Rolando Frausto Sr. was a visitor for the first time when he and his wife attended the Othello SDA church about 14 years ago. They were Catholic believers who had recently moved to the area. Soon after moving Rolando’s wife, Angelina Frausto, was invited to go to the Othello SDA church. She attended church with her child, Rolando Jr. and learned over time to love it; she even got baptized along with her son.
Rolando Frausto Sr. also attended church. “Rolando was very active. He always supported the church,” commented Dr. John Mundal. “When his child went to the private school that we had many years ago, he helped landscape and supplied the gravel for the parking lot which we have today at our church. He has helped the church a lot and many have learned to appreciate and love him”
For many years Rolando remained very active, but overtime he began to move away from assisting church. Many of the church members, because of their appreciation and love, worked hard to get him back to church; even the pastors who have arrived at the church during these past 14 years had worked hard to reach him. But with time, he stopped assisting church completely. It almost seemed impossible for many. From that time on his wife began praying for him daily.
Angelina, his wife, had one dream in mind, to see her husband get baptized and be saved. All she could think about was his salvation. It is wonderful to see a spouse uplifting his/her partner to the Lord! When I had first arrived to the Othello district, I remember the first thing Angelina did was she pulled me to the side and said, “I want you to baptize my husband.” It was a bold statement. I hadn’t met the man yet, and I didn’t get the time to know her since it was my first day there. I was fresh out of college and I never learned how to respond to these kinds of situations. As I stood there the first thing that came to mind was a saying that I heard, “Just do your best, and let God do the rest!” I looked over to her and said, “Continue to place your husband in the hands of the Lord and believe that He can change his heart. For there is no heart made of rock that God can’t make flesh.”
It was not long after that I met Rolando for the first time. It was a Tuesday night after prayer meeting when he went to pick up his wife. His wife introduced him to me. Quickly, she left me alone with him to talk. I felt as though she wanted me to do something miraculous at that moment, but I knew only the Holy Spirit could. I wanted to start out by asking about his spiritual life, but I froze… I knew that something about his gestures spoke out saying, “I’m not interested in the spiritual things.” So I decided to ask him questions to get to know him better. We became engaged in conversation and ended that night getting to know each other.
Over time we got to know each other very well. He began joking with me and sharing his experiences. Within a month, on a Saturday afternoon, I remember seeing him in the back pews for the first time in church. It was hard not to notice the smile on his wife’s face, knowing that God was working. Soon after, he began coming to the Tuesday night meetings with his wife, and became more interested little by little.
Not long after, an incident occurred in his life. He was laid off of work because of an injury that had occurred to his knee. He began to struggle with God little by little. He didn’t understand why things had turned out that way. “If God is so good and cares for us,” he asked with stress in his voice, “why doesn’t He take care of my bills?” Because of the loss of job, and the bills he became worried and started again to distance himself from God. Seeing that his faith was fading away, I spoke up concerned, “How can you stop believing in Him who has sustained you and your family for so many years? I know that you lost your job and that it’s going to be a struggle, but this is not the time to give up yet. Now is the time to get to know God better and see Him do wonders. He says ‘test Me now and watch the heavens open with many blessings’. Now is the time to trust and believe, but to do so we are going to have study the bible every week, because ‘faith comes from hearing, and hearing the word of God’” (Romans 10:17).
The Bible studies began and little by little I saw Rolando’s faith grow more mature and strong. He began to go to church every Saturday and Tuesdays, and would be the first at church along with his wife. He became very active and supportive with all the church events that the Othello Spanish SDA church held. Everyone saw that God was working in his life; even he himself saw it also.
After 14 years of prayer and the Holy Spirit working in his life, Rolando was baptized in an Evangelistic Campaign held during June 7-14, 2008. He came up to me one night, after I finished making a call, and asked, “What do I need to do to get baptized?” When I heard him ask this, in my mind I couldn’t stop praising God! I looked at him and said, “You are ready! You’ve study God’s word and have accepted Him as your Savior. All you need to do is get ready to be baptized on Saturday.”
God had worked in the life of Rolando and continues to do so in many other people’s lives. This experience showed me that “Where there seems to be no way, God always creates a way.”
“For man things are impossible, but for God all things are possible.” (NASB)
