(Feb. 26, 2016 - by Ralph Kurtenbach)  Imagining her listener has become part of Jackeline Vera’s daily routine—she is blind. Her mind compensating for failed eyes, Vera found opportunity in an interview with German radio program producer Sigrid Rosiak to have people consider a greater unseen—their creator.

“Listen carefully now, pay attention to what I say,” Vera says after chatting with Rosiak in Spanish. (Rosiak later overdubbed German for her European audiences.) Although one may hear a hint of urgency in the voice, Vera’s tone does not order; it does not demand.

“Come to God and ask Him into your heart,” says the blind guest in front of a microphone in the studios of Vozandes Media, one of Reach Beyond’s partner ministries, in Quito, Ecuador. “Ask Him to fill you with light and with His Holy Spirit.”

Offering that such a decision to yield control of one’s life to God would lead to positive change, Vera then adds, “Let God speak to you.” Her invitation holds out hope.

A listener would likely detect no rancor in her voice, but life has been hard. Orphaned as a child, Vera then lived with a relative. The caregiver’s grasp of the dangers of juvenile-onset diabetes was limited—so much so that Vera didn’t receive insulin shots until she was age 16. Faith in God was nurtured, however, and early on she trusted Jesus as her Savior.

“So it came about that the diabetes affected my retinas—my whole body really—and so by age 23 I was blind, and by 25 my kidneys had failed,” she said. “I have to go regularly for kidney dialysis.”

Diabetes—far too long left untreated—had in fact already ushered Vera to death’s door by the time she was in her 20s. The year was 2001, a time in which “my heart was enlarged and the ventricles took on water,” she said.

“My aorta had crystalized and there was coronary calcification as well,” she added. Doctors advised Vera to set her affairs in order and prepare for the worst.

“I didn’t want that—to disappear from this beautiful planet that God gave to us,” Vera recounted. “So, putting all my faith in this wonderful Father—the Father who is always willing to help—and with tears in my eyes, I knelt down, begging and pleading with Him to open the way to health and vitality.”

Living for God has helped Vera face the debilitating effects of diabetes and the prospect of dying. As Rosiak sat listening, Vera declared that “gradually He opened the way for opportunities for additional medical care, and here I am today.”

When Rosiak asked her guest about the financial means to live, Vera responded that it’s a day-by-day walk of trusting Jesus to meet her needs, and He provides via friends who come and visit her.

“I always tell them what a privilege it is that God used them to convey His blessings to me,” she explained. “We know that God will use us to bless others. So God sees my need and He provides finances, health and pleasure as well as for my mental equilibrium. I say this because I do not have to worry about anything because God cares even for me.”

Established in 2009, Vozandes Media continues as an outreach to German-speaking listeners stemming from the ministry that began decades earlier when German was a language service of the international radio station, HCJB, Die Stimme der Anden (The Voice of the Andes).

Vozandes Media has added delivery avenues for the message of salvation through Jesus Christ, shortwave and satellite (for Europe), Internet podcasts and another option called Phonecaster in which Europeans can select from a variety of German-language programs by calling a specific telephone number.

Source: Reach Beyond