Rodrigo: A Suicide Prevented

CBN.com “I didn’t feel the love of my parents. At age 12 I decided to run away. I began to learn about things not meant for children.”

To kill the pain, Rodrigo Olmedo began drinking and smoking marijuana at a young age. He eventually turned to crime to support his habits. As a young adult, he joined the Ecuadorian military. He thought he would have a good career and escape his growing addictions. Instead, just the opposite happened.

“Things got worse. In that place, there were even more possibilities to get drugs,” he says. “And not just what I was already using, but an even stronger drug—I’m talking about cocaine.”

After his release from the Army, Rodrigo found a good job as a manager. Although he kept that job for four years, he spent all he earned on drugs. He desperately searched for a way out of his lifestyle. Friends assured him the solution was to get married, so he found a wife. But his old habits didn’t change.

“Within a year, I fell back into drugs,” he says. “There was no way out. This went on for 10 years, 10 terrifying years for my wife and my three daughters.”

Rodrigo’s family stayed by his side. But eventually he sold everything they owned for drugs or to post bail. Rodrigo was ashamed and thought his only remaining exit was suicide. He carefully planned it to look like a work accident so his family would get insurance money. But one day, he happened to catch a television program he didn’t normally watch— the Latin American version The 700 Club.

“There was a man talking about Jesus. Someone whose life had been changed. This man found a way out.”

Before turning off the television set, Rodrigo wrote down the number that flashed on the screen—The 700 Club prayer counseling center in Ecuador.
He left for work the next morning still determined to end his life. But once at work, he decided to call the number he had written down the day before. A 700 Club prayer counselor answered the phone: “Don’t do it Rodrigo. Jesus loves you. And He can heal you.”

Rodrigo immediately forgot about committing suicide. Instead, he headed for The 700 Club office with a glimmer of hope for the first time in years.

“Perhaps God exists and is able to help me. I had never known that God would work in this way.”

The counselor asked him what was wrong. Rodrigo confessed his addictions and plans for suicide.

“And he said, ‘Okay Rodrigo, but there is Someone who can heal you.’ And I said, ‘Who? How much do I have to pay? What do I have to do?’ And he told me, ‘Nothing. He already paid for it on the cross. His name is Jesus.’”

The counselor prayed with Rodrigo, who confessed his sins and gave his life to Jesus. Rodrigo felt an instant change in his life. Upon leaving the office, his first impulse was not to buy drugs, or alcohol, but a Bible. It wasn’t long until his lifestyle was completely transformed. The genuine change had a dramatic effect on his family.

“Within the first year after my conversion, my wife became a Christian. It was the happiest year for me. My life was now complete.”

In the years since, Rodrigo has become a pastor and has shared Christ with as many as 200,000 people in his country. Thirty thousand of them have prayed to receive Jesus as Savior. And it all began with a television program, a caring prayer counselor, and CBN partners whose gifts brought the Gospel to Ecuador.

“I came to the Lord through a small screen, now I’m sharing the Gospel on a huge screen. I praise our wonderful God. Do not forget that Jesus is the only one who can heal you, who can change your life, and give you a new heart and new thoughts. Glory be to Jesus.”