Faith. Many times it was all that Carlo Perez* took with him on his walks through the jungles of Colombia.

Evil hides in the underbrush and around almost every corner in the path, but despite the threat, he marches forward, accompanied by four of his brothers in Christ.

The attack happened in a split second, but it seemed as though things were moving in slow motion as he dove for cover, sliding into the mud under the foliage.

He watched as one of five robbers, who seemed to appear out of nowhere, unsheathed his machete and raised it high. The sound that followed is something that will continue to haunt him for the rest of his life.

The blade sliced through the air…and then the skull of one of Perez’s friends.

The noise resembled an eggshell cracked on the side of a frying pan. Blood poured from the man’s head—still alive, he shrieked in excruciation. Perez could see the gray tint of the man’s brain.

The event was not atypical of the kind of danger Perez faces on a daily basis in Colombia. He has been threatened, beaten and robbed. He has watched helplessly as others in his ministry have been kidnapped or killed by military or guerrilla groups. When he was 14 years old, terrorists killed his father. Perez, determined to avenge his father’s death, joined the army at age 21.

At age 24, he married his wife, Rita. Only days later, he was diagnosed with epilepsy and hospitalized because of aggressive behavior. Perez’s miraculous healing, after a pastor prayed over him, was the seed that bore his unshakeable faith and dynamic ministry.

"I was unstoppable," he said.

*Name changed to protect identity.