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A Tribute To Rev. Gonzalez
TRIBUTE TO A MISSION LEADER:
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
On Tuesday, March 6th, I was in full “paperwork” mode when I received word that the Rev. Dr. Roberto Gonzalez passed on to the glory of God, due to a heart attack at the age of 61. I was crushed and could not do anything for a few hours. Only after prayer, reflection, and encouragement from others did I start to function again.
Bob and I go back a long way. Presently, he and I were working together on the National Mission Affiliates (NMA). The NMA includes 10 mission organizations, which conduct mission work among African, Asian, Black, Blind, Campus, Deaf, Hispanic, Jewish, Muslim, and Native American groups. It is affiliated with LCMS World Mission and one of the ten organizations is CAME. Bob was the head of the National Lutheran Hispanic Mission Society and I am currently serving as the Director of the NMA. So we worked together closely and had much mission work planned together. (You can read more about the NMA at http://www.lcms.org/pages/internal.asp?NavID=8056.)
Bob was an outstanding missionary. He got the job done efficiently, effectively and without hurting people’s feelings. In the fifteen years in which I have known him, I have never heard him utter a cross or harsh word about anybody. That is no mere feat, because missionaries are often known to go through, over, under or around people to get to their goals. I’ve never known another Hispanic missionary to say a negative thing about Bob. Despite managing the enormous stresses of coaching and supporting scores of Hispanic missionaries, he kept a level head and the steady hand of a pastor’s pastor. You often hear, “You can’t keep ‘em all happy”. But it seemed that Bob did.
He was always working on something, being faithful to mission tasks. When he left synod’s headquarters to go back to the mission field in Texas several years ago, he left a huge hole, which still hasn’t really been filled. Now, there is a big hole to fill in Irving, Texas, at the NMA and at the National Lutheran Hispanic Mission Society.
Bob was a lover of different cultures and nationalities. He was known as the only worker at synod’s headquarters who could easily name the flags, which hang there in the cafeteria. Synod’s headquarters is called the International Center. Bob even lived up to the name of the building in which he labored.
I am heading down to the funeral service at Our Savior Lutheran Church in Irving, Texas, where Bob was serving as pastor, officially as a representative of the NMA and CAME, but also as a dear friend and partner in mission and ministry. We will comfort his family (wife Susan, three daughters and a grandson) and comfort each other in the love of Christ.
I will truly miss him. I will miss the smile of encouragement he always had for me. I will miss his expertise among Hispanic people. I will mission his steadiness and gentle nature. We will learn from Bob’s witness. We will learn from the patience he had for people, even in mission. We will learn from the passion and love he had for people of many nations and cultures. We will learn from the faithfulness God used in him to share the Gospel.
We grieve with the Gonzalez family at our "temporary" loss, but exult in the mutual resurrection and reunion to come in heaven through Christ Jesus! May the love of Christ likewise burn in you to have and to hold compassion, patience and faithfulness in reaching many with the Good News for Christ!
Jotham+
Rev. Jotham Johann Jhang, J.D.
Executive Director
Center for Asian Missions & Evangelism (CAME)
You can read more about the passing on of the Rev. Dr. Roberto Gonzalez in the Reporter at: http://www.lcms.org/pages/internal.asp?NavID=11462.
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