And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.
Today’s post will not be centered around me. Yes, I will give you a small update on what I have been up to these past couple of weeks, but this blog will be more about someone whom I loved very much.
Over the past twelve days I’ve been on an emotional roller coaster. I have spent a lot of time with my friends here in Goiania, I went to Caldas Novas (a city about three hours from here that’s full of natural-hot-water-parks. The hotel we stayed in had four different pools, several waterfalls and a sauna. We planned to come back after our 3-day mini vacation with a nice tan…however, it rained everyday, so we simply relaxed in the hot-water pool as the cold rain dripped on us.
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About a week and a half ago, my Mom told me that my Grampa was sick. He had been coughing a lot and finally told my Gramma to take him to the doctor. He was soon after admitted to the hospital with pneumonia. There was a point where he looked to be getting better and my Mom went home on Wednesday (knowingly returning with my Dad and sister Anna on Friday). Friday morning I skyped with my Mom & Dad for about an hour, then had to get off so I could take a shower/clean the apartment/etc. About 2:15 in the afternoon (about 4 hours after I had first skyped with my parents) I received a message telling me to call my Mom.
My Grampa passed away a little after 9am CST in his sleep–how he’d always said he wanted to go. It has been extremely difficult grieving and trying to grasp that I’ll never eat, play cards, joke or talk with him again. I think the fact that I won’t physically see him again hit me yesterday. I just talked to him on the phone a week. I just joked with him, told him that I loved him, listened to him tell me that my work here in Brazil is much more important than anything happening up there…Today is his funeral. One week later and I’m going to watch & be a part of his funeral via skype at the church. Amazing how technology works sometimes…
Here is a little quirk about me: I love coming to the end of things. Example: Using the last of the shampoo/conditioner, eating the last of the chips, drinking the last of the juice, using the last of the ketchup. It’s always given me some sort of satisfaction and accomplishment, “Look! I’ve used it all! The container is empty and I helped to do that!” That may seem strange to some of you…when I first told my Mom about my like for these things, she laughed and said, “So I could give you half empty ketchup & syrup bottles for your birthday and you’ll love it?!” Really, I do (and would!). The morning my Grampa passed away, I emptied 1 shampoo, 1 conditioner and 1 lotion. Do I see some kind of poetry between the emptying of bottles and my Grampa’s death? Absolutely.
Ephesians 2:13-14a, 18, 19b-22
“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace…For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father…you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”
Our bodies are but vessels. I believe in God. I believe that when I was baptized the Holy Spirit entered into my body, thus becoming God’s temple. I believe that when we die if you have also believed and been baptized, our bodies die, but our spirits go to heaven. Therefore, I will not really die. My Grampa has not really died. Ok, yes, his body is gone, but I will see him again when I am in heaven. This isn’t a ‘goodbye’ forever, it’s more of a ‘I’ll be seeing you’ kind of farewell.
Romans 14:8
“For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.”
Ecclesiastes 9:5
“For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten.”
Philippians 1:18b-23
“Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.”
I share these verses from the book of Philippians for two reasons. First, my Grampa has been longing to go to heaven for quite some time now but that did not stop his work here. He helped plant a church, he never took a sick day while he was working, he was courageous and his life echoed what’s written above: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” He lived for Christ…that is evident in every aspect of his life, and now he has now gained.
I just want to share a couple more thoughts before I wrap this post up.
1. When my cousin Amy told her kids that their Great Grandpa went to heaven, these were their responses:”He gets to see Jesus now!” “He has a new body” and “He’s eating cake!” My cousin later explained to me the last response (by her son Zachary) came from this: “Our plan was to go up in Feb over Abby’s bday and last night the dinner conversation revolved around whether or not Grandpa would get to eat cake for Abby’s bday if he was in heaven. The concensus was “yes” cuz its heaven and all the good stuffs there. Its makes me smile to think of Grandpa eating some cake while he sits and chats with Jesus.”
2. Today is my Grampa’s funeral. With the help of Skype and some amazing people at my Grandparents church in Iowa, we’ve set it up so that my sister, Marcie, and I can watch the funeral from where we are. It is simply amazing some of the things that are possible today. Imagine being a missionary only 15-20 years ago: the internet was barely starting to catch on, there were no cameras or phones. Calling home meant using a calling card and spending maybe 20 minutes talking.
I am so blessed to be where I am. I thank God everyday for the loving people I am surrounded by here in Brazil. I am thankful that I can openly worship God without fear of being arrested, or worse. I am thankful for my family in the states. Thankful that we can all still laugh and play when we talk or think about Grampa. We know that this is not the end. Our lives here on earth are temporary, but with Jesus, our spirits will live forever. I look forward to the day when I walk on streets of gold with Jesus on my right and Grampa on my left.
So, WHAT’S DIFFERENT IN BRAZIL? #20: My Family
1 Corinthians 13:4-8, 13
“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away…So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
