"Sure," the guard said.

Alberto was anxious to talk with Tim.

He told Tim that the old ways and God's ways had been at war in his heart. Some Puinaves of Colombia had always killed those who hurt them. Now guerrilla soldiers had come into the village and taken captive the Puinaves' friends, missionaries Tim and Bunny Cain, and Steve Estelle. The villagers tried to convince Alberto that the guerrillas should be killed.

But Alberto remembered the teachings of Jesus: "Love your enemies. Pray for those who hurt you. So Alberto couldn't sleep. All night long there was this struggle in his heart. Shall we kill the guerrillas? Or should we love them? God's words seemed strange to Alberto. But God tells the truth, and Alberto decided to listen to God.

In the morning, he told his people, "God does not want us to kill the guerrillas."

That same morning another Puinave captain from downriver came to the village. He also wanted to kill the guerrillas, but Alberto said, "No! Last night God told me to leave it in His hands."

Alberto realized that if that chief had come one day earlier, Alberto and his people might have done the wrong thing!

Imagine the surprise of the guerrillas when a Puinave family brought them a big bowl of cooked food. (Click on the picture to go to a larger picture you can print out and color.)

As Alberto shared about the struggle he'd had, Tim encouraged him and the other Puinaves that doing good to the guerrillas was the right way. He showed them a verse in Romans: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him ...."

Imagine the surprise of the guerrillas when a Puinave family brought them a big bowl of cooked food. Another Puinave gave them some ripe bananas, and another gave them a chicken. The guerrillas couldn't figure out what was going on.

They also couldn't figure out why the Puinaves were not listening to them. The guerrillas held meetings every night to try to win the villagers over. Every night they told the Puinaves how bad the missionaries were. But every night the villagers responded that the missionaries were not bad. And later each night all the Puinave Christians would get together and pray that God would set Tim, Bunny, and Steve free.

After several days, three more guerrillas came ...

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