The Barr Seven: February 2009

Well this of course was no pleasure trip. This was a journey to say our goodbyes to a father, grandpa and friend. Upon receiving the word that Dad was getting worse, all of the kids decided we needed to make the journey to Pennsylvania to see him. We all arrived from our different states of abode and descended on the Barr house. Dad was in very bad shape and had to be taken the next day to the hospital in Wilkes Barre. The word the doctors gave the family is that there would be no more chemo, his body just wouldn't take it. We were told to say our goodbyes and prepare for the end. This of course is extremely hard to do if you have never been in this kind of circumstance. How do you say goodbye? I always thought it would be easy. We tell ourselves if only I had been able to say goodbye, or if only I had one more moment with ... but as we found out it is the hardest thing to bring a relationship to the end of a journey. We know in our hearts that of course Heaven is a much better place and all pain will be gone, we will all have brand new bodies etc... but human life fights for survival. Each one has a different way to handle these things. Some cried, some stepped in to do anything necessary to keep busy, all grieved, the kids of course go on as if life is forever and as we left we all knew in our minds the next time we met it would be in eternity. This is hard to write because there are so many emotions involved. There is one thing I know, God is still on the throne and he cares for his own. There is hardly a place we go that people don't say your dad's ministry really helped me or our church. We will never know the eternal value that his ministry had here on earth or the souls that were saved because of his ministry. We do know however, that he fought a good fight and he is finishing the course! Praise the Lord!