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Tuesday
11 February 2003
Dear Editor,
I have known Enrique Villalobos for at least twelve
years. We are both members of the International
Baptist Church, originally located in the Baptist
Mission in San Pedro, but for two years now in our own
beautiful building on a hilltop in Guachipelin,
Escazu.
Enrique was one of the first in the congregation to
realize that we could never grow, crammed into the
small chapel we were using. He encouraged us to plan
ahead, and to step forward in faith, believing that if
we launched out in faith, trusting God to supply our
needs, He would in fact do so. This was indeed our
experience.
Enrique had become a committed Christian some years
previously, in 1985, I believe. He was baptized by
immersion in 1989, his testimony of a life dedicated
to loving and obeying God, and serving his fellow man.
Being a very private person, he went about doing good
on the quiet. Several Christmases he gave me large
sums of money to buy gifts for needy children, and
organizations like Amor En La Calle benefited from
this.
For the last four years a busload of kids from that
street mission enjoyed three days at the beach, many
of them seeing the ocean for the first time. I told him once of a youngster I knew who was born in
CR to a young widow illegally in this country. The
boy had never been registered, and at 18 could not get
any documentation. Enrique labored long and hard to
get Francisco his papers.
I told him once of a group of natives in Talamanca who
were so remote that teams of medical workers from a
church in Tibas had to walk for eight hours after
leaving their 4-wheel drives in order to reach them,
carrying all their equipment on their backs. Their
next trip in was by helicopter!
Radio Station Faro del Caribe accommodated the Baptist
Church for Sunday services while our temple was being
built. In turn, Enrique contributed generously to
their own building program.
In La Victoria de Sarapiqui where he operated an
aerial spray service, largely for banana plantations,
he constructed beside his taller a soccer field,
basketball court, picnic area, swimming pool, and
chapel for his employees and the local residents. The
chapel was available to other churches, and the parish
priest used it on occasion. Enrique’s name was seldom
mentioned: managers handled everything.
In his loan business, he received loans from friends
and invested the money as he saw fit. The office
contained a model of the building being constructed
for the Baptist Church. His friends were encouraged
to contribute voluntarily to the building project, and
many did. Because of this, some people have referred
to it as the church Enrique built. Well, he certainly
helped greatly, but my position as Presidente of the
Junta enables me to know that there were many others
who gave sacrificially, and who must not be
overlooked.
In our church a year ago we had an older man, native
of one of the islands, who was alone and almost
penniless. Several of us had helped him on occasion,
and when he was suddenly hospitalized with what turned
out to be a terminal illness, I mentioned it to
Enrique. He immediately handed me $1000 to pay
nursing costs, and promised more when needed. Only
our deacons (who received the money) knew this until
now. Our friend received a decent burial at Enrique’s
expense.
One more story remains to be told, very briefly, and
that is the story of Keith Nash. Keith attended our
church regularly until his serious illness in November
of 1999, He usually sat in on my Sunday morning Bible
Study, and was a regular at a home Bible Study in the
west end, where he impressed with his keen analytical
mind. He was my guest for Christmas dinner in 1998.
His sudden hospitalization with meningitis resulted in
a phone call from neighbors to next of kin, his son
Michael, in Hamilton, Ontario.
Michael rushed down, found the receipt for his dad’s
loan to Enrique, and tried to cash it. When I met him
in the hospital a few days later, he attacked our
church claiming that Enrique was its financial
director! (He was fiscal.) I formed the opinion that
son was more interested in inheritance than his
father’s health. A few months later he had his lawyer wrote Enrique saying that since Keith would never
recover his mental faculties, his money should be
handed over to the son.
The interesting thing in this is that Keith had never
mentioned Michael to anyone in the church, and had
named a local lady as his beneficiary. I saw Keith
regularly through all of 2001 and most of 2002 (and
personally delivered more than $100 000 to him) and in
no way is Keith sharp enough, at 90, to handle
financial affairs. The courts will decide what to do
with his funds.
Enrique understood human nature, and told me more than
a year ago that he would greatly restrict his Sunday
offerings because there were some people who were less
than generous, thinking “Let E. do it”. He
nevertheless contributed as his gift the landscaping
around the church, and took a vital interest in the
building itself. When we dedicated it to the glory of
God last March, it was, (and remains) debt-free.
I can’t tell you from personal knowledge stories of
other churches he has helped, but they include the
Salvation Army and many small churches in the
Metropolitan area, and as far as Nicoya and Drake
Bay. Gifts were usually made in cash, anonymously,
and I was at times the intermediary. Enrique believed
in giving generously. As a Baptist he believed that
the top ten percent of income belongs to God, and we
give our gifts after that. That was the secret of his
financial success. He would tell me, “You can’t
outgive God”.
And if you want to know why bad things happen to good
people, read the Old Testament stories of Esther and
Mordecai, the Book of Job, and Daniel chapter 6. The
parallels with Luis Enrique Villalobos Camacho are
striking!
Ron Tucker
Presidente de la Junta Directiva de la Iglesia Bautista
Internacional
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