Family Moments

As I spend hours thinking of my family I feel the need to share this experience with those of you who might come upon this blog. Thanks for sharing the road!Sunday November 11, 2007 was a day when I felt God`s presence in a supernatural way. I read the Bible in the morning, again in the afternoon and again before going to bed. This was not at all a common practice of mine. Now I know that God was preparing me for what was to come.We began our last “Patriarchs of our faith” lesson (Beth Moore Bible Study) filling in the blanks … ´´some moments are family moments``. This related to Joseph`s command for all people to leave his presence so he could be alone with his brothers when he revealed his true identity to them. The author helped us relate personally by giving us the example of a family moment when her young sister-in-law died suddenly. She described the scene at the hospital when the family huddled, cried, sobbed and held each other. She then spoke of her own mother`s death and her daughters surrounding their grandmother.  I wrote on the upper corner of my book: ´´Lord, I was not there for my mom when she died. I did not hold her hand when she breathed her last breath. Please let me be there when my dad dies``. I did not know why I wrote it, but I spent the rest of the day inviting God`s presence in all the things I did. When I read the Scriptures before bed I went back to the Patriarchs lesson and I finished reading the book of Genesis. I read the narrative of Jacob`s death and Joseph`s plea with Pharaoh to bury his father in Canaan. Pharaoh replied: ´´Go bury your father``. I highlighted this sentence and went to sleep.

            The phone rang a couple of hours later. My sister`s words were: ´´daddy has left us``. During the first hour of Monday, November 12<sup>th</sup> 2007, my father, Jonas de Carvalho Lisboa, went home to be with Jesus. He had a sudden heart attack and died within 5 minutes of the first symptoms. He lived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Between sobs and questions the Word of God came back to me, the morning Bible study flooded my thoughts, the words I wrote on my book, they all came back to mind. My husband immediately got on the phone with the airlines to try and get me a ticket out as soon as possible. Hours later, my flight out to Brazil was booked for 3:30pm from Baltimore to Rio. I would arrive in Rio at 8 am, Tuesday. The custom of our country is to bury the dead within 24 hours. I would not arrive in time. It took several phone calls but my family arranged differently and dad`s service and funeral would be postponed till my arrival.

            As my mind spun with questions I remembered that I did not have an active passport. Early Monday morning I tried to contact the State Department. Being a government holiday, all departments were closed. I don`t know how unusual this is but someone did answer the phone. I explained my situation and asked him to help me. He said he was just the security person and there was nothing he could do for me. He did tell me to call back at 10 since there might be a possibility of an agent coming in that morning. I know I had the prayers of many of you with me. The entire time I was reminded of Joseph`s plea to go bury his father and I knew God had given me the same word pharaoh gave Joseph: ´´Go bury your father``. A passport agent from the State Department did come in and granted me priority to meet with her. She was only going to be in for a couple of hours. My husband, my daughter and I made it to Washington DC by 11:20am. We found a little photo shop downtown and I had my passport pictures taken. I went up to meet the lady who was to help me. And so it was that, on a government holiday, the passport processing that usually takes 30 to 40 days took 40 minutes… We arrived in Baltimore exactly 2 hours before my flight. There were absolutely no lines or wait for the final ticket purchase, for check-in OR for security. It was as if God Almighty – El Shaddai - was parting my own red sea in front of me. With these somber words He reassured me over and over again: ´´Go bury your father, I am with you``. I arrived 2 hours late for dad`s viewing but was on time for the service. I cannot possibly describe my feelings. So much healing has already taken place in our family but so much more is yet to come. I know that only God`s grace and the way He prepared me and reassured me of His presence held me through all this. I questioned Him…How about my heart’s desire to be there with dad for his last breath?

Mom had died 13 years past... 10 years ago dad was blessed with a new family. His second marriage was a gift not many receive. His wife and her son and her entire extended family took dad in; they loved on him as if he was their own. I would venture to say the last 10 years of his life were the earthly crown dad received as a taste of heaven. Emerson, my step brother, Dilma, my step mom, her mom, her sister, her brother-in-law, her nephew, one of dad`s best friends, ALL of them were there with dad when he went from here to eternity. When dad felt shortness of breath they were all there around him. When he collapsed they all surrounded him, touched him, and prayed with him. They stood in the gap for me, held his hand for me, and together they ushered dad into heaven with prayer. God Almighty had granted me the desires of my heart after all… I felt a supernatural peace about it. In the same manner that God`s presence was supernaturally strong in my life on Sunday the 11^th, so it was for dad. The account of his loved ones and his pastor is that of a happy, blissful day. Sunday evening he and Dilma went to church. As usual they sat near the front. Dad could not carry a tune. He praised and worshiped but tried not to sing too loud. Most of the times dad prayed while the congregation sang, with his eyes always closed. Dad was very traditional in his ways of worship. He enjoyed new songs but preferred old hymns. At the last minute the worship leader invited the congregation to sing ´´The Holy City – Jerusalem``. This was a divine last minute addition to worship and it was not on the program. Dad`s pastor, the worship leader and dad`s wife all accounted that dad`s countenance was that of a person having a vision of heaven. Tears streaming down his eyes he sang from the top of his lungs, his eyes wide open, looking up. It was very unusual for him… The service before his funeral was one of those glimpses of heaven. The words spoken,  the worship with hundreds of voices, the simplicity that reflected his living… What happened there was healing, for in many ways what was said of dad helped me see him in a different light. I cannot nullify wrongs done in the past in my present grief. I can receive God`s balm and the gift to understand in dad`s death what I did not understand in his life. As the ultimate touch of El Roi, my God who sees my pain, we three sisters huddled, just like Beth Moore described in her word picture of a family moment, at dad’s grave site. It was not planned but it all came to memory as a reassurance of ´´I am your God and I will go with you``. As we comforted each other our stepbrother asked if he could join us. And the four of us huddled and cried and sobbed and prayed to our God who sees our pain. Emerson stood in the gap for our beloved brother who departed before our mother and was buried there in the same grave site. There was divine restitution and our father was buried by his three daughters and one son. There was such healing at that moment, that family moment… Go bury your father… I did, my God, I did…and you went with me…and I then I understood what you meant by “not even death can separate me from your love”.

Edilene Lisboa McHenry                                            Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 11/16/2007