17/07/2026
When Typhoon Sinlaku hit Saipan, Jose Rios — known to many in the Kagman community as Tata Joe — fell from a ladder and fractured his skull in several places. He was rushed to the hospital, where he slipped into a coma and lay unresponsive, hovering between life and death for weeks.
With limited medical care available for a head trauma and a brain aneurysm that kept growing, several people urged his wife to take him off life support. They said he was brain dead and would never recover. A neurosurgeon flew in to assess him and concluded that surgery was impossible — it would mean instant death. Tata Joe was on life support with no medical evidence that a recovery was possible.
But he was not alone. Across the Guam-Micronesia Mission — and well beyond our islands — believers united in prayer for Tata Joe. From CNMI to Guam, the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, and the Marshall Islands, prayers were lifted and knees were bent for a man that many of those praying had never met.
After weeks of being in a coma one day Tata Joe opened his eyes and began speaking with the medical staff. One of the first things he told his nurse was that he missed his church. The nurse was stunned that this — of all things — was what was on his mind.
Today, Tata Joe is home. He can walk. He can talk. He is making the recovery many said was impossible. Recently he set out on his own for a walk, and his family found him sitting under the mango tree beside the Kagman Seventh-day Adventist Church. When they asked why he had walked all that way, he said he was waiting for the church to open. He was reminded that the doors would open tomorrow — for Sabbath.
He hasn't been able to attend church since his accident. Tomorrow, he will. His clothes are already laid out and ready.
As his nurse said, the prayers of the Seventh-day Adventist members are powerful — because no one expected him to recover. But God did. The united prayers of believers throughout the world were answered.
Welcome back, Tata Joe. We've saved you a seat.
