‘I got angry with God’
But Junjun took an opposite path. “I got angry with God. I questioned Him as to why those things happened to us,” he says. “I said, ‘We never stopped serving You! Every day we prayed to You! Why did you allow these things to happen to us? I am not yet ready to not have a father, Lord. Why did You take him from us like that?’”
He rebelled and took his rage out on the world. He had previously wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a pastor, but no longer. He committed every felony possible. He fled his hometown, fell in with friends who led him further astray, and was eventually imprisoned.
“It was as if God was no longer in my heart,” he said. “I was very far from Him.”
Junex, the youngest son and a baby at the time of the murders, remembered the day when he was 13 and his mother told him what had happened to his father and sister. He was hurt and enraged because he’d grown up without a father. “I was very angry, and so I assured myself I would avenge my father’s death,” he said. “But God was always reminding me that everything has its purpose.”
Unfortunately, Mocsin’s widow, Evelyn, eventually married a Muslim man. She forgot all about their ministries and her service to God, and it seemed she would refuse to believe in Him again.
The hands and feet of Jesus
When Mocsin’s sons Junjun and Junex were at their lowest, a special ministry came alongside them and offered the deep help and acceptance they needed.
Open Doors supports a ministry called Timothy’s Crib, a haven for children who have been abused, neglected, orphaned or otherwise suffered trauma. The founding pastor and his wife offer children a place to stay and mentor them spiritually, even adopting several.
Evelyn approached them for assistance in guiding her sons. Her youngest, Junex, stayed with them for three years. There, he learned to do household chores such as laundry and cooking, how to manage finances, and was bolstered in his faith. Eventually, with what he learned there, he was able to reach out to his brother Junjun, inviting him to come to Timothy’s Crib, as well.
But Junjun wanted no part in it. He no longer had any desire to serve God, and he knew the people there did. Still, Junex insisted. Eventually, Junjun gave in to his brother.
The experience at Timothy’s Crib was nothing like what he’d expected. “I got a taste of what it is like to have a family there,” Junjun says. He shares how everyone treated each other as family, and they managed to remain faithful to God. “I enjoyed our bonding and the training we did in the Crib. It’s overwhelming, how much the Crib has helped me.”
Through Timothy’s Crib, God turned Junjun’s life around. The pastor and his wife became like second parents to him. Praise God! He has never returned to his rebellious life. Instead, Junjun has rekindled his relationship with Jesus and is now aspiring, once again, to be like his father and lead a church. To that end, he is studying theology in Bible school.
The turnaround was so profound, it even helped renew Junjun’s mother’s faith in God when she learned of her once-rebellious son’s intent to become a pastor. Evelyn accompanied Junjun to the bus station on his way to Bible school and wished him well. She was a source of motivation for her son until her death in 2021 from COVID-19, following chronic kidney disease.
Emilyn, now 34, married a devout Muslim man, but that has not stopped her from raising her children with the stories of Jesus ringing in their ears, and she witnesses to her husband daily. She fervently hopes that one day he, too, will come to Christ. She also is part of Christian church, teaching Sunday school and ministering to children in her community. Her oldest daughter is the worship leader at her church.
This year, Junjun is expected to graduate as a pastor. He attributes that success to what happened to him after his brother persuaded him to come to Timothy’s Crib.
“They helped me a lot in my growth,” Junjun says. “There, I felt the Lord calling me again. I was reminded that I should always pray and serve God.”