A Journey of Faith

By Vico Botello

A Journey of Faith is a true account of the belief in the power of prayer and the strength of faith. Read about a family facing the sudden news of the pending death of a loved one. Experience the ups and downs of medical reviews and go with the author through the medical procedures hoping for the results that could save his life. Taken from the daily journal of the author you will feel the love and fear of fighting a battle with death. Read this miraculous story and renew your faith in God's healing grace.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 5, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503549890

Vico Botello

Mr. Botello was born and raised in lower Michigan and resides there today. He is retired and continues to teach religious education. After transplant he participated in four different studies of medications for the treatment of HepC and was declared virus free in 2013. His miraculous recovery continues without any occurance of infection or rejection of his new liver for over a decade. He and his wife Kenlin visit the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville each year for follow-up exams and to visit his now close friends on the Mayo Clinic staff.

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Copyright © 2015 by Vico Botello.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2015903526

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-5035-4987-6

                Softcover       978-1-5035-4988-3

                eBook            978-1-5035-4989-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

NAB

Scripture texts used in this work are taken from The New American Bible. The Old Testament of The New American Bible 1970, by the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD), Washington DC. Books 1 Samuel to 2 Maccabees 1969: Revised New Testament of The New American Bible 1986 CCD. Revised Psalms of The New American Bible 1991 CCD. Catholic Book Publishing Co., New York, New York.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 03/04/2015

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Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter One

Transition

Chapter Two

My Journey of Faith Begins

Chapter Three

Background

Chapter Four

The Long Face

Chapter Five

Father’s Blessing

Chapter Six

Calling Family and Friends

Chapter Seven

Cantron

Chapter Eight

Someone Has to Die

Chapter Nine

Fund-Raiser

Chapter Ten

Adoration

Chapter Eleven

Contacting Mayo Clinic

Chapter Twelve

Florida—My New Home

Chapter Thirteen

The Mayo Clinic and St. Luke’s Hospital

Chapter Fourteen

The Work UpThe Wrap Up

Chapter Fifteen

The WaitThe BeachThe Decision

Chapter Sixteen

The Last Hurdles

Chapter Seventeen

Insurance—Ups and Downs

Chapter Eighteen

Visiting and More WaitingThe Kids

Chapter Nineteen

The Will of God Is EnactedThe Call and ForwardThe Surgery

Chapter Twenty

The New Beginning

Chapter Twenty-

One Going Home

Epilogue

And you will know that God’s power is very great for us who believe. The power is the same as the great strength God used to raise Christ from the dead and put him at his right side in the heavenly world

(Eph. 1:19–20)

Dedication

I give you a new command: love one another. You must love each other as I have loved you. All people will know my followers if you love each other.

(John 13:34–35)

Acknowledgments

Kenlin

This book was written to pronounce the power of prayer and the message to believe in Almighty God. The book could not have been written without the love and support of my wife Kenlin Marie Botello. She is the inspiration for my entire personal life. She is the guide that led me to the strong relationship with God that allows me to give my life over to His will. She spent five years in fear of my death without giving up hope that God would protect me. She gave me the strength to accept the truth of my condition and the will to continue my struggle within myself to remain positive and be the husband and father that God expected me to be. I love you PC2, and I will always serve the Lord God because of the greatest gifts He has given me—you and your love.

Michele and Matthew Daly

The Lord said that a true Christian would lay down their life for a friend. I believe this is true because of the love and friendship given to me by Michele and Matthew Daly. The direction to the Mayo Clinic and the dedicated work given to ensure my acceptance for treatment given by my wife’s sister Michele will remain in my heart for my lifetime. She had as much to do with the saving of my life as any surgeon, nurse, or medical technician. Matthew opened his home to my wife and me for three months, giving up his own space and sacrificing his own family routine to allow me to save the cost of living expenses. He is a true example of faith and dedication to his wife and family. Thank you both from the depth of my heart, and may God bless you and your family.

The Prayer Army

I am so humbled and touched that people from all around the United States and from different faiths (with special recognition to the people of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church of Lapeer, Michigan) found it in their hearts to pray to the Lord God on my behalf. I received so many cards, gifts, and phone calls praying for my recovery that I am unable to express in words how grateful my family feels. I know that without their prayers I would not have survived my battle with death. I hope that this book serves them in a special way to lead all those who read this testimonial to the table of God.

Mayo clinic Jacksonville, Florida, and St. Luke’s hospital, Jacksonville, Florida

The Lord God demonstrates His power in many ways on this earth. There is no greater example than the staff and facilities of these two wonderful organizations. The dedication of the surgeons, nurses, technicians, and administrative staff is unmatched. All parts of my association were examples of what medicine is supposed to represent: a commitment to their patients and quality health care. Neither my wife nor I ever experienced a single moment of a lack of caring. I pray that God will continue to use these people and their facilities to shine as examples of His love and healing grace.

Introduction

Have you ever wondered if you would live your life differently if you knew when your life would end? I had asked myself that question in those moments when I thought I could have done better with my decisions. I thought I would not have made so many mistakes or, unfortunately, committed my sins.

I assure you that the moment I found out that my life was going to end because of liver cancer, I knew that not knowing is much, much better.

I began to review my life immediately, the past, the present, and what short future I had left. I wondered if my past was worth all of the things I had done to get me to this point. Did the fun times of alcohol and drugs in the 70s really result in having fun? Or were they the reason that I was dying from liver cancer today? Did I live a Christian Catholic life that would lead me to the gates of heaven or a sinner’s life that would surely condemn me to hell? Had I been a good son? Had I been a good brother? Was I a good husband? Was I a good father? Had I been a good person at all?

The examination of my life caused me great concern, even with the knowledge that I had indeed been a good Catholic Christian in the last ten of my fifty years.

I began to ask myself the most important questions of all: had I changed my life enough to believe that I was worthy of God’s mercy? Did He realize that I had a wife and children? Did He know that I had given of myself to His church and His people? I then realized with these questions that I was questioning His existence.

I responded with the firm belief that I was a child of God and that there was no way that I would question any part of my faith. I decided that I would rely on faith to carry me through whatever my Lord God had as my destiny. His will be done!

I then went through the transformation to be a person that put all of his faith in the will of God. I only thought that I was a believer before this moment. I found myself to be instantly at peace with my situation the second I said, Thy will be done to me as you want, not as I want.

My whole life changed at that moment, and I believed that my whole afterlife had also changed as well. I could believe in His mercy or in His will to take me home to His house in heaven. I no longer had fear. I no longer lived my life with a certainty that I would leave this earth and my family. I would go forward as God’s will would command. I began a whole new life. I was reborn again in the light of Christ.

This is my story of a journey of Faith. It is a story of the power of prayer and the intercessions of the blessed Virgin Mother Mary. It is a story of miracle after miracle performed by my Lord and Savior by the mere touching of His hand. It is a true account of the power of His will.

Believe …

Chapter One

Transition

Those who go to God Most High for safety will be protected by the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, You are my place of safety and protection. You are my God and I trust you.

(Ps. 91:1–2)

Transition

In this chapter, I will try to describe my transition from faithful Catholic Christian to despicable sinner, then to a faithful Catholic Christian, and finally to a servant of God the Father.

I was baptized a Catholic as an infant by my Mexican American parents, Eduardo and Betty Jane Botello. My parents were raised as devout Catholics by their parents and were expected to continue the faith and religious growth of their children. Something happened along the way: the times changed, which in turn changed me and other Catholic children of the baby boomer generation. The changes that affected me and other members of my generation included the rapid growth of technology, the struggle for civil rights, the Americanization of ethnic groups, the changes in the Catholic church brought about by Vatican II, and the vast upgrading of education. All of these factors resulted in a new generation of young people that strayed from the religious values of their parents.

The changes in technology may have been the greatest factor in the societal changes of the 50s and 60s. The growth of television into the primary source of entertainment and news opened up a whole new world for the young people of my generation. We were able to experience many aspects of life, without having to actually live them. The television, unfortunately, opened a whole new world of sin. We could experience fake violence with the television detective shows and later experience the violence of war in living color. We could learn about a full range of sexual experience, prior to experiencing actual sexual encounters, right before our eyes, again in living color. Music went from the realm of entertainment by great performers to the age of rock and roll and drifted even further into the world of civil unrest, violence, and drugs. These technological advances also allowed the world to learn about the horrors of crimes committed against the human race by dictators, zealous religious groups, serial murderers, and sexual deviates. Young people of my generation had a whole new window of sin to realize and explore.

The struggle for civil rights could be looked at in many different ways. The glory of the struggles of minority groups and the poor will be a positive for the people of our country and the world till the end of time. It’s the other sides of that struggle that affected my faith and the faith of many of my generation. The knowledge that I was a minority and not considered an equal by some people wasn’t really clear to me until it was pointed out by the civil rights movements. I had a whole new reason not to love my brothers and sisters in Christ. I was being told that even as I sat in church, the people beside me could be thinking the worst of me just because of my color. Then to make things even worse, people were thinking the worst of me just because I was sitting in the Catholic Church! I began to think, Why would I want to be a part of a group of people who didn’t see me as an equal and a church that was ridiculed because of its professed faith? These times made me want to defend myself and my people and began to drive me from my church and weaken my faith.

I had a struggle with the Americanization of myself within my own extended family. Why was my family the only one that didn’t speak Spanish like my cousins? My father’s answer, You don’t understand now, but you will when you grow up and look for work in this country. He was speaking of stereotyping that was a part of the American culture. Little did he know that the language that was a definite source of discrimination to him and his generation would later become a strength in mine. As an adolescent, and later an adult, instead of assimilating into the Anglo culture of America, I lived between two ethnic worlds and experienced the hurt of not being able to communicate with my own people, but certainly not being a member of the Anglo world by the mere truth of my color.

The changes in the Catholic Church brought about by Vatican II only sent me further away as I felt the changes diluted my vision of faith. I was raised within a culture that was based on the guilt of sin and the glory of God. This view of my religion made me feel afraid of sin and in awe of the Lord God. The change to a community approach by the faith, of being one with God made me feel less afraid of punishment for my sins and less reverent toward God. Of course, I know now that I was totally wrong about the transition, but as a young man in my teens, the idea of being free of guilt for my actions was an open door to doubt the true existence of God. I missed the formality of the Mass: no more Latin, now English; no more kneeling rail and serving of the host by the priest, now walking up to a person just like me and receiving the host in my hands; and no more inner fear of the confessional, now a reconciliation could be made with God and all was forgiven. I was too young to understand that only the verbiage and actions had changed, not the meanings. Again an opportunity to decide if I wanted to maintain a strong Catholic faith or experience life on my own terms, or on the terms of sin. At the age of fifteen, I would choose to take my life