I Am My Mother's Daughter!: God of Mercy

My Mother

Mother, alongside you, I learned the way to life.

You showed me the path of truth. You taught me to love!

When sadness comes to my heart, I wish to be like the wind,

and blow until I can reach you.

In the midst of weeping and joy, I speak to you,

you caress me, you embrace me, and you fill me with your love.

I don’t forget, not even for a second, what you did for me.

Those nights you spent without sleep, always thinking of me!

You smiled at me and made me happy.

You also cried, and you were by my side.

In your heart, you searched for sweet words to comfort me.

You gave me your love, left me your faith, and instilled in me the values which I saw in you.

I thank God for your infinite love.

I have never known a mother like you.

I know, mother of mine, that like you there are none!

Saily Fuentes Santos

Acknowledgement

F irst of all I accolade all the glory and honor to the Creator of all things, The Lord our God; To His beloved son, Jesus, our Savior; The Holy Spirit, who directs my thoughts and governs my words. Without Him, I acknowledge that I can do nothing.

To my dear mother, who believed that one day, I would be able to write her story. The men in my life: my father, my brother, my husband and my children. I thank all my uncles, relatives and friends who have played a part in this story.

I want to acknowledge two very important people in my spiritual life: Pastors Freddy and Blanca Lagos. Thank you for the revelation and confidence that God has given you to impart the Word that has transformed the lives of many, especially mine.

I want to thank the two precious couples who, one day, thought of me and presented me to the Gospel of Jesus Christ: Omar and Neirelis Soto, and Silvano and Juana Delgado. I also want to thank each one of you who have this book in your hands. May God always bless you.

How excellent is your loving kindness, O God! Therefore, the children of men put their trust under the shadow of your wings.

Psalm 36:7

I write thanks

to you, Jesus

I write thanks to you, Jesus

F IRST, I asked God to take me by the hand and write with me. I commended all the success to the Lord and began writing this book. I asked the Lord Jesus to entrust his precious Holy Spirit, by imparting every word that you are reading here, right now. I acknowledge that without His help, it would not have been, in any way, possible for me to develop this talent- writing. It was an ability that laid dormant in me for many years and it only awakened when I was ready to accept Jesus of Nazareth as my Savior. I learned to trust him. I granted God all the legal rights to be the only one to manage my life. Make it a point to seek Jesus today, and you will discover how wonderful it is to pay tribute, glory and honor to the one true God. Long to receive all that He has to give you. I assure you, with my testimony, that they are many and they are formidable. The simplest way to find out is to know Jesus. Yes, it is through His son that we can get to the Father. Challenge yourself! Develop all the talents you have inside, with which you were created. They are blessings to your life and spiritual growth. Ask Jesus Christ to come into your heart today, and start a new and better phase of your life.

To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

Revelation 3:21

In whom I put my trust

In whom, I searched for one day, and found the love I needed.

Thank you, because upon wanting to know you,

you have already known me.

You have created me. In my mother’s womb, you have formed me.

It is through you that I have life.

I know you have been waiting for me.

With your arms wide open and full of love, you received me.

In your chest, I embraced you crying until I no longer had tears.

You have taken care of me!

Your love and mercy have reached out to me.

I ask forgiveness for having denied you,

for not having known you before.

How many times have you called me to give peace to my soul, and

I never answered you. My life, without you, continued.

But now that I know you, I no longer live for me.

It is You who lives in me.

Are you my bread and my light,

my shield and my strength.

You are my sigh as I awake, and my confidence as I sleep.

Without you, I have nowhere to go.

You love me like a daughter. You are my father in Heaven.

I love you more than I love myself.

I love you so much that, not even for a second,

I want to be separated from you.

Perhaps no one will remember me one day;

after all, who I am that they should not forget?

Everything can end, but you, Jesus, will remain for all eternity.

Thank you, Lord, for your beloved son Jesus Christ.

Saily Fuentes Santos

I Am My

Mother’s Daughter

My dear mother

O N THE 28th of March 1959, a new creation was born - my mother. She was a daughter of humble parents who gave her the name: Nurys Dolores Santos Leyva. Upon the birth of my mother, my grandparents, Walter and Librada Buena Ventura, had three other children: Neida, Neysa and Walter. After my mother came into the world, they conceived two more daughters, Delmis and Tamara. All grew in perfect health. Material deprivation did not hamper them from struggling to get ahead. My grandmother worked hard for the welfare of each of her children, and thus was able to give them all the best. Thanks to her dignified efforts, she was able to provide each of her children education.

Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathers by labor shall increase.

Proverbs 13:11

My mother’s childhood left her many memories, some good, while others, a little sad. But the most important and memorable for her had always been the constant help and support she received from her mother. As she grew, she began realizing the manner and conditions by which she lived, alongside her parents and brothers.

Poverty: a challenge

Together, they set out to overcome poverty, standing by their plans to have a different kind of life. Poverty was a challenge which the whole family had to face. It repeatedly knocked on the door of their humble home. Poverty bursted when they least expected it, causing their economic circumstances to dwindle.

My mother became a young teenager, with an eye fixed towards the future. They faced difficult economic environments, but they were never discouraged. They stood firm in their struggle to move forward.

The day she turned fifteen had arrived. She ceased being a child to become a young entrepreneur. She finished secondary education with honors. Her grades were outstanding. She described how everything had been, when she was young. She told me, in detail, how she would pass her time studying and took notice of everything around her. She cultivated and developed the natural intelligence which she had as a gift, being acknowledged in her class as one the most studious and most disciplined. Among her good qualities included being respectful and obedient, which she had always been towards her parents, siblings, other relatives, and friends. Thanks to her efforts to succeed, and her outstanding grades, she was able to enroll and attend graduate studies at the University of Higher Academics. My mother knew well that she would, through her efforts and the fruits of her education, obtain change in her situation and way of life. Once she embarked on pursuing higher education, at a very young age, she had to leave behind the family which she had always lived with. It was necessary for the good of everyone. From childhood, she had to face different setbacks, along with some material needs. But, regardless of what she had to face, none discouraged her from continuing to stand firm, fixing her gaze toward a brighter future.

Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace.

Psalm 37:37

Big dreamers

My young, beautiful, and lovely mother met the prince of her dreams: a tender gentleman of many qualities, and extreme intelligence. The fascinating youngster that captivated her heart was José Fernando Fuentes Castillo - my father. The two met in the prime of their lives, were entrepreneurs, filled with goals to reach, and big dreams to follow. Their love, while they were yet students, turned into a formal relationship with the approval of their parents. They then decided to take this beautiful and passionate love into a relationship bound by marriage. My parents were not only of the same age, but they were also greatly united in their visions and goals, which they longed to fulfill in the course of their lives. The marriage of my parents began to bear fruit with the arrival of their first child. The LORD God had chosen me and formed me in my mother’s womb. Overjoyed, they told their family and friends about the anticipation of their first fruit, based on their love and understanding. While continuing their studies, they happily awaited my arrival without losing focus on their projects and goals, which they both had laid out.

It was no coincidence

I never asked my parents if I was planned or not. Today, I know that it was God who formed me. It was He who determined my birth. He blew his breath unto me, gave me voice, and his eyes gave me life. He gave me a name and chose my parents in a very special way. He took his magnificent time in creating me. The idea that we belong to our Heavenly Father is amazing.

I was born on August 23, 1978, in the province of Holguin, Cuba. I lived in the small town of Rafael Freyre [in the province of Holguin] until I was fifteen-years-old. I spent my childhood and part of my adolescent years there. It was a place where I cultivated friendships and where I had my best years of schooling. We eventually moved to Velasco, a renowned village. For God, there are no coincidences. He planned out everything. He knows how, when, and where our lives will be.

For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

2 Corinthians 5:1

It was God who created us

In the beginning, God created Heaven and Earth. And the earth was without form. It laid empty, covered with darkness and water. Then the Spirit of God moved upon the waters and God said, let there be light, and there was light. And God saw the light was good. And God divided the light from the darkness. The Lord is the creator of heaven and earth, and through him, all things are made. He formed everything. He created everything.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Genesis 1:27

So we’re not here for no reason. We benefited from extraordinary purposes. Designs with which we were created to respond to each of our calling and to comply with all that the Lord wants us to do here on earth. God wants to be gratified for how he created you.

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Genesis 2:7

The Lord God created us to glorify, praise and worship Him. Long before he formed us in the womb of our mothers, He knew how we would come to be. He gave us names. It was He who chose the date in which we come into this world. We are a unique. There is no one, and there exists none like you and me. You are not a mistake. You are God’s creation: perfect and wonderful. We were created to bless His holy name.

For you have possessed my reins: you have covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise you; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are your works; and that my soul knows right well. My substance was not hid from you, when I was made in secret, and curiously worked in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes did see my substance, yet being imperfect; and in your book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

Psalm 139:13-16

The fruits of marriage

My parents were taught in different fields of higher education. They were together in the same subsidiary of academic university. Their relationship was going well. It seemed to them that each one of their goals and dreams were within their reach. They bested healthy job perspectives and dominated at university level. Both of them focused on realizing their dreams. They thought they were approaching the finish line. They were about to obtain all that they had been wanting to achieve. What is essential in completing the formula that would lead them to full prosperity remained absent in their lives- Jesus Christ. In all human knowledge, there lacked the direction of God. In my family, there wasn’t one who knew Jesus Christ. Nobody knew Him, and it brought undesirable consequences and negative results.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart; and lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths.

Proverbs 3:5.6

A happy family and a stable marriage continued to bear fruit. On August 17, 1982, my mother gave birth to my little brother, Fernando Fuentes Santos. The joy became even greater with the arrival of a son. My brother grew strong and healthy. Months later, my parents began going through a marital crisis that no one [not even themselves] expected them to have. Their relationship became a conflict. They lost the love that they once sworn to have for a lifetime. I was able to perceive the changes taking place in the house where I lived. Their lack of maturity stood in their way. They could not get out of that difficult situation. Both were trapped, with no way out of that looming separation.

And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.

Matthew 13:58

Inexplicable suffering

At the age of four, I began to suffer the irreversible consequences that came with the divorce. Pain, despair, and thousands of unanswered questions ran around and occupied a great portion of my imagination. Nobody could give me an explanation. The relationship and coexistence between my parents spoke for itself; it became intolerable. Breathing in the same space became impossible for them, so living under the same roof became unbearable. Because of their youth and the lack of experience, my parents were not able to find the help needed to save that wonderful love they had, as students. My young and inexperienced mother was not able to find a way to save their marriage. Both inadvertently fell into the hands of the enemy, who rammed their minds with lies. Satan was the one in charge of destroying my family. There was no family or friends who opposed the break-up of their marriage. They received no good advice. They lacked the help of God to forgive and forget, in order to get a second chance.

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Ephesians 6:12

For a short time, we had the joy of living together as a family, close to a father. My little brother and I were unable to grow within a family where peace and harmony abounded. Whenever we thought we would carry on smiling was when we wept the most. We spent years demanding to have a happy family. The absence of a father consumed us. Satan hindered so many dreams and goals that my parents, at one time, planned to have. The day I began to truly trust God, was the day I realized that I had not forgiven my father. In a way, anger, resentment, and rejection remained in my heart and it did much damage to my self-esteem. Although my father was not very affectionate with me, I know he loved me.

That is why, today, I urge every couple to continue keeping the love and respect [you have for each other]. Above all, make your children happy, just like how you seek your own happiness, daily. Do not be overcome by the enemy. Do not let your children find themselves in need of a home, away from a father or a mother, and facing difficulties and challenges without guidance and without direction, devoid of love. Before hastily making the choice to have a divorce, note that