After being held for eight days by one of Colombia’s largest guerilla groups, Camilo Ramirez, a student of the Adventist University in Colombia, was released July 4, report church leaders in the region. But Dionisio Galindo, an auditor for the Seventh-day Adventist Church on Colombia’s Atlantic coast, kidnapped by another guerrilla group, has been missing since March of this year.

Ramirez, 19, was returning by bus to Medellin when he was kidnapped along with other passengers by the ELN guerilla group. “Camilo’s support for the church has been very evident since he was a boy,” says Jose Rojano, communication director of the church in Colombia. “He is a leader of the well-known Rescue Adventist Group (Grupo Adventista de Rescate y Salvamento) in Medellin, a young volunteer aiding those affected by disasters and accidents.”

Rojano says Ramirez is doing well: he went back to work July 8 and has resumed his study at the university.

Galindo, who is still missing, was kidnapped in the mountains near the San Jacinto district. His wife and daughters are awaiting news of him.

This year has seen three kidnappings of Adventists in Colombia: Ramirez, Galindo, and Pastor Luis Narvaez, who was kidnapped earlier this year and freed five days later.

“The guerilla groups in Colombia resort to kidnapping as a form of financing their war,” said Rojano. “This is why we see so many people, who have low economic resources, being victims of this persecution. Unfortunately, our church has been stung by the whip of kidnapping.”

“We have prayer chains and are very concerned for the Galindo family,” Rojano adds.

There are some 195,000 Adventists living in Colombia, a country located in northern South America, and sharing borders with Panama, Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador and Brazil.