We Will Win the War on Drugs

by Pastor Jerry ErojoGospel Temple AG, General Santos City, Philippines

The War on Drugs in the Philippines began long before President Rodrigo Duterte assumed office in 2016.

Pentecostal preachers have been preaching against drug abuse for decades. As President Duterte waged war against drug abuse, millions of addicts voluntarily surrendered and were jailed.

The Church partnered with the police in order to help the drug addicts. Many pastors went to the jails to preach the gospel of deliverance. Some pastors joined the “oplan tokhang,” an operation in which police and

volunteers like pastors knock on the doors of a suspected drug addict, asking them to repent and change their addictive lifestyle. We in Gospel Temple Assembly of God prayed for direction about how to help with this campaign against drug abuse. We discovered the five Freedom Story films available from APMedia.

We discerned that these would be another creative way to bring a Christ-centered message of freedom from drugs. So, we took Freedom Stories to the streets. At first, the people were not interested, thinking it might be just another boring religious film. But after the film and the prayer, they wanted more.

They brought their own chairs for the second film. We also took Freedom Stories to the public schools. Surprisingly, the guidance counselor welcomed us to show the film inside a classroom. We modified our approach, asking the students to write down their reactions. It was very encouraging to read those feedbacks. A former priest, who is now a faculty member in the same school, invited us to show the film to all of his value formation classes.

They wanted us to continue to minister classroom to classroom. We also went to Mindanao Polytechnic College, where marine students viewed the Freedom Stories in their auditorium.

We asked them to speak about their understanding of the story. Some testified that they were in drugs and wanted to recover so that they can finish their college.

The Freedom Stories are touching lives of drug addicts and bringing them to repentance and forgiveness.

Watch the latest Freedom Story about Dheng Silan.