{"id":993,"date":"2022-10-22T10:05:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-22T10:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/?p=993"},"modified":"2022-10-21T19:58:29","modified_gmt":"2022-10-21T19:58:29","slug":"child-survives-farc-attack-becomes-red-zone-pastor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/child-survives-farc-attack-becomes-red-zone-pastor\/","title":{"rendered":"Child Survives FARC Attack, Becomes Red-Zone Pastor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>As the sound of gunfire grew louder, 10-year-old Luis and his brother ran to their room and crawled under their bed. They knew the gunfire meant guerrilla fighters from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/globalprayerguide\/colombia\/?_source_code=VSLEG02C4\">Colombia<\/a> (FARC) were again attacking their small jungle village in one of Colombia&#8217;s &#8220;red zones,&#8221; particularly dangerous areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When soldiers from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/globalprayerguide\/colombia\/?_source_code=VSLEG02C4\">Colombian<\/a> Army arrived to repel the attack, the guerrillas took the boys\u2019 father hostage to aid their escape. Although they released him four hours later, fighting between the guerrillas and government forces dragged on for days. Many of Luis\u2019s friends were killed in the attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">All Things Made New<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Luis found true peace in Christ at age 13 and immediately felt the need to help people in villages like his who had suffered from the decades-long insurgency. \u201cHe told me He was my God and my Father, and He would always be there for me,\u201d Luis said. \u201cI felt the love of God come back in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\r\n\t<div class=\"wp-block-vom-subscribe-ad\">\r\n\t\t<figure>\r\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.persecution.com\/stories\/wp-content\/plugins\/vom-custom-block-subscribe-ad\/assets\/magazine-cover.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/>\r\n\t\t<\/figure>\r\n\t\t<div class=\"text-button\">\r\n\t\t\t<p>Request your free magazine<\/p>\r\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/free-magazine\/?_source_code=VSTORYM1\" class=\"wp-block-button__link\" aria-label=\"Subscribe to our free magazine\">Subscribe<\/a>\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n\r\n\t\n\n\n<p>Using his small savings, Luis bought books, games and other items to distribute in his old village, which remained under threat. He also brought New Testaments and gave them to everyone he met, including police officers, soldiers and guerrilla fighters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI told them, \u2018Jesus still loves you despite all the pain you have caused,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cI was scared, but I thought, If I die, I die with Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As an adult, Luis serves as a pastor in an area controlled by a paramilitary group. He assumes members of the group attend his weekly church services, listening to what he says and reporting back to their authorities. And he knows they could decide he is a threat at any time and give him 24 hours to leave, as they have done with many other pastors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not scared,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is my passion. I have a call from God to preach in these high-risk areas. I desire to keep on reflecting Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Luis has a special heart for others ministering in difficult areas. Although still young, he already facilitates training for pastors working in the red zones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the sound of gunfire grew louder, 10-year-old Luis and his brother ran to their room and crawled under their bed. They knew the gunfire meant guerrilla fighters from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) were again attacking their small jungle village in one of Colombia&#8217;s &#8220;red zones,&#8221; particularly dangerous areas. When soldiers from the Colombian Army arrived to repel the attack, the guerrillas took the boys\u2019 father hostage to aid their escape. Although they released him four hours later, fighting between the guerrillas and government forces dragged on for days. Many of Luis\u2019s friends were killed in the attack. All Things Made New Luis found true peace in Christ at age 13 and immediately felt the need to help people in villages like his who had suffered from the decades-long insurgency. \u201cHe told me He was my God and my Father, and He would always be there for me,\u201d Luis said. \u201cI felt the love of God come back in my life.\u201d Using his small savings, Luis bought books, games and other items to distribute in his old village, which remained under threat. He also brought New Testaments and gave them to everyone he met, including police officers,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":994,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[16],"class_list":["post-993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-field-stories","tag-colombia","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Child Survives FARC Attack, Becomes Red-Zone Pastor - Stories<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"And he knows they could decide he is a threat at any time and give him 24 hours to leave, as they have done with many other pastors.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/child-survives-farc-attack-becomes-red-zone-pastor\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Child Survives FARC Attack, Becomes Red-Zone Pastor - Stories\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"And he knows they could decide he is a threat at any time and give him 24 hours to leave, as they have done with many other pastors.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/child-survives-farc-attack-becomes-red-zone-pastor\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Stories\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-10-22T10:05:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/assets.persecution.com\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/P7051006_pub_Luis-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1626\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Megan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Megan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/child-survives-farc-attack-becomes-red-zone-pastor\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/child-survives-farc-attack-becomes-red-zone-pastor\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Megan\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/#\/schema\/person\/ea63eedbbbed48d27a0f5da18832377a\"},\"headline\":\"Child Survives FARC Attack, Becomes Red-Zone Pastor\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-10-22T10:05:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/child-survives-farc-attack-becomes-red-zone-pastor\/\"},\"wordCount\":364,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/child-survives-farc-attack-becomes-red-zone-pastor\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/assets.persecution.com\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/P7051006_pub_Luis-scaled.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Colombia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Stories from the Field\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/child-survives-farc-attack-becomes-red-zone-pastor\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/child-survives-farc-attack-becomes-red-zone-pastor\/\",\"name\":\"Child Survives FARC Attack, Becomes Red-Zone Pastor - 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