Treyton "Trey" Lara had spent months preparing for the Portland Marathon. At 24, the youth pastor was approaching his 25th birthday, beginning a new chapter in ministry, and building a future with his wife, Audrey Shin-Lara. On Sunday, October 4, she watched him run toward her, smile, and stop for a kiss before continuing along the course. Around mile 20, he collapsed.
That brief encounter has become the heartbreaking center of a story that has left his family and church community stunned. Audrey said her husband looked well when she saw him around mile 18 or 19. Family and friends had gathered along the route to cheer him on, expecting a celebration at the finish line. Instead, doctors later told her he had gone into cardiac arrest, and efforts to save him at a hospital were unsuccessful.
The circumstances leave an unanswered question: what caused a young man with no known underlying medical conditions, according to his wife, to suffer cardiac arrest during the race? Although several reports describe a heart attack, the medical information Audrey publicly relayed was cardiac arrest. The reporting reviewed does not establish the underlying cause, leaving the family's shock without a full explanation.
Audrey was already heading toward the finish line when the day changed. According to KGW reporting cited by Charisma, her mother-in-law called to tell her that CPR was being performed. The contrast is devastating: moments earlier, Audrey had seen her husband smiling; now she was receiving news that he was fighting for his life.
Lara's death also interrupted a ministry that had recently expanded beyond a local congregation. He and Audrey had served for two and a half years as youth pastors at Eastside Church in Bothell, Washington. In August, he moved into a national Foursquare Church role supporting church planting and the development of young leaders and next-generation pastors. He was in Oregon to attend and speak at the denomination's Northwest leaders' conference.
One of the couple's newest projects carried a particularly personal connection. This past summer, they helped launch Camp Genesis at the same location where they first met, when Audrey was 12. Married for nearly five years, they were returning to the place where their own relationship began to create opportunities for another generation. Audrey described the camp as a dream her husband had wanted to bring to life.
Those details make the loss extend beyond an unfinished race. Lara leaves a wife with whom he shared both marriage and ministry, young people he had helped lead, and colleagues who had recently welcomed him into broader responsibilities. His parents, Omar and Misty Lara, also serve within Foursquare's Northwest District, placing the tragedy within a family deeply involved in church leadership.
A fundraiser has been established to help with funeral and burial expenses, hospital bills, and other costs. As the community responds, Audrey has expressed her grief alongside her Christian hope: "He's the love of my life, always will be. And we'll see him again." Her words give those mourning Trey a glimpse of how she is facing a future they had expected to share.
