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August 1978 Newsletter
COLOMBIAN CHRISTIAN MISSION
Dale and Jeanie Meade
In the jungle and prairie of Southeastern Colombia
Volume 6, Issue 8 August, 1978
THE LATEST BULLETIN ON THE RADIO PROGRAM
I've had a very interesting summer. I've visited many of the churches in Colombia, and I always found friendly, enthusiastic Christians. They love Jesus Christ and are excited about spreading their joy to others. Actually the first attempts to start a radio program in Colombia were made by national Christians. The Colombian brethren made two attempts to start a radio program, one of which resulted in a program that ran for a short period of time. However, the men did this in addition to their regular jobs, caring for their families and other church work. The demands were too great, and both attempts failed. With Dale and Gilberto Mora, the Colombian announcer, able to give a large part of their time to it, this program should be a success for a long time to come. We've only been on the air seven months, and we are already receiving an average of five letters per day. Dale has contacted another station manager who would like to have us put our program on his station. But, because we're still in the preparation stage, we're not ready to expand beyond our one station. We don't have all the equipment we need, and at every recording session we work a few more bugs out of the production process. Dale and I have been working on record and tape filing systems, a program filing system, and a communication system between the announcer and the control operator. Phil is purchasing some more equipment while he is in the states.
Dale and I recently completed one of the cabinets to house the equipment and we have most of the wiring in it. The voltage in Colombia is very unstable, so we installed a variable transformer and a voltage meter to control the voltage. The studio building will probably not be finished before I return to the U.S., so we have wired the cabinet so that it is only necessary to move the cabinet into place and connect a few plugs. This way we can use the cabinets in the temporary studio while we wait for the building to be completed.
In building the cabinet, I was confronted with a problem. I'd never thought of before. Most specialized tools are unavailable or extremely expensive in Colombia. We searched all the hardware stores in Villavicencio for "C" clamps, and couldn't find any. Dale finally found some in Bogota. We borrowed a router from another missionary, and again we searched Villavicencio looking for router bits. We did find a store with a router for sale, but the only bits they had were the few that came with the router. (The router, which costs about $35 in the U.S., was 5,900 pesos, and $170) As a result, when specialized tools are a necessity, they must be brought in from the U.S. Most of the time we've had to improvise, and we've become pretty good at it.
The progress we make to improve the radio program is slow - sometimes almost unnoticeable. But when we compare the programs made today with those made during the first few months, there is a great deal of difference. There is still room for improvement, but Dale and Gilberto are both imaginative and dedicated to giving their best to the Lord. I believe that soon our Colombian radio program will compare favorable with any produced in the U.S.A. Steve Beerbower.
RAIN, RAIN, RAIN, AND MORE RAIN.
We are in the height of the rainy season right now. That makes travel much slower and more difficult. We have made less trips out and into the prairie than we would like to. Here in the city I have trouble making it across town on the motorbike without getting doused. We wearily go about business and look forward to the dry season. There are some distinct advantaged though. We can catch sufficient rain water for drinking and washing. That way we are able to avoid using the muddy river water. Also the two inches of rain that we get daily clears the air of any pollution and smoke. The nights are also cool. But we didn't come to Colombia to enjoy the tropical nights. All the rain has steadily decreased the number of students arriving monthly for our preachers meeting. It decreases the teaching sessions that we can have in the churches. Yet the work of planting New Testament Christianity goes on. The leaders that we have been training are working in the areas where they live. The Rincon de Bolivar Church of Christ had six baptisms last month. Other churches reported evangelistic trips to nearby towns. Attendance was up in several of the churches. And all of this is going on while the missionaries have had difficulty in getting out. As we see increased results coming from our leadership training course, we become more thrilled with the future possibilities. Keep these new leaders in your prayers.