Source: www.csw.org.uk
Date: October 31, 2026
‘Now I ask for prayers to see my children happy and smiling, as they were before, devoted to the Lord. Because even the oldest believed God had forgotten us...’
Pastors Rodian and Kelly know the cost of following Jesus in Colombia.
Their home in Santa Marta was where they held their church, ‘The Truth Sets Us Free', until it was burnt to the ground in August 2024. The leader of an armed criminal group had ordered its destruction after hearing Pastor Rodian preach from the Bible.
We hope you’ll join us in praying for them tomorrow, as we mark the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.
‘The fire didn’t just affect us,’ explains Pastor Kelly. ‘It affected the church members too. It wasn’t easy for the church to overcome this.’
She asks us to pray: ‘that God will provide for us to rebuild the house, the church and restore my children. Most of all that he may help my children, keep them safe, protect them and help them to become again the children they once were. We ask for your prayers.’
Tomorrow, please take a moment to pray:
- For pastors Rodian and Kelly, their children, and their church, which is called ‘The Truth Sets Us Free’. Ask God for provision, protection, restoration and peace.
- For the safety of religious leaders across Colombia who are under pressure from illegal armed and criminal groups.
- That Colombia’s new government will restore protections for religious leaders as a matter of urgency.
We not only pray for them, but with them — and many others facing injustice around the world.
You join with the wife waiting for news of her disappeared husband; the parents fighting for their daughter’s safe return; and the child who just wants an equal chance in school.
You echo the voices behind bars in Iran, in isolation cells in Nicaragua, and in shipping containers in Eritrea.
You join the hushed prayers of the household in North Korea, whose only church is their family. And you join the defiant prayers of Pastor Ezra Jin from China, who said before his impending arrest: ‘Hallelujah. The Gospel will spread.’
Together we stand with people just like these, raising their cases before the God of justice.
So let us pray urgently. Let us pray faithfully. And let us pray without ceasing, as Paul encouraged while he himself was an ‘ambassador in chains’:
‘Always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.’