As violence in Colombia continues to escalate this week, four Christians were murdered in the northern town of Tierralta on Tuesday night, May 6. According to reports received by Compass Direct, twenty-five armed men entered a rural church and murdered its 80-year-old evangelical pastor and three other believers. Among the dead is Miguel Mariano Posada, pastor of Sardis, a church in the Association of Caribbean Evangelical Churches denomination; teacher and church treasurer Ana Berenice Girardo Velásquez; 80-year-old Natividad Blandón, the wife of another pastor; and 17-year-old Julio Torres, who was visiting the church. Police reports indicate that those killed were apparently known to the attackers and they were attacked near the door of the church building in front of the rest of the church. They slit the throats of Pastor Posado and the church treasurer and shot the other two victims before fleeing into the night.
Since neither of the country's main guerrilla organizations (FARC and ELN) are known to have a presence in the area, it is believed that paramilitaries loyal to the government are responsible. The Council of Evangelical Churches of Colombia (CEDECOL) has issued a statement calling for armed groups to respect life, expressing its concern for the recent turn of events, and reaffirming evangelicals' rejection of armed force against any human being as an expression of the search for justice and equality.
Pray for the Sardis church in Tierralta during this time of grief. Pray that those responsible will be brought to justice. Especially pray for the families of those killed in this senseless attack.
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