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January 1990 Newsletter
COLOMBIAN CHRISTIAN MISSION
Dale and Jeanie Meade
In the jungle and prairie of Southeastern Colombia
Volume 18, Issue 1 January 1990
NATIONAL MISSIONARY CONVENTION
Since being elected as president of the 1991 National Missionary Convention, I have had extra responsibilities to attend to. One such task took up part of my Christmas vacation. We had the first meeting with the people representing the convention center in Springfield, Illinois. There was also to be a meeting of the area preachers. So the first week in January, I drove out to Illinois.
Not wanting to be away from my family any more than necessary, I chose to rise at 4 a.m. and depart. The trip was over five hundred miles and I needed to be there by 2 p.m. I had packed everything the night before, so I simply dressed, brushed my teeth, and jumped into the car. By daybreak I was past Columbus. By 10 a.m. I was rounding Indianapolis. I stopped for a tank of gas and drank a can of pop for breakfast. Time clicked by slowly as I entered Illinois and tried to judge my arrival time. Because of the time change, I would gain an hour. With that in my favor, even the ten hours of driving time did not hurt too much.
It was 1 o'clock Central Standard Time when I arrived at the hotel. Since we would also be looking at hotels for the convention, one had given us a free room. I checked in, deposited my bags in the room, and headed for the convention center. The area preachers began arriving at the same time. We toured the facilities, decided what we would need, and settled the preliminary arrangements. Next we had a meeting with the area preachers. We laid the general framework for the type of convention we wanted. We decided to try a weekend convention in an effort to get more people to attend. After talking about the theme and naming some people to handle local arrangements, we prayed and dispersed. Then, the preacher in charge of the local arrangements accompanied me to the different hotels to talk about the price they would charge. Finally, after getting each bid, I headed back for my room. I was dead tired and intended to turn in immediately. But no sooner had I sat down on the bed than someone knocked at my door. It was room service with a box of candy. The hotel, it seemed, was trying to make an impression. I thanked them and called Walter Birney, the convention coordinator, to report on our progress. I had barely hung up when there came another knock at the door. This time is was room service with a fruit basket. It was a good thing I had not gone out to eat! I did not have money to eat in a restaurant, but as it turned out, there was no need, either. Next I called Jeanie to let her know that I would be getting in later than expected the next day. As soon as I hung up, another knock kept me from hitting the sack. This time room service had brought up a cheese and cracker tray, complete with a bottle of wine. They seemed surprised when I told them that I did not want it opened. (They would probably been even more surprised if they had known that I don't drink at all.) With them gone, I showered and hit the sack. But again, a knock kept me from resting. This time is was a rose in a bud vase. While the attention was nice, I was beginning to tire of it all. I had been up for more than 18 hours and I wanted to sleep. Finally I wised up and hung out the "do not disturb" sign and turned in. After a good night's rest, I packed up and headed home. The drive home was uneventful, but by losing the hour because of the time zones, I did not make it in until evening. It had been a good trip. We had accomplished all that we had wanted to do. One unique feature of the trip had been the hotel. I had never stayed in a hotel like that before. Nor had I ever seen that kind of service. One thing I was glad that I didn't have to see was the bill that went with it.
BACK TO SCHOOL
Before we ever left for Colombia, I had a goal of getting a Masters degree. I took one class before we first departed for Colombia. Every furlough I have stated my desire, my dream of pursuing graduate study. Every term in Colombia I have worked on one course by correspondence. Yet the pressing nature of the work in Colombia, the sense of urgency about it, never gave me the peace to take more time off from work. The same sense of urgency never allowed me to take vacations or other time off. In fact, during our four terms in Colombia, we took only three weeks of vacation. Even then it took the gentle prodding of Jeanie to remind me of the need. I felt that we needed to use every moment to preach the Gospel and plant new churches.
But there was one problem with that. A person has a certain amount of energy. His stamina will carry him only so far and then he must stop and rest. Furloughs never provided that rest. On every furlough, we have driven over 50,000 miles and I have always maintained a heavy speaking schedule of more than 100 dates. That itinerary has left me depleted. I have found myself running out of material to give. I found myself working more and accomplishing less.
Because of the political upheaval of these last months in Colombia and my teaching at KCC, we found ourselves in the States with a period of time and few commitments. As I tried to decide whether to accept more speaking dates or go back to school, I remember a conversation with a farmer friend of mine. When we first returned on furlough, I was discussing my malaise with him. At that time he encouraged me to go back and study. He heats with wood and still uses an axe some. He made an analogy from that. "If I use the axe, and it gets dull, I would be foolish to continue to work with it. I would have to work harder and I would get less done. I would run a greater risk of injuring myself. Still I would be wasteful if I simply threw it away. The best thing is to take a break and sharpen my axe. Then I can get back to work!" His country wisdom made a lot of sense. I understood what he meant, but I felt that maybe I would recover while traveling and speaking.
While I did recover my enthusiasm for the work, I still lacked something. I had spent too many years giving and not taken time to recharge. God provided that opportunity by having me at KCC for one semester only. He also saw to it that no requests for speaking dates came in. I would have never turned a church down. Still, I felt fearful. I doubted my ability to do graduate level work after so many years away from the books. I wondered if I would be accepted. I worried about housing. I pondered how I could pay for it. But one by one, God began to "wet the fleece" that I laid out before Him. First, I was accepted at Wheaton College Graduate School, one of best schools in the nation for Missions study. Housing became available even after I had repeatedly been told that there was none. Another grad student withdrew at the last moment and his bunk was empty. God even provided several special gifts that allowed me to pay the first installment on my tuition. I still have to prove myself in the classroom, but after all that God has done for me, I have greater confidence in myself.
I will be spending my weeks in Wheaton, Illinois. My classes run from Monday to Thursday. I will drive home most weekends in order to be with my family. I still have a $4,000 bill to pay for tuition and housing. I will have to eat while up there. There will be a big gasoline bill if I come home often. But I am confident that God will provide. I am looking forward to studying under great missionary professors. I am confident in gaining more knowledge and abilities in order to better serve Him in Colombia in the future.
COMPUTER
Last year, for our VBS project, we raised money to buy a computer for the mission. I had my little computer that I took to Colombia. It is great for writing newsletters. But it simply does not have the capacity to do mailing lists and accounting. Add this to the fact that we were getting behind in our bookkeeping, we felt that it was time to "computerize."
In the VBS's, we did not raise enough money to purchase the computer. But it was better that way. After all, "God works all things for the good of those who serve him." While working at KCC, I found out about a program where college professors can buy IBM computers at 5% over cost. By purchasing under that program, I was able to buy an IBM for the cost of an off brand. That saved quite a bit of money.
While I am at college, I have left the computer at home so that Jeanie can learn how to use it. We have not yet been able to purchase the printer to go with it. That will come some time in the future. For the time being, we can use a little printer that I have for my little computer. It will not do the accounting printouts or word processing for printing. But it at least lets Jeanie learn how to use the equipment. And God will provide money for the printer when the time is right.