Jesse Rotholz Memorial Fund
Donation protected
In the early hours of February 24, 2019, Jesse Rotholz passed away.
This GoFundMe, originally titled “Jesse Rotholz in Critical Condition”, is now a memorial fund, with the proceeds going unconditionally to his parents as a gift of love and compassion.
Donations accruing to this fund after 7 March 2019 will still be given to his parents, who have indicated they intend to set them aside in order to establish a charitable foundation whose purpose is to continue Jesse's work in showing God's love in the world.
The original GoFundMe appears below.
Jesse Rotholz has been living his life in the service of others in a way that few can imagine. Driven by God’s radical love, Jesse has made it his goal to embody the fruits of the spirit, live with ongoing compassion, and engage life a truly Christ-inspired way. He is known for greeting literally anyone with a smile and an open heart, listening in a way that he's fully absorbed in hearing and understanding who you are, and giving anything he has to anyone in need, fully trusting that he too will be provided for. He is at ease and confident in sharing that the love he demonstrates is inspired by Christ, and exceptional in his devotion to walking his talk! When asked why he gives so much time and attention to praying and caring for strangers in his daily life, he once replied, “Oh, I just try to see people the way Jesus sees them,” and laughed gently at the absurdity of doing anything else.
Recently, Jesse’s Christ-centered desire to love and serve others took him to Uganda on a two-month mission trip with Kona, Hawaii-based Youth With a Mission (YWAM). He and seven others served one month in Kampala, then traveled to nearby South Sudanese refugee camps.
His trip leader had this to say about his presence there:
“Jesse is a radical one - a radical follower of Jesus and lover of people. He is bold, willing, fearless, full of compassion, truth, and has a heart of justice. He's constantly looking for ways to give up his own comforts and desires to obey and follow Jesus, with a huge smile on his face and a big "Yes!" in his heart. He is the picture of someone who is free from the cares and pain of this world and full of the joy that comes only from God. This is just a little bit of what he brought to all the people in Uganda. The people LOVED him so quickly. Everywhere we went, he made connections and deep friendships. So many lives were transformed from even an hour with him.”
It was here that he picked up a life-threatening combination of Hepatitis A and Malaria, which (praise God!) did not manifest until his return to Kona. Jesse, never one to worry, did not prioritize seeking medical treatment for several days. By the time he was taken to the hospital on Wednesday, September 13, 2018, both diseases had gripped him, and he was severely dehydrated and beginning to experience organ failure. Fighting for his life, he was airlifted on Friday, September 15th to Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu--Hawaii’s only Level 1 trauma unit. Over the course of 4 hours, a team of specialists there fought to stabilize him, putting him on a ventilator and a dialysis machine to clean his blood, beginning ant-malarial medication, and very narrowly saving his life. As of Thursday, September 20, 2018, he remains in a coma, in stable but critical condition.
Many signs are improving, and we believe Jesse would want his friends and family to be full of faith for how God can miraculously heal bodies, speaking words of life and truth over the situation. Jesse would focus on Jesus as the ultimate physician, guiding the hands of Queen’s top-notch medical team. He would request your prayers and encourage this recovery to be understood as divine intercession and ultimate grace. Jesse’s got so much good work yet to do on Earth, so many jokes to tell, so many children to laugh with, so many to whom he will go on demonstrating Christ’s love.
Financially, this medical emergency has already been very costly. Jesse has lived his life in a way that has been absolutely generous and giving of himself, to the point that he never accumulated any assets. Those who know him have seen him literally hand over the sandwich he was eating, or empty his wallet if another needed it. When preparing to go to Uganda, Jesse’s team reports, “He helped fundraise weekly for people on our team to get to Uganda, giving all the money to others, when he was still in need of finances for the trip. He even gave away some of what he had saved for the trip because he felt like God asked him to!”
Now it’s our turn to give back to Jesse, to support him in covering the costs associated with saving his life and restoring him to full health! Jesse will certainly use this experience for good and to glorify God! Let’s be grateful for the favor God has already shown him and excited for what’s to come. With love and gratitude, THANK YOU, any and all, for providing whatever you feel moved to, in support of Jesse.
"Because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God."
"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
--2. Corinthians 4:14-18 (NIV)
Required information about this campaign according to GoFundMe rules:
(1) I initiated this campaign. My name is Christopher Sean Lovell and I live in New York City. I know Jesse Rotholz, he's come to visit us when we lived in Thailand and earlier in New York. I lived with this folks for a while, and my dad and his dad were best pals in the earlier years.
(2) The "Rotholz Support Network" is simply a tag I'm using to refer to a core group of those concerned who are actively campaigning for Jesse, namely myself, his sister Abigail, his YWAM colleague Grace, and another family friend Wendy.
(3) The purpose of this fundraiser is to provide financial resources to the Rotholz family to cover costs associated with Jesse's illness. Any money leftover after covering health expenses will be distributed to Jesse for his general use after the recovery.
(4) The intended beneficiary of this campaign is Jesse Rotholz, but since he's in a coma, the funds will be entrusted and distributed to his mother and father, Louise and Jim Rotholz, who are currently his medical proxies.
Update: given his passing, all funds will continue to be used as above as applies, and also as needed for the purposes of memorial and remembrance, and finally for general use by his parents as an unconditional gift of love.
This GoFundMe, originally titled “Jesse Rotholz in Critical Condition”, is now a memorial fund, with the proceeds going unconditionally to his parents as a gift of love and compassion.
Donations accruing to this fund after 7 March 2019 will still be given to his parents, who have indicated they intend to set them aside in order to establish a charitable foundation whose purpose is to continue Jesse's work in showing God's love in the world.
The original GoFundMe appears below.
Jesse Rotholz has been living his life in the service of others in a way that few can imagine. Driven by God’s radical love, Jesse has made it his goal to embody the fruits of the spirit, live with ongoing compassion, and engage life a truly Christ-inspired way. He is known for greeting literally anyone with a smile and an open heart, listening in a way that he's fully absorbed in hearing and understanding who you are, and giving anything he has to anyone in need, fully trusting that he too will be provided for. He is at ease and confident in sharing that the love he demonstrates is inspired by Christ, and exceptional in his devotion to walking his talk! When asked why he gives so much time and attention to praying and caring for strangers in his daily life, he once replied, “Oh, I just try to see people the way Jesus sees them,” and laughed gently at the absurdity of doing anything else.
Recently, Jesse’s Christ-centered desire to love and serve others took him to Uganda on a two-month mission trip with Kona, Hawaii-based Youth With a Mission (YWAM). He and seven others served one month in Kampala, then traveled to nearby South Sudanese refugee camps.
His trip leader had this to say about his presence there:
“Jesse is a radical one - a radical follower of Jesus and lover of people. He is bold, willing, fearless, full of compassion, truth, and has a heart of justice. He's constantly looking for ways to give up his own comforts and desires to obey and follow Jesus, with a huge smile on his face and a big "Yes!" in his heart. He is the picture of someone who is free from the cares and pain of this world and full of the joy that comes only from God. This is just a little bit of what he brought to all the people in Uganda. The people LOVED him so quickly. Everywhere we went, he made connections and deep friendships. So many lives were transformed from even an hour with him.”
It was here that he picked up a life-threatening combination of Hepatitis A and Malaria, which (praise God!) did not manifest until his return to Kona. Jesse, never one to worry, did not prioritize seeking medical treatment for several days. By the time he was taken to the hospital on Wednesday, September 13, 2018, both diseases had gripped him, and he was severely dehydrated and beginning to experience organ failure. Fighting for his life, he was airlifted on Friday, September 15th to Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu--Hawaii’s only Level 1 trauma unit. Over the course of 4 hours, a team of specialists there fought to stabilize him, putting him on a ventilator and a dialysis machine to clean his blood, beginning ant-malarial medication, and very narrowly saving his life. As of Thursday, September 20, 2018, he remains in a coma, in stable but critical condition.
Many signs are improving, and we believe Jesse would want his friends and family to be full of faith for how God can miraculously heal bodies, speaking words of life and truth over the situation. Jesse would focus on Jesus as the ultimate physician, guiding the hands of Queen’s top-notch medical team. He would request your prayers and encourage this recovery to be understood as divine intercession and ultimate grace. Jesse’s got so much good work yet to do on Earth, so many jokes to tell, so many children to laugh with, so many to whom he will go on demonstrating Christ’s love.
Financially, this medical emergency has already been very costly. Jesse has lived his life in a way that has been absolutely generous and giving of himself, to the point that he never accumulated any assets. Those who know him have seen him literally hand over the sandwich he was eating, or empty his wallet if another needed it. When preparing to go to Uganda, Jesse’s team reports, “He helped fundraise weekly for people on our team to get to Uganda, giving all the money to others, when he was still in need of finances for the trip. He even gave away some of what he had saved for the trip because he felt like God asked him to!”
Now it’s our turn to give back to Jesse, to support him in covering the costs associated with saving his life and restoring him to full health! Jesse will certainly use this experience for good and to glorify God! Let’s be grateful for the favor God has already shown him and excited for what’s to come. With love and gratitude, THANK YOU, any and all, for providing whatever you feel moved to, in support of Jesse.
"Because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God."
"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
--2. Corinthians 4:14-18 (NIV)
Required information about this campaign according to GoFundMe rules:
(1) I initiated this campaign. My name is Christopher Sean Lovell and I live in New York City. I know Jesse Rotholz, he's come to visit us when we lived in Thailand and earlier in New York. I lived with this folks for a while, and my dad and his dad were best pals in the earlier years.
(2) The "Rotholz Support Network" is simply a tag I'm using to refer to a core group of those concerned who are actively campaigning for Jesse, namely myself, his sister Abigail, his YWAM colleague Grace, and another family friend Wendy.
(3) The purpose of this fundraiser is to provide financial resources to the Rotholz family to cover costs associated with Jesse's illness. Any money leftover after covering health expenses will be distributed to Jesse for his general use after the recovery.
(4) The intended beneficiary of this campaign is Jesse Rotholz, but since he's in a coma, the funds will be entrusted and distributed to his mother and father, Louise and Jim Rotholz, who are currently his medical proxies.
Update: given his passing, all funds will continue to be used as above as applies, and also as needed for the purposes of memorial and remembrance, and finally for general use by his parents as an unconditional gift of love.
Fundraising team: Rotholz Support Network (3)
Sean Lovell
Organizer
New York, NY
Jim Rotholz
Beneficiary
Abigail Rotholz
Team member
Wendy Wyman
Team member
