Monday, August 28th | Remembering Edith Shah (pt 1.)

Hello, everyone. Today is Monday, August the 28th. I'm Ryan Hill.

John Galantis. And you're listening to Clear View Today with Dr. Abbadon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com, or if you have any questions for Dr. Shah or suggestions for new topics, send us a text to 252-582-5028, or you can email us at contact at ClearViewTodayShow.com.

That's right. You guys can help us keep the conversation going by supporting the show. You can share it online, leave us a good review on iTunes or Spotify, anywhere you get your podcasting content from.

We're going to leave a link in the description so you can do just that. The verse of the day today comes from John chapter 4, verse 24. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. That's something that is the goal of every worship pastor, worship leader, is to worship in spirit and truth.

But we kind of grasp at what that means. What does it mean to worship in spirit and truth? That's what the woman in the well was saying to Jesus. You know, you guys say to worship in Jerusalem. We worship on the mountain.

And he's saying, look, ultimately none of that matters. You worship in spirit and truth. Romans 8 says that without the Holy Spirit living in us, we're not children of God. That's the identifier of who you are as a Christian.

Yeah, absolutely. And that's one of the things I appreciate so much about you, John, and Dr. Shaw, and the culture that we created here surrounding worship, is that it's much more than just a time in service. It's not like a genre of music that we play at a certain moment. It's all of service. It's a worship service. And it even extends into our personal lives and the attitude that we carry. We worship God in the spirit and in truth.

And that carries over into every area of our lives. That's right. Speaking of Dr. Shaw, he's back. He is back. He is back. It's so good to have him back. Many of you may or may not know if you've been following the episodes on Clear Read Today Show, Dr. Shaw spent time in India, unfortunately because of the passing of his mom. But he was able to make it there.

Thank God he was able to make it there in time and spend those last few moments with her. So we're going to bring him on the show in just a second and just talk about what that was like, his trip and the events surrounding that. If you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text to 252-582-5028. Or you can visit us online at ClearReadTodayShow.com. Stay tuned.

We'll be right back. Well, good morning, afternoon, evening, Clear Read Today listeners. My name is Jon. And I'm David. And we just want to take a quick second and let you know about another way that you can keep in touch with Dr. Shaw's work.

And that is his weekly podcast series, Sermons by Abaddon Shaw, Ph.D. As a lot of you may know, or maybe some of you don't know. If you don't know, you do now. And if you don't know, then maybe just hop off the podcast.

David. I'm just playing. Hop off the podcast.

I'm just playing. Keep listening. Dr. Shaw is actually the lead pastor of Clearview Church in North Carolina. Every single weekend, he preaches expository messages that challenge and inspire us to live God-honoring lives. Well, one of the four core values of Clearview Church is that we're a Bible-believing church. So every sermon is coming directly from scripture, which is great because that guarantees that there are timeless truths that are constantly applicable to our lives. This is a great resource because whether you're driving, whether you're cleaning the house, whether you're working out, you can always benefit from hearing the Word of God spoken into your life. And God's Word is always going to do something new for you every time you hear it.

Sometimes it's conviction and sometimes it's encouragement. But know that every time you listen to God's Word, you're inviting the Holy Spirit to move and work in your life. And you guys can check out the Sermons by Abaddon Shaw Ph.D. podcast. First and foremost, check it out on our church app. That's the Clearview app. You can get that in the Google Play Store.

You can get that on iTunes. But you can also find the podcast on the Apple podcast app or on our website at ClearviewBC.org. And listen, if you've got a little extra time on your hands, you just want to do some further reading. You can also read the transcripts of those sermons. Those are available on Dr. Shaw's website, AbaddonShaw.com, and we're going to leave you guys a little link in the description so you can follow it. But for right now, David, let's hop back in.

All right. Welcome back to Clearview today with Dr. Abaddon Shaw. The daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com, or if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028.

That's right. And if today's your first time ever joining us here on the Clearview Today Show, we want to welcome you, let you know exactly who's talking to you today. Dr. Abaddon Shaw is a Ph.D. in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full time pastor, and host of Today's Show. You can find all of his work on his website.

That's AbaddonShaw.com. And most importantly on that list, he's here. He's here. He's here. Dr. Shaw, welcome back.

It's so good to have you back. Well, and you know, many of you, like we said, many of you have written in and offered your condolences and prayers for Dr. Shaw and the passing of his mom. But we are so thankful to have such a supportive listening audience, a Clearview Today Show family is what we call it. So on today's episode, Dr. Shaw, we just want to give you a chance to share with our listeners and with us what your trip was like, what the events surrounding your mom's passing and the funeral were, and maybe some things that you learned along the way.

Yeah, of course. I mean, my mom, Edith Franklin Shaw, I mean, Franklin was her maiden name, and sometimes people are shocked to hear that my name is Abaddon, and then my mom's name is Edith Franklin Shaw. She married my dad and became Shaw. She came from a Christian family. Her dad was Thomas Franklin. My grandmother was Rebecca Franklin.

Prior to that, she was Rebecca Weevil, and after marriage became Franklin. But anyways, I grew up in a good home, grew up with mom knowing the Lord, and so I had a very good upbringing. It's sad to know that she's no longer here, but I know that she is somewhere and that somewhere is in the presence of the Lord. So in that sense, I am rejoicing, but still it's a shock. It is sadness, it is grief, but I process grief differently.

I guess it's just me. I don't like cry out loud and all of that, but I just choke up, and that's my way of grieving. I'm glad you were able to get home to India to see her and speak to her one last time. I don't believe on the show we've gone into detail about the circumstances leading up to your departure.

Yeah. So week before last, on Tuesday morning, I got word that, come now, you need to come to India now. And I was shocked. So I called home and I talked to this one family of three brothers and a sister, and their mom, their dad passed away. They have been extremely kind and good to our family, extremely kind to my dad when he was still living. Now that my mom and my sister who is there right now, I mean, they have just taken them in and done whatever to help them out. So this, one of the brothers called me up and said, or texted me and said, please call. So I called and he said, she's not doing well, you need to come, you need to come see her now. And I'm like, oh, really, like right now?

And so I contacted the embassy, the American, the Indian embassy, not American, Indian embassy or the Indian consulate to get my visa, which was a nightmare. Yeah. Oh yeah.

Understatement of the century. It was a nightmare because I'm trying to get an emergency visa and I'm calling people and they're giving me half answers. And it was, I don't understand how they could do that because I could have seen my mom like three days earlier. Yeah. Oh yeah. So, and that's, she was doing fine up until Monday. And then Tuesday morning when I arrived is when they had to put her back on all that stuff.

Gosh. So anyways, I got the word. And so I began the process on Wednesday, two weeks ago, and it was not until Friday that they finally approved the visa, put it on FedEx. I had to send my passport to them on Thursday via FedEx.

And they got it on Friday, still didn't work on it until Nicole, my wife, if you know her, she got angry and upset with them and said, you need to send my husband home now because his mother is dying. You cannot do this. Oh, okay. We'll. I didn't know it was that serious. Okay.

Yeah. What part of emergency do you not get? I mean like this whole process should have been expedited. There's a whole reason that you have an emergency visa option. It's for emergencies, but I didn't know it was an emergency.

So I didn't think it was that bad. I think either people don't get it or they don't want to get it one or the other, right? They don't get it because they haven't gone through that grief or they don't understand what grief really means or they don't want to, they've been through grief.

They just don't give a rip about your grief. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. They haven't healed from their own. Yeah. They don't care about you.

So I don't know which one is the option either way. So Friday afternoon, they got it on the FedEx, they actually called the FedEx guy to come back, pick it up, put it on the air. It was supposed to be delivered Saturday morning, it didn't show up. And then we were watching the tracking and it goes from on the way to 1.30 to 6 to end of the day. And by 8.30, Nicole called me up and we had just finished our Saturday night service at 7.30 and I think it was at like 8 o'clock, I think it was at 8 p.m. She called me up and said, it's not here.

I'm very discouraged. I don't know what's happening. And at that moment, I remember our team was sitting around me, which is you guys, Ryan, John, David, your wives, Elizabeth, Ellie was there as well, Adam was there. And at that point, these guys began calling, you guys began calling people in the church, calling people you knew, grasping at straws, just anybody anywhere who can help us get to this package.

This package has my passport, my American passport inside which is a visa, an emergency visa to India. We found that FedEx was not cooperating in the slightest. We couldn't even, not only were they not cooperating, we couldn't get anybody on the phone. Yeah, there was no menu option that would lead us to an actual person. It was a loop of options and then eventually it would just be like, no one is available to take your call, please call back during business hours. Yeah, and so everything is this automated loop that's just designed to tell you, hey, whatever's on the website is what you have, don't call here again. That's what they were communicating. So then, yeah, like you said, just start calling, well, what about this person? I think they deal with FedEx or this person, they just started this big, enormous tree of phone calls.

And I can't tell you who or which person or exactly. It was different people, but they got to the bottom of it. And long story short, by Sunday morning, 8.30 service, I know you led us in prayer, Jon, bringing everybody up front and I came forward too, of course, because usually I'm the one leading in prayer and people come forward, I came forward and prayed.

And then 9.30 service, again, same situation, people came forward, prayed for me. And then towards the end of the service, David put up on the screen. They got it.

Yeah. We have a separate screen in the back so we can send Dr. Shah messages without the congregation seeing. So while he was preaching and about to do the invitation, David put it up and it flashed green. They got it. And I was like, oh, thank you. Thank you, Lord. Oh, you got it.

Something like that. So it was a tough moment, but about the same time as well, because I was getting ready to do a baptism in our third service, I got a message from the same gentleman, friend of mine, I believe the second brother, the three brothers and a sister, second brother sent me a message and said, her kidneys are failing, her vitals are dropping, you need to be here now. And I'm like, oh my gosh, here we have the visa in our hands now. Right.

And on the other hand, it's like somebody just sped up the time clock. If y'all have seen some of you were there at the third service, the 11 o'clock service right after the baptism, I got up to speak and I saw the text and I got choked up because I'm like, I cannot believe it that this is now happening. And so we also prayed in the third service, although now with the visa in our hands, but still with a whole different report. Right. Just for a little more time.

Right. And I left Sunday evening with the visa, I had it, thank God, got on the plane and no flight delayed. There was a layover for three hours in Paris from there from Paris to Bombay, landed in Bombay. Well, actually the plane from Paris was about an hour delayed, but that's okay. I still landed in Bombay about one o'clock, I want to say. And by the time I made it out of the airport, it was like 1.38 or something like that.

But I was booking it. I was going through the immigration, whatever, whatever, whatever, made my way out. And one of the other brothers was there waiting for me right outside the airport. He waved and he was just there. This family, God has his hand on them.

He's going to bless them for all they did for us. They got me in the car and immediately they started making their way out of Bombay. Now to get out of the city of Bombay, it takes about two hours just to get out of the city. And that's not to get home, that's just to get out of the city. I mean, this is highways and roads, all of them to get out at least two hours.

Unbelievable. Unbelievable to sit in a car for two hours and just be like, now we're finally... It's like instead of a 6.10, when you do all this prepping, it's like, okay, we're done. It's like, no, now we start. Now it's time to play. Yeah. Golly.

So 1.38 or maybe let's just say two o'clock, now begins the time to drive home. Never done that in my life in India. Really? Yeah. Driving all night in a car with two guys. I mean, I knew, I didn't know them, but I knew they were safe, good guys, but still I'm like... Yeah.

It's two people you've never, had you met them before or not met them in person? Yeah. Wow. Yeah.

But this family knew them. Yeah. So it was all good and all safe. Sure. Sure. But still I'm here, a stranger sitting in the back seat and they're like, get some rest. We'll take care of everything.

We'll stop somewhere to use the restrooms and we'll get some breakfast in a little bit, but get some rest. Wow. I mean, I am not resting because I'm wide awake. Yeah.

How can you? I mean, it's not really like I'm going to lay my head down. Like it's a race against the clock at this point. Yeah. And you're fatigued. You've been in the air for 18 something hours.

21 all together with the layover, 22 with the one hour delay. Yeah. Wow.

Yeah. There's no resting going on right now. Let's drive. And so finally we got towards my hometown, stopped a couple of times for restrooms and all that and some breakfast. It was daylight, about eight o'clock, nine o'clock, 10 o'clock. I was thinking by 11 I'll reach, but I remember about nine o'clock on there was going to, there was, there were phone calls happening between the guys, not the driver, but the other guy who was the family friend.

And they were, and I'm not stupid. I can tell. He's like, Oh, okay, we're about three hours away. So I was like, okay, something is up because they're calling him and saying, where are you?

How long will it take? And I remember this driver took on like Mario Andretti type speed, like, Oh my gosh, he's going through things. He is like weaving through traffic. I'm like, yeah, yeah. Something's up.

I think mom's headed out and they're trying to race against time. So I prayed. I said, God, keep us safe. Yeah. And so by 1230, we landed in Vassaro. Wow.

Wow. What was that like when you saw those, that, that familiar imagery of like the hometown, the railways, the junctions, all this stuff. I mean, did it, did it feel like I'm home or did it not, not home home, but did it feel nostalgic or was it like this has shifted in my mind somehow?

You know what I mean? Like, did it feel the same? It was not the same because in the past, when I was coming home, mom and dad would be home. They would cook all the things I liked, waiting for the kids, their grandkids. It was now I'm going to somebody else's home. I went to the sister's home. There were three brothers and a sister. So sister had a home right near where this hospital was. And so she, she already told my sister Libna to just stay with them so they could just go to the hospital. The hospital hospital was literally a minute and a half from their home. They said, just stay with us. So they had a room for me, the brand new house that was like two months into their house. Nobody's even lived in their guest room. So they put me up in the guest room. That's crazy.

Really nice actually. Yeah. And so you were able to make it to the hospital in time? I did. When I got to the house, they're like, we'll get some rest.

Why don't you eat something? I was like, no, I want to go see my mom. And then they said, no, just wait for a second.

Wait for a second. So I was like, okay. And so I said, I said, okay, I'll come and sit down for a minute. And then they were waiting for my sister to get there.

So that's why they were making me wait. They want me to go there alone. So my sister came, she hugged me, cried, and that was kind of sad.

And so I said, I want to go see mom. And so we made our way to the hospital, got there, walked up this, this is an odd looking place. It's a decent facility, but it's like you walk up this ramp and then there's a guard there. These are, these are in India. They have a lot of these mini hospitals with maybe 20 beds and there's a doctor, he has a bonafide degree, whatever.

But they start these hospitals and they're purely profit oriented. Okay. They have this very cold, dry air about them. I don't care one bit about them. I'll be very honest with you. And there are some that are good people. I'm not going to say they're all like that, but this one was not a good one. Yeah. Yeah. This one on many levels, I mean, someday they're gonna have to answer to God for that. Yeah. Not just for what they did to my mom, but also how they treat other patients and families.

I mean, a lot of times there's prescribing things that have nothing to do with the condition of the patient. They have a pharmacy downstairs and they're like, oh, we needed like three vials of these protein. Family doesn't know it. And the next morning when they come it's like, yeah, I go down there and you got to pay like 20,000 rupees. Yeah. Wow. We already gave it to your loved one. Yeah.

I mean- We could not even communicate with the doctor. Oh, he's not here. He's going to come.

Oh, he's here, but his rounds are going to begin at 5 p.m. tonight and this is like one o'clock. Okay. You need to meet with the family. And it's not just my family that was struggling, there were other families who were local also struggling. I would say this to say compassion, mercy, care are very biblical values on which the Western culture was built upon because they received Christ. Folks don't be naive.

This is not widespread. The idea to show compassion, the whole Good Samaritan mindset is not prevalent. It comes from a Judeo-Christian foundation. It comes from a Old Testament, New Testament biblical foundation.

It comes from the person of Jesus Christ who came to lay down his life for others. That's a very different mindset. It is exclusive. It is not found elsewhere. And if it is found elsewhere is because it's being copied.

All right. So just know that. And when you do see that, especially when you go through similar things here in America, be thankful for what we have, be thankful for how good it is because it's certainly not like that all over the world. And not for a single moment will I say that every doctor, every nurse, every hospital, every caregiving facility in America are born-again Christians who know Jesus Christ.

No, but they're operating from that worldview because that's the worldview on which the whole idea of medical institutions and care facilities were built in the Western world. So yes, it is found elsewhere, but it's because it's copied. And I got to see it not copied. I got to see medical facilities where when we had to shift our mom to another hospital because they were not giving enough care, they won't even let her take her gown with her. We got to change that. We want that back. Yeah, because that's ours. That's our hospital's property. So I said, I'll pay you for that. I'll pay you. No, we can't do that.

So you need to go home and bring another gown. Unbelievable. That's unbelievable. That's despicable. I mean, that's downright awful.

So I'll talk to anybody any day, all day, all night about this. And it comes from values. It comes from a value system. That's right. And again, I will never say the culture is bad or all of that. No, no, of course not.

But this idea of compassion, care, mercy, very exclusive to Christianity. So anyways, I got to see my mom. And the good part is I was able to communicate with her. Even though she was getting kind of drowsy, she was kind of fading, they would say her name or her mom, Abidon is here.

And she opened her eyes and she looked at me and immediately her tears started coming and she just shook her head. She knew you were there. Oh yeah, of course. Of course.

Nice. And one of the brothers next to me said, do you want to say something? Of course she can't. She had all these things up in her mouth. And my sister's like, how can she speak?

And my mom just shook her head. So there was communication happening and I told her, I said, can I pray for you? She shook her head and she lifted her hand, put her in my hands.

So very, very real communication took place, albeit not a single word was spoken by her. The whole ordeal of getting there was worth it just for those last couple of moments that you got to spend with her. And so I talked to her and then it was only like a five to six minutes you could do that, which I understand you want to give the patient rest. So I had to step out and come back in a little while later and come back in a little while later. And that evening, the sister's husband told me, he said, maybe you need to get a second opinion just to sort of satisfy your mind. So we went to that doctor. Now, he was not quite a cardiologist, but he did understand medicine very well.

And he said, it looks like her lungs are filled with fluid. Maybe it'll help to relieve some of that. Maybe it'll help with some dialysis if urine has passed. So he said, maybe they can do that. But this first doctor would not do anything, hadn't done it for days, which could have been done. Something could have been done. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. This is a procedure that could have been done. I mean, I'm not a medical doctor, but we're going by doctor's opinions.

Right. And if one doctor is saying that, then- Yeah. Maybe that doctor is wrong. Maybe the one who said, you need to maybe try relieving the fluid from the lungs and maybe you need to try dialysis. Maybe he was wrong.

Could be. But at least he said one thing, he said, at least fight. They should fight for it. And so we made up our minds that Tuesday night, that tomorrow morning, Wednesday morning, we're going to take mom to this guy's place. And Nicole, Libna and I even talked, my sister and I talked and said, there's a great possibility that she will not make it to that hospital. There's a good possibility that she may leave this world at this hospital or in transit or when she gets there. But either way, we will not just watch this happen. We'll fight for it. And I told my sister, I said, ultimately, I don't want her to leave this world from this hospital.

I'd rather go from another place that I felt like was at least willing to give her a chance. Whether it was a 0.000001 chance. At least they're trying. Right. At least something.

Some kind of fight. Well, it goes back to those values you were talking about. Like they're at least saying, hey, she's worth fighting for. We'll do it.

Even if it doesn't look like it's going to succeed. The second doctor was actually my dad's doctor. So he knew my mom, he knew my dad.

So there was that connection. And so that morning we got there, we're like, we want to discharge her. Well, you have to pay the bill. I said, OK. We're ready to pay the bill. Let's pay the bill. Well, I need to go and tally all this.

It'll take me some time. I said, well, we want her out of here now. So please tally the bill. Tell us now. OK. And then she's over there.

This finance lady is rearranging staples and putting down coffee mugs or tea mugs or whatever. I'm like, hey, I need to pay the bill. I have the money.

I'm ready to pay. OK. OK. OK. I'm trying.

I'm doing it. Take me five minutes, at least 10 minutes. I'm like, OK. Well, you need to go downstairs and pay the pharmacy bill first. I'm like, sure. We'll take care of that right now.

I said to my sister, go down there and pay that bill. So I'm sharing all this because many times, people in the West have such a naive idea of medical care and of facilities. They have no idea.

They'll have no idea what the world is like. We're so blessed here. We paid that. We paid the pharmacy bill, paid the medical bill, and then the time came for, oh, you need your own robe. We cannot leave that. That robe cannot leave.

Ridiculous. I'm like, I'll pay for that robe. I'll pay for whatever. Add it to the bill. OK.

I'll add. They added to the bill, but they still made my sister go home and get a robe because there was a miscommunication. I said, I paid for the robe, didn't I?

I'm like, yeah. But keep it. Keep it. It's fine.

Wow. We moved her over to the other hospital on this emergency ambulance that has a ventilator on it kind of thing. And I don't know whether we lost her before that, during that, or when we got there.

Either way, at some point, kind of flat line. And then the doctor, where I took her to the second one, who gave the opinion, at least fight, they did EKG and came back and said, that's it. So it was a very tough, tough day from the moment I landed to knowing that my mom is going to be stopped and prayed there. Even though there was such grief, I knew where she was. She was in the presence of Jesus Christ. She was with my dad. She was rejoicing. She was healed. And I will see her again. And that is a solid assurance.

Don't let anybody, don't let anyone steal that away from you. That hope, 1 Corinthians talks about that hope, 1 Thessalonians talks about, don't let anybody take that away from you. That is one of the beauties of Christianity that offers hope beyond this life.

So that's where we are. I love it. Amen. And Dr. Shah, just the way that you have talked about your mom and the way that you've talked about your faith through all of this is an inspiration to me. And I know it's an inspiration to our listeners as well.

So thank you for sharing that. And we are continuing to pray for you and for your family and listeners. We want you to do the same thing. Keep Dr. Shah and his family in your prayers as in the days and weeks ahead. If you have any questions or suggestions related to what we talked about today, any thoughts or any you want to send your prayers or your encouragement to Dr. Shah, please do so by texting in 252-582-5028. Or you can visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com and you can partner with us financially on that same website, join with us in reaching the nations with the gospel of Jesus. We love you guys. We'll see you next time on Clear View Today.