Colombian Christian Mission

COLOMBIAN CHRISTIAN MISSION
Dale and Jeanie Meade
In the jungle and prairie of Southeastern Colombia
Volume 10, Issue 11 November, 1982

BIBLE BY BETAMAX

Leaders are essential to the progress of any church. That is true in the United States. It is even more true down here. When a church is just beginning, it lacks the stability that seems to permeate a congregation that has been around for a hundred years. Leadership training has always been high on our priority list. From the very beginning, we have worked to train up an indigenous leadership that would be capable of continuing to guide the church should we be forced to leave. Our theological education by extension has been, and still is a means to that end. But even the effectiveness of that is limited to the number of teachers available to work with it. We have become acutely aware of this in recent years of the number of missionaries in Colombia has dwindled from five families down to the point where there are now only two. During the same time we have opened an entirely new work in Bogota. That has occupied Mark Stringer and his family while we remained here in the Eastern Plains and the Jungle. So far efforts to recruit new missionaries have not provided any results. Colombia is without a doubt a difficult field. The constant threat of terrorism coupled with the resistant nature of the culture here means that many young recruits and older missionaries look for easier fields elsewhere.
With this in mind, we began to look for new Bible teachers that did not get tired or discouraged. They would have to work without pay, since there were no funds available for salaries. They needed to be immune to criticism. They must be willing to work and travel at any time of the day or night. We readily found whole group of such teachers. The first one to come work with us is Gil Contreras. He has been teaching a course in the New Testament church for a month now. We have several others lined up to come. They are far sighted people who have multiplied their ministries by working in audiovisuals. We have gotten them to come by buying a Betamax. The machine can be taken to any church or Bible study and will work at any time of the day or night, provided that there is electricity. So far the course has proved very popular. Every week there are more and more people coming. We have the televised Bible study every Tuesday evening at the church are being instructed in Christian basics in the church building.
Maybe you would like to come down and help a little while too. There are a couple of ways that you could do it. There are many opportunities provided by this new medium. If your church has such a ministry, or if members have the equipment, you could send us copies of the church services or special events at you congregation. Due to the language barrier, this would not teach very many Colombians. But it would go along way towards providing some spiritual nourishment for a couple missionary families who rarely get to hear any English. Another way that you could help is by taking on the tapes as a special project. They are provided by Good News Productions at a cost of $35 per tape. We are currently buying one per month. There are already over twenty tapes available in Spanish and more are being produced all of the time. This delivery rate could be speeded up by interest Christians in the States.
Our ultimate goal has always been to preach and teach the soul-saving message of God's word, by every means available to us. As the political situation in Colombia continues to deteriorate, there is a great need to multiply our ministry in every way possible. One such way is by teaching BIBLE BY BETAMAX.


A MEN'S RETREAT

The problem of keeping ones spiritual batteries charged up can be difficult. But that is especially true down here. Christians are a very small minority and there is a great deal of pressure to get them to return to their old habits of drunkenness and immorality. On top of that there are economic pressures common to a society where wages are low and work is held in low esteem. All of this adds up to a tough situation for the Christian man. In spite of this there have been some very capable leaders develop from the national church. In order to encourage this process as well as simply recharge the spiritual batteries of any of the men in the churches that could be talked into coming, we decided to hold a weekend retreat.
Since things don't move as fast down here as they do in the States, we saw no reason in getting started too early. This was especially true since I was not in on too much of the organization. Some of the Colombian brethren said that they would take charge of things. Colombia is often the land of "ma¤ana" or tomorrow. Things have a way of getting put off and tomorrow always seems like a better day to get things done. As a result, five days before the retreat was to take place, there was no speaker lined up and there had been no reservations made at the camp area. Oh well, minor details! Anyhow, when the time finally rolled around, true to local customs, everything had been taken care of. On Monday before the retreat was to begin, one of the local preachers was busy calling the owners of the farm where we planned to hold the meetings. I was pressed into service as a taxi driver to run them around. Fortunately a cancelation of another planned retreat left the farm open. The day before the weekend was to start another series of phone calls lined up a willing speaker. No cook was to be found so several of the ladies from the church were drafted into service. By the time the thing was to get underway the pieces were beginning to fall into place like a puzzle. That never ceases to amaze me.
On the Friday morning that the camp was to begin, I was up early. I had been asked to bring several of the men in from the country churches. I wanted to get an early start. I made it to the airport by 7 o'clock and soon had the airplane pre-flighted. The strip that I was going into was so rough that it had been abandoned by the crop dusters. So as added insurance I held my own little prayer meeting right there in the airplane's cockpit. The town is only about thirty miles away by air. But it would have been a grueling eight hour bus ride. It was a clear morning and I could see the river that the town is located on almost as soon as I was up in the air. The flight was uneventful. But as I arrived, I was disappointed to see that the strip was covered with cattle. Buzzing the strip seemed to be of no help so I had to fly around until some of the brethren came running to chase them off. With the strip cleared I dropped full flaps and came in steep to clear the trees that grow right up to the end of the strip. The strip was covered with water and mud from a rain the night before but the landing went well. We loaded up rapidly and were soon in the air again. I dropped off the load of people in Villavicencio and tanked up for the longer flight to San Jose. There I was to pick up another group of men. The flight was over an hour long but at least there is a decent dirt strip there. I tried to load up as quickly as possible so as to get back in time for the camp to start. On the return trip there were frequent showers that I had to skirt. But we still made it back by noon. I traded the plane for the jeep and continued the job of taxi driver; making several trips from town to the farm where we were setting up tents for the weekend retreat. Everything continued to go like clockwork.
The topic the speaker was on the Christian family. That is very important down here. In the non-Christian family the man is often little more than someone who pops in occasionally. He usually spends all of his money on drink and prostitutes, leaving the wife to work at washing other peoples clothes in order to buy clothes, food and dishes for the home. It is often quite a difficult for the man to become accustomed to his responsibility as a husband and father. Since they are anxious to become the man that God wants them to be, the theme proved to be very popular. The camp itself was a mixture of study, food, fellowship, and recreation. There soon developed a warm atmosphere of Christian fellowship. The speaker did an excellent job of dealing with delicate subjects with just the right amount of humor. The weekend was soon over. The time had passed in a whir. No one became bored with even though the lessons often lasted for two of three hours on end. During the closing service everyone was given the chance to say something. Most regretted not having come to previous camps. A non-believer who had come with one of the Christians got up and made an emotional speech. "No one will believe me," he said. "Someone in building. We have had them in our home as well. In this way we can have our own little mini-Bible institute while at the same time we are having more Bible studies in other homes. Our preachers and the world would never believe that we could have this good of a time without whiskey and women. I plan to start coming to church every Sunday from now on." His comments were echoed by another non-Christian who was present.
As the camp drew to a close, everyone piled into the back of a cattle truck and headed for Villavicencio. The next morning I began the reverse process of taking everybody home. The return trip was somewhat easier though. First the weather was nearly perfect. Secondly the takeoffs were easier because we were leaving from the paved strip here in Villavicencio. Landing on a bad strip with a heavily loaded airplane is not as risky as taking off. After dropping the people off at their churches, I could take off with a light airplane. As I tanked up to make the last flight of the day, I wondered where I was going to get the money to pay for the gasoline. Due to a radio repair, the airplane money from this month's budget had already been spent. I was paying for the gasoline out of my pocket but our family budget was also mighty thin. "The Lord will provide." I thought. As I dropped the people off in San Jose, someone came running up to the plane. "We have a plane broken down and no way to get the passengers out," she said, "Could you please help us out with a couple?" "Sure," I answered. We loaded up the plane and the ticket agent handed me a roll of pesos. Upon landing in Villavicencio, I counted the money. I was amazed. The amount came out to be exactly equal to the amount that I had spent for gasoline during all of the flying that I had done for the Camp. The Lord has provided.