Nicaragua: Faith can be persecuted but never silenced

“Jesus radically changed my life. There is no greater joy than knowing Him”, Roberto* says.

His passion becomes ever clearer when he was first called by God. Yet, this led him into harsh persecution in his homeland, Nicaragua.

A few years ago, Roberto was imprisoned, tortured, and ultimately forced into exile simply for preaching the gospel.

Yet today, from abroad, Roberto’s story shows one powerful truth: faith can be persecuted but never silenced.
 

From freedom to imprisoned

Roberto’s journey with God began in the 1990s, when a friend invited him to a small church in Managua. He surrendered his life to Christ and began preaching within a short period. 

Over time, however, he realised that proclaiming the gospel was not enough: roots needed to be planted. “One thing was delivering a message, but making disciples was something else. At first, it was difficult because the responsibility was greater.”

The 2010s marked a turning point. Roberto and his colleagues organised large-scale evangelistic campaigns. These efforts went beyond preaching: they provided medical brigades, food distribution, and training for local churches.

But after 2018, the government began blocking their evangelistic campaigns.

One day, Roberto and his colleagues were arrested and sentenced to over 10 years in prison. Even in prison, the persecution continued.

 “We weren’t allowed to have a Bible. We asked for a New Testament to read, but they refused. At first, some officers told us we couldn’t do devotions or pray and worship out loud,” Roberto recalls.
 

The Gospel is not chained

In prison, Roberto clung to what he had learned: God was with him even in times of persecution. 

“We told God: ‘We don’t know why we’re here, but one thing we do know: You use everything for good.’ And we began to declare that truth with conviction.”
 
Faith became his strength and resilience, and the seed of the gospel bore fruit.

Roberto preached to his fellow prisoners, and many accepted Christ. “Some of them were moved to other blocks so we couldn’t keep sharing, but later we heard they were holding devotions and worshipping God there,” he adds with emotion.

  Amidst suffering, Roberto learned one of the greatest lessons of his life: “The Gospel does not stop, not even in these places. Because even if one is in prison, the Gospel is never in prison. God is never in prison.”
 

The cost of freedom

Less than a year of imprisonment, Roberto and his colleagues were released. Apparently, the global outcry over their detention pressured the regime, which ultimately decided to release them. Yet they knew that they had to leave their homeland. Later, Roberto’s wife and children joined him.

Today, in a foreign country, Roberto and his family are starting life from scratch — with the same passion that once drove their ministry in Nicaragua.

Roberto and his family reading the Bible together

His dream remains unchanged: to keep preaching Jesus and expanding His kingdom.

  “We are God’s hands and mouth on this earth, so we must believe that there is nothing more glorious than this, and nothing can stand against it. Because as Jesus said: not even the gates of hell will prevail against His Church.”

He urges Open Doors to keep standing with the Church in his country.

“It’s about souls, it’s about life, it’s about reaching societies for Christ Jesus. And that the Lamb of God may receive the reward for which He went to the cross: the nations. To Him belong all our countries,” he concludes.

*name changed to protect his identity