Jesús Alden Martinez Garibaldi hasn’t had many reasons to smile since an accident in December left him paralyzed from the waist down.  After months of being in the hospital, in pain, as he waited for surgery, he’s had to deal with major changes in his life.

After COVID-19 derailed the plans for his own little house near his mother, who is also his caretaker, he’s been feeling disheartened.  The foundation for his little house, sitting under the hot sun of the summer months, is still pending a house.  Despite this setback, God has continued to bless Jesús in many different ways.

“He’s started moving himself from the bed to his wheelchair, and he does daily physical therapy for his arms and shoulders,” his mother, Aracely, shared one afternoon after a Bible study with the family, “But he has no therapy for his legs because he can’t even feel them.”

After a hopeful discussion with Jesús, who shared he still has hope someday he would walk, his mother expressed the need to learn to help him from keeping his lower joints from stiffening.  Thanks to having been a Certified Nurse’s Assistant at a nursing home, one of the members of the Ministry and Missions Team was able to help teach Aracely basic range of motion exercises to keep Jesús’ feet, ankles, knees, and hips from getting stiff from lack of use.

“To me, the time I spent working in the medical field was just a detour, a way to pay the bills while I waited for God to place me into a ministry position,” Luz Soto shared after that specific visit, “Jesús’ need for basic therapy blessed me, because God used my experience and knowledge to help someone who needed the very thing I thought had been a waste of my time.”

Jesús himself is starting to see how nothing in life is accidental; after months of receiving spiritual care from Pastor Jose Hernandez from Iglesia Luterana Santisima Trinidad, and recently from Pastor John Benito Morejón from San Pablo Lutheran Church-El Paso, he confessed: “I wasn’t a good person before the accident.  I carried a lot of anger, and I got into a lot of fights, even ended up in jail a time or two.  I look back at what I was becoming and it wasn’t going anywhere good.”

Jesús lived a life contrary to what pleases God, as many of us do.  He sought to please himself, and he shared how the accident that left him in a wheelchair wasn’t an accident at all, “I knew with the way I was living my life, something like this would happen.  I just didn’t think it would be when I was still so young.”

After months of receiving spiritual care from Pastor Jose Hernandez from Iglesia Luterana Santisima Trinidad, and recently from Pastor John Benito Morejón from San Pablo Lutheran Church-El Paso, Jesús is slowly letting go of the anger and resentment within him, and turning to Scripture when depression becomes too much for him.

When asked if he’d rather be confined to a wheelchair and grow his relationship with God or be able to walk and continue his life as it was, after a moment of silence where he seriously thought over the question, his answer brought tears to the eyes of the Missions and Ministry Team, “Well, I’d rather be in this chair.”

Thanks to the brothers and sisters of Peace Lutheran Church, Jesús now has an all-terrain wheelchair that allows him freedom to move about Kilometro 30!

“I crave to be independent,” Jesús shared during one of the visits in early June, “But I can’t because I can’t move myself in this chair I have.  It’s too big and it’s not made for the rocks and sands that make up the streets of my neighborhood.”

After having to reschedule their servant event trip to Kilometro 30 through Ysleta Lutheran Mission Human Care (YLM), Peace Lutheran Church from New Berlin, Wisconsin started working on finding a different way to bless Jesús.  In two months, they raised funds to purchase an all-terrain wheelchair made to Jesús’ specifications.

The GRIT wheelchair was received with huge smiles from Jesús and his family.  It was a challenge figuring out how to work the chair, but Jesús took it on eagerly before heading out for a stroll.  “It feels strange to be out in the streets,” he told Luz as they walked down the street and around the corner, his little brother Alexis on the other side, “Most of our neighbors haven’t seen me since the accident.  And I know they look at me and wonder what happened.  I want them to see the person I am now and not who I used to be.”

Thanks to the many acts of kindness Jesús is receiving from so many people, his life is being transformed radically, and even Jesús himself is amazed at how God has changed him, starting with giving him a new life in Him, one with purpose and a new direction.