Pablo's Brain Tumor Battle: Urgent Support

My name is Colleen, and I am creating this GoFundMe to help my friends John (Pablo) and Rebeca Scarbrough. They are currently going through a very serious medical emergency. I am creating this GoFundMe as I know there are many people who love John and Rebeca and will want to help. I will use Rebeca's own words to let you all know what is going on:

On May 21, 2025, we discovered that Pablo has a large brain tumor, which may be cancerous.

About 3 weeks before this, I (Rebeca) started noticing changes in Pablo’s health and irregularities in his behavior. He was experiencing headaches, blurry vision, fatigue, nausea, pain, and he was becoming forgetful and unmotivated to do things, which is not like Pablo.

On Wednesday, May 21, our son Benjamin took him to the hospital in Merida, Mexico. The doctors did blood tests which came out normal. But, after doing an MRI, the doctors called me to ask me to come to the hospital, because they had very sensitive news to discuss with me in person.

The town where we live and minister is not close to the city, and transportation is not always available. Benjamin had to come and get me to take me back to the hospital.

The results were a complete surprise – something we did not expect. The doctor said John has a large tumor on the left side of his brain, and to save his life the tumor needs to be removed right away.

We were at a loss for words and felt the world was spinning so hard!

Unfortunately, they didn’t accept our insurance, and for John to stay in the hospital in Mexico, they were asking for a deposit of $10,000 up front, which didn’t include the surgery.

Not knowing what to do, I sent a message to our friends and church in Minnesota to ask for prayer and for God’s guidance. Pastor Keith helped and got John and me tickets to fly to the U.S. to have John treated here. We are hoping our insurance will cover his treatment.

On Thursday night, we arrived at the ER of Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They admitted John right away and by Friday morning they did all the tests again and confirmed our fear. The neurologist said it is a large tumor, and he thinks it might be cancer; it needs to be removed right away.

They are keeping John in the hospital and his surgery is scheduled for Friday, May 30th.

They have done 2 CT scans to make sure the tumor in the brain did not start somewhere else in his body. The results came out good; THANK YOU, JESUS!

They continue to check his blood pressure and give him medicine to reduce the swelling around the tumor and minimize seizures.

Please pray for John during this difficult journey. We believe God has a purpose for every trial and we are confident that, even though we don’t understand why, He always knows what is best for His children.

In the middle of this, our faith and hope are in the only true God who has the power to heal, the power to give and take; and in the end, we will respect His ultimate will.

God is testing our hope and our faith, like silver and gold being refined, yet we know that in the end we will have victory in Jesus’ name. John Pablo always trusts in God who brings healing. Please believe with him, that he will completely recover.

Thank you for all your prayers and support. We are so encouraged knowing we are not facing this alone.

Prayer Points:

-For God’s complete healing of John

-For God’s guidance and wisdom as we navigate this journey

-For God’s provision of finances to cover expenses and practical needs

With love,

Rebeca and family