{"id":20,"date":"2008-09-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-09-16T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2008-09-16T22:07:38","modified_gmt":"2008-09-17T02:07:38","slug":"enjoying-the-time-we-have-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/robert-smith\/2008\/09\/16\/enjoying-the-time-we-have-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Enjoying the Time We Have, Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--StartImportPhoto--><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/robert-smith\/files\/2008\/09\/2389_45265.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-104\" style=\"margin-right: 10px;margin-bottom: 5px\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/robert-smith\/files\/2008\/09\/2389_45265.jpg\" alt=\"Mama Cida and Cirena, Christmas 2007\" width=\"300\" \/><\/a><!--EndImportPhoto--><\/p>\n<p>Back in Feburary of this year I wrote an article titled <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ntm.org\/robert-smith\/7507\" target=\"_blank\"><strong><span class=\"boldText-blue\"><strong>Enjoying the Time We Have<\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/a>.&nbsp; The primary premise of that article had to do with the difficulties of good-byes in relation to missions work.&nbsp; Recently we have had to deal with another aspect of this same issue, which is the passing away of loved ones.&nbsp; Of course seeing our loved ones pass away is always hard, but it does seem that being separated by thousands of miles when it happens multiplies the pain.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"bigText-red\">On September 10, 2008, Cirena&#8217;s mother <strong>Placida Generalao<\/strong> went home to be with the Lord.&nbsp; <\/span><span class=\"boldText-blue\"><em>The last time we were together is when this picture above was taken, Christmas&nbsp;of 2007.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Mama Cida, as we affectionately called her,&nbsp;is not the first&nbsp;loved-one we have had to bury since our&nbsp;<!--StartImportThumbnail--><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/robert-smith\/files\/2008\/09\/2389_38145.jpg\" rel=\"thumbnail\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-104\" style=\"float:left; margin-right:5px; border: 0.5pt solid #BCC4C8;\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/robert-smith\/files\/2008\/09\/2389_38145.jpg\" alt=\"Robert`s mom, Gail Douglas.  She passed away shortly after our return from the Philippines on December 4th, 2005 from cancer.  We were grateful to spend her last days with her and for her to have the opportunity to finally meet Sheila Marie.  \" width=\"150\" title=\"Robert`s mom, Gail Douglas.  She passed away shortly after our return from the Philippines on December 4th, 2005 from cancer.  We were grateful to spend her last days with her and for her to have the opportunity to finally meet Sheila Marie.  \" \/><\/a><!--EndImportThumbnail--> missions work began.&nbsp;&nbsp;In December of 2005, my mother,&nbsp;<strong>W. Gail Douglas<\/strong>, passed away&nbsp;following a year-long battle with cancer.&nbsp; We travelled to Canada from the Philippines to see her and only days later she was gone.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><!--StartImportThumbnail--><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/robert-smith\/files\/2008\/09\/2389_22961.jpg\" rel=\"thumbnail\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-104\" style=\"float:left; margin-right:5px; border: 0.5pt solid #BCC4C8;\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/robert-smith\/files\/2008\/09\/2389_22961.jpg\" alt=\"Sheila Marie and Grandpa Big Bob at her 5th Birthday in Missouri.  He passed away less than three weeks later on Oct 18, 2006\" width=\"150\" title=\"Sheila Marie and Grandpa Big Bob at her 5th Birthday in Missouri.  He passed away less than three weeks later on Oct 18, 2006\" \/><\/a><!--EndImportThumbnail--> Less than one year later, in October of 2006 we travelled back to Canada, this time from the Missions Training Center in Missouri, &nbsp;to bury my father, <strong>Robert G. Smith<\/strong>.&nbsp; With each of these lives, along with other loved ones and friends that have passed away since our missions work began, we are tremendously grateful for the time we have had prior to their death.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As our director of Student Life, Marv Ketchum,&nbsp;at NTM&#8217;s MTC stated, &quot;<em><strong>it truly brings to light the<\/strong><\/em> <em><strong>brevity of life<\/strong><\/em>.&quot;&nbsp; My challenge to each one then, with all of your loved ones and friends, is to truly enjoy the time that you have, knowing that we know not the time or the hour in which our Lord will call us onward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Death brings to light the brevity of life.  The challenge is to enjoy the time we have, for we know not the time or the hour the Lord will call us onward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-20","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/robert-smith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/robert-smith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/robert-smith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/robert-smith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/robert-smith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/robert-smith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/robert-smith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/robert-smith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}