THE PREACHER THEY HELD FOR 47 DAYS. THEN THEY SHOT HIM.
Chet Bitterman wasn't even the man they came for.
When armed guerrillas stormed the Wycliffe Bible Translators guesthouse in Bogotá, Colombia, before dawn on January 19, 1981, they were looking for the mission's director, someone whose captivity could make headlines and force concessions. He wasn't there. Instead, they took Chet.
Chet Bitterman was 28 years old, a linguist with Wycliffe Bible Translators, working to translate Scripture for the Carijona people deep in the Colombian jungle. He had a wife, Brenda, and two young daughters. His life's work had barely begun.
His captors belonged to M-19, a Colombian guerrilla movement. They accused Wycliffe of being a front for American intelligence and demanded the organization withdraw all 209 of its missionaries from Colombia, or Chet would be killed.
Wycliffe refused. Not out of indifference, but out of principle: giving in would put every missionary in the country at risk of the same fate.
For 47 days, Chet was held hostage. What he did with those days is part of what makes his story remarkable. Rather than despair, he spent his captivity recalling Scripture he had memorized years earlier, verses he could recite from memory with nothing else to hold onto. Word of what he was doing reached the outside world through letters his captors allowed out. Colombian newspapers began printing the very Bible verses he'd quoted. A hostage crisis meant to silence the gospel was instead spreading it across the country.
On the morning of March 7, 1981, that ended. Chet was shot once in the chest. Investigators later found signs he had been sedated beforehand, he may not have felt what was coming. His body was wrapped in a guerrilla flag and left inside an abandoned bus, where it was found the next day.
He never came home to his wife and daughters.
His younger brother, Craig, spoke publicly just days after Chet's death. He said his own grief mattered less than the fact that Chet was now with Christ, and that his death might still serve a greater purpose for the gospel in South America.
Wycliffe never withdrew from Colombia.
Lessons From His Life:
- Some principles are worth holding even when the cost is unbearable
- What captors mean for silence, God can turn into a message that spreads further
- Faith memorized in seasons of peace becomes strength in seasons of suffering
- A short life fully surrendered can outlast the ones who tried to end it
"My suffering and hurt is not important, the thing to look at is Chet is finally glorified with Christ." — Craig Bitterman, Chet's younger brother
"Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." Revelation 2:10
They held him 47 days. They shot him on a quiet March morning. But the words he carried in captivity are still being read today.
What would you hold onto, if everything else was taken from you?
Follow this page for more forgotten stories of faith, sacrifice, and the people history left behind.
Researched and written by Christian Ekeneme
THE PREACHER THEY HELD FOR 47 DAYS. THEN THEY SHOT HIM.
Chet Bitterman wasn't even the man they came for.
When armed guerrillas stormed the Wycliffe Bible Translators guesthouse in Bogotá, Colombia, before dawn on January 19, 1981, they were looking for the mission's director, someone whose captivity could make headlines and force concessions. He wasn't there. Instead, they took Chet.
Chet Bitterman was 28 years old, a linguist with Wycliffe Bible Translators, working to translate Scripture for the Carijona people deep in the Colombian jungle. He had a wife, Brenda, and two young daughters. His life's work had barely begun.
His captors belonged to M-19, a Colombian guerrilla movement. They accused Wycliffe of being a front for American intelligence and demanded the organization withdraw all 209 of its missionaries from Colombia, or Chet would be killed.
Wycliffe refused. Not out of indifference, but out of principle: giving in would put every missionary in the country at risk of the same fate.
For 47 days, Chet was held hostage. What he did with those days is part of what makes his story remarkable. Rather than despair, he spent his captivity recalling Scripture he had memorized years earlier, verses he could recite from memory with nothing else to hold onto. Word of what he was doing reached the outside world through letters his captors allowed out. Colombian newspapers began printing the very Bible verses he'd quoted. A hostage crisis meant to silence the gospel was instead spreading it across the country.
On the morning of March 7, 1981, that ended. Chet was shot once in the chest. Investigators later found signs he had been sedated beforehand, he may not have felt what was coming. His body was wrapped in a guerrilla flag and left inside an abandoned bus, where it was found the next day.
He never came home to his wife and daughters.
His younger brother, Craig, spoke publicly just days after Chet's death. He said his own grief mattered less than the fact that Chet was now with Christ, and that his death might still serve a greater purpose for the gospel in South America.
Wycliffe never withdrew from Colombia.
Lessons From His Life:
- Some principles are worth holding even when the cost is unbearable
- What captors mean for silence, God can turn into a message that spreads further
- Faith memorized in seasons of peace becomes strength in seasons of suffering
- A short life fully surrendered can outlast the ones who tried to end it
"My suffering and hurt is not important, the thing to look at is Chet is finally glorified with Christ." — Craig Bitterman, Chet's younger brother
"Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." Revelation 2:10
They held him 47 days. They shot him on a quiet March morning. But the words he carried in captivity are still being read today.
What would you hold onto, if everything else was taken from you?
Follow this page for more forgotten stories of faith, sacrifice, and the people history left behind.
Researched and written by Christian Ekeneme
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