Imagine sitting in your bedroom and suddenly seeing a goat come out of your bed, move across the room, go through the wall, and completely disappear. This goat is horribly unsettling; fat and black, bearing large horns, and leaving a putrid smell in the room. It sounds like something out of a surrealist horror movie, but this exact experience was a reality for a man named Jorge Gonzalez.
For my first month in Ecuador, I was living in Quito, one of the largest cities in the country. While in Quito, my team was working with Remar, an organization dedicated to combating injustice. Their mission statement is something that I am also very passionate about, so it was great working with an organization that so closely mirrored my mission in life. Their mission statement is as follows: To combat marginalization, hunger, poor nutrition, poverty, disease, underdevelopment and lack of education, and work to eradicate the structural causes that produce them: injustice, unequal distribution of goods and opportunities among people, ignorance, prejudice, lack of solidarity, indifference, and the crisis of human values.
When we first began working there, we quickly met Jorge, a small man with a very big personality. He quickly took a liking to our team, greeting us enthusiastically almost every day and attempting to have broken conversations with us despite our limited Spanish, and his limited English. Throughout our entire month of ministry, Jorge remained a bit of a mystery to our team; we never really knew what he did at Remar, but he was a light to us each day nonetheless.
It wasn’t until our second to last day at Remar, as we were saying goodbye to our good friend Jorge, that we got a brief glimpse into the inspiring story that is his life. It was in that moment when he turned from a simple, joyful man who we saw around ministry, to an incredibly strong individual with a complex past.
Born in Peru but now living in Quito, Ecuador, Jorge has experienced a number of extreme hardships in his life. At 31, he began his battle with Schizophrenia, the treatment of which he endured for 18 years and described as “anguishing.” What began initially as neurosis, which is a mild mental illness involving symptoms of stress, soon turned into psychosis. Psychosis is a severe mental disorder in which thoughts and emotions are so greatly impaired that the person suffering loses touch with reality, typically resulting in hallucinations or delusions. An example of this for Jorge was the hideous goat that moved across his room – a truly horrifying thing for anyone to experience.
During this battle, Jorge studied evangelism and theology for 6 years at seminary in Peru. In the midst of his studies, Jorge learned that the goat he had seen – which would, by many, be disregarded as solely a hallucination – contained an evil energy that he can only attribute to Satan. Because of the delicate mental state that he was in while studying, he began to understand the connection between mental illness and spiritual warfare. While he was experiencing a true mental illness, he believes that Satan used his vulnerable mental state to manipulate and torment him, something that people who experience psychosis often report.
After years of treatment, it was determined by Jorge’s doctors that he had become drug dependant, and in an attempt to cope with what he was going through, he began using cocaine. The medicine that he was taking to treat his mental illness became ineffective because of the cocaine and others drugs that he was using, which only caused both his addictions and mental state to worsen. During this awful time, Jorge attempted to involve himself in a church, but was denied because of the ”horrible sins” he had committed – he remained separated from the church for 16 years.
That is, until the day Remar decided to take him in and help him when he needed it most.
Remar is a faith based organization with a multitude of incredible programs dedicated to helping those in need, one of which is aimed to help individuals overcome and recover from addiction. Here is what Jorge had to say about his time spent at Remar:
“At Remar, I was told that Jesus was going to heal me, so every morning I prayed and prayed to Christ that he would heal me, and it worked! I was recuperating. After 5 months, I was sent to start a discipleship program, and after a year and two months of being part of the foundation, I was saved! Jesus Christ my Lord completely saved me, and for 14 years I have not taken any medicine, drugs, or alcohol, and I am completely sane. I have life and health; the torment is gone and the addiction has left me. I am free and grateful to God.”
Jorge’s story of healing is incredible, and he continued to speak about how he helped others in a similar position, how he sees God’s love in his life, and where he is now in his walk with God:
“I have participated in releasing people from their torment in Peru and here in Ecuador. God’s love is an incomparable, unique Love that overwhelms my entire being. How can I not thank Him? How can I not serve him? To love Him and be faithful for what He did in my life is the least that I can do. It is a miracle that I am healthy from that incurable disease today, and I do not want anything else but God. My life belongs to Him.”
What is Jorge doing now? He is an incredible servant of the Lord, spending what seems to be every minute of the day serving those around him. Jorge explained to me the various things that he does each week:
“I am part of the praise group, and play percussion on Sundays and the bass on Wednesdays. I also support Remar by working on installations, such as offices. I am the leader of Remar’s prison ministry and I have an alliance with 3 allied churches, and in total about 40 churches coordinately on Sunday evenings; after worship, we go to a jail for women and men. Also, on Fridays we give bread to the poor. I have the Gift of Evangelism and I am a missionary for Jesus Christ.”
Jorge’s story is an amazing example of God’s love, grace, and mercy. It shows that no matter what you have done or what circumstances you have endured, He will always be there to love and redeem you.
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved…” ~ Ephesians 2:4-5
Through Jesus Christ, and with the help of Remar, Jorge was given the chance at a new beginning in life just when it seemed to be hopeless. Each and every person, no matter their background, past actions, or experiences, can experience the same love and redemption that Jorge did. Through Jesus Christ, you can be given a new life; a life full of unfathomable love, hope, and comfort.
All you have to do is ask.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” ~ 2 Corinthians 5:17
Note: I recognize and strongly believe that mental disorders are valid, and that addiction is a valid disease. In writing this, I am in no way implying that the way to be healed from either thing is simply to pray. While prayer is extremely beneficial, and it is certainly possible for God to completely heal an individual with no treatment, treatment is typically vital in the process of recovery. If you are struggling with either mental illness or addiction, I highly recommend you seek professional help, if you haven’t already.
