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April 1979 Newsletter
COLOMBIAN CHRISTIAN MISSION
Dale and Jeanie Meade
In the jungle and prairie of Southeastern Colombia.
Volume 7, Issue 4 April, 1979
SLOW AND STEADY
When in the States on furlough we shared many of our evangelistic plans with the supporting churches. One of these goals was to establish a total of 10 New Testament churches in Villavicencio, a city of 150,000. Due to an almost complete lack of personal transportation, churches must be within walking distance to really serve and evangelize a neighborhood. Virtually no one has a car (We have not been able to afford a car, even after five years in the country. A Toyota jeep is currently US $16,000) Bus service on Sunday is extremely poor. With this in mind we divided the city up into ten zones and began working towards the goal of starting a church in each zone. About a year ago we announced the establishment of the "Communist Christian Church." (No the name does not refer to the politics of the church. It is located in a suburb that was started by the communist party of Colombia. The suburb has the name "The communists", hence the name of the church.) Now, one year later, we have established "Hope Christian Church." It is located in a suburb called "Hope" and thus the name.
To establish this church we drew on a tried and proven method that has been used with great success in the States. We drew a nucleus of six families from the largest church and used them for the new congregation. They have been meeting only a couple weeks now but the future looks bright. They have the spirit of a new church and are working hard to make the new congregation self-supporting. The evangelization is being handled by the Colombian Brethren right from the start. The oversight is being handled by the ADIAC (or our evangelizing association. The complete name is La Asociacion de Iglesias Autonomos en Colombia.) In the beginning they will receive some help with the rent but we are avoiding the dangerous practice of supporting the work or the preacher with foreign funds. The offerings so far indicate that they may be no need whatsoever for any outside help. With the establishment of this fourth New Testament Church we are nearing the halfway mark in our plan. Time is also nearing the halfway mark. These goals are not meant to indicate success or failure but only to spur us on to carry on the work in an effective way. If our plan goes according to schedule, next year we will be establishing a church in the downtown sector.
Meeting these goals, up to the moment, has been extremely difficult. There are several reasons for this. First is that we are working with less help than anticipated. Also the airplane is not here in Colombia due to mechanical problems and importation difficulties. Both of these problems have made the leadership training and visitation in the remote areas extremely difficult. This has held up the growth of existing churches and has made the establishment of new churches nearly impossible. Yet even under these circumstances we are reaching out into new towns at this moment. Our true goal is the evangelization of Colombia and in one way or another we will move ahead. We may have to vary methods and goals in accordance with the circumstances, but we will never change that basic goal. In closing, I must mention that our program has been as aggressive as it has because of one important factor. You have responded to our outreach by increasing your financial support. While we are being buffeted by a brutal 35 percent to 40 percent inflation and a weakening dollar, your increases have kept pace. We have had to diligently scrutinize our budget, but we have not had to cut any major program. We praise the Lord for this. May the Lord bless you with equal abundance.
SEARCH AND RESCUE
When we first came to Colombia, it was to work with Warren Sanders and the Church in San Jose. Things did not work out that way. Circumstances required that the Sanders family leave San Jose shortly after our arrival. During those same few weeks the church in San Jose was taken over by unscrupulous leaders who boasted that they didn't need the Bible, they talked directly to God. Their doctrine was as far out as their original statement. The churches in the country had a more stable leadership and so we continued to work with them. We stopped visiting the in-town church after Warren had been "invited out." The Lord blessed the country churches with very good growth while the in town church wallowed in problems. One prophet after another pulled out when they had conflicting revelations. For the last year we had been praying that the Lord open the door to start a new church that preached and practiced the Bible. In January of this year we began making a definite move towards reaching that goal. We sent a young preacher named Helman Ocampos into the area to visit the churches in the jungle. He would be living in San Jose and evangelizing there too. The goal was a new church. He is supporting himself by selling honey that the other preachers produce. About this same time a most amazing thing happened.
The fanatical prophet that had the started the entire problem five years before, suddenly got a new revelation that he was to leave San Jose. At the same time the remaining prophets got into a fight about some new prophesies that were contradictory. The church split once again. The remaining members were tired of what was going on. They wanted something to believe in that didn't change every couple days. They remembered the old times when the missionaries insisted that everything be done according to the New Testament. That unchanging document that has seemed so necessary only a few years before suddenly became very attractive. About that time I visited the churches in the San Jose area. On an impulse I dropped in on the same church that we had ben invited out of five years before. Instead of the cold reception that I had expected, I was greeted with open arms. I introduced Helman to them and they soon decided to call him as their preacher. It is a new beginning for an old work. Instead of starting a new church, we will now be trying to revitalize the original one. It is a welcome challenge.