Colombia
Date Entered: 1939
Major Ministries: Church planting, theological education.
Country Profile
Population: 45,013,672 July 2008 estimate from CIA World Factbook
Peoples: Mestizo 58%, white 20%, mulatto 14%, black 4%, mixed black-Amerindian 3%, Amerindian 1%
Economy: Colombia has experienced accelerating growth since 2002 chiefly due to advancements in domestic security and to President URIBE's promarket economic policies. Investor friendly reforms to Colombia's oil sector and the US-Colombia FTA negotiations have attracted record levels of foreign investment. Inequality, underemployment,and narcotrafficking remain significant challenges, and Colombia's infrastructure requires significant updating in order to sustain expansion. Economic growth slipped in 2008 as a result of the global financial crisis and weakening demand for Colombia's exports.
Politics: Republic; executive branch dominates government structure.
Religion: Roman Catholic 90%, other 10%
Snow-capped peaks over 18,000 feet, arid wastelands of desert, grass-covered prairies and Amazon rain forests combine to form this land of extreme contrast. The Caribbean to the north, the Pacific Ocean to the west, the Amazon River to the extreme southeastern tip, and the 1,100-mile Magdalena River cutting its way northward through the Andes all create extremely varied climates and widely diversified cultures.
Many of the major cities are located high in the Andes, including Bogotá, which boasts an altitude of 8,500—the mile-and-a-half-high city!
ABWE first began to reach into Colombia in the late 1930s as an extension of the Iquitos, Peru work. In 1942 the first ABWE couple moved to Leticia, and by 1944 a church was established there. For the next 25 years a launch ministry extended the work to several preaching stations along the Colombian shores of the Amazon River. In the early 1970s, aviation evangelism extended the outreach on a 300-mile radius north of Leticia. In 1977 the government closed the jungle mission stations, and only those Christians who had been trained were able to maintain the works.
In 1975 the first ABWE missionaries had arrived in Bogotá so when the jungle ministry was closed, Bogotá became the center of operation. Since those early days in the capital, new churches have been established with their own buildings and national pastors, and several branch works are in progress.
Visitation, camp programs, VBS, and Bible training are essential to growth. The Bogotá Field Team has combined the efforts of each individual on the team to establish as many churches as possible, and to train nationals to take over those churches. Most of that training takes place through the Bible International University, a four-year night school started in 1980. This has been supplemented through the programmed instruction material of theological education by extension (TEE), and through personal discipleship.
A Christian school is available for grades one through twelve. This allows families to remain together while accomplishing their goal of reaching Colombia for Christ.
Even though the violent activity of power drug cartels has greatly limited foreign missionary presence outside Bogotá, ABWE’s vision is not limited to that metropolis, should new and safe opportunities arise.
Church planting in Colombia presents diversified opportunities with an immense harvest calling for laborers.