‘When God healed my sister,
he saved me too’

By Larry Jerden, UBS Photojournalist

LA PAZ, Bolivia — When Miguel Pacheco became a Christian, he was worried about what it would do to his reputation.

A ‘hard man’ in one of the toughest prisons in Bolivia risks losing respect – and possibly much more besides – when he willingly submits his life to Jesus. Miguel was serving a 14-year sentence for killing a policeman. A leader among the prisoners, he invariably carried chains and knives, and most of the rest of the men would not even dare to approach him.

So on the day he placed his faith in Jesus Christ, he wondered how he stood among the rest of the men. “I and two others here were ‘hard cases’, and I worried that my reputation would go down,” he admits.

Working out the effect of his conversion has been an interesting experience for him. “Now people see me not as a leader who is going to kill someone, but as a leader working for the Lord,” he explains.

“Because I have changed my life, people are talking to me – even arguing with me,” he says with some surprise. “Before, they were afraid even to talk to me face-to-face.”

Miguel was a leader well before he committed the crime that put him behind bars. “I was 19 years old, an agricultural worker in the east – along the Brazilian border – and I was the leader of a union,” he explains. “There was a conflict between the union and the police, and I took part in a massacre of seven policemen.”

Now 34, he has one more year left to serve. But thanks to the ministry of Maria Saracho – and Scriptures provided by the Bolivian Bible Society – he will be a different man when he gets out.

“I became a Christian last year. When the pastor [Ms Saracho] arrived here, she changed our lives.”

The day he came to faith, his sister was having an operation for a tumour on one of her ovaries. “I said that if she died, I would kill at least three people in the prison,” he says. “Ms Saracho told me that if I put my faith in Christ, my sister would receive healing. “That day, in front of everyone, I received the Lord.”

Miguel admits that he and the other new Christians “still have our ups and downs”. “Sometimes it is hard for us to leave the past behind,” he says, honestly.

Thanks

“But we are halfway there, and the help we receive from the Bible Society is very valuable. Thanks to this help, most of us are changing our lives – especially the younger men.

“The Bible Society materials really help. Sometimes, when I feel lonely and depressed, I go to my cell and listen to the Faith Comes By Hearing cassettes and read the printed materials.

“Now I have shared them with my sister who was healed,” he explains. “And thanks to those materials, she has come to the prison and met the sister who helped me.