Sisters Anita and Kathleen have worked in Colombia for years, counselling and mentoring and sharing the gospel with many people caught up in violence, corruption and drugs. Here is just one of the many stories of salvation that they can share. Read Solomon’s full story on our website here.
Solomon was a young man brought up in a Christian home. Wayward and rebellious, he had begun trafficking women, drugs and firearms between Colombia and Europe. He lived a Jekyll-and-Hyde lifestyle. Were the church elders aware that during the closing hymn after the Lord’s Supper he would slip out and snort cocaine? No! Did the members of his weekly Bible study for Spanish-speaking people in Germany know he was a drug trafficker? No! Solomon was far away from God, but God had not abandoned His prodigal son.
While in Germany, one of Solomon’s drug couriers landed in hospital with a stomach full of drugs. The wrapping had burst and his life was in danger. There was a strong possibility that he would reveal Solomon to the authorities before he died. Taking one of his guns, Solomon slipped out of the security of his luxurious apartment. Deep in the forest behind the village, he knelt down and put the gun to his head. In that split second between life and death he felt two strong arms grab him from behind and stand him up. Trembling, he forced himself to look around. There was no one else there.
In a cold sweat he decided to hand himself in to the village police station. To his amazement, no charges had been laid against him; the ‘mule’ had not died. Solomon wasted no time; in a matter of hours he was on a plane back to Colombia.
Solomon arrived at our home when our counselling ministry was just beginning. We had no track record, no success stories, nothing but the assurance that this was the path God was asking us to take: to walk alongside bound and broken people.
…but God had not abandoned His prodigal son
The more he concentrated on the truth of his sin, the more bound he became. John 8:32 reads: ‘You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’ The truth Solomon believed about himself was not setting him free. Something was dreadfully wrong. He needed a new identity. His mind needed to be renewed. It was slow work because human truth was firmly entrenched in his mind. His new identity sounded strange to his ears and proved even more strange to his mind.
Solomon had difficulty believing that, in Christ, he was who God said he was: redeemed, justified, righteous, chosen, a citizen of heaven, holy, loved, forgiven, a new creature. His new identity was to him unbelievable, too good to be true. Slowly, very slowly, he started to believe. And as he believed, his behaviour and lifestyle changed.
One day something happened that Solomon found hard to explain. He was alone in his bakery. Foul language spewed from his mouth. He swore, blasphemed, spat on the ground. It was as though the power of evil rose to a crescendo before it suddenly lost its hold over him. God’s Truth had triumphed over human truth. That day, cocaine lost its power over him.
Today Solomon walks alongside people who are stumbling in the world of darkness, bound by the chains of drug addiction, people who struggle with alcoholism and suffer emotional difficulties.
He gladly set out with a ‘Timothy’, since his church elders encourage him to take another brother with him on these trips; in this way he is training others to counsel people who are considered as ‘hopeless cases’ by their fellow brethren. Solomon shows them from the Scriptures who they are in Christ; he explains their new identity and shares his testimony. He teaches them to believe God’s Truth about their situation and about themselves.
Solomon was the first of many bound captives, who over the years have come to us in their search for freedom. They find it through believing God’s Truth about themselves and their situations. There is no weapon more powerful than God’s Truth and no strategy in spiritual warfare more effective than believing it.
Pray:
- for people like Solomon caught up in corruption and drugs to be set free by God’s Truth
- for evangelists and church planters who are called to serve and share the gospel, especially among street children and in poor inner-city areas
- for church leaders, who often face opposition and violence from extremist groups opposed to the gospel.
