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The Guerrillas Have Taken Our Son

Written by Chad and Pat Stendal in 1989

“The situation seemed desperate. It appeared that all the power was in the capricious hands of the guerrillas, and we were impotent before them . . . One morning, Patty jumped out of bed, and exclaimed, ‘The guerrillas are not in control!’ she stated emphatically. THE GUERRILLAS HAVE TAKEN OUR SON! But they are not in control! God is in control!”

Chad Stendal, a supervising engineer on many important construction projects in Minnesota, left engineering to work with the isolated Kogi Indian tribe amid the snow-capped peaks of Colombia, South America.

The Kogi Indians are a very short, thin people, due to malnutrition, parasites, and chewing the coca leaves from which cocaine is derived. The Stendal’s with their four children arrived twenty-five years ago, just in time to gain their confidence and prevent the defenseless tribe from being overrun and decimated by non-Indian colonists and the diseases and vices of civilization.

Chad now has a Masters Degree in linguistics and anthropology. Pat has put her degree in Education to good use in literacy work in Colombia. Their help also includes giving injections, sewing up wounds, and pulling teeth. Their son, Russell, became a famous jungle pilot in Colombia.

208 pages