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June 1986 Newsletter
COLOMBIAN CHRISTIAN MISSION
Dale and Jeanie Meade
In the jungle and prairie of Southeastern Colombia
Volume 14, Issue 6 June, 1986
(PHOTO)
A lot, worth $30,000 next to the church. Some day we hope to purchase this lot for the school.
SUMMER INTERNS
As a student, I benefited from internships. In fact my first interest in Colombia came from a summer internship down here with Warren Sanders. I have always been grateful to the missionaries who invited me to share with them.
As a result, we have always been open to Bible College students who have expressed an interest in coming to Colombia for an internship. This summer, as a result of my trips to CBS and teaching at KCC, we have two interns staying with us. Steve Phillips was one of my students at KCC. He took both of my Missionary Life and Work class, as well as the Ham Radio class. He had been considering an internship and decided to take it with us here in Colombia. This fall he will be entering his senior year at KCC and could soon be making his life count for the Lord on the mission field.
The other intern, Bill Longest, is also looking forward to beginning his senior year this fall. He is a pilot and had intended to fly our mission plane some this summer. While those plans have been hindered by a continued grounding order affecting all of the strips we went into, he decided to come anyway.
Both will travel extensively with me and with some of the national leaders. They will help with organizational work, such as making and keeping church growth charts and statistics. Each will spend some time with me and some time with Mark Stringer. Both are studying Spanish and living with nationals. This should give them a good understanding of the culture plus a head start on the language, should they some day decide to return.
It is a real pleasure having them with us. Please join us in praying that this summer challenge then with the vision of "fields white unto the harvest."
TIME OUT
The demands of the work in Colombia are so large, the workers are so few, and resources are seldom sufficient for the needs. As a result I seldom take any time off while we are down here. Furloughs are equally hectic and even then we almost never take any time off. In June, for the second time in 13 years, we took a vacation. Thanks to some gentle reminding by my wife, I paused to remember that the kids are growing up quickly and that we need a little time together outside of the normal travel and work schedule.
As with our vacation 3 years ago, we went to San Andres Island. That is a small island off the coast of Nicaragua that belongs to Colombia. As a result we can go there without doing any paperwork. That in itself makes for a nice break. There are many other things attractive about the island. It was populated by black Jamaicans. They are almost all Baptists. Because of this, there is no theft on the island. A person can relax in a way that is not possible in Colombia. The Gospel always makes life so pleasant.
There are many other nice things about the island. There are the white sand beaches and the snorkeling off the coral reefs. The island is a free port and so we can get many things there that we cannot get here in Colombia. We bought fig newtons bars and peanut butter. We bought a canned ham and some sweet potatoes to save for out Christmas dinner later this year.
Since we had been back in Colombia the kids had not been able to practice their piano. We had tried to find a used piano to buy. But the best we could come up with was $1,800 for an ancient upright. We checked on an electronic keyboard but the prices here in Colombia were outrageous. In San Andres we were able to get a nice 5 octave Casio keyboard for less than 1/3 of the price here in Colombia.
So our five-day vacation was over all too quickly. We are back to the work. But it was a refreshing time. There are only a few minor things to spoil the perfect vacation. For one, the newness of the keyboard has already worn off and the kids have remembered that practicing piano is still a dreary past-time. And there is the other less-than-favorable remembrance of the vacation: The monthly payments that we have to make in order to pay it off!