GOD is in Control!

As a 19-year-old, Bruce Olsson went into the jungles on the border of Colombia and Venezuela to bring the gospel to the Bari people. God protected him from these aboriginal people who had never let a white man into their territory, and as they came to love him and his Lord, they affectionately called him bruchko. Then in 1988 Bruce was captured by Colombian guerrillas and held secretly in the jungle. It looked as if his ministry had been disrupted and maybe even ended.

Once the Colombian armed forces realized that the guerrillas had kidnapped Bruce, they tried to enlist the Baris, once a fierce, warlike tribe, to help rescue their beloved bruchko. The Baris refused, saying, “Violence only engenders violence.”

Meanwhile, things were happening in the jungle. After five months in captivity, Bruce had so gained the confidence of the guerrillas that they gave him a Bible. Eventually he was able to hold Bible studies with his captors. During nine months of captivity, including one firing squad escape, Bruce led about half the guerrillas assigned to him to faith in Christ. He was so successful that the guerrilla leaders finally released him.

As the years passed after the kidnapping, these Christian guerrillas won others to faith in Christ. Finally, the entire Christian group broke away from the larger guerrilla group and surrendered themselves to the Colombian government. On April 6, 1994, Bruce Olsson wrote in a letter:

Resurrection Sunday also meant “conversion” to a great many members of the former guerrilla forces. In their camps [during my captivity] I witnessed more than a hundred break before the Lord in repentant tears, attentive to His Word and surrender their lives to the lordship of Jesus Christ. This action is prelude to the celebration of the 9th of April [when]...descendants from the “Armed Forces for National Liberation” (ELN) and “Armed Forces for Colombian Revolution” (FARC), representing about half of the violent revolutionary forces in Colombia, will reincorporate themselves into national life at the surrendering of their arms and signature of the negotiated “Peace Plan.”

God in His sovereignty protected Bruce despite the evil intentions of guerrilla leaders—and turned the whole incident into a great victory for Jesus Christ. Bruce writes, “The Bari had no doubt in God’s sovereignty and trusted in His intervention in the lives and affairs of His creation. The relinquishing of arms [by the guerrillas] in the presence of Bari leaders was significant. It was vindication of the Bari’s endurance and persuasion.” God was sovereign through the actions of Bruce, the Bari, and the guerrillas! Does that give you hope in a situation you may face right now? God will sovereignly use you, too, as you follow His will.

By Bill Bright

©2024 Copyright Bright Media Foundation