Amador's Wake & Funeral and the Flood

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" height=120 BGCOLOR="#FFCCFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="0443f781egdyul.gif"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#009900" FACE="Arial" ><B>Proclaim His Praise in the Islands - the Hallowells</B></FONT> <B> </B><B>|    </B><B> </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Proclaim His Praise in the Islands the "><U><B>Home</B></U></A></div> <div>                                                   </div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=360 BGCOLOR="#CCFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> Amador's Wake & Funeral and the Flood</div> <bR> <div> A Brother-in-law's Perspective (Jay)</div> <div> Font colors:<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#009900" FACE="Arial" > Wake & funeral -- green; </FONT><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Arial" >Typhoon Ondoy & flood -- red</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="3a204a60.jpg" border=0 width="516" height="422" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#009900" FACE="Arial" >Amor's younger brother, Amador (left), died on September 25, 2009 at age 53.  He is shown above with his mother (right), now 86 and still strong.  </FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#009900" FACE="Arial" >(Photo taken by Manong Ben in 2007.  Thank you, Manong Ben, for sending us this.)</FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#009900" FACE="Arial" >  He died of liver failure the day before </FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Arial" >Typhoon Ondoy </FONT>(local name; international name: Ketsana) <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Arial" >caused most of Metro Manila to be flooded.  Amor got stranded at the hospital, settling Amador's final bills.  She spent the night there, uncomfortable, but safe.  Other family members were stranded in other places.  For example, Amor's sister Annie's car was submerged in the parking lot of a mall near the funeral home.  They were stranded there on an upper floor, since the lower ones were flooded.  Mama, fortunately, was safely at home.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="3a4c0190.jpg" border=0 width="448" height="281" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#009900" FACE="Arial" >At the funeral home.  </FONT>The first floor of the funeral home <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Arial" >(Arlington - Araneta)</FONT>, including this room, was flooded waist deep during Ondoy.  They moved Amador to the second floor, then did a rush job cleaning up<FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#009900" FACE="Arial" > so that we had a place to meet as a family, mourn, and welcome visitors.  I forgot to pull out the camera to get photos of the family, visitors, service, prayer, etc. there.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> No photo of the car of Manong (older brother) Mario.  This is because it was stolen on Monday.  This theft was not flood-related.  So far it has not been recovered.  It is not likely to be.  Chop shops are, sadly, also common here.  <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Arial" >[10/21/09 addition: last evening a Manila TV news channel reported that carnapping, as it is called here, is up significantly, due, they said, to the increased need for auto parts for repairing the thousands of vehicles flooded during Ondoy.  So, perhaps I was wrong, in the green text above, about it not being related to the flood.]</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="3a5c0410.jpg" border=0 width="448" height="321" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Amador's main service was the graveside service on Wed., Sept. 30 at Loyola-Marikina.  Amor introduced the hymns.  She also read a moving eulogy from her older brother, Ben, who was not able to make it to the wake or funeral.</div> <bR> <div> Marikina was one of the really hard-hit areas from the flood, including this cemetery.  On Saturday, Sept. 26, during the storm, workers and managers of the cemetery, along with families who had just buried their dead, had to take refuge in the cemetery office.  Fortunately, that office had a second floor.  The flood water reach knee-deep on that second floor.  This counted as safe.  Others had to take shelter on their rooftops, exposed to the rain and wind.  Hundreds of others in this hardest-hit part of Metro Manila tried to find refuge but drowned before rescuers could get to them.</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="3a6c03a0.jpg" border=0 width="448" height="314" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Mama (right) gave a moving testimony about how the Lord comforted her in a special way during this hard time.</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="3a750930.jpg" border=0 width="336" height="403" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Pastor Valencia and his church, where Amador attended after he moved to Manila a few months ago, were very helpful at the wake and funeral.  He gave a comforting evangelistic message at the funeral.</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="3a8c00d0.jpg" border=0 width="448" height="269" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> We sang hymns that we knew were special to Amador: <I>How Great Thou Art</I>, <I>Heart of Worship</I>, and <I>Amazing Grace</I>.  That made them meaningful to us.</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="3a950920.jpg" border=0 width="336" height="402" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Amador's older brother represented the family in thanking everyone and inviting them to a simple lunch at a restaurant in a nearby mall following the burial.</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="3a0deec0.jpg" border=0 width="734" height="236" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> A family photo was taken.  (Jay - far left; Amor, 4th from the right)</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="3aa7c500.jpg" border=0 width="380" height="336" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Amador's son and wife say their final farewells before the casket lid was closed.</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="3ac39e40.jpg" border=0 width="569" height="484" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Roses were placed on the casket before it was lowered into the ground.</div> <bR> <div>  <IMG SRC="3adc0500.jpg" border=0 width="448" height="336" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Not sure which restaurants were open after the flood, members of the family (including Amor and her younger sister, Alma, in the center of this photo) check out options.<FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#009900" FACE="Arial" >  We ended up in the one to the left, Mang Inasal, a Filipino restaurant featuring barbecued chicken.  (I did not get any good photos of our lunch here.)</FONT></div> <bR> <bR> <div> We were much encouraged by the clear evidence of the recent reawakening of Amador's faith in Jesus alone because of God's grace alone.  He had heard the gospel and professed faith as a teenager at ISCF camps to which Amor had taken him.  His adult life, however, was less than ideal.  In the past few months, though, he began making clear changes in his life, moved to Manila for family reasons, and clearly professed faith not only to family members but also to church members.  </div> <bR> <div> We are very grateful for the encouragement and help of other family members, OMF, the BSOP family, and our wider network of supporters and prayer partners.  <I><B>Thank you!</B></I>  <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Arial" >Ondoy and its floods definitely made everything harder.  </FONT>But, <I><B>thank God</B></I>, it worked out in the end. </div> <bR> <div> Of course, as one would expect, there remain family loose ends to finish up.  </div> <bR> <div> There are also other flood issues to help with.  Since the funeral on Wednesday, Jay has been helping a church along the heavily flooded Tullahan River.  He also brought clothes and an offering from BSOP faculty, staff, and students to them.  (This is the community Jay lead his students to for a mission trip in August 2008.  You can refer to <A HREF="id166_malabon_plans.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="080723PL"><U>our plans</U></A> and our stories & <A HREF="id167.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="080825PL"><U>photos</U></A> from this 2008 visit.)  This is a topic that belongs in a different place, so I will stop here.  This page has gotten long enough.</div> <bR> <div> We are tired, of course, deeply tired, going back to hospital time spent before Amador died.  We will do our best to catch up a little today (10/4/09).  It is back to our BSOP responsibilities tomorrow.</div> <bR> <div> by Jay and Amor Hallowell</div> <div> Last update: October 21, 2009</div> <div> --------------------------------- end of Hallowell content ----------------------------------------------</div> </td> </tr></table></body>