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Life story LOVE REKINDLED
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LOVE REKINDLED LIFE STORY
Away from home for twenty years, he found joy in fleeting romances at nightclubs and bars. One day, a disease made him go down on his knees and ask God to save him. He recovered not only his health but also his wife and children.
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“You will be the mother of my children,” José Miguel told Ana Antonia. He made this vow of eternal love on their first date. They had met a couple of months before at the bakery where they both worked. It could be said that it was love at first sight, because they felt instantly attracted to each other from the first moment. At the beginning, they were just friends, but one day they agreed to take a walk and talk after work. That is when the young man told her about his feelings and she gladly accepted to be his girlfriend.
After three years of relationship, José and Ana became husband and wife. Although her family was not happy about it –they thought that she was not old enough to make such a decision– the young couple got married in a modest ceremony in which they vowed to love and be true to each other forever.
Soon after, they were invited by some neighbors to a Baptist church. There they put their lives at the service of God’s will. They were proving everyone that they were a good match, and the news of the arrival of their firstborn increased their happiness.
A few months later, the employment situation in the city underwent a crisis, and José decided to look for better job opportunities somewhere else. He moved to another city and left his family. That was the beginning of the end. His love for God and his wife grew colder and colder over time.
He turned to the pleasures of the world: drinking, bad friends, women. He did not keep the promises he made to Ana Antonia. Temptation was stronger than the love for his wife, and after four years of marriage, they decided to end the relationship.
José Miguel, who was born on January 28, 1970, in the province of Barahona, was following in the footsteps of Leo Cuevas, his father. The middle-ranking officer and Luisa Encarnación fell in love when she was only fifteen. However, he had a fling in each town he would visit during times of conflict in the Dominican Republic and abandoned his family when he was a child.
After the separation, the little boy went under the care of his loving maternal grandparents, who tried to raise him as a trustworthy man, but failed. At age 15, José Miguel was taken to his father’s home, in the city of Constanza, in search of a better future. He finished school, but did not pursue a career. He got a job as an assistant at a bakery and there he met Ana Antonia.
THE RUIN OF MARRIAGE Four years and two children later, the marriage between José Miguel and Ana Antonia collapsed. He stopped loving the woman to whom he had promised eternal love. Nightlife was his entire life now. He would
go to bars and nightclubs and meet women with whom he had affaires that lasted only a few days or just hours. Thanks to his mother’s financial support, he traveled to Barcelona, Spain, to work and pay for the education of his children. Fortunately, he had not neglected them despite his busy licentious life. This new beginning made no improvement in him: parties and women were still part of his everyday life.
José worked in the mornings in any job he would
find, and the little money he got he would spend at some bar in the Catalan city. He had been 16 years in Spain and had not achieved much; what is worse, his health was getting weaker by the day because of his lifestyle.
REMEMBER GOD One day, José Miguel was taken to the ER. After several exams, doctors diagnosed him with aggressive cancer
in the tonsils and intestines. The news left him speechless. His life seemed to have a near end.
It was 2008, and his children still needed his help to pay for their studies. He called them to tell them about his disease. They could not do much, being so far away, and only told him to take care of himself. Ana Antonia and him were cold but polite to each other because of their two children. No reconciliation was in their plans. Doctors recommended José Miguel to go through
invasive treatments to prevent cancer cells from spreading to other organs. They were months of much pain and suffering that he had to endure in solitude.
Several months passed and he was well; the chemotherapies and radiotherapies had successfully worked. As he recovered his health and confidence, he felt him
self again and went back to his old ways in search of pleasure. He had not learned the lesson.
A few months later, the disease was back. José was taken to the hospital. The doctors opted, this time, for a bone marrow transplant. The intervention had to be done as soon as possible, otherwise he would die.
Lying on the hospital bed, he looked up at the sky and asked God for help. His life was in danger and only the Lord could help find a way out. He prayed fervently and peace flooded his heart. It was his last chance to repent and return to the path of faith that he had left so many years before.
LIFE STORY After praying, José Miguel felt the desire to apologize to his ex-wife; he even wanted to hear her voice. He did not understand what was happening; more than once he had told her that he had no feelings for her and to rebuild her life, but now he wished to talk to her.
The surgery was a success and, a few months later, he was discharged. Grateful for the miracle and the opportunity, he began to attend the church of the Worldwide Missionary Movement in Barcelona. He had asked God to lead him to a church of Sound Doctrine and love for souls.
LOVE REKINDLED José Miguel went to church almost every day. The pastors’ preaching about marriage echoed in his heart. He wanted to go back to his wife, but twenty years had passed, and the love between them was now history.
Although contact with Ana Antonia was regular, they were just friendly. One day, however, he decided to tell her about the idea that had been in his mind: to get back together. Their conversations became more constant and romantic.
After two years of incessant prayer, José traveled to Santo Domingo to tell her face to face that God had made him love her again and that he wanted to share his life with her forever and thus fulfill the promise he had made 20 years before. “Pray. If this is God’s thing, my love will also grow back,” Ana Antonia told José Miguel. Not many months passed before God fulfilled his perfect will; the prayers of José and the brothers in Barcelona were answered: they both fell back in love. The fear of infidelity was in the past.
José and Ana renewed their wedding vows and decided to move together to Barcelona along with their children and their brothers in the faith. It has been 10 years since he reconciled with Christ and his wife and he feels that he falls more love with his wife every day. What was impossible to man was possible to God.
Currently, the couple and their two children serve in the church of the Worldwide Missionary Movement in Barcelona. Brother José Miguel supports the Work as head of deacons.
