According to Compass Direct News, the wife and children of pastor William Reyes, who was kidnapped last September in Colombia and is still missing, have moved from their home to another city due to threatening strangers presumably linked to his kidnappers. The Pastor had been receiving extortion threats from illegal armed groups operating in the La Guajira peninsula. Family members have not heard from Pastor Reyes since, nor have his abductors contacted the family to demand ransom.
Two incidents earlier this year alerted his wife that she and her children were in danger from the kidnappers. First, an unidentified man appeared at their Church in Maicao and asked for Pastor Reyes wife, Idia Miranda Reyes. When he was told she was not there, the man asked for her address and cell phone number, which church workers refused to give him. Before he left, the man said testily, “It is in [her] best interest to get in touch with me, than for me to have to find her.” Six days later, Pastor Reyes daughter, Luz Nelly Reyes was approached by a stranger on the street (the family believes it was the same man), who told her that if she wanted to see her father again, she should come with him. The girl declined the invitation. When he attempted to grab her by the arm, Luz Nelly fled. “I have not reported this to police, because I’m afraid,” her mother said after the incident. “They could do something to me.”
As I heard about this story, I empathetically tried to put myself in this family’s position. I tried to imagine coming home from school to find out that my father had been kidnapped. I imagined trying to go on with daily life, not knowing where or how he was for more than half a year. I thought about receiving threatening comments from a stranger, who tried to kidnap me as well. Then, I thought about having to pack up as many of my personal belongings as I could, from the home I grew up in and fleeing in the middle of the night. I would not know when I would see my friends and loved ones again; I just knew that staying would mean certain danger.
It is always hard for me to hear about stories like these, but it always puts it in a new perspective when I put myself in my suffering brother and sister’s shoes.
Lord, please be with this family who is going through so much. Be their strength and shield. Protect them from future threats or dangers and please bring their father back to them. In your name we pray. Amen.
Amen to that prayer.
My heart goes out to this family