Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.
Hebrews 3:6
The Perez Family (1954)
Attacked at Home
Pastor Perez, his wife and six of their seven children were killed when an armed gang burst into their family home on 19 May 1954. They were among at least 120 Christians killed in the 1940s and 1950s in Colombia, which became notorious for its persecution of Christians during this period. Evangelical churches were burnt and their members were targeted because they were thought to be helping revolutionaries against the government.
Pastor Perez and his son Bernardo, aged 12, were arrested in November 1953 and questioned about aiding the revolutionaries; their lives were threatened.
On 19 May 1954, without warning, an armed gang burst into the Perez family home and shot dead Pastor Perez and his wife. Their seven children were also attacked with machetes, and tragically only one child, David, survived the attack. He overcame the devastating loss and trauma and followed in his father’s footsteps by becoming a pastor.
God, I pray Thee, light these idle sticks of my life, that I may burn for Thee. Consume my life, my God, for it is Thine. I seek not a long life, but a full one, like you, Lord Jesus.
Jim Elliot (1927-56) (see January 10)