By Eddie Broussard
When I think about Roy and Monica Rosales, I can’t help but notice how God has led their lives. They grew up in Mexico, were discipled by Navigators, and became key laborers on a team there. Then the Lord called them to move to Chile. Following Jesus to the nations was an even bigger adventure than Roy and Monica were anticipating, and they learned some unexpected lessons.
Roy and Monica were each discipled one-on-one by Navigators they met in or before college. They had seen many examples of married couples doing ministry; so by the time they were married in 2010, they both knew they wanted to host Bible studies in their home. They pursued intentional community by serving with the Navigator team in Aguascalientes.
Early in their married life, Roy and Monica prayed about how long they would stay in Aguascalientes. They felt led to invest ten years of their lives in that city. They bought a house and put down strong roots there. But they had also long been exposed to the Navigator Core, and they had a desire to go to the nations.
In the ninth year of their marriage, Monica received a job offer to work with the UN Regional Commission in Chile. Roy and Monica forged connections with the Navigator team in Santiago and transitioned to that city a year later. Their intention was not to go and be foreign heroes, but rather to learn everything they could from another culture. They had no way of knowing how important that mindset would become.
In February 2020, they took one of the last flights to Chile before the turmoil of the pandemic threw that country into total lockdown two weeks later. They quarantined in their own apartment for two weeks, but they hadn’t even managed to buy all the furniture yet. They were unable to go out and buy food because a glitch in the government’s online system prevented them from getting the necessary permits with their foreign ID numbers. At one point they began rationing out the food from their refrigerator and calculated that it would only last them another week… far short of the first available opportunity to get a grocery delivery 20 days away! The fear of being trapped in an unfamiliar place was very real.
A key Scripture for them was Isaiah 43:3-5, because they sensed God taking care of them in the midst of an out-of-control situation. Roy says, “I saw that God has assigned value to each of us by paying for us with the blood of Christ. Even when we were miles from home and feeling the fear of the pandemic, God was asking us to be brave. We did not have that bravery. But I saw that God would give me strength, and I had to rely on him. I could be brave in my decisions and commitments, even if I didn’t feel that way emotionally.”
Roy and Monica’s new teammates in Santiago were Charlie and Marcia Olave, also the country leaders of the Chilean Navigators. The Olaves invited Roy and Monica to move in with them “for a couple weeks.” They ended up staying for five months! During that time, Roy and Monica had ample opportunity to learn not only cooking, culture, and the reasons why Chileans behave and think the way they do, but also to watch the Olaves as they led their national ministry team.
Monica commented, “That relationship was a big lesson from our stay in Chile. I had big expectations that we would have 15 young people studying the Bible with us as we had at home. I thought fruit meant having a lot of people reading the Bible. But God taught me that’s not always the case. A lot of times the fruit is reflected in a deep relationship, in loving one another, in having forgiveness for your family… in a hundred different ways, and that is the fruit of the Spirit through you. We became more humble here in Chile. We feel like we didn’t do anything here, but seeing the impact on other people just through our friendship is huge.”
One key takeaway from the time in Chile was to trust God for results. Roy said, “Sometimes you can get very focused on goals and lose what you’ve been gaining from the people you’ve been hanging out with. Sometimes you feel like you’re the tool in God’s hand, but it turns out that God is using others as his tools to do his work in your heart.”
Roy and Monica headed to Chile with attitudes of being humble learners, and God used that season in their lives to draw them closer to himself. They said, “We think God put us here to transform us, not to transform the ministry here.”
Now Roy and Monica are planning to move back to Mexico and seek the Lord’s direction for their next season. They are looking forward to applying what they’ve learned in their future ministry, however that may look.
