of the "bistec" tacos and loved them. which was great since the next night we went to a different taco restaurant. this second place also had bigger tacos, about 7-8 inch diameter tortillas. and she again ordered some carne asada (bistec) tacos and eat them all. she loves them. in fact she said when we return to grandview and go to a taco truck she'd like to get those kind of tacos. (so yes deb, she is eating)

sunday morning was church. they have a sign in the sanctuary that says the service times. it says that service starts at 10am on sundays. but we didn't leave the missionary's house until 10.30. and we got there at 11. so i'm not sure if that's just "mexican" time or if they were waiting for us to get there. it was pretty typical of other hispanic services i've been a part of. about 45 min of worship or more. then 20 minutes of alter time. (which was quite a unique experience for those who've never been a part of one) let me just say there was a lot of crying and people being slain in the Spirit. and then ending with a sermon, which this time was probably shorter than normal since the youth pastor from the other church preached so it wasn't an hour or longer.

we were planning on doing an outreach sunday afternoon after lunch, but some of the folks from the other team were feeling quite sick - not sure if from the tacos we ate out or something else. anyways they (the local church or the engage missions people) said we should probably take the afternoon off. so we went back to the hotel after eating lunch. we got there around 3.45pm and had until 7pm when they were going to pick us up for dinner. which was really nice, i got a long nap. maggie went with nancy to the mall to try to find her some more clothes.


9.47 am
monday morning came and we were ready for our last day of ministry. we planned to do two separate programs today, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. well the morning one didn't get started until 11 am so when we got back to the church for lunch we decided to have our afternoon outreach be in the neighborhood right around the church. it seemed kinda odd to me to go to other neighborhoods and invite them to the church and then not invite those that live right near by.

it went great and i asked the pastor's son (enrique) and daughter (citlali) (24 & 16 respectively) if any of the kids that were there already went to the church. and the son said none. when i asked citlali she looked around and said only 2. so i hope this will bring more awareness for the church to those around the church.

we finished just in time too, because within 20 minutes it started raining hard. so hard in fact that some of the roads were flooded and some cars were getting stuck.

dinner was bbq chicken and jojos and corn. i was glad to be able to 'chat' with deb online during our dinner break. i love you babe.

after dinner the Missionary Associate took myself and the other two pastors out to starbucks. we did have to wait for him for quite a while since he was getting work on his van done all day and it still wasn't finished by after dinner time. anyways, we finally went and had a great time to just talk about missions in general, his family's experience with raising funds, and just our past missions trips and experiences.

we got back to the hotel around 9.30 pm and we ready to go to bed fairly quickly. i didn't hear it that much but it rained all night and around 2 am there was really loud thunder. i woke up around 5.30 am and it was still raining. so we're almost to the church now and it's a bright and sunny day. i'm sure the ground and grass is still wet so we'll see how many people come.

the church moved it's mid-week service from wednesday to tuesday so that i could preach tonight. i'll be preaching a message i preached at our church on april 15th, 2007 called "Power to Change". you can find it on iTunes podcast page if you look up "grandview sermons" or you can go to our church website www.grandviewag.com and click on the media link at the top.

i'll write more later and let you know how it all went.


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7.21.07 -- 8.55 am
well, we're back in the usa and are glad to be home. sorry (mom) it took so long to write an update. but here it goes.

the service went fine. just like any other hispanic service. the only thing that made it memorable was the fact that it rained. and i mean RAIN! the church had a metal roof and you could hear the rain very easily. it started raining about the time the pastor was wrapping up the prayer time and getting ready to introduce me. well once i got up to speak it really started raining. in fact it seemed that the louder i got to be heard over the rain the harder it rained. finally i just said we should take a 5 minute break to experience the rain. after about 10 minutes the rain subsided and the service continued.

wednesday was our free day. we went to a huge catholic cathedral for a little while and then we went to an open market. it was a three story building with vendors of all sorts of crafts, candies, souvenirs, electronics, food, clothes, shoes, and pirated dvds. it was huge and crowded (skinny isles and lots of people). we found some great things to bring back to our loved ones, but it was nice to get out of there. after that we went to a modern mall. prices weren't that different at the mall, but it was air conditioned and cleaner. oh and they had a VIP movie theater there. we didn't go because all the movies were in spanish. (they were showing ratatoullie - but it was dubbed in spanish) according to the engage students it's an "extra nice" theater where you sit in lazy boy seats and they bring a menu to you for your snacks. and the price is only about $10, so about the same as the price of a regular theater in the states.

thursday was our travel home day and we were ready. our flight was supposed to leave around 2.35pm but for some reason got delayed. and then the airline was having trouble find us connecting flights out of phoenix. they ended up putting us on a different flight on another airline. the only thing was that it didn't leave until 8.05 pm! so we got time to hang out at the airport. the flight was nicer than the one we came on and it was a non-stop flight to portland. and since it was such a long flight we got a meal and a movie.

we got in to portland at 10.49pm and then finally made it out of the airport and on our way home. we stopped briefly to get gas a little after midnight on the outskirts of portland and then i slept most of the way home. we were dropped off around 3.45am. it was nice to be home.

on friday night we had our "thank you dessert" for those who had helped and supported us. we shared pictures and stories and even did some of the dances that we had done for the kids in mexico.

so it's nice to be done with our trip. now it's back to all my other duties. being a husband, father and pastor. (i'm preaching on sunday)

oh . . . i almost forgot i found out from deb that my imac was messed up after moving it from the church to the house and only showed a black screen for a while. and then after her and pastor fixed that it would turn on but the colors were all 'neon' looking. anyways i came home and got that fixed, thankfully. (it needed the PRAM reset - i'm not sure what that is or does, but i read it on an apple discussion thread and it worked) but i'm still without a laptop. i'll be saving up this time for a macbook pro.

here's some pics:

and some more:

and just a few more:

// today i'm thankful for:
1. a soft bed
2. air conditioning
3. being home
4. being a whole family again
5. being with my wife again

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friday the 13th in mexico

7.13.07 -- 6.36 pm
we're all on "the bus" now on the way back to the missionaries house for dinner. we've completed our third kids outreach. overall the word i would use to describe it is - HOT! now it's not the 105+ that it's been in grandview, but in our defense it isn't as humid there as it is here too. AND we aren't spending all day outside walking the streets, playing soccer, and doing choreographed dances either. no, instead we run from our air conditioned house to our air conditioned car to our air conditioned work place and then back again. needless to say we are all ready for a rest and some good food.

the other thing that i was struck with today was just how 'unifying' the Body of Christ can be. what i mean is that by being in the Body can make best friends and partners and co-laborers out of otherwise strangers. to give you a little picture, at the last outreach we completed there was our team from grandview, another team from yakima, four students from the 'engage' ministry, and then another handful of 5-7 young people from the church we are partnering with. we all participated in the presentations today (it was even vernice's turn to give her testimony and it was great.) 

we were the Body! we had one faith, one Spirit, one baptism, one Father, and one purpose today. the moment that hit me today i just about started crying. (but i thought that would seem kinda odd to all the kids that we were playing soccer with) :-)

this truly is a different kind of trip for me than the others i've participated in before. before we always had prepared in advance what we were going to be doing and then went and did it. this time we didn't have anything planned. not one drama, song, dance, skit, or puppet routine. we were completely open to doing whatever became available to do. and oddly enough the yakima team also came with no preset agenda either. so it makes it that much more significant and almost necessary that we all work together, all doing our share, all serving the Lord.

and the other thing that's different from this trip is that i've missed my family (deb in particular) more than any other trip i've ever been on. most trips i was so excited to go and loved every minute of it. and then at the end of the trip i was surprised that the time had gone by so quickly. all the while not thinking very much of my family. and when i was a teen or single i didn't really think of my family back home at all during my trips. but with this trip i began missing deborah on the drive over to portland. and i haven't really stopped missing/longing for her. if it were not for the fact that i know that God still has more prepared for me/us to do and learn on this trip i'd be just fine leaving tonight.

i miss you deborah. i miss you anna. i miss you julia. i miss you rachel. and i miss you some more deb.

much love and we'll see you soon.

// today i'm thankful for:
1. deborah
2. anna
3. danielle
4. julia
5. rachel

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México!

aqui estamos! llegamos en méxico esta tarde. estamos muy cansados, pero estamos muy felizes. (sp?)

anyways, we made it here to mexico this afternoon. we're very tired but very happy to finally be here.

keep praying for us.  and i'll post more as time and internet connection allow.

// today i'm thankful for:
1.  knowing my wife loves me
2.  not experiencing a plane crash (we've been watching "Lost" lately)
3.  great mexican food
4.  being with danielle
5.  the thought of getting a new MacBook Pro sometime

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the iWait on iDay

well i did it! i got my iPhone. and it's now eagerly awaiting a new home on ebay. good ole free enterprise in the US of A! (go ahead hit the "buy it now" button. i know you want to.) :-)

oh and you thought it was for me?? well as sweet as it would be for me to get myself i can't justify paying an early cancellation fee with my current provider (sprint). and then there's the fact that currently it's the church that pays for my cell phone.

anyways i figure that when my contract does expire (oct, 2008) there will be new models and probably cheaper.

but for now i hope this one finds a great home. i've read news that nearly all of the at&t stores have sold out. and apple stores are starting to run out of stock. so hopefully that will bode well for ebay prices.

here's some pics of the iWait on iDay:

and this is of the actual iPhone:

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oh and in other news i've got a crack in the screen of my macbook (i won't tell you the story, i'll let the person who did it decide whether they want that broadcast to all the world). boo hoo :-( it's a $400 fix since accidental damage isn't covered by the warranty. oh well, i guess i can start my MacBook Pro fund. :-)



// today i'm thankful for:
1. ebay
2. mexico
3. a fun friday
4. payday
5. relevant magazine podcast

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22 days 21 hours and 21 minutes

well it's getting down to the last few days/weeks till our team heads to mexico. (for those who haven't heard a team from our church is connecting with a team from stone church to spend ten days with missionaries steve and amy shoop.)

it's finally sinking in that it's actually coming since we went up to yakima to have dinner with the team from stone church. basically to meet each other, talk about the trip, share a dinner, and pray for our trip. so now it seems really close.

plus the fact that this morning our team completed our "endurance climb" that i have every missions team do before we go on a trip. this is a chance for us to bond together, do something we thought we couldn't, but work together to accomplish something difficult. we have one team member that is severely overweight and on occasion has seizures so i've only asked her to make it about 1/3 of the way up the hill but everyone else made it all the way to the top. (some wanted to give up on the way, but i made them press through.)

so we're on our way. and then i had danielle and her cousin cathy (the kids pictured above) give my sister (who's in town visiting from minneapolis) go and give her the "picco chueqo"* (sp?? pronounced [pee-ko chweh-ko]- basically sad eyes, long face, and pouty bottom lip) in an effort to ask for support for the mexico misison trip. and IT WORKED!! she gave each of them $50 towards their trip. so then my other sister maggie (in the orange shirt) and i also gave elia the picco chueqo and she's such a softie that she gave us $50 each for our trip too!!

anyways, keep us in prayer and as out of the seven only 2 are completely paid off. and the rest of us have some balance left on our account.

and in case you'd like to donate to our trip you can contact me for more details using my email address: abelara [at] gmail.com (i purposely wrote it like that so as to not get a bunch of spam by online scam artist) or you can mail a check directly to the church. (you can find the mailing address at the bottom of the church website) with a memo in the check that it's for danielle and i's trip.

// today i'm thankful for:
1. budgets
2. summer vacation
3. deborah
4. having a guest room
5. my engaged sister!

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if this helps any here's my "picco chueqo":

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* in spanish it literally means: "crooked beak"

hello friends

well it's been a long time since i've written anything, and many things have happened. the lara house has been busy!

deb finished up her performance as a nun in the 'sound of music'.

our cousin camp was a big success. the kids had a blast, and although very exhausting, we'll probably do it all over again next year. (that is unless maggie wants to host it at her house next year??)

deb and i went to "seattle" (actually we went to renton/tukwila; but anybody familiar with the area would rather say they went to seattle) to meet with loran lichty, the grouplife pastor at New Life Church @ Renton. we had a great time and we stopped by the apple store and got my macbook fixed. (it had a small crack in it; purely cosmetic, but i'm glad i got it fixed nonetheless)

we then rushed home for our first "small group" meeting at our house 2 weeks ago thursday evening. (4/5/07)

and then had our friends, the Sperry's visiting us from boise, idaho so that they could host the passover service. which went great.

we had a "kirby" guy come over last week and we successfully said "no" to spending $2,280 on a vacuum! (it wasn't hard) but we did get our dining room carpet cleaned out of the ordeal. :-)

my new office at the church is coming a long nicely. it used to be just an empty room with a bunch of junk in it, but a crew from the church decided that pastor jon and i needed an office at the church. so after completing his a few months ago, they started to work on mine, and it's turning out great!

other than that there isn't too much else going on. oh, the WASL has begun at school this week.

there's actually one other tidbit of "big news" information concerning church that i'm not at liberty to share at this time. but when i am i'll let ya know . . . that is unless my sister or someone else that goes to our church that has a blog spills the beans before i do. and since i'm not reading any other blogs until june 12th, i won't even know.

well that's about it for now. i'll try not to have such a long gap between updates next time.

later!

// today i'm thankful for:
1. fresh paint smell
2. spring flowers
3. 37 days of school left!
4. being able to read
5. making it to the bank on time

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at least julia rachel was ready (updated)

[UPDATE: i fixed rachel's name in the title and in the post. (you'd think i'd know my own kid's names!!)
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so deb's been asking me for us to schedule getting a family portrait for a couple weeks now. so today i finally figured, "why wait? we got a digital camera!" so i (as lord of the manor) called everyone into the living room so that we could take a family portrait (no matter what everyone looked like at the moment - the 'casual' looking ones are my favorite anyway)

so here's our pics. we're finding it's harder to get 6 people to smile all at the same time.

these first four pics are all the same (our first pic), just at different zoom levels. (at least julia rachel was ready)


and then it goes down hill from there


and further


and then "what, eh?!?"


here's some more of the better ones:

// today i'm thankful for:
1. cameras
2. tripods
3. cable internet
4. typing skills
5. great 'desktop backgroud' pics
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