Story number 3 for 7 Mar 2002

(Colombia)–The collapse of peace talks last month in Colombia’s long guerrilla war is now looking more like terrorism. Car bombs, blown bridges, kidnappings and other similar violence continues, but it’s not ending missionary efforts in the region. President of Latin America Mission, David Befus. “In this time of trouble, the church is growing by leaps and bounds. We’re working on the northern coast of Colombia in a place where there’s millions of displaced people from this war. And, people, when they’re displaced, they’re in a situation where they tend to be fairly open to the Gospel.” Latin America Mission is giving away a basic library to help pastors learn to become more effective in ministry. However, Befus says they just don’t have the money to meet the need. “The cost of this basic library is $80 per pastor. And, we’ve distributed 100 of these kits – Pastoral Library Training Kits, and we could distribute 1,000 if we had the money.” Befus says this is crucial to seeing effective evangelism in Colombia.