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How Panama’s Dictator Manuel Noriega Found God in the Unlikeliest Place

Our American Stories / Lee Habeeb
The Truth Network Radio
August 26, 2025 3:02 am

How Panama’s Dictator Manuel Noriega Found God in the Unlikeliest Place

Our American Stories / Lee Habeeb

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August 26, 2025 3:02 am

A former dictator, known for his brutal regime, undergoes a remarkable transformation after being exposed to Christianity. A beauty shop operator's simple act of witnessing leads to a chain of events that ultimately change the life of the dictator and his family.

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to Apple Podcasts. or wherever you get your podcasts. Up next, a story from Joe Garman. Joe is the founder of Armed Prison Ministries, one of the largest prison ministries in the world. While it's fair to say that he's seen his fair share of prisoners over the years, One sticks out for pretty obvious reasons.

He was the infamous dictator. of Panama. Let's get into the story. Here's Joe. with our own contributor, Katrina Hein.

When you go into the chapel, you don't know who this guy is in this pew. who that guy is on the platform.

So When you met Noriega the first time, you met him face to face, right? Oh, yeah, huh? Don't you remember?

Well We invaded Panama. Remember that? The goals of the United States have been to safeguard the lives of Americans. to defend democracy in Panama. to combat drug trafficking.

and to protect the integrity of the Panama Canal Treaty. They were broadcasting, trying to get him to come and surrender. playing loud music and all that.

So, you know, talking about why he was such a bad man. Um Oh, he was a bad man. I'm telling you he was. He killed people and I mean, he was deep in the drugs. He was a drug lord.

They always called him dictator he called himself President. But I mean, he was a different person in that jail cell after he became crock. Christian.

Well, we build baptistries at my ministry. and the man who brought him to Christ. ordered a baptistry from us, And that's what he was baptized in. That's when I broke in and started writing to him, you know, 'cause we were the ones who provided this Baptist record. And uh he wrote back and invited me any time I was in the Miami area to come and see him, and he would schedule an opening for me to come in, and uh he had a pod all to himself in that prison.

He was in solitary confinement at all times because they didn't want him speaking to the other prisoners, and they didn't want the other prisoners speaking to him. What were they afraid of? Drugs. Oh. He could have run that out of the prison.

But um here's Pod. was made up of two compartments. the one compartment. had his bed and his exercise equipment in there. And the other apartment had a table and kind of like a little office in there.

And so He would do his exercises and then he'd go and write his letters and whatever. We had communion. I took communion to him. And um He and his daughter, in fact, she was my translator, she was my interpreter. We talked about sin.

She would talk about sin with him. He was Like a Hungry man. Listening to The truth of God. I'm telling you, he was sincere in every way. and it proved it when he was sent back to Panama.

They put him in a home. They didn't put him in a prison. They gave him a house. And he and his wife lived in that house and he he'd walk to the store and back and stuff like that, but mm-mm. Nothing like before.

He was a changed person. And Christ is the one who did it to him. It all started with a beauty shop operator. Thank God for his daughter. She went to Venezuela.

for something. and while she was there she went into a beauty shop to get her hair done. and the beautician, who was female, did not know this was Noriega's daughter. And she asked she asked Noriega's daughter I wish I could remember the girl's name. I can't remember her name.

but she asked her if she was a Christian, and she said no. and that beauty shop operator witnessed to her. in that beauty shop. And when she got out of the beauty shop, couple of days later, She heard some of our We had some students from Mozart Christian College down there. Conducting youth revivals.

She went to one of them. And um She went forward one night, Confess Christ. And When they asked her what was her name, she wouldn't tell them. But come to find out They baptized Noriega's daughter. in the river.

And Noriega's daughter then witnessed to her mother. Her mother became a beautiful Christian lady. Her mother eventually moved to Miami. had a Bible study in her home for ladies. And There sat Noriega with a daughter and a wife.

Both shooting. both ways, adding. That beauty shop operator to this day does not know. what she did. But God What do you think of that?

And here we are today talking about it. because of what she did. She could have been quiet. And you know, things like this don't just happen. That'll make you scratch your head, you know that?

And God has done that for me in so many ways.

So many ways. I had this idea and poo, here I am over here, you know. And Joe Garmin is right. Things like this just don't happen. This one hairdresser in Venezuela shares her testimony.

With The daughter. Emmanuel Nariega. And his wife Well, she shares her testimony with the dictator, mass murderer. And what do you know? A life has changed.

A life in prison, no doubt, a bad life lived. but a life redeemed. The story of the hairdresser who converted a dictator. Here in our American stories. Lee Habib here, and I'm inviting you to help Our American Story celebrate this country's 250th birthday coming soon.

If you want to help inspire countless others to love America like we do, and want to help us bring the inspiring and important stories told here about a good and beautiful country, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to OurAmerican Stories. Go to ouramericanstories.com and click the donate button. Any amount helps. Go to ouramericanstories.com and give. This Labor Day, say goodbye to spills, stains, and overpriced furniture with washable sofas.com, featuring Anibay, the only machine washable sofa inside and out, where designer quality meets budget-friendly pricing.

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