PODCAST · religion

To Fly a Coop

by Rafael Aspeitia and Ashley Koebel

In early September, my Dad, Rafael, got some life-changing news. He had terminal cancer and his life-expectancy was short. As our family grappled to come to terms with what this meant for all of us, we came to realize the hard conversation of death was not something we could put off. I had just wrapped up a Masters in Justice and Advocacy at Fuller Seminary and my last class was literally on death and dying. I questioned why it couldn't have been health and healing! We prayed for healing of course, but as it became clear this was not God's plan for now, I pondered the best thing I could do to help my family and myself process this. I concluded the best thing I could do is give my dad a microphone and let him preach just the way he has always loved to preach about the love of Jesus. I flew from LA to visit my family in New Mexico, about a month after his diagnosis. Armed with mics and a recorder, I told my dad about the idea and he was all for it. So, most every day I was ther