Most of you are familiar with our adopted daughter, Lupe, a Mexican young lady who has lived with me (Laura) for about the last 15 years. She has been very special to me, offering companionship, love, and much loyalty to serve in the indigenous villages here giving medical care. Lupita went on to be with the Lord on March 12th after suffering a large cerebral hemorrhage on March 2nd. The loss has been difficult, but we know that she is now free from her suffering and rejoicing with Jesus!

If I tried to tell her story, I’m sure it would be much too emotional, so I asked our dear friends, Drs. Dave and Mary Kay Ness, if we could share with you their account of Lupe’s life and her last weeks under their watchful care. They’ve been a rich blessing to my, Dave’s, and Lupe’s lives for several years now. They graciously gave us permission to borrow the account from their blog site. Following is their account with only a few slight variations:

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In our eyes, she was a giant in her community. Fifteen years ago, Lupe , a 20 year old Mixteco girl, came to Roca Blanca Base, and trained under Laura as a nurse’s aid. She graduated from the Victory Bible Institute here and later from a nursing assistant’s program in Oaxaca City. She would go back to Yucucha’a, near her home town of Pinotepa de Don Luis, and give medical care including IVs and injections, medicine for pain, infections, and diarrheal illnesses. Laura truly adopted her from her young adulthood on, nurturing her and taking responsibility for her care when her natural family became unable to provide the medical care that she needed. At about age 21, during her first year at Roca Blanca, she was found to have damaged heart valves, probably from a childhood strep infection. Finally, 2 ½ years ago, she had surgery in Mexico City to replace these 3 valves, and after several complications, through much help from the Lord, and a strong will and determination, she returned to the Base. Other complications have occurred, including several strokes that left her with some limitations and easy fatigability. Recently, we took her up to El Mosco, where she had loved to work, in hopes that she would be reinvigorated and desire to resume her ministry. It was not to be. She stayed in bed and became weaker. The day after we returned from El Mosco, she sustained a large stroke, after which she never spoke, though she had times of real responsiveness; mostly she slept very peacefully, free of pain.

Her large stroke brought to light some of the obstacles to medical care here. The nearest hospital with a CAT scanner was in Oaxaca City, a difficult 7 hour drive away. First, she needed to be taken to Centro de Salud in the nearby town to get a referral. Then she was driven by our Mexican Doctor, Eder, along with Laura and Bertha, to Oaxaca General Hospital. As the hospital’s scanner was down, she was transported to a private office. The scan showed a very large hemorrhagic stroke involving the right side of her brain. She remained unresponsive, but with stable vital signs. Lupe had made her wishes known over the previous year – if she had another stroke (especially a large one), she wanted to be allowed to pass on to be with Jesus.

But hospitals in Mexico do not provide hospice care, or recognize DNR (do not resuscitate) orders. So ultimately, she was returned via ambulance back to the Base, where Laura and Bertha and her family from Pinotepa provided compassionate nursing care. After 10 days, Lupita peacefully passed on to the other side at age 35, creating a void where she had been such a pivotal person in outreaches to her people, and a special daughter to Laura and Dave Nelson.

Watching the immediate rallying of Base personnel and family was a stunning cultural event. People just dropped what they were doing, and calling hours started within a half an hour. Within 2 ½ hours, the body was being transported to her parents’ home 3 hours away. Laura and Dave, Dr. Eder, and Jesús and his wife Marisol went also to participate in the 24 hour vigil (through the night) that is customary here. Food was ready for them, and sleeping places had been found. The next morning about 20 of us went up to join them. Normally the body would be interred right after 24 hours, but relatives were coming from Guadalajara (1 day of travel away), so it was postponed to Sunday morning. Several of us left the base at 5:30 am to be there for the interment.

There were about 300 people in attendance at the funeral, walking up and down hills, with two teams of pallbearers, and a band leading the procession to the church, and then to the cemetery where the interment took place.

We are richer for the inspiration Lupe was, poorer for not having her beside us now. But God honored her wish to be in a new and glorious body in His company, and to be finished with the troubles this earth brought upon her.
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Thank you, Dave and Mary Kay, for summing up so well the experiences of those last couple of weeks. We are thankful to God for the opportunity to have had Lupe with us for this time, and thankful to Lupe for the tremendous blessing she has been to us. She was a very determined young lady, accomplishing pretty amazing things with the basic medical and nurses’ training she had received. She truly put to use all that she had learned, and was very willing to give medical care at any hour to anyone in need. She pushed a lot these last couple of years to be able to remain active giving medical care and participating in the village church in Yucucha’a in spite of a lot of pain and mobility problems from the strokes. In the church, she assisted in preaching, worship, and children’s ministry. She was a part of the national team who worked in the Ixtayutla region about 6 years ago, which at that time was only very recently evangelized, and had a real love for that region. We have seen God do great things there with 2 churches having been planted and many other villages touched there over the last few years.

Thank you all so much as many of you have given financially to help us with Lupe’s care, especially the heart surgery 2 ½ yrs. ago, and many of you have helped us to pray her through some very difficult times. We are very grateful. We treasure the many wonderful memories we have, and we thank you for helping to enable Lupe to serve God in a very full way during her 35 years here on earth.

We would appreciate your prayers for Lupe’s natural family. Her mother and father are still living In Pinotepa de Don Luis, a village 2 ½ hours from here. Her mother is in poor health and is struggling with the loss of Lupe , who was her oldest daughter. Lupe also has 7 siblings. Thank you for lifting them up.

We have created a photo album which can be accessed by clicking here Lupe photo album or from the “Lots of Photos!” link in the left hand column if you would like to see more photos of Lupe. We wanted to share these treasured memories with those who would like to see them. Thank you for all the e-mails you have sent and prayers lifted up for us during this time. May God richly bless each of you, and thank you again so very much for all of your support in so many ways. IN HIS LOVE, DAVE AND LAURA