By Mark Ellis

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Rolyn Cadiz

When Rolyn Cadiz, a single Filipina missionary to Burma, got a call about some parents who wanted to give up their baby, she was wary.

“I said I didn’t want it,” she recalls. Rolyn was 32 at the time, unmarried, and very focused on her work along the Thai-Burma border with refugee children.

She went to meet the parents. “Why are you giving up this baby?” she asked.

“If we buy milk for her we won’t have money for ourselves to live,” they told her.

“Won’t you miss your baby? Won’t you cry when she leaves?”

“No, no,” they insisted.

Rolyn adopted the baby and gave her a new name, Zoe Elise, which means ‘life consecrated to God.’

Shortly after the adoption, she discovered the dark-haired infant had an eye infection. She decided she would take her in for treatment.

The night before they went in, Rolyn couldn’t sleep. “God made me intercede for Zoe for the entire night. I couldn’t stop praying for her,” she recalls.

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Bible stories in lobby of Kwai River Christian Hospital

The next day, Rolyn took Zoe to the Kwai River Christian Hospital in Sangkhlaburi, Thailand. She discovered the eye infection was more serious than imagined. “The doctor told me if we didn’t bring her here she could have been blind.”

Then she was startled by even more shocking news. Zoe tested positive for HIV.

“That’s when I understood why God had me intercede for her name.”

Rolyn received the test results with surprising equanimity. “When I learned the news I didn’t panic. I didn’t cry.”

Very early the next morning, while it was still dark, the Lord awakened Rolyn once more. Rolyn stared up toward heaven and inquired of the Lord. What now God? What do you want me to do?

Then God impressed on Rolyn’s heart: Zoe’s life will be a living testimony to those who don’t know me. And everyone who comes to know her will know that I am God.

Tears flooded Rolyn’s eyes. “Thank you that she will fulfill her destiny,” she cried to the Lord. “And thank you she is healed. Thank you that what you promised in her life will be done.”

After Rolyn’s neighbors discovered that Zoe was HIV positive, they refused to babysit or help Rolyn in any way. Rolyn carried Zoe everywhere, because no one would watch her.

One of the neighbors asked if Rolyn would start treating Zoe for HIV. “It would take money for all this medication,” Rolyn replied. “I have no money, but I have the Word of God and that’s more than enough for me.”

“Jesus even raised the dead,” she continued. “If God said he will heal her, He will heal her. I know He has a great plan for her life.”

The neighbor turned away, shaking her head, marveling at Rolyn’s faith.

When Zoe was about 18-months-old, Rolyn took her back to River Kwai Christian Hospital to be re-tested for HIV-AIDS.

A nurse in the hallway called to Rolyn: “Have you heard the results?”

A faint smile lit up Rolyn’s face. “I knew in my heart she was already healed,” she says. Then came the momentous news. Zoe tested negative for HIV!

“I kept the positive and the negative results,” she exults. “I know God healed her. She had no medications except healthy food.”

After Zoe turned four, the neighbors who once shunned mother and daughter slowly started to come around. “They saw how happy she is. Zoe was always smiling and waving to everybody. They called her ‘happy baby.’”

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Zoe today

Rolyn continues her work from her base of operations in Sangkhlaburi. She oversees a home for girls there and is starting a youth center in a Burmese village. Rolyn organizes medical teams to go deep into the jungle where health needs are often unaddressed.

“The main problem here is trafficking and child labor,” she notes. “We want to help families stay together.” Currently she is helping 10 families with microfinance loans for sustainable projects.

Rolyn disciples leaders in the area and leads an outreach every Saturday. “I want a church in every village,” she says.

For the last 18 months, Rolyn has battled her own health challenge: tumors in her back that left her immobilized for several months and a cancerous thyroid that was removed two weeks ago.

Yet two weeks after her surgery she appears to be a picture of health and vitality, a dynamic lioness for God. A few weeks ago, she organized a church planting conference in partnership with Church Multiplication Coalition, a Filipino organization.

“Since I came here God has provided everything,” she marvels. “People wonder why I’m smiling all the time. They see I don’t worry. It’s God who gives me this joy. All of this is from God.”

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