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

--------------------------

notes so far from mexico (updated)

[UPDATED: i added the part that was missing from the july 12th entry)

7.10.07 -- 5.11 am

it's 5.11 am and we're finally here. "here" is on a plane on our way to guadalajara mexico. it's been many months ago when i was discussing with our church staff if we should even consider going on a trip this year. and know we're on a plane getting ready to take off. there's 7 of us: myself, danielle, maggie, cathy, nancy, vernice, & keven. we are so excited, maybe a little anxious, and a big dose of tired right now. (we had to wake up at 2 am to be at the airport on time -- my room didn't get to sleep till between 10-11pm) well we're about to take off. more later.


--------------------
7.10.07 -- 4.00 pm

right now i'm on a bus with some of the "engage missions" students and the other team from stone church. we're running low on sleep. this bus is very bumpy, thus the reason for the sloppiness - not the lack sleep. (although i'm typing this after writing this and it's not sloppy at all.) i bought a mexican KIT-KAT -- mmmm mm mmm! it was really good and since ther was no nutritional label - "No Calories!!" =-) well i'm don with this chicken scratch. i'll write more later.

PS. an interesting personal note -- i sold my macbook the day before we left. thus i'm here on a trip 'sans' a computer! (maggie has hers that i'm using, but still it's not the same.)


--------------------
7.12.07 -- 8.47 am

well it's day 3 here in mexico and all is well. (almost all - nancy is still without luggage and it actually won't get to her until tomorrow.)

i went running again this morning for the second time. i found out yesterday after coming back exhausted that the elevation of guadalajara is 5,030 feet!! (grandview is at about 840) so we're almost a mile up and a good 4,200 feet above grandview.

[ i wrote more stuff here in my journal but don't have it with me right now to type it in, i'll update it later ]

{yesterday and the day before we spent most of the time learning some dramas and dances to music. the hotel is nice and roomy. the beds are really low and not as soft as us "americans" are used to. but i'm grateful for a place to sleep. no cockroaches yet in our room, hooray! i actually haven't seen any while we've been here.}


--------------------
7.13.07 -- 8.58 am

the daily update today is that we had a slight miscommunication yesterday during our free time at the mall. so half our team ended up separated and didn't make it back to the bus at the hotel at the right time. well we ended up finding each other so all is well.

in other news, earlier in the day danielle woke up early in the morning and couldn't find me (i was going to go running as was waiting for someone in another room). she walked out of our hotel room in her pajamas crying down the "outside" hallway, "i can't find my daddy!" thankfully another gal from the stone church group heard her and walked out of her room and picked her up. they walked down to the lobby looking for me. i came out of the other room i was in just as they were coming up the stairs back to our room. (i didn't know that tamera had gotten her just a few doors down from our room so when i saw her coming up the stairs i thought that danielle had made it all the way to the lobby in her pajamas looking for me.)

well he had a good heart to heart talk about not leaving the room alone and should only go places with people from our group. praise God for his protection and guidance.

oh and in yet still other news we had our first children's outreach yesterday. it was in an area where the engage students have been going to for a while and are looking to plant a church next sept. another team from atlanta showed up at the same park we were at and had some "teenmania-like" drama. later we went back to the same neighborhood but a different park and did another outreach - sans the atlanta team. and then we started cleaning up until there was a tropical deluge of rain. i mean within 5 minutes all our clothes were soaking wet.

we've got a great new day ahead of us. i'll update pictures later. thanks for your prayers so far and keep praying for us.


// today i'm thankful for:
1. your prayers
2. internet connection in mexico
3. having my clothes (nancy should get her today)
4. video iChats
5. knowing my wife loves me

--------------------------

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

--------------------------

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!

--------------------------

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

--------------------------

* in spanish it literally means: "crooked beak"

my baby's in the hospital :(

julia's in the hospital today. she had a fever and shortness of breath all last night. so deb brought her in this morning and the doctors confirmed that she does have RSV and possibly pneumonia. (they'll be doing more tests to make sure)

please pray.




// today i'm thankful for:
1. doctors
2. sunshine in winter
3. family living close by
4. being a two parent household
5. knowing "The Healer"
--------------------------