“It’s like everything is spinning around you,” said Isaac. “You are focused only on that (news). Everything else is set aside, and you only think about what just happened.” It was especially difficult because Isaac’s father had been the one who paid his monthly tuition and supported him financially. “He said he was going to help me find a job once I graduated,” Isaac said. “All of this weighed on me, and my only thought was, ‘Ah, my dad. I can’t do it. Now, what do I do?’ I lost control.” Isaac’s emotional health began to decline, to say nothing of his academics. 

His relationship with his younger sister helped him regain his focus. As she is his only sibling on his father’s side, Isaac felt the responsibility of being an example for her. “We didn’t use to talk; we would only communicate via my dad. Now we talk. My sister helped me concentrate. I wasn’t doing well in my studies, and she helped me because, between the two of us, I’d always had better grades, and my father was proud of that. But I wanted him to be proud of her as well.” 

Many staff members reached out to Isaac during this time to offer their comfort and support. “Everyone began to help and tell me that God would care for me.” With their help, Isaac continued his studies and kept attending church. “I’ve been in the church almost my whole life, and if it weren’t for my mom making me serve, I would’ve gone down a different path.” 

God is a Father; he’s a father who’s inextricably drawn to those who need him. Psalm 68:5 says, “A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in His holy habitation.” Isaac received a fresh touch of the Father’s love during this year’s Campamento (our annual kids camp). “In our first devotions, I felt God beside me. It had been a while since I felt the presence of God, not since my father died. I had felt alone, but when I was there at camp, I felt renewed by the Spirit and confident that I was not alone and never would be.”

This year, Isaac has started sharing his testimony, telling people how the Lord had brought him through that dark time. He was still straining to focus through his old, cracked glasses—the same ones his father had said they would replace only a few days before he died. In July, Isaac shared his testimony with a visiting short-term team. After hearing his story, the group decided to pool some money and gift Isaac a new pair of glasses. 

Isaac still remembers the last thing his father said to him; he has it recorded. “He said, ‘I love you.’” A pair of glasses may not be particularly significant, but they become an unmistakable image of the Father’s love in this context. “God is concerned with our needs,” Isaac said. “Sooner or later, he always comes through and fulfills his promises.”