Colombian Christian Mission

COLOMBIAN CHRISTIAN MISSION
Dale and Jeanie Meade
In the jungle and prairie of Southeastern Colombia.
Volume 12, Issue 5 May, 1984

FURLOUGH PLANS

For those of you who keep track of the passing of time, you are probably aware of the fact that it has been three years since we left the States after our last furlough. That means that the time is rapidly approaching when we will be able to visit with you and share what God has done here in Colombia. We very much look forward to seeing each and every one of you, Lord willing, during the next year. There is so much to talk about that the newsletters never seem to have enough space. And while we are done here, there is so much to do that there never seems to be enough time to write all about what is going on. It will also be a time to visit family and rest from three full years of brain numbing tropical heat. We currently plan on leaving Colombia sometime in August. That would give us ten days to get up there and get settled in before school starts. Then in the early part of September, we will travel to the Missionary Convention in the South West. We would be back in Ohio and ready to start accepting speaking dates from about the 23rd of September. As in the past, we will give supporting churches priority in scheduling speaking dates. You may begin writing our forwarding agent and requesting tentative speaking dates any time now. We will confirm all of those dates in person once we arrive back in the States.
There is much to be done before we return. We ask for your prayers in this trying time of paperwork and travel. We will have to make many trips to Bogota as we begin getting all of our documents in order. There is also the bittersweet time of saying good-bye in one church after another as I make may final visit to each area. Yet there is the growing excitement as we look forward to seeing you in the not too distant future.


HOLY WEEK

In Colombia, you rarely hear someone speak of Easter. They usually talk about the Holy Week. Being a Catholic country, the Holy Week begins with a jubilant parade on Palm Sunday. In every city there is a big celebration as images of the Virgin Mary are carried around on stretchers. The people follow these statues carrying palm branches. The people are encouraged to pin money to the robe of the statue as it passes. This is supposed to give them pardon for sins committed during the past year and prepare them for the Holy Week. Each day there are special masses for certain events that occurred during the Passion Week. Most businesses are closed for the week. Everything is closed for Holy Thursday and Holy Friday. It is very difficult to buy meat during the week. Good Friday is the holiest day of the Catholic calendar. On that day they all listen to the pope or the local archbishop preach the famous "seven last words of Christ" sermon. Many people, who never attend church during the rest of the year, become very religious during this time.
For the evangelical church, things are very different. But that special sense of consecration during the week seems to carry over. Most of the churches in the country expect a visit for Easter week. As a result I am very busy during this period. Several weeks before, we began organizing the visits. We planned to have one of our mature Christians visit each area. Then we tried to line up one of the newer Christians to go with the older brother. This helps to train the new Christians to be active in the ministry of the church. Due to the fact we have worked hard to increase the number of national leaders, we were able to cover all of the churches this year. For the first time, I would not have to be out in the prairie or jungle for Easter services. That meant that I could be with my family here in Villavicencio.
Even though I would not be spending a week somewhere, it would not be free time. For the majority of the travelers I would provide transportation. The airplane again proved its worth as I traveled over two thousand miles hauling evangelists out to their respective churches. I made several trips each day, starting the Saturday before Palm Sunday and flying right up through the end of Holy Week. I logged a little over twenty three hours on the plane. But the same trips would have taken somewhere around two hundred hours is they had been made on local busses. In the end, it also comes out to be cheaper since we do not have to pay for meals and other expenses that would be involved in day-long bus trips. As the week ended I brought the people back in. Since all of them have regular jobs, the plane allowed them to be back in town in time for work on Monday morning.
On the Sunday after, the teams had a chance to give a short testimony about their trips. They had returned very enthused by the chance to serve the Lord in His church. Virtually all had thrilling stories of conversions and reconciliations from churches that they had visited. Most had made plans for follow-up visits in the weeks after Easter. I also held private meeting with the teams to discuss any problems or difficulties that they might have encountered. The fact that all visits were made this year by the Colombian brethren, gives us added confidence that the church here is developing in a truly indigenous way. As the political situation becomes more precarious as the days go by, we can have no way of assuring our future presence here in the country. That makes it all the more important that the church develop in such a way that it can survive without us. While we are here, we will use our time and tools that you have provided us, (such as the car and plane) to accelerate the evangelization of this part of Latin America. But we make every effort to build on a foundation of something more substantial than American money and presence her in the Country.