April Newsletter

This month´s newsletter is rather melancholy... Mario´s precious sister, Bibian, went home to Jesus early Saturday morning, March 27th. We´re trying to know how to grieve that well while still maintaining a heart posture of trust and praise toward the Lord. We are able to find peace even in the midst of the pain because we know she is fully healed and restored. I imagine she is singing and dancing with Jesus right now. The second half of March she spent back in the hospital trying to get the attention and medication that her body needed, and she fought till the very end. But her body rejected the medicine and just slowly shut down in spite of all the effort. We prayed hard each moment of every day for God to heal her, and in the end He did. Just not the way we were hoping. We are so thankful to know that she is stronger and more alive and closer to Jesus than any of us here, but the pain of her loss is felt keenly. Please keep the family in your prayers.

Most of our time this month was spent with Bibian or the rest of the family, going into Tegucigalpa to the hospital, and trying to get tests done and the medicine bought. Aside from that and before everything took a turn for the worse, we stayed busy with the discipleship program we´re going through with our community group, hosting youth group in our home (a young man accepted Christ this month!), leading Bible studies and worship nights, one-on-one discipleship meetings throughout the weeks, and running the cafe on the weekends. We´ll try to pick up those activities again maybe next week, but this week has been more of trying to grieve as well as get back a bit into the swing of things.

To those of you who prayed for Bibian and the family through this whole process, I cannot express my gratitude enough. We really did see God´s hand in all of it as He opened doors and would come through for us often in the exact moment that we weren´t sure how we would be able to continue to pay for her tests and medicine and the gas back and forth to the city. Time and again, God showed us His faithfulness. In each different hospital and health clinic, the people would love Bibian immediately and I truly believe that we met some angels along the way to encourage us and to love her well. Although the outcome wasn´t the one we had hoped for, the Lord really has shown Himself as faithful and good. And Bibian knew it. As Mario sat by her bedside last week and was fighting back tears, she told him not to cry. She said "The doctors think I don´t hear them, but I do. I know they say that I´m going to die soon. But I know that God loves me and that I´m going to be with Him. So don´t cry." She was strong and brave and joyful even up to her last breath. And I know that was because God answers prayers and He answered all of those that asked Him to bring peace to her heart. So now I ask once again for your prayers that He would bring peace to our hearts.

"Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all." 2 Thessalonians 3:16

Katie and Mario Velasquez