Three months ago, my dad Solomon became gravely ill, and without seeing any improvement we admitted him to the hospital. After 18 days, he passed away. Even more significant than the sadness and affliction of seeing my father suffer, was the faithfulness and devotion to God that I saw in him the last few days of his life. Even though my dad suffered from dementia, he never forgot his Lord and Savior. Two nights before he died, I heard him say in a quiet voice, “Oh God my Lord, you are my Savior. I have believed in you, and you are my only hope. Lord Jesus, help me.”
I praise God because in His grace, he saved my dad and gave him wisdom to instruct and lead us in the Word of God, and to guide us to the salvation that is in Christ Jesus. With all of my siblings, there are 16 of us, and 12 of us are trusting in Christ. We diligently pray for the salvation of my two sisters and two brothers that do not know the Lord.
His death also provided the opportunity to preach the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to all my relatives and neighbors that were present at his funeral. I am thankful for the help of Jose Luis Siancas, Javier Carhuapoma, and the pastors of the congregation where my father attended for their help in preaching at the service.
This portion of the Scriptures has strengthened me and my family, and our prayer is that God would be glorified in this time as we pass through various trials:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort.”
2 Corinthians 1:3-7