At the NorCal Pastors & Leaders Conference last September, 6-year-old Gabriel Cate was the loudest singer in a Mount Hermon, CA, Christian conference center auditorium surrounded by redwoods in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Gabriel, a paraplegic with severe sensory impairment since birth, expresses himself through music. His dad, Nate, who pastors Calvary Chapel Vallejo, CA, said, \u201cHe\u2019s nonverbal, so you think he doesn\u2019t know things, but he knows every song. When it\u2019s one of his favorite songs, he gets louder and more excited.\u201d At the top of Gabriel\u2019s song list is \u201cGratitude\u201d, especially the line, \u201cYou\u2019ve got a lion inside of those lungs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nate and his wife, Dani, adopted Gabriel from a Brazilian orphanage when he was 15 months old, while they were missionaries. As the Cates stood outside the orphanage in the rain, Dani heard a baby crying. \u201cI looked at Nathan and said, \u2018Oh, he\u2019s crying.\u2019\u201d Inside, they met Gabriel, throwing a fit in his highchair. Dani continued, \u201cI remember thinking how bizarre it was that I knew it was our baby crying, even though we didn\u2019t yet know his voice. There were maybe 20 kids in that orphanage, but somehow the Lord had put in our hearts to know Gabriel\u2019s voice before we even knew him. We knew he was our baby.\u201d<\/p>\n
During pregnancy, Gabriel was exposed to an untreated sexually transmitted disease. He now suffers from several serious brain disorders that have led to developmental delays, seizures, paralysis, and blindness, requiring complete daily care. \u201cHe\u2019s on a feeding tube because he doesn\u2019t eat anything by mouth,\u201d Dani revealed. \u201cPeople think that [caring for Gabriel] is hard, but it doesn\u2019t feel like that. It\u2019s a lot physically to take care of, but …\u201d Nate jumped in, completing his wife\u2019s sentence, \u201cBecause of his attitude, it doesn\u2019t feel like a lot of work. He\u2019s the sweetest. He doesn\u2019t say anything, but it\u2019s like he feels just so thankful for everything. He\u2019s always smiling at us, always happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gabriel\u2019s neurologist suspected Angelman\u2019s syndrome because he smiled so much\u2014but genetic testing proved he was just a happy boy.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.\u201d Nehemiah 8:10b<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Lord taught me a lot through Gabriel\u2019s suffering,\u201d admitted Dani. \u201cThough he lives in daily pain because of someone else\u2019s sin, he manages to have so much joy through everything. That\u2019s very convicting to me. I may get mad when someone offends me or messes up my day, but Gabriel is such a good example of having joy in tough times.\u201d<\/p>\n
Worship Culture<\/p>\n
Leaving Brazil two years ago to return to the U.S. was a culture change for the Cate family. Nate commented on the Latino culture they\u2019d experienced in Brazil, \u201cPeople are very emotional, and worship is very heartfelt. Not that I question our congregation\u2019s heart for the Lord, it\u2019s just a different cultural expression.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the Cates, along with 10 of their now 11 children and their then-future son-in-law, arrived at the NorCal conference, sponsored by Calvary Chapel San Jose, CA, they were met with the same lively, heartfelt worship they had missed in Brazil. \u201cThe worship was so good, and all our kids talked about how nice it was that everyone was worshiping the Lord together,\u201d Nate offered. \u201cAnd it was Gabriel\u2019s moment; he just loves worship!\u201d<\/p>\n
Left: Hoppy Sanchez (left), wife of Leonard Sanchez, pastor of CC Spring Creek, NV, reconnects with Mercedez Homen, wife of Dustin Homen from Calvary Chapel Reno Sparks, NV.<\/p>\n
Right: CCSJ Pastor Mike McClure and his wife, Brenda (right), are circled in prayer by attendees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the NorCal Pastors & Leaders Conference last September, 6-year-old Gabriel Cate was the loudest singer in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[88,90,89],"class_list":["post-432434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}