Christian Persecution – Americas

“The work of the Lord is growing beautifully in the midst of a ferocious and diabolical war that affects our country,” reports a Colombian missionary leader.

Last May, evangelical pastor Juan Carlos Villegas was kidnapped and held for 12 days by the National Liberation Army in war-torn Colombia. They forced him to walk for many hours each day so that neither the Colombian Army nor the paramilitaries could find them. Several times they threatened him with death.

(COMPASS) — In the past two weeks, the civil war in Colombia has claimed the lives of two adult children of evangelical ministers. Church leaders say the deaths may indicate a sinister policy trend among guerrilla groups and paramilitary units to eliminate successful Christian evangelists, especially those attracting youth to Christ.

Alvaro Uribe won May’s presidential election on a promise to step up the war against the country’s Marxist rebels, but at least one of Colombia’s mission leaders doesn’t think it will make much difference.

Open Doors with Brother Andrew is urging Christians around the globe to join together for an international day of prayer and fasting for Colombia on July 29, 2001.

Open Doors with Brother Andrew, the ministry begun more than four decades ago by Brother Andrew, the Dutch-born author of “God’s Smuggler,” is urging Christians worldwide to join their “Wage Peace Upon Colombia” campaign and pray for peace in that trouble-torn country and also for persecuted Christians there.

March 25 was a special Sunday for the 18,000 evangelical Christians who attend the Bethesda Missionary Center church in Bogota, Colombia. It marked the fortieth day of captivity for their pastor, Jorge Enrique Gomez, kidnapped on Valentine’s Day by a band of heavily armed men.

Jorge Enrique Gómez Montealegre has prayed for years for Colombia’s guerrillas to lay down their arms and surrender to Christ. His family believes that now he’s preaching to them.

As a result of continued escalating violence, Open Doors USA President and CEO, Terry Madison, is urging Christians around the world to join in the “Wage Peace Upon Colombia” prayer campaign on July 28.

Armed men have captured a prominent Colombian pastor who operates a string of Christian radio stations around Colombia.

On February 14, unidentified armed men kidnapped Pastor Jorge Enrique Gomez outside of Bogota, Columbia. Pastor Jorge Gomez is well known in Columbia. He is the pastor of the largest evangelical church in the country, with more than 20,000 members with a chain of eight radio stations located in different cities.

Chiapas evangelicals accused of taking part in the Acteal Massacre are dismayed that after almost three years in prison, many among them have not received justice. But they remain hopeful that the state’s new governor will see that justice is done.

A Colombian pastor and his family have fled for their lives after ultra-rightist forces killed three members of the pastor’s church, reports a church leader in Medellin.

Amid Colombia’s rising tide of violence between rebels, paramilitaries and the nation’s army, its people need help and encouragement more than ever. But the danger has forced many international ministries working in the country to re-think plans or even consider pulling out.

The violent October protests that rocked Bolivia, causing 12 deaths, scores of injuries and millions of dollars in damages, embodied one more local clash in the international drug war. The conflict has pitted the government, which is implementing a plan to eradicate the coca plant, the raw material from which cocaine is produced, against peasant farmers from the tropical Chapare region, where 90 percent of the country’s illicit coca crop is grown.

Armed men overpowered a night guard at the Peace and Hope Association’s Lima, Peru, office and left with four computers, each containing sensitive data on cases defended by the evangelical legal aid and human rights organization.

In late June, the government of Peru initiated a special task force, the National Human Rights Council, which is charged with freeing persons wrongfully imprisoned as terrorists.

An Australian Protestant missionary was kidnapped on Sunday by a gang of armed men on Colombia’s north coast, according to news reports. Edward Walter Smith, 51, was abducted from a church in the village of Canito along with three local men. The three men were released unharmed later on Sunday.