How God touched a guerrilla chief

BOGOTÁ, Colombia — At a recent meeting of Christian leaders at the Colombian Bible Society, a respected evangelical pastor and head of a national organisation asked that his name be kept secret. With that understanding, he was willing to share his remarkable story.

“A few months ago, the guerrillas were looking for a church to help them,” he said, “and I received a phone call from a Comandante Felipe. He was particularly seeking medicines and bedding. He could obviously not go through normal channels.

‘I feel hot’

“At first I was scared but the Lord reminded me that I did not have to worry. So I began to tell him about God. We spent about one hour talking, and he made a decision of faith.

“He told me, ‘Pastor, I don’t know what is happening to me, but I feel very hot.’ I told him it was the Lord working on him. Then he asked me if I could come into the mountains and talk to him more about God. I was even more scared, but told him that if the Lord wanted me to do that, I would.

“Then he asked me if I would send him a Bible. He wanted me to mark the things he needed to read.

“I really did not know how sincere he was, so I sent him a Bible that was not very expensive,” the pastor grinned. “I marked the parts he should read, and put the Bible in a package of humanitarian supplies.”

Not long after that, the pastor received a second phone call.
“He was very grateful and said he was going to send me a personal computer. Thank God he didn’t, so I didn’t have to ask where it came from!”

About three weeks before the Bible Society meeting, the pastor received a third call. “The voice said, ‘This is Comandante Felipe and I am in Bogotá.’ I asked him if he had received the Bible. He said he had.

“‘I have escaped from the mountains,’ he told me. “‘Why did you do it?’ I asked.”

“In the verses you marked, it said, ‘If you are in Christ you are a new creation. The old things have passed, and everything is new.’ So I could not be the same,” came the reply.

He asked the pastor to meet him at a bus terminal. He needed to buy a bus ticket, but didn’t want to do it himself.

“Three elders of the church went with me,” the pastor explained. “We met the man near the bus station. He was alone, and he was scared. We were three, but we were scared, too! Every time a car stopped, we were scared.

“Finally, he had to leave, but he promised to call me again.

Promise

“Actually, I was not sure that he was really Felipe. So I asked him, ‘Was there something you promised me?’”

“Yes, I promised you a personal computer,” the rebel said, “but I cannot send it.”

“I then asked him what happened when we prayed the first time.”
“Pastor, I felt very hot,” came the reply.

At that moment the pastor knew it was Felipe.

“We prayed with the elders,” the pastor said. “It was very special. We felt that God was there. I do not know where Felipe is now, but I know that he is with God.”