Dr. Roberto Rodriguez
I was born in April 26th,1935 in Guadalajara, Mexico. My father, was the pastor of the First Baptist Church. He and my mother lived in a small room behind the church where I was born, which makes me proud.
I accepted the Lord as my personal Savior at age 8, being baptized by my father months later.
My desire for studying medicine began from visiting sick brethren from church in very humble homes and hospitals. At age 10, I attended the surgery of my brother who had polio. I still remember that the anesthetic administered to him was ether, dripping over a face mask. It was then when I decided to be a surgeon to help sick people.
Roberto with his sons and grandson at a project.I went on to medical school and held administrative and teaching positions at the medical school.
In 1965, I met a missionary who invited me to help the sick people in the Southern mountains in Nuevo Leon where he worked, after that, he invited me to California where I met the regional director of the Christian Medical Society. We made that trip in April 1965 where we agreed to bring a group of doctors, nurses and general helpers who drove 1700 miles with medicine, equipment for minor surgery, dental supplies, food and gospel tracts.
During my stay in California, I had the opportunity to meet Miss Norma Ruesga, who worked in a doctors office. She was beautiful, intelligent and young, besides that, her father had also been a preacher like my father. She was very interested in the missions in Mexico since she had been born in Mexico City so, I thought it would be appropriate for her to come as an interpreter.
The trip was long and difficult, but it brought many blessings to the people we took care of and not only to them but to the people from California that came as many accepted Christ as their Savior and others decided to give their lives to Him in service.
As far as I know, this was the first medical missionary trip organized by CMDS in Mexico.
Norma and I decided to get married and we did so in December 1965 and we both decided to serve our Lord in the medical mission field in Mexico.
Politics in Mexico at that time were very tense and our projects with CMDS, were cancelled in 1968, in the meantime we continued to do our own projects around the country. In 1972 we began working again with a group from the United States called Time for Christ then in 1982 we worked with MGM the medical mission arm of CMDS at that time.
Since we began working in Mexico with groups from the United States we have seen over 500,000 people and over 40,000 surgeries have been performed. All of the patients are accompanied by at least one family member which means that over 700,000 New Testaments and Bibles were handed out along with over 1;000,000 gospel tracts.
All the patients have heard the message of salvation and thousands have received Christ as their own personal Savior. At least 10 churches have been organized with believers who are a product of these projects.
Norma and I have been blessed with five children. Roberto who is also a surgeon, Norma an interior decorator, Lidieth is a pediatric dentist, Ricardo who has been serving the Lord alongside Norma and myself for almost 4 years and Cynthia who is a fashion designer. Four of them are married to faithful Christian men and women.
When our children were young, we used to bring them with us to the projects, so they had the opportunity to learn about service, care and love for the needy people. Now they attend the projects as often as they can and serve The Lord in many ways. I am very proud of them.
My wife has been a very special blessing in my life, giving me her love, care and support in difficult times. Besides the excellent relationship we have between us she has been a wonderful mother as well. She attends almost all the projects helping as an interpreter, nurse, cook…everything and anything. I cant thank God enough for giving me the opportunity to meet Norma through CMDS.
We believe the words of the apostle Paul when he said…..I Cor 15:58 “The work of the Lord is not in vain”
