Missionary Gas

Yes, yes, yes, I won at Empires last night playing with the students. Being an evangelical college I was up against the likes of King David, Billy Graham and President Uribé. My nome de plume - Pablo Escobar.

Sunday was the elections. Many people had prayed for no bombs, and there weren't any. Colombia is a changed place. In the last three years the murder rate has halved and kidnappings have fallen by two-thirds. It gives Medellín a relaxed atmosphere. At night the streets are full of burger-eaters, cinema-attenders and boy-girl talk. By day, Olwen and I go out for walks with a freedom we've not known before. The big change has been caused by the disarming of the military who formed either guerrilla groups or self-defense forces. It's comparable to the ending of hostilities in Northern Ireland. Unsurprisingly, Alvaro Uribé has been reelected as president. He's a lawyer, educated in Oxford and Harvard, and a local Medellín University. His father was killed by guerrillas and the son has now successfully halted the military groups. He's a Margaret Thatcher kind of person, but without the curls, who´s strong on law and order, not so hot on pov

For academic wannabe's, there's now a Reviews seccion on the right of this page. These reviews are from my Theological Resources site which is in Spanish. But they were put there with an English translation which you can link to. The most interesting one todate has been Helm's book on Calvin, and the most popular with Spanish readers has been the BibleWorks 6.0 software review with 5000 downloads.

Only two weeks to go before semester finishes. Students are pretty stressed out. They cheered on Friday when class finished. Had a visit last night from an ex-evangelical pastor who's joined the Catholic church and now teaches religion in a an upmarket monks' school. He was keen to justify his actions so feel he's not at peace with the move. It made me think how poor the care of pastors is when things get difficult for them. And how astute Catholic clergy are, more so than their evangelical counterparts. Reading New Testament Theology by Philip Esler, who's trying to justify praying to the saints. Feel it's been a wonky couple of days.

Each day I teach 13 students in the Seminary and 650 outside of it. There's my Biblical theology class and my theology internet site. Such is the demand for materials in Spanish that readership of Recursos Teologicos just keeps on growing. Even when I neglect the thing for months, it thrives.This has some unexpected advantages. Marketing people like the site: it's in, effectively, the world's second language and offers a sought after product. In the past year I've been kindly given a string of the latest theological titles for review. The kind of books no minister would ever be allowed to buy. "Darling, do you mind if I spend £60 on Paul Helm's book on Calvin?", has only one answer. And my laptop benefits from £700 of the best Bible Software just for the effort of writing my opinion of it. There are other unexpected developments: people write in with problems. Agony Aunt style, I put my responses on the site's Blog (like a

"From our correspondent" BBC web site report covers Medellín, orchids and crack. Colombia´s ¨lost war¨against cocaine

It was the night of the full moon and we were invited to the cemetery. We were glad to have our street-wise friend Alejandro with us. There was a gap in the large railings that seal the entrance, just enough to allow a person to get through. Large bowls of fire lit our path as we walked amongst the towers of the dead. Burials are upwards in Latin American cities. We didn't really want to go and had no idea what to expect. The invite had come weeks before and without much thought I had given my word. Olwen put on a pair of comfortable shoes, Alejandro wore an american football top and I decided on my leather jacket for protection. That was justified when thunder cracked above the cemetery. Certain images still remain in my mind. There was the man completely in white who walked with a slow deliberate step: the angel of death. There was the young girl with a bouquet of flowers which she destroyed; we saw her entire life. And there was the patience and s

Taught the theology of Joshua, but wandered into 2nd World War military strategies It was Olwen's birthday last Friday, 12th May Kept my promise not to let anyone know when her birthday is, as she likes it to be a secret We went out for a meal and I ate a pineapple that had its innards scooped out and filled with chicken. Spent the night feeling I was an-about-to-explode-pineapple Bought Olwen a bag for her birthday but it turned out she was owed a present from last Christmas. Now owe her a birthday present

We were so sorry to hear of the death of Latin Link Strider, Steve Corbin, in an accident in the Lima Evangelical Seminary. He obviously was a dedicated man with a strong desire to help the needy. We pray that the God of all comfort will be especially close to his family. The accident was evidently caused while trying to retrieve a football from the Seminary roof. Students in a class at SEL

Colombia has a semi-militaristic feel about it: Arrows tell you which way to go up stairs; motorcyclists wear their bike registration number in large letters on the front of their jacket, on the back, on the helmet, on the bike and it appears three times more on their passenger; and I was asked for an ID number when I bought Olwen a blouse. If you go to the pictures your ticket is for a particular seat; and a girl shows everyone to the right one. No sitting in E13 if you're an F13 even if the place is empty. Last Saturday we were accurately seated in F13 and F14, and the show started. It struck us as being an unusual beginning with people standing on their heads, but then this was a Woody Allen redo of a Hitchock suspense. Then people's feet were at the top of the screen, their heads at the bottom and a big black line separated the two. At this point the girl directing the E13s of this world looked worried, talked into a walkie-talkie and then rus

This week: Beheaded a cockroach that was in my electric tooth brush Taught about the evangelistic purpose of OT Israel Bought a walz CD in order to practice (small apartment, need to master turns) Sense of despair - Seminary's academic committee approved failing students Olwen found a worm (small) in our bed

The first to come To Missionary Gas Was Caitriana, the brave, A good Scottish lass. Her prize is this pet A Colombian mate, To take to the Uni Its tale to relate.

On Friday night we went to the Little Theatre. I'm not sure why it's called that for about 400 were there. Maybe it's something to do with it costing little to get in. You get in free of charge, but have to pay to get out. At the end the actors form a kind of guard of honour at the door, thank you for coming and hold out an upturned top hat. As it was a classic comedy, Molière's Tartufo , Olwen thought it would be suitable for her class. It showed how licenciousness in Louis XIV's court was complemented by hypocrisy in the Catholic Church and its Holy Sacrament movement. Tartufo is a Catholic version of Burns' holy Willie with a bit of Rev. I.A.M. Jolly. The audience found it all very funny. Unfortunately Louis XIV was not amused and banned the original version. But what was also memorable about the evening was the taxi ride there. Latin American taxis are a phenomenum in their own right. Expressions like, real-life scaletrix and, Olwen's never been chatted

Olwen asked me if I wanted a new tea bag or a used one. As I was in the middle of reading of the sufferings of the negro slaves on the cross-atlantic journey, I decided on a used one. Gripping reading produces empathy. Members of my Biblical Theology class show their different preferences too. John Jairo sets his watch daily by Big Ben on the internet, and I suspect dreams of big congregations and long sermons. Santiago is a composer and musician of indigenous music and asks questions on interpretation even though it's not hermeneutics. Diana is a pyschology graduate and interprets what I say to the class. Being final year students they keep you right when they think what you're saying is wrong, so my classes are constantly being interrupted. What suprised me this week was some of their views on Scripture. For years I had assumed that everyone believed the right one, well, as I did. Now I've discovered that verbal inspiration isn't a common base. Mmmmm..... It will take