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December 1986 Newsletter
COLOMBIAN CHRISTIAN MISSION
Dale and Jeanie Meade
In the jungle and prairie of Southeastern Colombia
Volume 14, Issue 12 December, 1986
(PHOTO)
May the life, the love, and the presence of Jesus bless your home this Christmas season and in the coming year.
REQUEST FOR PRAYER FOR MARK STRINGER
As any reader of this newsletter is well aware, there are only two missionary families from the Restoration Movement working in Colombia. Mark Stringer had been in Colombia for about five years when we arrived on the field. He is the senior missionary and a man of great ability and many God-given talents. All of the Colombian brethren hold him in very high esteem.
In August of this year we all said good-bye to Mark and his family as they headed home for a much needed furlough. The news of his hospitalization with severe heart problems came as a surprise and shock to all of us. Just before Thanksgiving we got word that Mark's heart was dangerously enlarged and that the prognosis was very uncertain. His return to Colombia was very much in balance. Ever since the news, the whole church in Colombia has been in fervent prayer for him.
Now we ask the same of you. Could you please join us in praying daily for Mark's health and his return to Colombia? This is a large and populous country. The needs are overwhelming. The work in Colombia can not afford to loose such a valuable person at this moment. So please add Mark Stringer to your prayer list.
THANKSGIVING TREAT
While we have willingly, yes even joyously left American culture behind in order to preach the Gospel here in Colombia, at times like Thanksgiving and Christmas, we miss many things. Among them are family get togethers, certain foods, and snow.
This year, thanks to our little vacation to San Andres Island, we did not have to miss out on our traditional Thanksgiving dinner. We did not celebrate on Thanksgiving day. That day had been booked up long ago with an evangelistic trip. But the day after we savored a real American Thanksgiving dinner. Since San Andres is a free port, they find it cheaper to import American canned food, rather than trying to bring food from Colombia. While there we bought and brought home everything for our Thanksgiving meal. We had ham, sweet potatoes, sweet corn, cranberry sauce, and lima beans. All are things we love and things that are not available here in Colombia.
So our Thanksgiving was different from any before in Colombia. And it was a time to be truly thankful for all the Lord has done for us. Especially the privilege of serving Him in your behalf, here in Colombia. For that we are very thankful to the Lord and grateful to you. May God bless.
LAST MINUTE UPDATE ON THE WORK CREW
Praise God! Everything seems to be falling in place for the work crew. After a slow start in recruitment, we had a flood of applicants. While Mark Stringer's illness has cast a pall over the church in Bogota, plans still call for constructing a church building in the back lot of the house in Bogota. This offers an exciting new horizon for the work in Bogota. For the first time we will not be limited by space!
There is one area of the work crew with which we still need help. Mark Stringer was going to try to raise the money for the building materials while on his furlough. With his illness, he has not been able to make his speaking dates. What money he had saved up has been spent to pay hospital bills. That leaves us with a work crew and no money for buying materials. If you could help pay for building materials, that would mean that the building could be completed in the time the work crew is here in Colombia. We estimate that the total cost of the 40' by 40' building to be about $10,000. We realize that is far less than what a similar building would cost in the States, even with donated labor. But we always made an effort to see that the absolute most is accomplished with each missions dollar you entrust to us. If there is any way you can make a special gift to help cover this need, it would be a great Christmas present for the Lord's work here in Colombia.