Colombia Pastors Travel Miles For Fellowship and Bibles

Distributing Bibles in Colombia’s guerrilla territory requires the mind of a chess master. Every move must be analyzed and the opponent’s countermoves anticipated.

Although Bible distribution is legal in Colombia, armed rebel groups roam the country’s rural areas as a law unto themselves. Paramilitaries and guerrilla groups like the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) resent Christians because they refuse to participate in the drug trade or fight for their causes. The rebel groups also view anyone traveling through their territory, where they often grow and smuggle narcotics, as a threat.

A ministry team traveled deep into the jungles of Putumayo department, along the border with Ecuador and Peru, to distribute full-color Action Bibles and minister to church workers. The Bibles, which feature colorful illustrations in the style of a graphic novel, appeal not only to children but also to adults who may have trouble reading a traditional Bible.

After traveling many hours by car, the team transferred their supplies to motorcycles and rode for 20 minutes before reaching a river. They then loaded the motorcycles, Bibles and supplies onto a river ferry for a two-hour trip upriver. After leaving the ferry, they rode their packed motorcycles as far as they could before again transferring their loads to mules.

The objective of their travel through the rugged terrain of Colombia was a simple wooden church with a thatched roof. “These communities are surrounded by armed rebel groups,” a front-line worker said. “They are the ones who have the authority in the region. A few meters from the church is a former coca cultivation area. The brothers from the church tell us that in the deepest part of the region there are still coca crops that sustain the rebel groups.”

The simple church, which had no electricity, served as a retreat center for 30 pastors who had gathered from throughout the region. Many had walked for hours to reach the site, and all of them serve in lonely, remote locations under highly stressful conditions.

The host church had improvised bathing “facilities” in a nearby stream and strung hammocks between the church rafters for beds. At the end of each evening’s two-hour church service, the generator was shut off and “an infinite blackness fell,” the front-line worker said.

Over the course of three days, the pastors participated in leadership training and enjoyed fellowship with one another. “It was moving to see the faith of each of these pastors,” the front-line worker said. “They were motivated by the need to be in communion with other brothers in the faith.”

At the end of the retreat, the pastors each received a box of Bibles to share with their local church. While they knew it might be months or years before they gathered again, they also knew they were now better equipped to serve their communities. “It is because of the people that we can say that the faith in this entire region has been strengthened despite the difficulties, the scourges of war,” the front-line worker said. “They continue to persevere in Christ.”

With physical loads lightened and hearts lifted by the courage and faith of their Christian brothers and sisters, the ministry team made its way back home by mule, motorcycle, ferry and car. Soon, they would begin analyzing tactics for their next move on the Colombian chessboard.