Death of Michelle (Adame) Rodriguez

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NOTE:
A local service is planned for Michelle on Wednesday, January 9, at 6:30 p.m. in the Spanish Seventh-day Adventist Church, 210 W Ferry Street, Berrien Springs.

Michelle Rodriguez (formerly known as Michelle Adame), age 29, passed away unexpectedly on Wednesday evening, January 2, 2019. While visiting family in Chiapas, Mexico, she contracted pneumonia and passed away in a hospital bed beside her beloved husband Nestor.

Michelle was born on January 17, 1989, in the Adventist hospital in Montemorelos, Nuevo Leon, Mexico and spent her childhood in McAllen, Texas. She attended South Texas Christian Academy for most of her educational upbringing. After the death of her father Juan Andres Adame, she and her family moved to Berrien Springs, Michigan, in 2006 in search of Christian higher education. She graduated from Andrews Academy in 2007, going on to attend Andrews University with the rest of her siblings, from 2007 to 2013. She graduated with her bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education with an emphasis in English literature and ESL. She also did her student teaching internship at Ruth Murdoch Elementary School in Berrien Springs

Michelle was hired as a teacher for Grades 5 and 6 at the Holbrook Indian School in Arizona, where she spent three years working until God opened up the door to her next ministry of teaching Secondary English at Jefferson Christian Academy in East Texas. She loved her students passionately, as made evident through her interactions and in the outpouring of herself in her teaching. While working in Jefferson, she met Nestor Rodriguez, and they were married a year later.

Michelle always gave herself in service to others. Her kind soul would always be quick to look for ways in which she could offer up her help, and she was always the first to check in on family and strike up lengthy, heartfelt conversations. She had a heart for mission and service, traveling to India, to Ecuador, to Tanzania, to Nicaragua, and to a number of other places to spread the love of Jesus as well as to lend a hand to others. She was incredibly active within her church, serving as a children’s Sabbath School teacher. She also loved to play the ukulele in church as a part of her music ministry, which she shared passionately with Nestor.

Above all else, Michelle had a heart for the Lord. He in His grace established her as a mighty pillar, without whom her family says they wouldn’t be where they are now. Her favorite book to read and reread was "Messiah" by Jerry D. Thomas. She truly lived up to her namesake, “Who is like God.”

Michelle is survived by her loving husband Nestor Rodriguez, her mother Diana, a current Andrews University employee, her siblings Lilly, John, Chris, Kimberly, and her twin sister Gisselle. A memorial service is planned to take place in Jefferson Christian Academy on Sabbath, Jan. 12, at 2 p.m. If you would like to contribute financially, you may kindly do so here: https://www.gofundme.com/rip-michelle?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=fb_dn_cpgnstaticsmall_r

If you wish, comments for the family may be left below.