Pastor Kidnapped in Columbia

March 22, 2001

    The Voice of the Martyrs, Canada, recently reported some incidents of Christian persecution through its Persecution and Prayer Alert team.
    In Colombia, no word has been received from the captors who kidnapped Pastor Jorge Enrique Gomez Montealegre on Feb. 14. His family remains convinced that he is in the center of God's will and continues to ask for prayer. Gomez is pastor of Bogota's Bethesda Missionary Center and operates several Christian radio stations in Colombia.

--Used by permission of Religion Today

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Guerrilla Leader May Have Information on Missing Missionaries

Monday, December 11, 2000

    A captured Colombian guerrilla leader may hold the key to the whereabouts of three U.S. missionaries missing for almost eight years. Bogota police arrested José Milcíades Urrego Medina, commander of the 57th Front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), for aggravated homicide, kidnapping, and terrorism, Bogota's daily newspaper El Tiempo reported. The 57th Front took New Tribes Mission workers David Mankins, Mark Rich, and Rick Tenenoff from their base in Panama near the Colombia border in 1993, and the men have not been seen since, according to Compass Direct News Service.
    The guerrillas demanded a ransom but talks broke off a year after the kidnapping. FARC leaders have said that those who kidnapped the men belonged to a renegade group and that FARC does not know what happened to them. Police believe that Urrego Medina, who was the 57th Front's second-in-command at the time of the kidnapping, can help solve the case because he would know the hostages' fate, said Scott Ross, New Tribes Mission spokesman. The Associated Press reported that Colombia's National Police have evidence that Urrego Medina, also known as "Rigoberto," ordered the kidnapping.
    Ross said he regards the break in the case as an answer to prayer.

--Used by permission of Religion Today

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Rebels Persecute Christians

Monday, October 2, 2000

    Rebels in Colombia are burning Bibles and homes, and forcing tribal Christians out of their villages. Members of FARC, a rebel group, are persecuting the Kogui tribe, according to New Tribes Mission. The ministry has no workers among the tribe, but missionaries received a letter detailing their suffering.
    FARC soldiers began looting people's homes in a Kogui village Sept. 12, according to New Tribes Mission. They piled New Testaments, hymnbooks, and readers in the Kogui language in the middle of town and set them on fire, NTM reported. The rebels ordered the man who translated the New Testaments and all other Christians to leave the town, and 33 have done so.
    "We know that it is difficult and sad to leave everything, but we are not beaten down or defeated," the letter to the missionaries said. "The Lord is here and He will be with us always. It doesn't matter where we go, He will go before us and with us. FARC is the same rebel group that is said to be holding three New Tribes missionaries in captivity.

--Used by permission of Religion Today