Chester Allen "Chet" Bitterman III (November 30, 1952 – March 1981)
[''U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007''] was an American
linguist
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
and
Christian missionary
A Christian mission is an organized effort for the propagation of the Christian faith. Missions involve sending individuals and groups across boundaries, most commonly geographical boundaries, to carry on evangelism or other activities, such as ...
who was
kidnapped
Kidnapped may refer to:
* subject to the crime of kidnapping
Literature
* ''Kidnapped'' (novel), an 1886 novel by Robert Louis Stevenson
* ''Kidnapped'' (comics), a 2007 graphic novel adaptation of R. L. Stevenson's novel by Alan Grant and Ca ...
and killed by revolutionaries of the
19th of April Movement (M-19) in Colombia in 1981.
Originally from
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Lancaster, ( ; pdc, Lengeschder) is a city in and the county seat of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It is one of the oldest inland cities in the United States. With a population at the 2020 census of 58,039, it ranks 11th in population amon ...
, Bitterman attended
Columbia Bible College
Columbia Bible College (CBC) is an institution of higher education in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada. The college states that its mission is to "equip people for a life of discipleship, ministry and leadership in service to the church an ...
in South Carolina, where he first heard of the Christian mission organization
Wycliffe Bible Translators
Wycliffe Global Alliance is an alliance of organizations that have objective of translating the Bible into every language. The organisation is named after John Wycliffe, who was responsible for the first complete English translation of the whole ...
. After graduation, he received linguistics training from the
Summer Institute of Linguistics
SIL International (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics) is an evangelical Christian non-profit organization whose main purpose is to study, develop and document languages, especially those that are lesser-known, in order to ex ...
(SIL) in North Dakota, and married Brenda Gardner, a fellow alumna of SIL's training program. Together, they traveled to Colombia to begin mission work with Wycliffe in 1979.
As an inexperienced missionary, Bitterman was not immediately assigned to a tribal group where he could begin to translate the Bible into a new language as many Wycliffe missionaries do. Instead, he worked primarily at Wycliffe's base in Lomalinda, first working in the radio tower and later serving as security coordinator. Their time at Lomalinda was broken up by a six-month service trip in
Bogotá
Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...
where Bitterman and his wife assisted a more experienced translator couple. However, by 1981, plans began to fall into place for Bitterman and his wife to attempt to reach the
Carijona Carijona are a South American indigenous group known for the Carijona language. They numbered in the thousands in the 1840s, but war with the Witotoans and exploitation from the rubber industry led to virtual extinction. Some live among the Correg ...
tribe in the Colombian jungle.
Abduction and execution
At 6:30 a.m. on January 19, 1981, seven
M-19 guerrillas entered SIL's housing facility in Bogotá, where the Bittermans were staying at the time. Not finding Al Wheeler—whom they believed to be the director of SIL's Colombia Branch—they kidnapped Bitterman instead. Several days later, the guerillas demanded that SIL leave the country. Finally, 48 days after his abduction, on March 7, 1981, Bitterman's body was found in a bus near Bogotá, having been shot in the chest.
There was found an entry in Chet's journal written nearly two years before his death that read. "The situation in Nicaragua is getting worse. If Nicaragua falls, I guess the rest of Central America will too. Maybe this is just some kind of self-inflicted Martyr complex, but I find this recurring thought that perhaps God will call me to be martyred in His service in Colombia. I am willing."
References
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Further reading
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bitterman, Chet
1952 births
1981 deaths
American evangelicals
American Protestant missionaries
Protestant missionaries in Colombia
20th-century Protestant martyrs
Columbia International University alumni
Deaths by firearm in Colombia
People murdered in Colombia
People from Lancaster, Pennsylvania
American expatriates in Colombia
Date of death unknown
Missionary linguists