Deep in the Cartel
Carlos Yepes was not a man looking for God. He was a drug dealer in Colombia, working within the orbit of Pablo Escobar's cartel during some of the most violent years in the country's history. His world was cocaine, cash, and constant danger. Religious people were irrelevant to him — soft, naive, and certainly not part of his reality.
Then he had an accident.
The Radio in the Jungle
While cutting wood in a rural area, Yepes was seriously injured. Alone, in pain, and unable to move easily, he found himself near a radio. The dial was set to a Trans World Radio station broadcasting in Spanish. He had no interest in it, but he also couldn't reach the dial to change it.
So he listened.
The broadcast was simple — a clear explanation of who Jesus was and what it meant to trust him. No pressure, no manipulation, just the message carried over radio waves into the middle of the Colombian jungle to a man who had never considered it. Something broke open in him. Right there, injured and alone, Yepes trusted Jesus.
The Cartel Exit
What followed wasn't a smooth transition. Leaving the cartel world isn't something you announce at a meeting. It's dangerous, complicated, and most people don't survive it. But Yepes walked away. He left the drug trade, rebuilt his life from nothing, and became a completely different person.
The change was so complete that it marked his entire family. His daughter grew up watching the transformation, and eventually went to work for Trans World Radio — the same organisation whose broadcast had reached her father in the jungle. She now creates content for TWR, helping produce the kind of programming that found him when nothing else could.
What This Means for You
A radio signal reached a drug dealer in the Colombian jungle at the exact moment he couldn't run from it. No church building. No pastor standing nearby. Just a frequency carrying a message to a man who didn't know he needed to hear it.
Sometimes the most important messages find you when you're stuck, hurt, and out of options. That's not bad luck. That might be the whole point.