Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

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I was not sure this was going to happen, but I have certainly been praying about it since the start of the race. In saying goodbye and leaving for 11 months away, I prepared my heart that it might happen. I have prayed for peace and for the Lord's will to be done. I have asked that whatever happened it would be pain free and something that resulted in an encounter with God, my prayers have been answered. 
  
On April 23, 2012 at 9pm my parents sent me a short email I will never forget: 

"Sweetheart, Beege (my grandfather) went home to the Lord this evening at 7:38 pm 4/23/12.  We tried calling the number we recorded for the WR supervisor but it did not go through.  We have the Skype with us.  Luv Luv – Dad"


My grandfather has gone home to a place of peace and rest.  

With a combination of his Alzheimer's and age I have been praying that his return home would be peaceful and painless, my prayers were answered. My grandfather is now home and his travel there was one of peace. The hardest thing was not being there, not being able to hold his hand and tell him I loved him. Not being able to stay from start to finish in the ICU and pray over him. Not being able to hug my mom or be held by my father. It has however, been a time when God has talked to me about being someplace in spirit and heart. 

When I look back on my grandfather's 93 years I see a man who lived his life fully. He survived multiple plane crashes during WWII, partnered with World Vision in third-world countries and raised my mother in a home  that knew of andexperienced the Holy Spirit. This year he would have turned 94 years old. Up to last Thursday when he was taken to the ICU, he was one of the most socially active seniors I have ever met. He volunteered at the church cafe, religiously attended bingo at Chic-Fil-A, went to Silver Sneakers at the YMCA multiple times a week, went on a brunch date with my father each Saturday, and had friends over to his apartment all the time. 
He saw each day as a blessing and sought to make the most out of life, in the process he taught his granddaughter about living out loud. 

   My first blog on the race was about the fear of something  happening to  my parents while I was overseas. The  experience of losing my  grandfather has certainly been used  by satan as a way to reintroduce  that fear. Each time, I feel  the anxiety and pull to go home and spend  every minute my  parents have with them. Each time Jesus reminds  me that it is  a lie. I am reminded what a disservice it would be to keep  to  myself the immeasurable amount of love they have given me.  A  love they gave me so that someday I would have such an  abundance  of love that it would overflow to others. I realize  how scared satan  must be at the thought of someone  venturing out of their comforts to  discover their abilities in  furthering the Kingdom. He knows my parents  are the best place to try and hold me, thankfully it is a lie that has  been exposed as has no power over me. I look at the life of my grandfather and know he must have overcome a multitude of attacks trying to prevent him from going out and exploring the different ways he could work for the Kingdom. I want to  honor my grandfather and my parents by being able to look back on my life and know that I never stayed back because of fear. 
 

"No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear."

–EDMUND BURKE
  
If home is where your heart is, I delight in knowing my home is heaven. If heaven is not a place I enter today, I simply pray that I would see heaven fall while here and that each day His Kingdom would come. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Married 64 years

The day I left for The World Race> He lived with us for the past 15 yrs