I felt God’s call to help His people

My name is Joseph Ruiz, and I was born and raised in Kingsville. I am married to my beautiful wife, Elvira, and I have three children Jose, Vivian, and Nicholas. I am blessed to work at Del Mar College as the Director of Financial Aid Services, where I can help students finance their education and achieve their educational goals.

About ten years ago, I began to be more active in my parish, Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in Kingsville, by serving as a lector, an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion, a member of the parish council and St. Vincent De Paul Society, and coordinator of the parish festival. As I became more involved, I began to reflect on how God has blessed me. I have an amazing family, a great career, and I belonged to a very loving and service-oriented parish community.

Then came Father Peter Thenen, my spiritual advisor now, but he was just Father Peter back then. After a few years with the parish, Father Peter said to me, “I see you as a deacon in five years.” The first time he said that to me, through his words I felt God’s call to help His people. 

God spoke to me a very long time ago when I was recovering from injuries I had sustained from an accident, which made it uncertain that I would ever walk again. Sitting up in my hospital bed, I was speaking with God, and I asked him, “What am I going to do now, Lord? And again, I felt God’s call to help His people.

From that day forward, I have spent my life serving others. Starting on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, I will serve God’s people as a permanent deacon for the rest of my life. Serving as a deacon is just one more way God has blessed me. All honor and glory to God for allowing me to serve others in this way. 

I want to thank all of my family, especially my wife, Elvira, for answering this call with me. The formation team, for molding me into a humble servant, and all my brothers in the 2020 diaconate class and their wives, for allowing me to see the face of Christ in each of them by the way they serve others.