Featured Testimony - More to come!

Love & Forgiveness

On August 6th, 2016 my mother was brutally murdered in Florida.  She was visiting her friend Frank who lived alone in the countryside outside of Clewiston which is down below Lake Okeechobee. My mother was alone on the property when Wendy & Bubba came to rob the house. A home invasion gone horribly wrong was the result of my mother being stabbed with a kitchen knife as she wrestled with the attackers. After taking my mother’s life Frank came home from the grocery store only to be stabbed several times and left for dead after striking him on the head with a concrete block.  They intended to kill him, but he miraculously survived and identified everyone involved including Bubba’s girlfriend who assisted in multiple robberies. My mom’s dog Daisy was present during this tramatic incident. She was missing a few days, but we were able to locate her at a local dog shelter. We received an overwhelming amount of support to bring her back to San Diego where we were living at the time,  but we decided to allow a very caring lady in Florida to adopt her. We were overwhelmed by the support we received, but it was a real process to come to a place of love and forgiveness for the people who did this horrible act.

In 2016, Shortly after losing my mother I found myself in one of the darkest depressions of my life. I was isolated and escaped into my phone 6-8 hours a day to escape reality.  During the 8th month of my depression, my wife and I got a call from a leadership institute in Maui.  One year earlier we had asked for volunteer applications to serve, but after looking at our financial responsibility we realized we just couldn’t make the 3 month commitment . Then out of the blue we get a call in the midst of my depression to see if we would like to still volunteer. My wife said “no, we can’t do it financially”.  When she hung up the phone, she said it was like a “light bulb” went off in her head. She said, “Honey you should go, and I’ll stay back and work”. God provided full time work and within two weeks I was on a plane to Maui. The crazy thing about all this was that the day I was about to leave for Maui the depression just lifted off of me. I was so excited! I thought, “I am going to tell everyone on this plane about Jesus”.  I was a bit surprised to find everyone on that plane asleep. I knew I needed to sit and talk to God. He spoke to me on the flight and he said, “This is going to be one of the most life changing trips of your life”. 

In 2017 the Lord spoke to me in Maui and said “your mother is no longer lonely and depressed, she is with ME”.  I was so comforted that she was in Heaven that I was able to truly forgive Wendy & Bubba and desire that they receive a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The lawyer was surprised that I agreed for a quick trial for both defendants to receive a plea deal of life in prison instead of the death penalty. The Holy Spirit inspired me to write a poem as my IMPACT STATEMENT which was read by the judge in 2018 and in person by me in 2019 for Bubba O’Connor. The poem is God’s Heart for Wendy & Bubba. Our hope is that we could start a movement on Love & Forgiveness to honor my mother’s memory in 2020.