Published on Operation World (http://www.operationworld.org)
Apr 25: Colombia
Colombia
Republic of Colombia
Latin America
See Prayer Information
Geography
Area: 1,141,748 sq kmNorthwest corner of South America. The fourth-largest country on the continent. Mountains in west; plains, forests and jungles in east.
Population: 46,300,196 Annual Growth: 1.47%
Capital: Santa Ré de Bogotaá
Urbanites: 75.1%
HDI Rank: 77 of 182 (UN Human Development Reports 2009)
Peoples
Peoples: 93 (4% unreached) All peoplesUnreached Peoples Prayer Card
Official language: Spanish Languages: 83 All languages
Religion
Largest Religion: Christian| Religion | Pop % | Ann Gr | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Christians | 43,716,645 | 94.42 | 1.4 |
| Evangelicals | 3,460,847 | 7.5 | 6.0 |
Challenges for Prayer
Unreached peoples. Pray specifically for:a) The thousands of gamines, or street urchins, in the cities. Bogotá has one of the highest numbers of street children of any Latin America city. YWAM, LAM, Tearfund and several new local ministries provide food, shelter and preparation for a life off the streets.
b) The wealthier classes are small in number but control most of the economy. White rather than mestizo, they are overwhelmingly Catholic (although often very nominal) and generally isolated from evangelicals, who focus on the poor. Their wealth and ties to the circles of political and ecclesiastical power make them objects of resentment.
c) The Muslim community numbers around 35,000 of Syrian, Lebanese or Palestinian background.
d) Student and youth work is slow and hard. The history on campuses of Marxist ideology and then post-modern individualism hinders interest in serving others and seeking God. With more than half of the population under age 25, reaching the younger generation is crucial. Campus and youth ministries and even youth-oriented prayer movements such as Tribal Generation are all growing. Pray for their work to be creative, passionate and fruitful.
Amerindians have been oppressed and subject to discrimination in the past, and their rich contributions to Colombian culture and society are disregarded. The 1991 constitution granted wide autonomy and support to the 94 recognized indigenous peoples. But they are still largely poor, undereducated and most vulnerable to the violent conflict and ecological exploitation occurring in Colombia’s rural areas. Response to the gospel is varied, with some powerful people movements to Christ and other groups remaining unreached. Pray for:
a) Strong, viable, well-led churches that are culturally rooted and able to cope with drug traffickers and modernization. Legislation on autonomy for indigenous groups is, in some areas, being misinterpreted as the right to force Amerindian Christians to revert to their traditional religious beliefs. This brings pressure and persecution to some indigenous Christians, but it also causes believers from different tribal groups to band together in mutual support in a way that could never have happened before.
b) Church-planting ministries of NTM, South American Mission, CMA and increasingly Mestizo Colombian missionaries sent to their own countrymen.
c) Bible translation. Today, 37 languages are still without a NT and 25 have no Scripture at all; WBT and NTM are working on several projects. Some Bible translators have been kidnapped or killed, which in turn has caused translation teams to move to cities – away from the people whose language they are working with – or out of the country altogether. This causes the work to slow or even be abandoned. Pray for breakthroughs in this area.
d) Amerindian peoples, closed or inaccessible thus far. This number is reducing as Mestizo and Amerindian Colombian missionaries strive to reach every tribe; only around 15 remain unevangelized. The small populations of these groups make them difficult to find and to build trust with. Pray for these unique and precious groups to find the culture-transforming and preserving gospel before they disappear forever.
For an additional 8 Challenges for Prayer see Operation World book, CD-ROM, or DVD-ROM.
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