Doug's Story

In October of 2015, I had the joy of traveling to the Dominican Republic with a group that included my mother, my step-father, my best friend and several others dear to me. One purpose for the trip was to deliver "Jesus Calling" devotionals that had been purchased with memorial funds received after the death of my sister Lisa after a long battle with lung cancer. We divided our inventory of devotionals and gave them to the pastors of our three partner churches for distribution.

While there, we made home visits in each of the communities. One particularly difficult visit was to Rosmeri, a woman who had recently been diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer. After her diagnosis, the mother of three was abandoned by her husband and forced to move in with her mother. We were taken to this home, in part, because the community leader responsible for scheduling our home visits knew that Rosmeri was not a Christian.

The visit was a challenging one, because almost all in the group had lost loved ones to cancer - several very recently. Still, we took time to share the Hope of the Gospel with Rosmeri and then prayed with her. We left disappointed and discouraged as she kept her head down and spoke very little. Absent a miracle, her time was short; and we were unable to lead her to accept Christ as Lord and Savior.

The Rest of the Story...

Three weeks later, after we had returned home, I got a call from Melanie Spence de Mordan (the director of our work in the Dominican Republic). She had received word from community leaders that Rosmeri had died. My heart sank until Melanie continued. One week before her death, Rosmeri gave her life to Christ. While we mourn her death, we celebrate her eternity. Gloria a Dios!