Author's Profile
OFELIA CABRERA-ACOSTA
WHEN GOD KNOCKS, LET HIM IN
by Ofelia Cabrera-Acosta
by Ofelia Cabrera-Acosta
I was 27 years old when I decided to venture to the U.S. I vowed to work hard, save money and go back to the Philippines so I can start my own physical therapy clinic. My ordeal as a stranger to this country began when I arrived and worked in Los Angeles as a live-in caregiver for an amputee.
Caregiving was not easy for me. My day began at 5:30 every morning and ended at 9:00 PM. My biggest challenge was not the long hours, it was cleaning her up after she had her bowel movements. She took laxatives for constipation that made her go eight or nine times every other day. The whole house stank like a sewer. I wasn’t allowed to open the windows. It was “too cold.” I vomited in the bathroom every time I flushed down her poop. The smell kept me from eating. So as soon as I saved enough money, I moved to New York where I worked as a physical therapist.
I applied for licensure there. In the mid-1980s New York allowed foreign-trained PT graduates to work for two years under a limited permit while applying for licensure. I found employment and worked hard during the day. At night I studied for my written and oral/practical licensure exams. I regretted not working as a PT for seven years. It hurt me. Nothing seemed to come naturally at work.
I failed the written test in 1987 although I passed the oral/practical exam. I was devastated. I continued to work as a PT under a limited permit but felt inadequate at work. I needed that license to continue to work in the PT field. As a fallback, I took the physical therapy assistant licensure exam in March 1988 and passed it. I studied even harder and took the PT licensure exam the second time in October 1989. I passed the written exam, which qualified me for a PT license in all 49 states, passed the cardiopulmonary and musculoskeletal, but failed the neuromuscular oral/practical exam. That kept me from obtaining a PT license in the State of New York. My heart sank.
My limited permit was expiring on December 31, 1989. I was determined to obtain a New York PT license, so I submitted a letter to challenge the result of my neuromuscular oral/practical exam to the Board of Physical Therapy. There were about twenty-five of us in the room the day of the “challenge.” A couple of months later, I received a registered mail with my PT license. The New York Board of Physical Therapy issued me a PT license after my successful 12-page paper challenge.
I met Mel at a laundromat in Coney Island. We started dating and three years later, we got married by the Justice of the Peace in Queens, New York. My sister Marilyn was our only witness and guest. We were happy as newly-weds and we welcomed the news of my first pregnancy. But we were dealt a crushing blow. I was diagnosed with placenta previa. My placenta, which supplied nutrients to my baby through the umbilical cord, was unusually low in the uterus. The baby threatened to abort itself. So, my obstetrician, Dr. Rubin, placed me on strict bedrest. I endured multiple hospitalizations which eventually caused Baby Mel to arrive 10 weeks premature by way of a C-section delivery.
Our newborn baby turned our lives upside down. Mel worked two jobs to keep us afloat while I was on short-term disability. Baby Mel was colicky. The nights were especially difficult because we hardly slept. I comforted him as best I could, and provided physical therapy to foster his gross and fine motor development.
Mel arrived home one night clearly distraught. He told me he was mugged by four teenagers as he exited the subway station. Fortunately, an elderly woman witnessed the incident from her house next to the station. She yelled at the teenagers and threatened to call the police. They ran away. I was distressed by thoughts of Mel hurt or killed so we started to plan for our move out of New York.
Baby Mel was six months old when we moved to Ohio with the hope of raising him in a family-friendly environment. I accepted a physical therapy director’s position at a nursing home in Circleville, Ohio, a small town 20 miles south of Columbus, the state capital. Mel took a part time position in Columbus. We worked opposite schedules to take care of baby Mel.
Two years later, I left the position to start my own company, Therapy Services and Consulting, Inc. Mel gave me his encouragement and support. We offered physical, occupational and speech therapy services. Like a dream come true, my company grew from 1 to 25 therapists in a year’s time. I was busy traveling all over the state, so I appointed Mel as vice president of the company to help manage the company’s finances.
Our business prospered, but our marriage started to fall apart. The company kept me busy working 14-16 hours a day, 6-7 days a week. I hardly had time for my family. Mel was busy doing housework, managing the company’s finances, and working part time at night. Most evenings I arrived home at 8:30 to relieve Mel so he could go to work. He took care of the baby during the day and I took care of him at night. I also worked on my growing pile of paperwork until three o'clock in the mornings.
When baby Mel turned 4, he asked for a baby brother or sister. With serious thought, we decided to have another baby. It was a painful time in our lives. I had multiple miscarriages and the hormonal roller coaster was difficult on my body and emotions. I went through a procedure called hysterosalpingography. X-rays were taken of my reproductive tract after a dye was injected. It revealed a bicornuate or heart-shaped uterus which caused my multiple miscarriages.
My then physician, Dr. Ting, consoled me by saying I already had one miracle. The same miracle might not happen to me twice. That harsh reality propelled me into depression. My office manager noticed the change in my demeanor, so she invited me to her church in Amanda. I had a profound experience that day. I felt God’s presence as He spoke to me. I decided to invite Jesus to live in my heart. It was then I felt the burden I carried lift off. God healed my emotional pain. I experienced peace.
When I arrived for my 6-week follow-up visit with Dr. Ting, he proudly announced that I was pregnant. Mel and I were surprised but very happy. Not only did God heal me of my emotional pain and gave me peace beyond my human understanding, He gave me the desire of my heart - to have another baby.
My pregnancy seemed to progress normally until my blood work came back. The result was “suspicious” for a Down Syndrome baby. I was devastated. I believed the baby in my womb was a gift from God. I refused to accept the diagnosis. I looked for answers in the Word of God. I went through amniocentesis which sampled my amniotic fluid using a hollow needle inserted into my uterus. It screened for developmental abnormalities in the fetus.
While waiting for the test result which took three weeks, Mel and I were called to a meeting by the genetics counselor. She gave us a choice to either abort or keep the baby. Mel and I prayed earnestly and cried out to God to protect our baby. We were afraid of the uncertainty that lay before us, nevertheless we decided to keep the baby. God heard our prayer. The subsequent test result revealed a normal baby boy. Christian was born four weeks premature by way of C-section. Yet again, God demonstrated His love and faithfulness to us. We asked, and He answered.
While we saw God’s hand through His blessings, Mel and I continued to drift apart. We also drifted away from Him. Making money became the center of our lives. The children seemed happy, but Mel and I remained miserable. When we talked, it was usually about the business or the children. We stopped doing things together. We didn’t have time for each other. More importantly, Mel felt that he was losing his identity because people referred to him as “Ofelia’s husband.” He said our relationship had turned into an employer-employee relationship. It was the end of our romance, he said. We became “roommates.”
I hardly slept as stress escalated at home. More money didn’t make us happy. We started to feel empty. God knocked. We ignored Him. We didn’t realize we had a heart-shaped hole in our hearts that only God could fill. We needed God in our lives.
In 1995, Mel saw an advertisement for Tickle Me Sweet, a local sweet shop business. It was for sale. I felt he needed it to reclaim his identity, so I agreed to buy the business. We were fully occupied with our physical therapy business, so we hired someone else to run and manage the sweets shop. That didn’t work out. Mel ended up baking the cookies when he got off work at 1:30 in the morning, and I made the hand-dipped chocolate candies before I went to work.
Three months later, both of us became ill and were emotionally drained. We were juggling more balls than we could manage. One night, Mel saw me crying quietly and was moved to close Tickle Me Sweet. We lost money in the process, but it was the best decision we made for the sake of our family. God knocked. And yet again, we ignored Him. But because God created us with free will, He allowed us to make our choices and decisions. He never left and abandoned us. God was with us still.
Our stressful relationship continued, and our marriage suffered. I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia when I was 39 years old caused by lack of sleep and rest. Despite the throbbing pain from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet, I continued to run the company. And as before, Mel did everything else - managed the financial aspect of the company, cared for our children, and did household chores, plus worked on a part time job. The increasing tension at home worsened. Our marriage hit rock bottom and we almost divorced. The prolonged stress and depression pushed me to have suicidal thoughts. My physician put me on anti-depressants to control my symptoms.
After nineteen years, Mel pleaded with me to scale our company down so it won’t be so difficult to manage. I agreed. But years of fibromyalgia took a heavy toll on my body. In 2009, I was diagnosed with hypertension (high blood pressure) and tachycardia (elevated heart rate). I was taking a combination of medications to control my symptoms. I was desperate. God knocked. I continued to ignore Him. I still didn’t comprehend without God, my life was in chaos. I fell gravely ill while my relationship with my husband and children suffered. I needed God to bring order in my life.
In the spring of 2010, I attended a healing school at church. The team prayed for me to be healed of fibromyalgia, hypertension, and tachycardia. My fibromyalgia symptoms decreased after the prayer, and one year to the day I became pain free. However, I continued to take my anti-depressant and high blood pressure medications. My depression and hypertension persisted. My healing was a work in progress but it did progress. I thanked God every day. The healing I received encouraged me to join the healing team.
My chaotic life gradually turned around for the better since I started leaning towards God for guidance and counsel. God also drew Mel and me closer to Him as we sought His will in our lives. When we put God in the center of our relationship, our broken marriage started to heal. The blossoming romance we once had was fully restored. To my surprise, Mel proposed to get married at church. It was 22 years too late, I thought. We initially planned our church wedding one year after we got married by the Justice of the Peace, but our premature baby steered our focus on him. At the age of 53, in an Oleg Cassini wedding dress (which Mel picked) I walked down the aisle as he waited for me at the altar. June 18, 2011 was the day we renewed our vows – the vows we wrote to each other.
We officially dissolved Therapy Services and Consulting, Inc. on December 31, 2012. I started work as a contract Physical Therapist at a home care agency in Lancaster, Ohio with a flexible schedule. With the kids in college, Mel and I had an empty nest. I organized our first mission trip to the Philippines in January 2015. God allowed me to see incredible miracles, signs and wonders during the mission trip.
When we returned to the US, God gave me a vision of a broken vessel and gave me a scripture found in Psalm 147:3 that says, “He heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds.” (NKJV) The scripture was fitting, it reminded me of the wounds and scars from my broken heart. God gave me compassion, healed my broken heart, and nursed my wounds to health.
I asked our pastor, Pastor Chris, if I could turn one room at our church into a healing room. He agreed. Today, not only do we use the healing room for healing prayer, we also use it for deliverance. God sends the broken in body; He sends the broken in mind, soul and spirit to the healing room for prayer. On May 31, 2016, I retired from physical therapy to do full time ministry.
One day in June 2016, I woke up with dizziness and nausea. My son, Mel who was in medical school, checked my blood pressure and found it was dangerously low. He advised me to skip the day’s dosage and continued to monitor my blood pressure. It gradually increased and stayed within normal limits without medications. It had been almost two years since the last time I took my blood pressure medications. Not only did God heal my blood pressure issues, He healed my depression as well.
At 60 years old, I am happy to report I no longer have health issues. The Bible says, “Remain in me and follow my teachings. If you do this, then you can ask for anything you want, and it will be given to you.” ~ John 15:7 (ICB). I can truly say that I am one of God’s miracles! He saved me from destruction, restored my marriage, and healed all my afflictions and diseases.
I organized our second mission trip to the Philippines in January 2017. We conducted seven healing schools and four miracle services. A healing team sprouted out of Davao City because of the healing school we conducted there. After our miracle service in Dipolog, I was invited to help feed the hungry children in Manukan Beach, Zamboanga del Norte. I had a profound experience that day, and I heard God say, “Feed my sheep.” To obey God, I partnered with the local church in the area and started sending them monthly financial support.
When I returned to the U.S. four months ago, I started an advocacy called Forgotten Children of the Philippines. Through social media and word-of-mouth, I was invited to speak at churches about it. After a couple of weeks, I was able to collect 130 family meals, children’s clothes, shoes, and toys as part of the children’s Christmas surprise. My friends in the U.S. and social media gave donations to fund the children’s weekly feeding program.
At present, we are feeding hungry children in two locations: Manukan Beach and Dipolog City Cemetery in Zamboanga del Norte.
I obey God’s mandate because the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has appointed me to bring good news to the poor, comfort the brokenhearted, proclaim that captives will be released, the blind shall see, the downtrodden shall be freed from their oppressors, and that God is ready to give blessings to all who come to Him.
I obey God’s mandate because the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has appointed me to bring good news to the poor, comfort the brokenhearted, proclaim that captives will be released, the blind shall see, the downtrodden shall be freed from their oppressors, and that God is ready to give blessings to all who come to Him.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believed in him shall not perish but have eternal life. It was through this grace that we believe in Him. Nothing we did could ever earn this salvation, for it was God’s grace that brought us to Christ, so no one will ever be able to boast. Salvation is never a reward for good works or human striving.
Are you weary, carrying a heavy burden? “Come to me, says the Lord. He will refresh your life, for He is your oasis. Simply join your life with His. Learn His ways and you’ll discover that He’s gentle, humble and easy to please. You will find refreshment and rest in Him. For all that He requires of you will be pleasant and easy to bear.” - Matthew 11:28-30 (TPT).
STORY PHOTOS
ReplyDeletethanks for sharing post nice information provide me keep it work.
physical therapy New Jersey