{"id":1432,"date":"2011-12-30T12:34:24","date_gmt":"2011-12-30T19:34:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theglessners.org\/?p=1432"},"modified":"2011-12-30T12:35:31","modified_gmt":"2011-12-30T19:35:31","slug":"a-memory-ofen-memoria-de-carlos-de-la-garza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theglessners.org\/index.php\/2011\/12\/a-memory-ofen-memoria-de-carlos-de-la-garza\/","title":{"rendered":"A memory of\/En memoria de Carlos de la Garza"},"content":{"rendered":"

Este es largo, pero con mucho amor. This is a little long, but with a lot of love. Espa\u00f1ol y English.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Carlos<\/a>

Carlos predicando<\/p><\/div>\n

Christmas Eve morning we got a phone call that you never want. Carlos de la Garza, one of the elders at Comunidad B\u00edblica<\/em> (our old church here) and a good friend and dear brother in Christ, died of an infection related to kidney failure. We hustled to the hospital and joined others from Comunidad B\u00edblica<\/em>in being with Martha and her mother (also Martha). We were all in shock. He’s been ill, just recovering from pneumonia a few weeks ago, but until the 23rd we had been planning on spending Christmas Eve with them. What do you say? In times like this all you can do is be there. Words are just useless.
\n
\nThey took his body to the funeral home and at 8 PM there was a viewing. Pastor Chris led the service, doing a good job of putting things together quickly and well. There were probably 60-80 people there–short notice, Christmas Eve–from all sorts of areas, Campus Crusade (Carlos and Martha are ex-staffers), Comunidad B\u00edblica<\/em>, Echo (Carlos’ current ministry), and Unete (Carlos’ work). Carlos’s parents and brother made a 4:30 flight from Monterrey and arrived at the funeral home in time. It was a time of celebrating (Carlos’ favorite songs), crying, testimonies, and Scripture. Kevin Bult spoke, sharing our assurance that Carlos is with Jesus.<\/p>\n

One neat thing in this is that the funeral home, Valle de los \u00c1ngeles<\/em>, picked up the cost of the funeral services. Carlos and Martha had begun doing business training for them a short time before, had purchased two packages and made a payment. But the owner came to Martha and told her that they would do the work free of charge. That’s the kind of impact and quality that Carlos (and Martha!) had on those around him. They even bumped them up to a bigger room–and a good thing too. It’s an amazing provision for God’s servants.<\/p>\n

Martha and the family spent the night there. One friend who has done amazing things for them was Chema, a ministry partner. He has been Martha’s chauffeur, go-fer, and servant in all of this. He took Martha mam\u00e1 and Estefania home, picked up food, and spent the night with Martha and the rest of the family at the funeral home. At about 8:30 AM, Christmas, he called to ask if we could bring some breakfast to Martha while he took the rest of the family home to clean up, eat and rest a bit. So we took some eggs over and spent the morning there. When the family came back with Chema, about noon, they took Carlos’ body to be cremated. It’s a hard moment, a good-bye. John 11:25-27 and 2 Corinthians 5:8 were a blessing to share with Carlos’ family. His father has accepted Christ, but we’re still waiting for his mom and brother. It was good to be with them–it’s fun to get to know the family of someone so special. In the afternoon, I was hunting photos of Carlos on our computer with his brother and we laughed over some of them. Arturo shared some growing up stories of Carlos–they were quite the characters together, competitive, always into something.<\/p>\n

Then the service. More songs, D\u00edas de Elias<\/em>, a favorite of Carlos, and, the mark of our new age, testimonies pulled of Facebook. Even though there were a lot of people there, the rush of the service, meant that only maybe 10% of the people that would have come could make it. But it was great to sing, to honor God, to honor Carlos, and share about his life. Victor Magall\u00f3n did a great job of speaking–sharing the things that made Carlos so special, his relationship with the Lord. We had a couple videos. I’ll see if I can post them and add the link. Then…home. As Drew said, “This was the weirdest Christmas I’ve ever had.” That’s just for us. But for Martha and the girls a world turned upside down. A hard beginning. I’m pretty sure there will be lots of support around them. It’s going to be rough though. We ask for prayers for them.<\/p>\n

I don’t know why I wrote out a report. Just processing, I guess. That’s how I work. But I want to write about Carlos. He was a man of God, a man to emulate, who lived an exemplary life. Here are maybe the top five aspects of Carlos that people mentioned over and over and over:
\n1. Carlos’ smiles.<\/strong> He was always smiling about something and it was so easy to joke around with him. I’ll miss this very much.
\n2. Carlos’ hugs.<\/strong> Mexicans are a hugging people–men give men un abrazo<\/em> (a distinctive hug, complete with handshake before, two pats on the back and a handshake after). Carlos was renowned for his “5-second abrazo<\/em>“.
\n3. Carlos’ competence.<\/strong> I guess that’s the best way to say that Carlos was good at many things and had lots of wisdom. He was the director for Campus Crusade in Mexico for several years before he resigned for health reasons. He was a good public speaker, often tapped to speak at special events. He always had good advice and a wise perspective on what we were doing. He was a really good networker and businessman. For about two years he was building a network of sales contacts and business consulting jobs. He had a gift for this sort of thing and loved what he was doing. In part this was because of the next quality:
\n4. Carlos was an evangelist. <\/strong> He told everyone about the Gospel. He had a passion for introducing people to Jesus. He was still thrilled about his own salvation (August 17, 1992) and loved witnessing. We only knew Carlos in the Puebla phase of his life (he and Martha moved here from Monterrey in 2005\/6), but we heard stories of his witnessing exploits in Monterrey. He trained Comunidad B\u00edblica<\/em> in evangelism just before we left and sent everyone out on the streets around the church to do street witnessing. His passion for his business work was to share the Gospel in a winsome, attractive and appropriate manner–and he had many stories already.
\n5. Carlos the husband and father.<\/strong> One of the last things that I think of Carlos is that he was a great husband and father (and son-in-law). Martha, over these last few days has said that over and over. Martha mam\u00e1, his mother-in-law, spoke for his family at the funeral–how many mothers-in-law who live with their sons-in-law have that kind of relationship? Sadly, not everyone with the previous qualities have this one, #5. Carlos did. That’s perhaps the greatest tribute and honor to the man that can be said.<\/p>\n

Finally, one last thing that marks Carlos’ life and says what kind of man of God he was. At the funeral, towards the end of the time, America, a funeral director, asked Chris if she could say a few words. She told everyone there that she had been working with Carlos and Martha for some time before he died–they were beginning to do employee training there at the funeral home. At one point she commented to Carlos that God had blessed her in her endeavors–she is quite successful–but she felt empty inside. Carlos told her, “I can tell you what you need.” He shared the Gospel with her, and invited her to come to Comunidad B\u00edblica<\/em> ‘s Christmas Cantata. She went. Just 6 days before his death Carlos extended himself to speak at the Cantata. He spoke of the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, and of giving our lives to Jesus, and, being Carlos, shared the Gospel, and invited people to pray the sinner’s prayer with him. America was there with her husband and she prayed. Afterwards Carlos and Martha spent time with them. America was deeply impacted by Carlos’ witness and life. She may have been the last person he led to the Lord. What an unexpected and appropriate word honoring Carlos’ life and Carlos’ Savior.<\/p>\n

Carlos, we love you, we miss you, we’ll see you.<\/p>\n

—— Espa\u00f1ol ——
\nLa ma\u00f1ana de Nochebuena recibimos una llamada telef\u00f3nica que uno nunca desea. Carlos de la Garza, uno de los l\u00edderes de Comunidad B\u00edblica (nuestra antigua iglesia aqu\u00ed) y un buen amigo y querido hermano en Cristo, muri\u00f3 de una infecci\u00f3n relacionada con la insuficiencia renal. Nos apuramos al hospital y nos juntamos con otros de Comunidad B\u00edblica en estar con Martha y su madre (tambi\u00e9n Martha). Todos est\u00e1bamos en shock. \u00c9l ha estado enfermo, pero hasta el d\u00eda anterior est\u00e1bamos planeando pasar la Nochebuena con ellos. \u00bfQu\u00e9 se puede decir? En momentos como este lo \u00fanico que puedes hacer es estar all\u00ed. Las palabras son in\u00fatiles.<\/p>\n

Se llev\u00f3 su cuerpo a la funeraria para cuidar el cuerpo y para el velorio. Chris dirigi\u00f3 el servicio, haciendo poniendo las cosas de forma r\u00e1pida y buena. Hab\u00eda probablemente 60 a 80 personas all\u00ed – son mucho aviso previo, en Nochebuena – de varios \u00e1reas de la vida de los de la Garza, Cruzada Estudiantil (Carlos y Martha son ex-empleados), Comunidad B\u00edblica , Echo (el ministerio actual de Carlos y Martha), y Unete (el trabajo de Carlos). Los padres de Carlos y su hermano alcanzaron un vuelo de las 4:30 de Monterrey y llegaron a tiempo. Fue un momento de la celebraci\u00f3n (canciones favoritas de Carlos), de llanto, de testimonios y de las Escrituras. Kevin Bult habl\u00f3, compartiendo nuestra certeza de que Carlos est\u00e1 con Jes\u00fas.<\/p>\n

Un suceso positivo en todo esto es que la funeraria, Valle de los \u00c1ngeles, asumi\u00f3 el costo de los servicios funerarios. Carlos y Marta hab\u00edan empezado a dar capacitaciones a los empleados poco tiempo antes, hab\u00edan comprado dos paquetes y hab\u00edan realizado un pago. Pero el due\u00f1o se acerc\u00f3 a Marta y le dijo que iban a darles sus servicios de forma gratuita. Ese es el tipo de impacto y la calidad que Carlos (y Martha!) tuvo en quienes lo rodean. Incluso les cambiaron a una habitaci\u00f3n m\u00e1s grande. Es una disposici\u00f3n incre\u00edble para los siervos de Dios.<\/p>\n

Martha y su familia pasaron la noche all\u00ed. Un amigo que ha hecho cosas incre\u00edbles para ellos es Chema, un compa\u00f1ero de ministerio. Ha sido chofer de Marta, y un servidor en todo esto. Llev\u00f3 a Martha mam\u00e1 y Estefan\u00eda a la casa, recogi\u00f3 la comida, y pas\u00f3 la noche con Marta y el resto de la familia en la funeraria. Alrededor de las 8:30 AM, la Navidad, nos llam\u00f3 para preguntar si pod\u00edamos llevar un desayuno a Marta, mientras que \u00e9l llev\u00f3 el resto de de la familia a la casa para ba\u00f1arse, comer y descansar un poco. As\u00ed que pasamos la ma\u00f1ana all\u00ed. Cuando la familia regres\u00f3 con Chema, a mediod\u00eda, se llev\u00f3 el cuerpo de Carlos para ser cremado. Era un momento duro, un adi\u00f3s. Juan 11:25-27 y 2 Corintios 5:8 fueron una bendici\u00f3n para compartir con la familia de Carlos. Su padre ha aceptado a Cristo, pero todav\u00eda estamos esperando a su madre y su hermano. Fue bueno estar con ellos – es divertido conocer a la familia de alguien tan especial, claro, en circunstancias menos tristes. Por la tarde, yo buscaba fotos de Carlos en nuestra laptop con su hermano y nos re\u00edmos a varias de ellas. Arturo comparti\u00f3 algunas historias de la ni\u00f1ez de Carlos – que eran bastantes competitivos, siempre metidos en algo.<\/p>\n

Entonces el servicio. M\u00e1s canciones, D\u00edas de El\u00edas, uno de los coros favoritos de Carlos, y (porque somos del Siglo 21) testimonios de Facebook. A pesar de que hab\u00eda un mont\u00f3n de gente all\u00ed, me imagino que significaba s\u00f3lo unos 10% de las personas que habr\u00edan venido. Pero fue genial cantar, honrar a Dios, dar homenaje a Carlos, y celebrar su vida. V\u00edctor Magall\u00f3n hizo un gran trabajo de hablar – compartiendo las cosas que le hicieron a Carlos tan especial, su relaci\u00f3n con el Se\u00f1or. Tuvimos un par de videos. Voy a ver si puedo publicar y a\u00f1adir el enlace. Entonces … a casa. Como Drew dijo: “Este fue la Navidad m\u00e1s rara que he tenido.” Eso es s\u00f3lo para nosotros. Sin embargo, para Martha y las ni\u00f1as un mundo est\u00e1 en ca\u00f3s. Es ahora un comienzo dif\u00edcil. Estoy bastante seguro de que habr\u00e1 un mont\u00f3n de apoyo, personas caminando con ellas. Va a ser duro sin embargo. Pedimos oraciones por ellos.<\/p>\n

Yo no s\u00e9 por qu\u00e9 escrib\u00ed todo una historia. S\u00f3lo para processarlo, supongo. As\u00ed es como yo trabajo. Pero quiero escribir sobre Carlos. Era un hombre de Dios, un hombre a emular, que vivi\u00f3 una vida ejemplar. \u00c9stos son los cinco aspectos de Carlos que la gente menciona una y otra y otra vez:
\n 1. La sonrisa de Carlos.<\/strong> Siempre estaba sonriendo por algo y era tan f\u00e1cil de bromear con \u00e9l. Voy a extra\u00f1ar mucho esto.
\n 2. . Los abrazos de Carlos<\/strong> Carlos era conocido por sus buenos abrazos. Fue reconocido por su “abrazos de 5 segundos”.
\n 3. Las habilidades de Carlos.<\/strong> Creo que es la mejor manera de decir que Carlos era bueno en muchas cosas y ten\u00eda un mont\u00f3n de sabidur\u00eda. \u00c9l era el director de la Cruzada Estudiantil en M\u00e9xico por varios a\u00f1os antes de renunciar por motivos de salud. Era un buen orador p\u00fablico, a menudo designado para hablar en eventos especiales. \u00c9l siempre ten\u00eda un buen consejo y una perspectiva prudente en lo que est\u00e1bamos haciendo. Ten\u00eda una facilidad de hacer enlaces con la gente y era un buen hombre de negocios. Durante cerca de dos a\u00f1os estaba formando una red de contactos para ventas y una consultor\u00eda de negocios. Ten\u00eda un don para este tipo de cosas y amaba lo que estaba haciendo. En parte esto fue motivado por la siguiente caracter\u00edstica:
\n 4. Carlos era un evangelista.<\/strong> Le compart\u00eda el Evangelio con todo el mundo. \u00c9l ten\u00eda una pasi\u00f3n por hablar de Jes\u00fas con la gente. Estaba a\u00fan muy emocionado por su propia salvaci\u00f3n (17 de agosto de 1992). S\u00f3lo conocimos a Carlos en la fase “Puebla” de su vida (\u00e9l y Martha se trasladaron aqu\u00ed desde Monterrey en 2005 \/ 6), pero hemos escuchado historias de sus haza\u00f1as compartiendo el Evangelio en Monterrey. Hizo una capacitaci\u00f3n en Comunidad B\u00edblica de la evangelizaci\u00f3n justo antes de salir y nos mand\u00f3 a todos a las calles alrededor de la iglesia para hacerlo. Su pasi\u00f3n por su trabajo en los negocios fue para compartir el Evangelio de una manera atractiva, efectiva y apropiada – y ten\u00eda muchas historias despu\u00e9s de poco tiempo.
\n 5. Carlos el esposo y padre.<\/strong> Una de las \u00faltimas cosas que creo de Carlos es que era un gran esposo y padre (e yerno). Martha mam\u00e1, su suegra, afirm\u00f3 esto en el funeral – \u00bfCu\u00e1ntas suegras que viven con sus yernos tienen ese tipo de relaci\u00f3n? Lamentablemente, no se puede decir esto de todos los hombres en un ministerio. Carlos lo era. Esa es tal vez el mayor tributo y honor al hombre que se puede decir.<\/p>\n

Finalmente, una \u00faltima cosa que marca la vida de Carlos y da testimonio al hombre de Dios que era. Casi al final del funeral, Am\u00e9rica, una asesora de la funeraria, pidi\u00f3 a Chris el tiempo de compartir unas cuantas palabras. Ella nos comparti\u00f3 como ella hab\u00eda estado trabajando con Carlos y Marta por alg\u00fan tiempo antes de su muerte (estaban empezando capacitaciones con los empleados de la funeraria). En un momento le coment\u00f3 a Carlos que Dios le hab\u00eda bendecido en su trabajo – es bastante exitosa – pero sent\u00eda un vac\u00edo por dentro. Carlos le dijo: “Yo puedo decir lo que usted necesita.” \u00c9l comparti\u00f3 el evangelio con ella, y la invit\u00f3 a ir a la Cantata de Navidad en Comunidad B\u00edblica . Ella la asisti\u00f3 con su esposo. S\u00f3lo 6 d\u00edas antes de su muerte se esforz\u00f3 Carlos para hablar en la Cantata. Habl\u00f3 de los dones de los magos a Jes\u00fas: oro, incienso y mirra y de dar nuestras vidas a Jes\u00fas, y, siendo Carlos, comparti\u00f3 el Evangelio, e invit\u00f3 a la gente a orar con \u00e9l. Ella or\u00f3. Luego Carlos y Martha pas\u00f3 tiempo con ellos. Am\u00e9rica se ha visto afectada profundamente por el testimonio de Carlos y por su vida. Ella pudo haber sido la \u00faltima persona que Carlos llev\u00f3 al Se\u00f1or. Qu\u00e9 palabra tan inesperada y apropiada para honrar la vida de Carlos y su Salvador.<\/p>\n

Carlos, te queremos, te extra\u00f1amos, nos veremos.<\/p>\n

\"Familia<\/a>

Familia de la Garza-Escudero<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Este es largo, pero con mucho amor. This is a little long, but with a lot of love. Espa\u00f1ol y English. Christmas Eve morning we got a phone call that you never want. Carlos de la Garza, one of the elders at Comunidad B\u00edblica (our old church here) and a good friend and dear brother […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[81],"class_list":["post-1432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mexmin","tag-carlos-de-la-garza"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theglessners.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theglessners.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theglessners.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theglessners.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theglessners.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1432"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/theglessners.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1463,"href":"https:\/\/theglessners.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1432\/revisions\/1463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theglessners.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theglessners.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theglessners.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}