When Ofelia was just a teenager, her younger brother was fatally hit by a bus. Ofelia encoun-tered the accident as she was walking home from school herself. Needless to say, this was a very traumatic event that caused her mother to be filled with grief and confusion. The family asked, “why?”. Ofelia was confronted for the first time in her life with a situation that presented many questions, but no answers.
Soon after that, Ofelia’s mother and youngest sister left the Philippines to go the US and join her father and two older sisters. Ofelia and her older brother and sister remained behind with plans to join the rest of the family after her sister finished college, but before they could make the trip, her sister was poisoned by a jealous friend and died as a result.
Ofelia looked up to her sister who was Christian and her death was hard on Ofelia and her mother. Once again, Ofelia had questions without many answers. The family moved to Half Moon Bay and found healing through attending the AG church. Ofelia found strength in God, renewed hope and encouragement from people of God in her most desperate and darkest times in life.
Things went along well for Ofelia and her family. She was starting her own life with marriage and children when her mother experienced a hemorrhagic stroke. Ofelia’s mom was in a coma for a week and Ofelia was once again presented with questions and no answers. Complica-tions from treatments given to her mom while in the hospital caused Ofelia to ask many ques-tions of the doctors assigned to her mother. The antibiotics were not working as expected and Ofelia, who is herself a nurse, felt completely helpless. In that moment, she surrendered to God, asking again, “why?”.
Ofelia prayed and pledged herself to serve God for the rest of her life if her mother’s life was spared. She told Him that even if He didn’t raise her mom from a coma, she would still serve Him and love Him regardless of the outcome. When she gave it all up to the Lord in surrender, He met her in her deepest need. Ofelia felt an incredible, overwhelming peace and comfort covering her deepest fear, anxiety, and pain in life.
Ofelia had gone so far as to make funeral arrangements, when, returning to the hospital, her mother came out of the coma. She lived for 10 years after that. And now Ofelia enjoys a fel-lowship with God unlike any other, an incredible trust in Him who she knows has her best in-terests at heart.
Ofelia’s goal in life is to know Christ and make Him known in her life. The bible verse that best expresses this deep desire is in Philippians 3:10 “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and share in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death.”
By Laura McHugh, Volunteer Storyteller
