".....so now also Christ will be magnified in my
body, whether by life or by death.For to me, to live is Christ,
and to die is gain"
(Philippians 1:20b-21)
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| Fun time with dad , last year in Florida right after my brother's wedding ! |
Dear
Family and Friends in Christ Jesus,
Sorry to not
have happy news from the mission field this month, but I think that it's for
His glory to share what has happened and praise Him in at all times, because
the Lord gives and He also takes away, and likewise because I want to share my
need and how fragile I feel now, asking for your prayers for me and my family
in this time of need. I'm sorry it's almost a month after this happened, but
it's been pretty crazy and busy for us in the past three weeks!
As some of
you may already know, my dad, Gustavo Rojas, without any sickness or pain,
suddenly suffered a brain stroke on his left hemisphere on October 17 early
morning. This accident paralyzed him on his right side of the body, left him
without speech and had him be hospitalized in the Special Care Unit in
Medellin, Colombia for 10 days. He had the grace of being conscious and fully
awake, listening to us and responding with moving his hand for 9 days. Even
though his neurological condition was fairly stable and acceptable, his kidneys
and lungs started to fail more and more until the Lord called Him to His
presence on Friday, Oct 26 at 6 pm.
It was
really hard for me to receive this news but God in His grace surrounded me by
prayer, and support not only of my team of service in San Isidro, Costa Rica
but also of my pastor in my sending church in New Jersey and all the body of
believers that got the news. God provided for me to travel to Colombia and
arrive to meet mom, dad and my brother and sister on Saturday October 20. That
night I had a very special moment with dad at the hospital. He got so happy
when he heard my voice and he smiled feeling me next to him, and hearing me
praying for him and encouraging him to hold on to Jesus and to trust Him
completely in this time of trial. That Sunday, we praised and worshiped the
Lord before going to the hospital and read the Word together, as family, and it
encouraged us to trust and wait on the Lord Jesus in this situation.
During the
next days, we would take turns to be with him all the time. God gave us the
blessing of telling him, once again, how much we loved him, what a great dad he
had been in the power of the Lord, how much he had impacted our lives with his
love for Jesus and how he taught us to love Him not only with his word but with
his life, and how proud we were of him and grateful to God for giving us such a
father, so in-love with Him and His Word. We also read to him his
favorite verses and chapters of the Word and we sang to him his favorite hymns
everyday. In the middle of the pain, the Lord gave us multiple opportunities to
share His love and word with nurses and doctors. It was awkward but cool, to be
able to feel God's love for them, reaching out to them thru us, in spite of the
situation. His love cries out, we just have to listen to Him to be able to see
pass thru our needs unto their greatest need: JESUS
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| This pic was taken for their anniversary on October 10th. 39 years of purposeful and God-glorifying marriage! |
I want to
truly thank each and everyone of you that knew about this for your prayers and
encouragement. The Lord truly was responding to your prayers giving us strength
during that week to suffer the situation but at the same time love daddy in his
last days on the earth. I stayed with dad over night for 4 nights, and one of
those I was outside of the room, crying out to the Lord, like at 3 am, and a
sweet nurse came to me to comfort me. Her name is Andrea. As she was giving me
human word of comfort the Lord was speaking to me and telling me: tell her
about Me, she need to know real comfort from me!. Don't know how, but I heard
and obeyed and so in the middle of my tears, I shared the gospel of Jesus with
her and she was shocked listening to me and she just nodded with her head to
all I was saying. We could not pray for she had to go take care of a patient
but please pray that God allows me to go back to that hospital to see her and
take her a Bible and some written material for her faith. It's amazing how our
Lord can glorify Himself in this way! All glory to Him!!!
Dad's last
day, he was in a deep sleep and not awake at all or feeling much. As the day
progressed his condition started to get worst and God allowed mom to be right
next to him when He finally called Him to Himself to rest at 6pm, after
70 years of life, 39 years of marriage and 39 years of knowing, loving and
walking with Christ Jesus. "The Lord gave,
and the Lord has taken away;
Blessed
be the name of the Lord." (Job 1.21). He finally went to be
with his beloved Savior and Lord, and God gave us His great peace and
unspeakable joy to have that certainty in the middle of the pain of this loss.
His
funeral was the next day and it was an amazing song of praise for His life.
Testimonies and message of the Gospel were used by God to touch hearts,
specially of those that were there and did not know the Lord. Dad's life yelled
"Jesus" and his death did too. So many people talking about how he
shared the gospel with them, how he discipled them, how he encouraged them , or
prayed for them. It was God's glory being shown and giving us comfort in that
moment. My family and me were really sad, but had the strength to praise the
Lord and sing to Him in the middle of the tears and praise Him on that day for
Dad's life and testimony, and also for his death, for our Lord is ALWAYS good
and ALWAYS faithful and perfect in all of His ways, even when it's painful or
we don't understand.
The
following days and weeks have been hard as you can imagine, we miss him so so
much ....Nevertheless, we feel and see God's mighty hand carrying us, and
comforting us and giving us peace that surpasses understanding, specially to
mom. He's reminded us of His promises that sustain us and reestablish us when
pain comes and we can simply cry and burst out in thankfulness to Jesus for
dad's life. I really thank you for your continued prayers for me and my family
as we seek Him and His Word daily, remembering the great lessons of passion and
humility that dad left us.
It's
incredible how my mission field changed suddenly and radically for a few weeks.
As all my family lives away from Medellin, and everyone has their jobs, God
allowed me to stay here, ministering and taking care of mom. I'm supporting her
physically (with the house and driving her everywhere she needs to go), emotionally
(just being there to cry together, to hear her comment about dad every single
minute) and spiritually (praying with her and reading the Word every morning).
WIth God's grace and the support of my team in San Isidro, the Lord aligned it
all for me to be able to bless mom during this hard time for her, so this is my
main ministry for a few weeks. There's a lot of legal matters and papers to
take care of and I can be of help here with her. I plan to be here until
Christmas, being faithful in the ministry of my family. I am of course in touch
with the team in San Isidro thru email and skype and with the people I was
discipling too. It's God's work and He's orchestrating it and sustaining it
during this time of transition for my family. I pray to fly back to Costa Rica
the first weeks of January, so please pray about mom, and God to direct us on
deciding what and where is best of her, where He wants her to serve Him.
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| With my parents at a friend's apartment in Fort Lauderdale, FL |
Thanks
once again for your prayers and support, and for your gestures of encouragement
for me and my family. The pain is great but our God is greater and He shows us
His love thru You all. May the Lord bless you and use you, wherever you are for
His kingdom.
Love in
Christ,
