Living for a Purpose

But in his village, in a remote region of Colombia, Ananias* and his family live under the shadow of armed guerrilla groups who have exerted control over the area for years.
“Christians are useless!” the teachers would shout at him. “You just want to pray and convince others of your beliefs!” Ananias was given many extra assignments and was punished repeatedly for every mistake he made. He was lonely too; excluded by the other students during their classwork and playtimes.

Day after day, Ananias took the brunt of steady abuse at school for his parents’ commitment as pastors and evangelists to share the message of Christ in this hostile and dangerous context.

So when Ananias’ emotional state went from bad to worse, his parents finally decided to withdraw their little son from the village school.

“I want to study, but I cannot,” Ananias says sadly, two years later. “I trust that God will help me, because He knows that we serve Him with our hearts.” With no other school nearby, Ananias still has no other alternatives to further his education. Even homeschooling is not an option, since his parents’ level of education is not sufficient to tutor him.

“People attack us because every day more people are joining our faith in Christ. This has angered the guerrillas and some of the people of our village,” Ananias’ mother told Open Doors. But with tears running down her face, she declared: “God has supported our family. We are living for a purpose that will bear fruit not only here on earth, but for eternity.”

To prevent his capture, Ananias’ parents had to escort him by bicycle or on foot whenever he went to school or any other place. More recently, the illegal armed groups try to befriend these Christian youngsters, giving them gifts and money and many false promises, to win them over to their ideology.

“I am proud of my father because he dares to obey God,” Ananias said. He is obedient in spite of the threats and mistreatment from the local community. Other pastors who came to minister in their village left after a time, unable to survive the opposition and harsh economic conditions.

Now only one small congregation remains, led by Ananias’ parents. But they have not been allowed to lay even one brick to start a church building. The guerrillas openly make threats that anyone who tries to build a church in their village will meet the same fate as Pastor Mauricio. He was assassinated right in front of his family in September 2009 in a village only an hour and a half’s drive away.

As the son of a pastor, Ananias knows the guerrillas covet him as a recruit for their cause, since Christian youths are well-known to be reliable and have strong values of loyalty. To help strengthen Ananias and other Colombian children against this ongoing guerrilla recruitment strategy, Open Doors is training Sunday School teachers to teach the Word of God in small home settings to the children of believing families.

“I give thanks for the efforts of the brothers and sisters of Open Doors in teaching us,” Ananias’ mother declared. “What would have become of us if we had not been trained in these workshops? How would we have grown?”

*Pseudonym