As an American citizen traveling through remote corners of Colombia at the height of the nation’s civil war, Russell Martin Stendal offered an enticing prospect for left-wing rebels who often kidnapped foreigners for ransom.
So tempting, in fact, that Stendal was abducted five times by different units of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc.“I would be moving through the countryside and they would see this gringo and –pah! They would grab me,” he recalls.
(Stendal, and members of his family, have visited Madison numerous times to participate in the missions programs of City Church, on Buckeye Road. Now he’s playing an important role in bringing peace to country that’s been split by civil war for more than a half-century.)