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March 1990 Newsletter
COLOMBIAN CHRISTIAN MISSION
Dale and Jeanie Meade
In the jungle and prairie of Southeastern Colombia
Volume 18, Issue 3 March, 1990
CALMING IN COLOMBIA
After a traumatic Fall, things seem to be settling down in Colombia. This has been the typical cycle in Colombia. There will be a major blowup and all of the missionaries need to "disappear" for a while. Then as things settle down, everything gets back to normal. This cycles has played out again and there is a new opportunity for the work.
One never knows how long this will go on. One of these days, the country might be shut down for American missionaries. But for now, there is tremendous opportunity. Mark is working in Bogota. Bill Longest should be back in the country by the time you read this. Steve Phillips is making plans to leave for Colombia in about a year.
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Barranquillla, our second "million plus" large city on the coast.
My studies here will take three semesters if I complete them in one sitting. That would have us back in Colombia right after I finish my responsibilities with the missionary convention. Assuming I have finished my degree, we could open the Bible institute that the work in Colombia now needs. The degree would also give me an opening to the middle and upper classes that we do not now have. So there are many bright spots on the horizon for the work in Colombia. Pay that God keeps the door open!
(PHOTO)
Sidewalk cafes, empty in September, have filled with people.
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A Colombian Ford carries a local farmer to the marketplace.
WHY WHEATON?
Many times in the last month, I have heard the question, "Why Wheaton?" Many are naturally curious as to why I did not choose one of our Bible colleges or seminaries. Others have wondered why I travel so far to go to school. Those are important questions that I asked myself many times before coming to a final decision. Let me take you back in time a little in order to explain the reasoning.
(PHOTO)
Blanchard Tower, focal point of the Wheaton Campus.
In 1973, as I finished my BA degree in missions, I debated about going to graduate school. At that time I wrote to Abilene Christian University about their graduate degree in missions. What I found out surprised me. The person who taught the courses in the degree program had never been to the mission field. I wrote several other schools and found that most had professors who were professional students, but not missionaries. In other words, they had gone to college for a long time, but they had never gone to the mission field.
At that time, I felt the call to work in Colombia too urgently. I could not wait any longer. I had to get to the field. But I continued to think about finishing the Masters degree that I had started before I left CBS. "While on furlough, I will work on it," I wrote in our newsletter. When I came back on my first furlough, I pursued the plan. I even went so far as to enroll at CBS for the Winter quarter. But that was the Winter of '76-'77 and there was no traveling to Cincinnati that year! It was not God's timing. During this time I continued to write to graduate schools.
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Billy Graham Center, home to the Wheaton College Graduate School.
By the time our third furlough rolled around, I have written every major evangelical graduate school that offered degrees in missions. Our own schools had gone through financial crisis and none currently offered graduate degrees in missions. One school stood out, Wheaton Graduate School offered exactly the degree I was interested in: Missions/Cross Cultural Communication. This interdisciplinary degree would allow me to use it in Colombia, which will not recognize evangelical seminary degrees. It would still give me the missions emphasis that I want. Wheaton had professors who were veteran missionaries. Wheaton was the only school that had everything I was looking for. It was as if God had prepared Wheaton to my specifications.
By the time we came home for our fourth furlough, an education problem with one of our children, combined with the political situation in Colombia, made it impossible to return to Colombia after our regular furlough. Finally, in God's timing, the opportunity had come.
(PHOTOS)
Dr. Lois McKinney, one of my professors.
602 Chase Court is where I live while at Wheaton. I share a small apartment with another grad Student.
The large indoor pool at Chrouse Fitness Center helps me combine recreation with workout.
A snowy winter day in Chicago. The Wheaton area gets more snow than we do in Ohio.