Story number 1 for 17 May 2002

(Colombia)–Topping the news, mission agencies are still reporting that Christians are being targeted for persecution by drug cartels and rebel guerrillas. Missionary Butch Jarvis says believers in rural areas are having more trouble with the violence than Christians in large cities. “Most of the churches that are in, not only that zone, but in almost in every part of the country, the churches are threatened to not take up offerings, to not preach and teach the things they do, and if they do, they’ll be ‘taken care of’.” Jarvis says prayer support is especially crucial. “The outreach has been tremendous because of all the uncertainty and all the insecurity that the guerrillas have created. A lot of folks have prayed for us to leave the country. But, frankly, what we need is prayers to be very effective and very efficient in our preaching and teaching, because these are times when people are so insecure, and not really aware of how much longer it will be before someone takes their life.” Jarvis and his family are staying at D & D Missionary Homes in Florida while on furlough in the United States. They return to Bogota in September.