March (Web-only) 2001

ARTICLE TOOLS

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Gómez' daughter Marcela, 21, said that his captors have kept silent in the weeks following his February 14 kidnapping. She denied the rumor flying around Bogota that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) had demanded a $500,000 ransom for his safe return. Gómez is the prominent pastor of Bogota's Bethesda Missionary Center and operates a chain of evangelical radio stations across Colombia.

"They haven't communicated with us," Marcela Gómez said. "We don't know who has him, much less how much money is being asked."

The family, though, has its suspicions. "We had threats from the FARC some time ago," she said. "We believe the FARC has him, but we don't know that with certainty."

Marcela said that about five years ago, her father had received a letter telling him to stop preaching the gospel, or he would be killed. "He read it publicly in front of the church," she said. "He had always prayed for these men. He said that what we're going to give them is prayer and fasting, so the church beseeched God and prayed for them.

"Now God has called him to preach the Word to these men."

Gómez' daughter said that her father has received many threats through the years. Once at a gathering where he appeared in Bogota's Plaza Bolivar, authorities learned of and stopped the plot of a gang that intended to kill him. On several occasions, Marcela said, "We had information that the guerrillas were coming to the church and were very up on what we were doing." So Gómez directed his sermon to them. "He invited them to accept Christ."

More than once, guerrillas came ...