Saturday, March 24, 2012

My comments at Mom's Memorial


This is an attempt to sum up the meaning of my Mom's life.  During those last few days that she was with us, I began to think about these verses from I John that help unlock the meaning of my Mom's life.

Do not love the world, or the things in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world--the desires of he flesh, the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions--is not from the Father but is from the world.  And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

You all knew my Mom.   

1.  Mom was an influencer.  
  • The people that she prayed for.
  • The people she taught the Bible  =  At Bible Study fellowship.
  • The people with whom she argued.
  • The people for whom she made things.
  • The people she introduced to each other.
2.  Mom created beauty.  

  • That beauty did not come without a price:  Dumptser diving!  You may hear about the indignity of it from my sisters or me, but the fact was that so much of the beauty she was able to create was made with things that other people threw away.  How did she do that.
  • It wasn't just things.  It was experiences.  She was good at creating special and memorable experiences.  
    • Picnics on the lawn.
    • Party themes.
    • Her Christmas cards weren't cards.  They were an experience!
  • Creative gifts
3.  Mom gave herself to her family!
  • As a mom, she took us many places -- museums, parks, friends.
  • She presided over well-planned, fun birthday parties.  Pin the tail on the donkey, spaceship cakes, etc.
  • She made us a part of her ministry to High School and college kids.  They were always in our home.  They were our friends, too.
  • She let me, as a 16 year old, go to boarding school in Guatemala, a country that was moving into what would become a brutal civil war.
  • She was an incredible grandmother, creating memories, and providing a place where our kids could come, from Brazil or Guatemala and find a place that was familiar and safe.  

So here we are today, "celebrating" the life of Pat Halls, even though her life has ended.  We are all richer because of her life, but poorer today because she is no longer with us.  We are celebrating the memory of her life and mourning her passing.  

Before I go on with trying to figure out for myself the meaning of the memories we are celebrating, I think it is important to think about her passing.  One cannot avoid the awful reality that both she and my dad, the love of her life, though deserving of honor and respect, were disrespected the effects of Parkinson's Disease.  They were taken from us little by little until finally they were gone and in a very undignified way.  The effects of the disease was so evil, and it stole so much from them--things they earned and treasured and deserved , that had it been possible to name someone who had taken so much from them, we could have had that person locked up!  Parkinson's is a terrible scourge and it seems unfair that they both had to go through it.  

One of the amazing things about my Mom was the way she faced her Parkinson's and the indignity of it all.  She hoped for a day when she would be all put back together and incorruptible, this time.  More importantly, she applied her magic to the people around her.  She was conscious that God kept her in the Health Center at Plymouth Village, precisely for the people around her--and she tried to live that way.  It must have been frustrating though because toward the end it became more difficult for her to add beauty to the place--perhaps because they didn't let her near the dumpster.  She must have done the right thing with her family, because her family was always coming to spend time with her. 

The defining characteristic of her life, was really not any of these things.  The things I have told you about are just a few of the ways she got into our lives. What shaped all of us, through her influence, was rooted her undying (and that is an interesting word to use at a memorial service!), her undying love of God and of the Bible.  

Her commitments to God were more than simply something for her.  It would not work to say:  she had her commitments and passions, and I have mine.  Her love and commitment to God, and to the Bible as the Word of God, produced what she produced in our lives.  The result of her commitment to God is that meaningfulness of our own lives was increased.  For her, the important, and lasting impact of her life on us was not about her, but about Him!    

So, lets go back to those verses, this time in my own words:

Don't love the world or the things in the world. 
If anyone loves the world, they don't love the Father (that is God).
The problem with the world is that it is made up of the things you want, the things you want to acquire, and that excitement that comes when you get them.  If you want the world, you are not wanting the Father, and the problem is that the world is passing away, along with the things you desire.  
BUT whoever orients their life around what God wants goes on forever.  

Mom redirected her desires, her acquisitions, her excitement and her pride to God.

We all know that it's not like she didn't enjoy this world! Life for her was fun. There were lots of fun things to do and she did them.  Things were to be appreciated. Her home was something she took pride in.   But this world was not where she found her hand-hold.  It was not what she grabbed onto.  

What Mom wanted, and what Mom got was something lasting, not something that will die, and disappear.  She wanted God.  She did what she did so that she and we would get something that won't pass away. 

In this, she was more than simply a good example of a godly person.  She engaged with each of us to give us something lasting.  

You could tell that her love of God was greater than her love of the world in these last years.  She loved it when we read the Bible with her, and sang hymns with her.    That's why, even when her mind was not working well, she often would turn to me and ask me how I was doing with God, how you were doing with God, and whether each of us was grabbing onto what really matters, what lasts, what does not pass away.    

The impact of her life is measured in the answers to her prayers. She prayed quietly for many people.  Some of us were lucky enough to notice how her prayers were answered in their lives.  The impact of her life was in the people that she helped reorient their own lives around God and around the Bible.  That is why, in these last few weeks, when people who her and mentioned her of her commitment to God, she would smile and glow. She would wake up and get more lucid.   What got her going was when you and me would see God and choose to value Him above things we might want, buy or take pride in.  

I want to tell you a story.  Just about two years ago, we got that dreaded phone call, "It's time to come if you still want to see Mom alive." So the four kids and others rushed to her side.  And she was not doing well.  She couldn't talk to us, and seemed to be going downhill fast.  We sang hymns, read scripture, all the things that brought joy to Dad.  But she was pretty unresponsive, as I recall.  As we wondered what to do, we asked other people more experienced in the process of the end of life.  They suggested we gather and pray for Mom, thank God for her life, say our good-byes and generally let her know that things would be OK.   That we would carry on without her and that she had done her work well.  

So we went to her room and each of us prayed for her, through tears.  It is important for you to know that she hadn't spoken to us for a couple of days.  When the last of us had prayed, she sat up in bed and said, "I want to pray, too!"   And she prayed for each of us.  She told stories about us, and encouraged us to keep close to God.  And she lived another 2 years!

She was more than simply a good example of a godly person.  She engaged with each of us to give us something lasting. 

Her love of God and commitment to Him is why everyone of us in this room has anything to say about her--that's one important way that she goes on forever.  It's not simply that we can envision her in heaven.  The Bible doesn't actually say some of the things we try to imagine about her today--being reunited to Dad, no more wheelchair--etc.  We imagine those things based on the hope of resurrection.  

But we don't have to imagine what we can see:  the permanence of her life is visible to us in the effects of her life on each of us.  What we got from her that is of value came to us through her love of God and her commitment to Him--as we were drawn to permanence by the things she did:  influence, beauty, family and friends and Jesus Christ

What she constantly wanted us to recognize is that our lives can go in one of two directions.   We can pass away along with the world, or we can latch onto God and last, as He does.  She didn't just give us an example, but actively involved herself in giving us the only thing that will last--love for God.  

This celebration is not about her passing, but about the world's passing.  

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Brazil Trip

I leave tonight for Brazil.   I would appreciate you accompanying me with your prayers.

I am going to introduce a broad spectrum of church leaders there to the President of LAM and to two Board Members.  We are going to listen and to ask about the role of a 100 year old mission that was born to evangelize Latin America.  


What is our role in a Latin America that, increasingly is evangelizing the World?  


Brazil is a good place to explore this.  I have felt carried along by the Spirit and by the experiences and relations that God has given me since the first time Lake sent me to Brazil in 1970 and then as a new missionary couple in 1977. There is a pay off for having been at this so long.



The reason we are taking this trip is to better see a) the work that God has been doing in Brasil, b) the way the advance of the gospel in Brazil is producing leaders and c) what the mission of evangelicals in Brazil means for the world we live in.

We are motivated by these three purposes: 

1.  We understand that the Sports events of 2014 and 2016, in Rio de Janeiro, will implicate the gospel in Brasil in several ways--it will give continuity to the process by which Brazilian evangelicals think about (and act)  more and more intentionally in relation to the world outside of Brasil.  One of  the things that the world might possibly learn about Brazil will be how extensive has been the move of God in Brazil and some of the impressive commitments His people have made (or maybe they won't see it!) for improving the world we live in.  As a mission agency, in LAMwe are involved, in a small way, in the initiative of Brazilian evangelicals along these lines.  We are participating in a small way by providing personnel to the "Campaign against child and teen sexual tourism in Brazil" project.  Our perspective is international and, traditionally, this has meant international from the perspective of the North toward Latin America.  Now, it is meaning, increasingly, together with Latin America toward the rest of the world.  We want to follow the events related to 2014/16 as they unfold with the participation of Brazilian evangelicals so that we can better understand how God will open the world up to the Brazilian church and the Brazilian church to the world, and come to know whether we have a role to fulfill in that. 

2.  LAM was born, and has served, for nearly 100 years in a flow from North to South.  The gospel was in the North and the need was in the South.  Now things are not that way, and part of the development of a new reality is tied up in the developments in Brazil.  We are wanting to re-orient ourselves to continue to follow in the Lord's footsteps as he leads us forward.  I am hoping that this trip, with LAM leaders, will help us capture a better idea of what God is doing in Brazil, the place of evangelicals in what He is doing, and take note of the level/quality of leaders that have been produced by this move of God.  We want to understand how these new realities will lead LAM to be different in the future.  

3.  The role of Brazil in Latin America.  Brazil has never been a major area of efforts by LAM.  But with each day that goes by, the evangelicals of Brazil are participating more in the gospel in the rest of Latin America.  At times with the same kind of imperialism as the US, and at other times as companions, some times receiving from Spanish speaking Latin America, sometimes sending, and sometimes working side by side.  We understand that Brazil, and the leadership of Brazilians, has something to do with our future, and we are trying to understand what role Brazilians play in it. 

Mom went to be with her Lord.

I am an orphan!  That's kind of a tough thought to incorporate into my being, especially within a month of turning 60.  It's like life is already getting short.  Just when it was getting fun.

I am an orphan because on February 27 my Mom joined my Dad in death.  Having followed Jesus as His disciples, they passed on to us the hope that they would also follow Jesus in his resurrection.  But we are sad they are gone, devastated by the way bodies wear out and finally quit on us.   Beyond just looking forward to eventual resurrection, we also want to live like they did.  I cannot believe all the stories of how my mom inspired people to live close to God, to be creative, and to enjoy life.  Even better are the stories of how she loved and prayed for people around her, all the time, and with great effect.  I think I am only now becoming aware of the extent of the impact of her prayers.  Her life goes on because in the lives of the rest of us, in life, her prayers and actions were a constant in our lives.  That's why I like this picture of her with Parker and Angela.  

My sisters and I invite you to celebrate her life with us in Redlands, CA on March 24.