Episode 30: Rudy’s Race: His Legacy After The Finish Line

Jacob Paul: Welcome to the Truth in Love podcast with your host, Kimberly Faith. The Truth in Love podcast seeks to present God’s timeless truth through the lens of his remarkable love.

Kimberly Faith: Welcome back to the Truth in Love podcast. I have a very, very special guest with me today, Stephanie Zevallos.

Stephanie Zevallos:  Hello.

Kimberly Faith:  Am I saying your name correctly?

Stephanie Zevallos:  Yes. Perfect. 

Kimberly Faith: And Stephanie, thank you so much for inviting me into your home to record this podcast about a very remarkable member of your family, Rudy Junior, also known just as Junior, right?

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes, correct.

Kimberly Faith: Okay. So, you know, we’ve been sitting here at your dining room table talking about the life of your son, Rudy, and what a blessing that he was. And just for the listener’s sake, I kind of want to just give an introduction to who, Rudy, was. Rudy was your son. 

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes.

Kimberly Faith: He tragically died at age 18 on 10/05/2024. 

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes. 

Kimberly Faith: Completing one of his big life goals, which was a half marathon. 

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes. 

Kimberly Faith: And actually completed it in under two hours, which was a big goal. 

Stephanie Zevallos: Which is a huge deal. 

Kimberly Faith: Huge deal.

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes. People don’t usually do that on their first go around.

Kimberly Faith: Well, the more I have sit here at the table and learned about Rudy, the more I’ve just realized what a remarkable young man he was.

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes. He was an amazing kid

Kimberly Faith: So let’s just talk about Rudy for a minute. Rudy Junior.

Stephanie Stevallos:  Yes. 

Kimberly Faith: Tell everybody about Rudy, just who he was and kind of his story up till the time of his tragic passing?

Stephanie Zevallos: He’s always been just a super athletic kid. He was in karate when he was three and four.

Kimberly Faith:  Oh my gosh.

Stephanie Zevallos: He did sports, football, soccer, every sport you can think of, boxing, jujitsu, wrestling, cross country, track. 

Kimberly Faith: Wow. 

Stephanie Zevallos: Yeah. He still holds the record at the middle school for the most push ups. 

Kimberly Faith:  That’s epic. That was in the Marine Corps. Right?

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes. 

Kimberly Faith: That makes a lot of sense. 

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes. 

Kimberly Faith: You know, he probably was doing push ups before he potty trained.

Stephanie Zevallos:  Absolutely. Yes. Yes.

Kimberly Faith:  And was it Rudy’s dream to go in the Marine Corps?

Stephanie Zevallos: It was. He always said he wanted to be a Marine from the time he was little. More specifically, Special Forces, Marine Corps Special Forces. And then kind of when he got to like eighth grade, ninth grade, he kind of was like, well, I want to be an entrepreneur, you know, a business owner. And then he kind of got back on the track of well, both things can be true.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. And so how did he come by his love of sports and athleticism? Is that you and your husband?

Stephanie Zevallos: Absolutely not. I have no idea. I don’t know. But he was built like a Greek god. So I don’t know where he got it from.

Kimberly Faith: Well, you’re beautiful. I met your husband earlier. He doesn’t look too bad. You know.

Stephanie Zevallos: He’s a man of few words.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. Yes. And actually, your husband is from Peru. Right?

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes. Yeah. He was born there. He came to The United States when he was four.

Kimberly Faith: Oh, wow.

Stephanie Zevallos: So Spanish was actually his first language, so he’s bilingual.

Kimberly Faith: So was junior bilingual as well?

Stephanie Zevallos: Not really. Unless Jim bro talk counts, but

Kimberly Faith:  Oh, yeah. Right. Bruh? 

Stephanie Zeallos: Yeah. Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: Well, and so Rudy was just living his best life.

Stephanie Zevallos: Yeah. Absolutely. He had already enlisted on September 11, you know, which is a remarkable day for our country.

Kimberly Faith:  Right. 

Stephanie Zevallos: You know, a sort of somber day. He spent it in Saint Louis swearing into the Marine Corps. So that’s what he was doing on September 11. 

Kimberly Faith: Wow.  And he was graduating early right?

Stephanie Zevallos: Yeah. Yeah. And that was three weeks before he passed away. He had sworn in and, you know, passed all his tests and all that stuff.

Kimberly Faith: So, go ahead.

Stephanie Zevallos: Sorry. He actually scored super high on the ASVAB, so he was able to pick whatever career he wanted to go into, which he wanted to go into intelligence. So that’s what he was going to do.

Kimberly Faith: Wow. You know, I just want to pause and just thank you for sharing Rudy with us.

Stephanie Zevallos: Absolutely. It brings my heart so much joy.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. I actually asked several of my friends to pray for me tonight and pray for you during this podcast. 

Stephanie Zevallos: Thank you.

Kimberly Faith: I can’t imagine being you and having this, you know, being willing to talk about especially, you know, it’s been, you know, just months really, since Rudy’s passing. But I know now, after talking with you, why you are so excited to talk about your son. 

Stephanie Zevalos: Yes. Yes.

Kimberly Faith:  And his story is so powerful and really kind of started almost a year before he died when he received Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.

Stephanie Zevallos: Yep. October twenty second of twenty three is when he got baptized.

Kimberly Faith: Okay. And so he was saved shortly before that. Right? He was born again?

Stephanie Zevallos:  Yes. Yes.

Kimberly Faith: And so you told me earlier that that happened because he was on the football team, and one of the kids on the football team brought him to youth group at a local, the First Baptist Church here in Lebanon. Is that right? 

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes. His friend Jack’s actually an amazing kid, very God focused and just an amazing kid. He had a huge impact on Junior. And, you know, I guess they kind of realized, I don’t know, the way the kids are these days is different, you know? They’re not ashamed, you know?

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. 

Stephanie Zevallos: Junior wasn’t ashamed to say that, you know, he was born again, baptized, and he had his life planned out.

Kimberly Faith: And, you know, what I found really interesting is he seemed like he was kind of one of the cool kids.

Stephanie Zevallos: 100%. Yes. 100 %.

Kimberly Faith: But he was completely unashamed of Jesus Christ.

Stephanie Zevallos: Yeah. And I think that made him cooler.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Well, yeah. And that’s so rare. 

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes. Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: It’s so rare. And, you know, just listening to your story. So, he actually, his life for Christ, and he was very active in his church, in his youth group, and obviously was even reading his Bible the day before he died or the day that he died. Right?

Stephanie Zevallos: Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: He actually ended up through his death bringing the rest of his family, you and your husband and his siblings to Christ.

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes. 100%. We weren’t really active. When I was growing up, my dad was active in church. My parents are divorced. My dad was really active in church. He’s in the worship band and all that stuff. But he used to drag us as teenagers and I, you know, 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah.

Stephanie Zevallos:  Nothing like junior, of course. Was just like, oh, my life. But, you know, and then when I became an adult and everything, you know, I never really did that with my kids. We’d go to church here and there, but not like steady or regular or anything. So Junior actually brought that to our family.

Kimberly Faith: That’s just remarkable. And this man, Jack, the young man, Jack, he was very instrumental in that. 

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes. 

Kimberly Faith:  Isn’t that just so powerful? To me, this story is so powerful because it shows the power of the testimony of one person who really lives what he believes. 

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes. Yes. 

Kimberly Faith: You know, we all live what we believe, but we choose the things we choose to believe in things that are so much less than God.

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes. Absolutely.

Kimberly Faith: We make ourselves slaves to our job or our looks or another person.

Stephanie Zevallos:  Or a million other things.

Kimberly Faith: A million other things.  And Rudy caught that. He caught that addiction. 

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes. 

Kimberly Faith: You know, there’s only one addiction I say that we are, that’s healthy, and that is to our relationship with God.

Stephanie Zevallos: I agree. I agree. Yes.

Kimberly Faith: So Rudy is going along in his last year in high school. He’s playing football. He’s going to church. He’s just having this dynamic. He’s studying his Bible. And I want to pause here. What Rudy never did anything halfway, did he? No. No.

Stephanie Zevallos: No. No.  Absolutely not. 

Kimberly Faith: Tell us about that. 

Stephanie Zevallos: Everything I don’t want to say it was a competition with him, but it was because you finished it and you finished it to the fullest.

Kimberly Faith: Yes.

Stephanie Zevallos: You know? That’s just the way he was when he was in eleventh grade. We were gym partners. So we would go to the gym all the time together. 

Kimberly Faith: Hilarious.

Stephanie Zevallos: We spent a lot of time at the gym. And I actually didn’t love going to the gym with him because he was just such a hard charger. But I did the stair stepper a lot. And so, you know, I conditioned myself, got really good at it and could stay on it for an hour at a time. 

Kimberly Faith: Oh, wow. That’s a lot.

Stephanie Zevallos: Pretty impressive.

Kimberly Faith: Yes, it is.

Stephanie Zevallos: He was not a cardio person at that time. He was just lifting weights. So, you know, he was trash talking like kids do. And I said, okay, well then we’ll have a competition. Let’s see who can do the most stair steps in forty minutes. So I shouldn’t say this out loud, but I checked him out of school for this competition. We went to the gym

Kimberly Faith:  I love that. Yes.

Stephanie Zevallos:  Yes. And there’s two stair steppers there. I gave him the shady one in the corner, and I used my regular one, and we went for forty minutes. And we get off these stair steppers, and he looks like he is just done, wiped out. And I’m like, there’s no way this kid beat me. I already know because I’ve been doing this for a year.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

Stephanie Zevallos:  I get off and I had 186 steps. He got off. He had 226. 

Kimberly Faith: Oh my goodness.

Stephanie Zevalllos: Yes. I said, you’re going back to school. I am done with this.

Kimberly Faith:  I love that.

Stephanie Zevallos:  Yeah.

Kimberly Faith:  I love, first of all, that you thought it was a good idea to play hooky with him. 

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes.

Kimberly Faith: You know, I love that.

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes.

Kimberly Faith: And then that he just cleaned your clock, you know?

Stephanie Zevallos: I was so unimpressed that day. I was just like this kid, but it just is a testament to his personality to where he, you know, almost killed himself on that thing, but he was not going to let me win because he just knew that he had it in him. He could do it. That’s his attitude with everything.

Kimberly Faith: And it sounds like that was his attitude about his relationship with God.

Stephanie Zevallos: Oh, yeah. 100%.

Kimberly Faith: I mean, who is I mean, you were telling me earlier that, you know, after he died, you all went into his room and his Bible was open with highlights to the book of Leviticus. 

Stephanie Zevallos: Right. 

Kimberly Faith: He was reading Leviticus.

Stephanie Zevallos: Yeah. He was going through the Bible. I think he would read five chapters a day or somewhere along those lines. And he would just highlight and he would take notes and then read them back.

Kimberly Faith:  He was studying.

Stephanie Zevallos:  He was studying the Bible. Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: That’s I mean, there are a lot of adult Christians who don’t even do that.

Stephanie Zevallos: No. 

Kimberly Faith:  You know, and not saying he was an adult, but you know, I have a very similar relationship with my son, and we call it, when he was younger, I don’t know if he’s may have grown out of it, we call it testosterone brain damage.

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes.

Kimberly Faith: And TBD for short. He’ll probably hate me for saying this, you know, on a podcast that’s going all over the place. But it’s a term that I’ve offered to share with people. You know, you can have this term and borrow it because it’s, you know, it’s pretty accurate.

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes. No. That is very good. Yes.

Kimberly Faith: But it sounds like you all had that kind of relationship.

Stephanie Zevallos: We did. 100 %. Yeah.

Kimberly Faith:  And that it was good. It was very good.

Stephanie Zevallos: It was beautiful. I wouldn’t change the time I had with my son for anything in the world. 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. 

Stephanie Zevallos: It was amazing. You know, and I think about it all the time. At first it was really hard, you know, I was crying, asking God why he would give me a son for eighteen years, you know, and then take him away.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

Stephanie Zevallos:  But then, you know, that kind of morphed into thank you for those eighteen years. I would take those any day over not ever having known him.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Wow. That’s so powerful. That’s so powerful. You know, when I was preparing for this podcast, I had mentioned earlier that I asked people to pray for us.

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes. 

Kimberly Faith: You know, because we want this message to be clear. We want Rudy’s testimony and your family’s testimony to be a clear message of the gospel. And what it’s like to know Jesus. Like, not just say, I’m a Christian, and then you live, you know, this life that looks nothing like what Christ lived.

Stephanie Zevallos: No, exactly. And I can tell you what it looks like to love Jesus and to know Jesus because I consider this one of the worst experiences a human being can possibly go through

Kimberly Faith: I agree with that . 

Stephanie Zevallos: to have to bury a child.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah, I totally agree.

Stephanie Zevallos: Nobody wants to do that. Nobody wants to think about that. You know, I know I didn’t ever. But somehow through the grace of God and, you know, through my own relationship with Jesus and through everyone else who prays for us, I just have so much comfort and so much peace. Like, I’m not weighed down every day

Kimberly Faith:  Right.

Stephanie Zevallos:  By grief, you know, which I know a lot of people are, a lot of parents are. You know, I’m in a lot of groups where people have lost, you know, their kids and people are just consumed with grief and hate and anger 

Kimberly Faith: Towards God.

Stephanie Zevallos: Towards God, definitely.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And I can’t put myself in your shoes. No way, I wouldn’t even try. But I also, in my profession, as a lawyer, have a lot of people who come in your situation.

Stephanie Zevallos: Yeah, I bet.

Kimberly Faith: And it’s like, I can’t even empathize with you because I haven’t gone through that and I don’t want to, you know.  But I can tell you that from my observation, the big difference between people who have a serious relationship with Christ and people who don’t is that when you have that serious relationship with the God of all comfort and the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who went through the loss of his only son.

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes.

Kimberly Faith: Right?

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes.

Kimberly Faith: And he is our comfort. His presence He  is the father of all goodness. He’s not the father of anything bad. Do bad things happen? Yeah.

Stephanie Zevallos: Absolutely. They do.

Kimberly Faith: Horrible bad things happened to Jesus. Because not because of him, because he came to pay for our sin so we could have his righteousness. 

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. And it’s through that that we’re able to enter into that relationship of comfort.

Stephanie Zevallos: I agree. You know, in my readings and, you know, just kind of stuff, my husband and I do a Bible study every night now together. We do it in bed, and, you know, I read to him different things. And one thing I’ve learned is that, you know, God never promised that we wouldn’t go through trials and tribulations and terrible things, you know? He’s not the cause of them.

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

Stephanie Zevallos: But he never promised we wouldn’t go through them. What he did promise is that he would be there.

Kimberly Faith: Yes.

Stephanie Zevallos: And, you know, he would comfort and walk with you through it. And that’s what he’s doing.

Kimberly Faith:  And we’re going to have,  Look. We’re going to have death, disease, trouble, car accidents, tornadoes like last night. 

Stephanie Zevallos: Right. Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: We’re going to have those things irrespective of whether we’re with God or not. 

Stephanie Zevallos: Exactly. 

Kimberly Faith: So, why not go through them with him instead of without him? 

Stephanie Zevallos: Because I can’t imagine doing this without having him, you know, without having God and religion and even our church family.

Kimberly Faith:  Right. 

Stephanie Zevallos: You know, just all the people that we’ve met through this happening, you know.

Kimberly Faith: I think it’s remarkable that you and your family came to Jesus after what happened to Rudy happened. And we were talking about this before we started recording that what if he had lived to the age of 80, and you had died before him, had never come to Jesus, because you never had that great tragedy to come face to face with all the horrible stuff,

Stephanie Zevallos: Where you have to put everything that you think and know, you know, 

Kimberly Faith: Out there.

Stephanie Zevallos: Out there. Yeah. You have to really just kind of

Kimberly Faith: Give an account like, our life is not forever. What’s on the other side? And you had also observed the great transformation in Rudy’s life.

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes.

Kimberly Faith: And now I heard that well, let back up. I think something else that you said earlier in our pre-recording conversation was that one of the biggest blessings is that at this race, this half marathon that he was doing, your whole family was there.

Stephanie Zevallos: Yeah. Yeah. We were there and, you know, my oldest daughter wasn’t there yet, but we were all in the vicinity. You know, she was only twenty minutes away. And my middle daughter and our son-in-law, Jaren, were here, which normally they’re not.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

Stephanie Zevallos: But they just happened to get there the day before or two nights before and the night before the race, we all got to spend time together, took lots of pictures and all that. And I just know, you know, that God had us all there because of what happened to Junior, which was a hemorrhage in his brainstem. They basically said it was a ticking time bomb. It was going to happen. There was really no way to avoid it. They just think that it happened then because he was, his blood pressure was elevated and he was going through exertion and which is nothing new. He’s done that a zillion times.

Kimberly Faith:  He did the StairMaster. 

Stephanie Zevallos: He did the StairMaster for forty minutes straight on level something ridiculous.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

Stephanie Zevallos:  And you know, his blood pressure has been elevated before, he played high school football.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

Stephanie Zevallos: You know, track and and all these things. All these crazy things that you could just tell in his face. He was just exhausted. But I just think that God let us all be there because he knew we were there. You know?

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. He crossed the finish line. 

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes.

Kimberly Faith:  So he met his goal. Right?

Stephanie Zevallos: He met his goal, which was a sub two hour half marathon, which is amazing. 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. 

Stephanie Zevallos: It took me three hours to do the same marathon that he did. But he crossed the finish line in one hour, fifty seven minutes and twenty seven seconds, which I have that tattooed on me.

Kimberly Faith: Oh, I love that. Yeah.

Stephanie Zevallos: A goal time for me someday, but

Kimberly Faith: You’re going to do it. 

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes. Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: You’re going to do it.

Stephanie Zevallos: Someday. We’ll see. Maybe not this year, but after he crossed the finish line, you know, he waved to us coming up to the finish line, and, you know, he just collapsed after he crossed, and he never came back after that. He went from looking totally fine to just collapse and they were performing CPR on him in a matter of seconds.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah, I remember, you know, just well, you had told me earlier, but also Melissa and Larry had told me that Larry immediately began performing CPR on him.

Stephanie Zevallos: Immediately. I know that God put him there because we were in such a state of panic and shock, we didn’t know what to do. I was trying to call 911 and it took me three tries to dial the number, which it’s three numbers. So we were just in such a disarray. We had no idea what was happening.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. 

Stephanie Zevallos: I couldn’t even think straight, But Larry jumped right in. The gentleman Javier who was there jumped right in and they immediately began CPR. And I thought it had been like ten or twenty minutes. But later on, I went back and checked my call log because I was able to call 911 right when it happened. I was only on the phone with them for a minute and a half. And I hung up when the first responders got there. What took ninety seconds was to me felt like an eternity.

Kimberly Faith:  Yeah. 

Stephanie Zevallos: But they worked so hard and I felt so bad for them, even though I had just lost my son. I was feeling guilty for these poor people that had had to do this, and Junior didn’t survive.You  know? And I imagine that maybe they held some sort of guilt towards it, you know, like

Kimberly Faith: Well, it’s such a shocking thing. You had this kid who’s obviously very fit, you know, and no one is expecting him to die

Stephanie Zevallos: No, if anyone was going to collapse, you know, maybe, because there were old people running it, you know, heavier set people running it. Just all walks of life. 

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

Stephanie Zevallos: You know, not an 18 year old perfect condition kid.

Kimberly Faith: Right. And sounds, you know, to me, I just, again, I think about the story and I think about, you know, it was going to, it sounded like it was going to happen because of his, the defect in his, What did you say? Was it  the vein in

Stephanie Zevallos: In his brain stem.

Kimberly Faith: His brain stem. And he could have been running in the woods by himself. But he was there with you all.

Stephanie Zevallos: Exactly.

Kimberly Faith: You know, I think you told me you have a video of him crossing the finish line.

Stephanie Zevallos: Yeah. Threw up a peace sign when he ran by us.

Kimberly Faith: I mean, you have these amazing memories. 

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes. 

Kimberly Faith: And,  I don’t know. I just think about that. And one of the things that the Lord has really been trying to teach me is, I’m such a hard head. It’s hard for Him to teach me

Stephanie Zevallos: I understand that.

Kimberly Faith: But just grasping and reiterating all the things I’m thankful for. 

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes.

Kimberly Faith:  Especially in affliction, you know?

Stephanie Zevallos: And that’s, I think, the hardest thing to do, but it’s the most rewarding thing that there is. 

Kimberly faith: Yes.

Stephanie Zevallos:  Because,  yes, you know, I lost my son. My girls lost their brother. We had a tremendous loss that day. You can’t even put it into words.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

Stephanie Zevallos:  But we also have gained a lot from that day. We’ve gained

Kimberly Faith:  Eternity. 

Stephanie Zevallos: Eternity, first of all. My whole family’s been saved.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

Stephanie Zevallos: We’ve also gained this different view on time, you know? Time is not finite. 

Kimberly faith: Right. 

Stephanie Zevallos: You know,  or it is finite. It’s not infinite. There’s just a certain amount of time that you have on this earth. And, you know, you don’t want to spend it doing frivolous things or things that don’t matter.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Because you don’t get it back.

Stephanie Zevallos: You don’t get it back. And those things don’t matter.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. I love that you say that because it’s, you know, one of the studies I teach is the basic bible concept study and it’s one of the things we talk about is human design, which is body, soul, and spirit. Well, our soul and spirit, I mean, Rudy’s soul and spirit are alive in Christ, and he is with Jesus, you know, whatever that looks like. Don’t know what that looks like. His body, one day he’s going to get a new body, you know?

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes. 

Kimberly Faith: And who knows what that’s going to look like? But the time he had here, because he belonged to Christ, has been exponentially invested in a way that is beyond what he could have ever imagined, really. And that now his whole family is also going to be eternally with him. Right? And then you were mentioning the funeral, how Pastor Luke preached the gospel at the funeral.

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes, he did.

Kimberly Faith: And he planted all these seeds to all these high school kids and all these people who have never probably listened to Rudy preach, probably never listened to that.

Stephanie Zevallos:  No. 

Kimberly Faith: But his life and his tragic end ended up being victorious because he was able to really share the gospel 

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes. 

Kimberly Faith: In a powerful way.

Stephanie Zevallos: Exactly. And like I was saying earlier, about ten days after his passing, myself, both my daughters, my sister, my brother, and two of my nephews all did a mass baptism at the same church

Kimberly Faith: That’s great.

Stephanie Zevallos: From Pastor Luke. And it was just amazing. It was an amazing feeling. Just, you know, at that point, I was just like, at that point since it had been ten days, you know, my thought process was, I have to do whatever I can to make sure I see my son again, you know?

Kimberly Faith: Wow. You did.

Stephanie Zevallos: And that’s, yeah. 

Kimberly Faith: You got it done. 

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes. 100% serious about it.

Kimberly Faith: What, you know, it’s kind of like, there’s so many stories of people who have died in just, of course every death is tragic, right?

Stephanie Zevallos: Absolutely.

Kimberly Faith: I think that, you know, we weren’t created to experience death. We brought that on ourselves through sin. Right? And I’m not saying Rudy’s sin caused him to die.  But in just speaking in general terms, this thing called sin

Stephanie Zevallos: A long time ago that used to live seven, eight hundred, nine hundred years.

Kimberly Faith: Well, yeah. I’m just saying that, you know, we are all going to experience physical death unless we’re raptured.  But now, we don’t, you don’t have to experience eternal death.

Stephanie Zevallos: Right.

Kimberly Faith: I don’t have to experience eternal death, it is basically separation from God. People freak out when you talk about hell. And I’m like, wait a minute. There’s hell on this earth. When your soul and spirit are dead and not connected to the presence of God, that is a preview of hell. Your anxiety is through the roof, your selfishness abounds. You know, I always like to talk about Galatians Chapter Five, which compares the fruit of the spirit with the works of the flesh. Would you rather have love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, gentleness, meekness, or would you rather have hate, you know, dissension, heresies, you know, just all these horrible things? Well, that’s going to be hell, because the separation from God for eternity is all these awful things, that anxiety 

Stephanie Zevallos: Terrible. Right.

Kimberly Faith: You can’t get rid of it. There’s none of the goodness that we have on this earth. You can’t get drunk to take it away,right? You can’t go watch a movie to forget your problems. That’s not going to exist in eternity. It’s going to be terror and just anxiety and horror throughout eternity. But Rudy’s life freed you all from that experience.

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes, he did.

Kimberly Faith: You know?

Stephanie Zevallos: He did, 1000%. And just because you mentioned getting drunk, I’ll just add this part in that my husband and I have been sober for, I think we’re going on six years this year. 

Kimberly Faith: Oh, congratulations. 

Stephanie Zevallos: Next month. Thank you.

Kimberly Faith: Congratulations. 

Stephanie Zevallos: You know, from alcohol, we don’t drink. We used to drink a lot. But we quit drinking and I feel like with junior passing, you know, the devil really was, you know, trying to just kind of weasel his way in and be like, well, what’s the point anymore?

Kimberly Faith: Right.

Stephanie Zevallos: You know? What’s the point? What does it matter? But, you know, I feel like God was on the other shoulder because it matters.

Kimberly Faith: Yes.

Stephanie Zevallos: Because it matters. Because why would you dishonor your son’s memory like that?

Kimberly Faith: Oh, wow.

Stephanie Zevallos: Use that as an excuse to drink again. Like how shallow and earthly could that be.

Kimberly Faith: What a waste. 

Stephanie Zevallos: Yeah. What a waste.

Kimberly Faith: The series I did, there’s a podcast series and devotional series on thankfulness, how thankfulness pulls you through affliction. Right? That’s exactly what you’re saying is exactly right. Because when we stop and start giving thanks for all the good things in our life that God has done for us, then it’s like we have the space for grace.

Stephanie Zevallos:  Yes.

Kimberly Faith: And the thankfulness enlightens us to understand why we don’t want the other option. We don’t want to go back to being drunk all the time. 

Stephanie Zevallos: Right. 

Kimberly Faith: Or if, you know, for me, I just immersed myself in sports. That was my drug.

Stephanie Zevallos: Right.

Kimberly Faith: You know? 

Stephanie Zevallos: Yeah. 

Kimberly Faith: Or even, you know, just the attention of men. That was my drug. And, you know, whatever your drug is 

Stephanie Zevallos: It’s different for everybody.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. 

Stephanie Zevallos: Yeah. It’s there. 

Kimberly Faith:  My job, my success. No. When we start experiencing in affliction, especially the presence of God, it’s so sweet.

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes. And it’s so comforting and soothing. You know, those thoughts, you know, were just fleeting and you know, they passed and when I think about the thoughts that I did have at the beginning, I’m just like, that’s so silly. 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. 

Stephanie Zevallos: That is so silly because of course it matters. It matters even more now.

Kimberly Faith: Yes.

Stephanie Zevallos: Then it did, you know, if that’s possible because it’s always been important to me, but it matters more now. 

Kimberly faith: Yeah.

Stephanie Zevallos: Because, you know, we have a motto now: live like junior. You know?

Kimberly Faith: I love that.

Stephanie Zevallos:  And Junior would not have liked that at all.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Yeah. That’s, you know, isn’t it great? Isn’t it like you mentioned this earlier? You would have rather had eighteen years with Junior than never had him at all.

Stephanie Zevallos:  1000%. Yes.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And it’s like and now you have this, you know, you have you have this gift, really, a testimony. That’s going to make your testimony even better.

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes. Yeah. I believe so. I’m such a better person for having known my son. Somehow, I don’t know how, but the roles reversed and he taught me so much more than I could ever have imagined teaching him, you know, I mean, I’m sure I’ve taught him a lot, he’s taught me so much.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. 

Stephanie Zevallos: And he continues to do it even today. I’m still learning.

Kimberly Faith: But you know what? I’m sure that you’re right. I mean, I can tell you’re a wonderful mom. You’re still a wonderful mom. You obviously raised an amazing son, you and your husband. But I will just say that what impresses me about what you just said the most is your attitude of humility. Because, you know, the beatitudes teach us when we’re poor in spirit, that means that we know that everything we are is attributable to God. You know?

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes.

Kimberly Faith: And when we have an attitude that we are nothing without God, you have this attitude that your son taught you so much. That’s an attitude of humility, because you know what he had came from God.

Stephanie Zevallos: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. It’s like, the purpose of our life, according to God’s Word, is to glorify Him. 

Stephanie Zevallos: Yep. 

Kimberly Faith: And, you know, if there’s anything that you, like, would want people to know about the story of your son, what would that be?

Stephanie Zevallos: Oh, gosh. So many things. You know, he was so smart, so much smarter than his years, you know? But he did love God and, you know, he loved Jesus and he lived that way. Didn’t just say it or he didn’t just go to church. He lived that way. 

Kimberly Faith: It’s transformational. 

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes. Yeah. I’ve had so many people tell me that he was such a joy to be around, you know? The amount of messages I’ve gotten and I still get to this day of people saying that they knew Junior through his work or through church because he went to a couple different churches. He didn’t always stay at First Baptist. He went to LifePoint. But just people had messaged me that, you know, if I was in a bad mood, he just had this amazing attitude. He always made me feel better.

One lady gave a testimony saying that I met Junior one time and it was in passing and I was out jogging and he was jogging and we passed by each other and he gave me a high five and said, good job, keep it up. And she said, that’s the only time I’ve ever seen him  in my life.

Kimberly Faith:  Wow. 

Stephanie Zevallos: And you know, because that’s the kind of person he was. You said something to me on the phone, and you probably don’t even remember it. But when I first started talking to you, you said, I can hear the Holy Spirit in your voice. And  I feel like, you know, after we had hung up, I thought about that a lot. And, you know, I feel like that’s how Junior was too. And that’s why he had that effect on people.

Kimberly Faith: That’s what Jesus does for people. 

Stephanie Stevallos: Yeah.

Kimberly Faith:  You know, when we are made righteous in our soul and spirit, we look into each other’s eyes, we can listen to a voice, and we know that the Holy Spirit, we have that in common. It’s like a connection.

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes.

Kimberly Faith: It’s almost like going, you know, I’m sure you’ve traveled overseas having been a Marine Corps wife, but I remember being in Germany or I was in New Zealand, and you meet somebody from your country. 

Stephanie Zevallos: Right. 

Kimberly Faith: And you’re like, oh, you’re from America. Oh my gosh.

Stephanie Zevallos: Oh Yes. And you have something in common.

Kimberly Faith:  You just act like 

Stephanie Zevallos: Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: You know, like, even though you get on a plane, you go back to Atlanta, and there’ll be, everybody will be from the, you know, it’s not the same. But the Bible says that we are strangers and aliens in this world. We are sojourners. Right? And so, when you connect with somebody, it doesn’t even have to be in person who knows Jesus. It’s like, oh my gosh. You’re one of those children of God. You know?

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes. Yes. Absolutely. 

Kimberly Faith:  It’s like so I, you know, I think that is

Stephanie Zevallos: This is like a secret club that you don’t want to be a secret.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. Because why would you hide that?

Stephanie Zevallos: Right.

Kimberly Faith: Why would, you know, you mentioned he wasn’t ashamed. I think when you really know, because I’ve been that ashamed Christian.  I’ve been  that person who was ashamed. And I’ll tell you what’s different. There’s only one thing I can tell you that’s different is when Jesus Christ became my best friend and my best source of strength and my strength, my defender, my comforter, all those things, suddenly I was like, why would I not want to tell everybody about this great gift?

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes.

Kimberly Faith:  You know? It’s like, why would you hide the gold? 

Stephanie Zevallos: Exactly. 

Kimberly Faith: If you have enough to share

Stephanie Zevallos: Yeah, don’t gatekeep it.

Kimberly Faith: Don’t gatekeep it.  Exactly. I think Rudy’s story reminds me of something Jesus said. I want to share this. Okay?

Jesus was talking and he said in John 14:12-14, he said, Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I will do, he will do also. And greater works than these he will do because I’m going to my Father. And I thought, what an amazing statement for Jesus to say. I mean, He was getting ready to go down to the cross for us and do this amazing work.  But, Rudy is getting to see  his life used.  He can lay the claim that his life and his death has brought family, friends to Christ. His influence is still being felt. And he’s doing these works that Jesus said we can do.

Stephanie Zevallos: Exactly. And I can only hope that I’m half as good someday.

Kimberly Faith: Well, you know what? Every day that God gives you, you can be.

Stephanie Zevallos: Is an opportunity, yeah.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. You can be as good. It could be better. Jesus said, you can do better than I did. 

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes.

Kimberly Faith: I’m going leave my hands off that one, okay? But I’m just going to say, I like that promise.

Stephanie Zevallos: You know, since you said that about being ashamed, you know, or whatever, I feel like I’ve been a Christian my whole life, really. You know, my dad was heavy in the church and everything, but I was always kind of ashamed like, oh, they’re talking church stuff again. Or my dad would have us pray before we eat and sometimes it’d be at McDonald’s or something. And I’d be like, oh my God, this is humiliating. 

Kimberly Faith: Right.

Stephanie Zevallos: But now I get it. 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. 

Stephanie Zevallos: I get it because it doesn’t matter what other people think. And if nothing else, then you want people to see that, you know, that you’re unashamed that you’re living this happy life because that’s what everybody wants. You know, I feel like everybody wants joy and happiness.

Kimberly Faith: Well, you bring up a really interesting point because I think that a lot of people say, I was born a Christian. I was born into a family of Christians. I’ve been a Christian since I was a kid. That’s a bit of a misnomer because, you know, there’s a thing called cultural Christianity, familial Christianity. Right? But Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, the life. No man comes to the father but by me. That’s a personal thing. And I think what you’re describing is, yeah, I grew up in this Christian environment and I was ashamed of it because it wasn’t my relationship.

Stephanie Zevallos: Right. Yes.

Kimberly Faith: I’m sure when you fell in love with Rudy, your husband, you would not shut up about him. You know? Because you’re in love. You know  what I’m saying? All you can talk about.  Rudy this. Oh, he’s so handsome. He’s so you know, whatever. Right? Whatever was going on. And when we fall in love with God and surrender to Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we can’t shut up.

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes.

Kimberly Faith:  Can’t shut up about it.

Stephanie Zevallos:  Yep. 

Kimberly Faith: Why would we want to?

Stephanie Zevallos: And you wouldn’t want to. Yeah. 

Kimberly Faith: No. And it becomes, you know, I always joke about the comparison. Don’t know if you’re old enough to remember the Saturday Night Live show where they had the church lady on there. And she was real, she was real kind of crotchety and, you know, prune face. And she’d say, let’s go worship Jesus. And, you know, just really stilted. But the fact is that a lot of the portrayal by people who call themselves Christians looks a lot like that.

 Stephanie Zevallos: Right.

Kimberly Faith: And I like to, you know, I like to tell people, look, if the Jesus you see in me isn’t something that you want, then there’s something wrong with me.

Stephanie Zevallos: Right. I’m doing it wrong.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah.

Stephanie Zevallos: Yeah. 

Kimberly Faith: I’m doing it wrong. 

Stephanie Stevallos: Definitely.

Kimberly Faith: And that’s the goal to become so transparent that people know. They’re like, like my clients will say, man, you know, you’re going through some hard stuff with me here. How is it you have so much peace? I say, oh, honey, that isn’t me. That’s Jesus you’re seeing.  He Is the Prince of Peace. I just let him take over.

Stephanie Zevallos: Yeah, absolutely. 100%. And kind of like I was telling you earlier, you know, I feel that way. Like, if I feel like if I didn’t have a relationship with God or I didn’t turn to Jesus that I would be full of hate and anger and 

Kimberly Faith: Yes. 

Stephanie Zevallos: Blame, guilt, and a thousand other things, you know?

Kimberly Faith: Right.

Stephanie Zevallos: But I honestly don’t feel that way.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah, I can tell.

Stephanie Zevallos:  I don’t feel that, you know, I get emotional sometimes when I talk about Junior.

Kimberly Faith:  Right.

Stephanie Stezallos:  But that’s because he was my son. 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. 

Stephanie Stevallos: And you know, I miss him and I love him so much. But it’s not, you know, I don’t blame God or blame this or blame that or, you know, I don’t feel guilt over it. I feel peace.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. I think that, you know, you mentioned earlier, you know, people that you know in these groups that are going through their loss without God. 

Stephanie Stevallos: Yeah. 

Kimberly Faith: And, you know, I think if there’s anything that Rudy Junior’s life would, any message, I guess, that for people maybe who are going through this, it is that Rudy would want you, want them to know that Jesus Christ is the only hope. And when you have him, then you know you’re going to see your loved ones again.

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes, absolutely. And I hang on to that hope. I know my dad is with Jesus, you know, my son is with Jesus, someday I will be too.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And you know, on this earth, what’s cool is that we get to be with Jesus now.

Stephanie Zevallos: Right.

Kimberly Faith: You know, And we get connected. We’re connected to Him. So, what they’re doing right now kind of is left to a really big imagination. 

Stephanie Stevallos: Definitely.

Kimberly Faith:  A big wonderful imagination, you know? And I have an unborn baby that she was almost nine months and she died, and sometimes I think about her and I think, what’s Laura doing? You know, what’s she doing, Lord? And I feel like he almost just giggles with me. You know what, I’m God it’s like, oh, we’re having a real good time up here. 

Stephanie Zevallos: Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: And it’s because I know she’s with Him. And it’s obviously not, I’m not comparing because it’s not the same experience, you know.

Stephanie Zevallos: No, I totally understand though. Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: But it’s the same kind of, you know, it’s like, oh, wow. God just gives us this comfort. 

Stephanie Stevallos: Yeah. 

Kimberly Faith: The Bible calls him the God of all comfort, you know.

Stephanie Zevallos: And he is. 

Kimberly Faith: Yes.

Stephanie Stevallos:  And I have this, you know, I don’t know, this image in my head of getting to heaven one day, you know, and God sitting there and being like, I have someone who’s been waiting for you. You know? And that brings me just so much hope and peace.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. It’s hope now and it’s peace now and it’s just a feeling of you you can make it through. 

Stephanie Stevallos: Yes.

Kimberly Faith:  Because it’s like running a race. There’s a prize at the end, it’s much better than a medal. 

Stephanie Zevallos: Definitely.

Kimberly Faith:  I think about, there’s another verse I actually think about when you were talking. And I was praying about this podcast. I was thinking about this verse in Romans that says, Paul says, I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. And he’s talking about how the whole creation groans under the weight of tornadoes, you know, evil, you know, children being molested.  I mean, just awful things.

Stephanie Zevallos: Terrible things. Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: But he says that, you know, we groan too, but we are also eagerly awaiting for the redemption of our body. I just think. And it says the spirit helps us in our weaknesses, even how to pray. You know, I experience all the time. I think, you know, people think, oh, you write these devotionals, these podcasts, write these bible studies. You should know how to pray. No. There are mornings I get up and I go, Lord, I don’t even feel like praying right now. So, you’ve got to get me like feeling it, and then give me the words because sometimes

Stephanie Zevallos: Right. You just plan this out for me a little bit.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Take the wheel. It’s terrible. I mean, I told my office team I would do a Bible study in the office. I said, I have a confession. This morning, I woke up and I didn’t want to pray, and I had to ask God to help me to want Him. I said, I can’t imagine one of my kids asking me that. Like, mom, I don’t want to be around you today. So, could you just help me want you? Like, poor God. He just says, come here.  Come here. Come here. I got a nice big lap here.

Stephanie Zevallos: Yep. Exactly.

Kimberly Faith: So, I just know that the message of this podcast is going to reach some people that are going to be going through the same or similar situation. Maybe somebody who’s never heard the gospel because the Bible promises that all things work together for good.

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes. Absolutely.

Kimberly Faith: And I know that is the desire of your heart, that this story of Rudy 

Stephanie Zevallos: That is my biggest, I pray about that every single night. You know, that, you know, for one, that he lives on, you know, that Junior’s memory or legacy lives on, you know, and I think every parent wants that if they lose a child, you know?

Kimberly Faith:  Right. 

Stephanie Zevallos: Because you don’t want them to be forgotten. 

Kimberly faith: Right.

Stephanie Zevallos: You know, because for you or for me, you know, it’s an everyday thing. It’s on my mind all the time.

Kimberly Faith:  Yeah. 

Stephanie Zevallos:You know, it’s not like, you know, people who knew Junior, you know, think about him now and then or whatever, and everyone, you know, has grief about him, you know, and has experienced loss because he was such a wonderful person. But I feel like the way to make his legacy live on is to tell his story.

Kimberly Faith: Yes.

Stephanie Zevallos: And  to show what kind of a person he was and that he was a Christian, he was saved, and I know where he’s at and he is just fine.

Kimberly Faith: His story’s powerful. And you’re the proof that his story’s powerful. It lives through you and your family, because it’s not us, it’s Jesus. 

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes. Yes.

Kimberly Faith: And that’s his legacy. It wasn’t me, it was Jesus.

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes, absolutely.

Kimberly Faith: I think that’s remarkable.

Stephanie Zevallos: I think that’s beautiful.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Just, you know, again, I think that you are a remarkable woman.

Stephanie Zevallos: Thank you. I appreciate that.  

Kimberly Faith:  For having the courage and just the excitement of telling such a tough story. And I’m kind of just blown away by it, actually. And I know you’re going to. I know that you give credit to God for that. I know that you do.

Stephanie Zevallos:  Yes.

Kimberly Faith: You know. But it’s still, you had to make a decision. You know? Let this crazy woman in your living room.

Stephanie Zevallos: Well, I really figured she couldn’t be any crazier than me.

Kimberly Faith:  Well, you don’t want to talk to Melissa about that? Well, so is there anything else that you’d like to say before we conclude tonight?

Stephanie Zevallos: Thank you so much. This was just, I just I feel great.  I feel fabulous telling his story and, you know, spreading the word. 

Kimberly Faith: Yes.

Stephanie Zevallos:  You know? And I’ve been praying a lot about what am I supposed to do now, God? 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. 

Stephanie Zevallso: You know, I know I have a purpose. I know I do because I feel it.

I feel like there are  things that I need to be doing, you know? And I feel like God is telling me more and more, and maybe if I listened, I’d hear it better, but you know, to reach people. We  have to reach people. Have to share the story. You have to tell people what,  you know, you know.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. You know, that’s what you’re doing.

Stephanie Zevallos: Don’t gatekeep the good news.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. I love that. Don’t gatekeep the good news. Well, let’s just open the gates and we’ll let it,

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes.  Let it flood in.

Kimberly Faith: You know, the desire of your heart is what Jesus said in the Great Commission. Go ye therefore into all the world and make disciples.

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes.

Kimberly Faith: You know? You teach what you know. You study to learn more. And then you give the good news. You, know, flip the switch on the gate and say, come on, let’s go.

Stephanie Zevallso: Right. 

Kimberly Faith: And it’s not that you have to, know what I mean, how many times did we reschedule this podcast because of the blizzard and it was like, okay.

Stephanie Zevallos:  And reactive.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And I’ll tell you one of the things that I’m just going to tell a story real quick because I know we’re running out of time, but this is such a great story. We had this scheduled first, but then there was a blizzard. 

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes. 

Kimberly Faith: Then last night, we had this schedule and there was a tornado.

Stephanie Zevallos: Yes.

Kimberly faith: Right? So then today, I’m out hiking and I meet this guy who is also a runner. And he was on the trail. And he has this, you know, we strike this hour and a half long conversation about God and before I left, I said, hey, I have a prayer request for you. He’s like, what? And I said, Yeah, I need you to pray tonight at 6:00 because I’m going to do this podcast with the mother of a runner who died. He was 18 and died crossing the finish line. He said, thank you so much for asking me to pray for something so precious. 

Stephanie Zevallos: Oh, wow.

Kimberly Faith: And that happened today.

Stephanie Zevallos: That’s amazing.

Kimberly Faith: So, here we are. Talk about divine appointment.

Stephanie Zevallos:  Right. Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: So, I just want to thank you. I want to thank you, Stephanie. You have been an amazing guest, and I’m going to tell you that this story, I already know, is going to go out on the wings of the Holy Spirit and by his power. And the gospel’s going to go out, and Rudy’s life is going to matter, and it does matter. So thank you.

Stephanie Zevallos: Thank you. Thank you so much, and I will keep sharing until I can’t share anymore.

Kimberly Faith: Well, until the Lord calls us home.

Stephanie Zevallos: That’s right.

Jacob Paul: Alright. You’ve been listening to the Truth in Love podcast with your host, Kimberly Faith. To discover more answers to the big questions in life, visit us at gofaithstrong.com.