Left holding the baby

Visitors are a funny lot. Recently Olwen's old school-friend, Barbara and her daughter, Lizzie, arrived for a month's stay. Those from the UK do the strangest things, like sunbathing, chittering about the rain and not stuffing their money down their bra.

But Colombians are no different. At our door, in the midst of a strongly conservative religious community, arrived a friend, reeking of alcohol and saying he´d done things he shouldn't have. He'd been away from home for a couple of nights now and was too frightened to go home to his wife. In the end we drove round to his house where the rather substantial lady was her usual courteous self. I left him holding the baby, maybe as a protective strategy, and wanting to know if I couldn't stay on for an hour or two. The idea of being a human shield didn't appeal.

On the same day arrived a couple of former students. They were bright, cheerful and positive about life, although after years of trying for a family Maria had conceived, but recently had had a miscarriage with some nasty on-going medical complications. How they coped so well was beyond me.

Visiting forms a substantial part of the Bible's story, without it there would be no nativity and our lives would be one-dimensional.


Photo: Medellín airport, about 1 hour from the city. We'd come and meet you.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A wonky couple of days

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.
Read more

Dangerous ground in Parliament Hall

It was like taking part in a Harry Potter episode.    The location was Parliament Hall where the Scots Parliament met in 1645-46.   You enter it by pushing open an unmarked door at 66 South Street,  St Andrews.     Bright panelled walls and enormous portraits look down upon you in a friendly manner. We were warned by the Divinity Dean,  Ivor Davidson,  that we were on dangerous ground.   What we were embarking on "involves confession,  petition,  doxology and wonder.   We are at the edges of what we can say".       This was a conference on the Doctrine of the Trinity. The first to speak,  Tom McCall,   had flown in (by aeroplane) from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School,  Chicago.    Since arriving he had spent a night in a tent on Ben Nevis,  and now he spoke at breakneck speed on the biblical data. The second speaker looked as if he had flown in on a broom stick.   Your archetypical kindly wizard,   white bearded  Professor Paul Fiddes of Oxford University
Read more

God's providence is my inheritance

Image
"God's providence is my inheritance":   the old wing of Ballygally  Castle  Hotel Today is the first day of my new job.  I'm now an Online Editor with the IMB, still involved in the Spanish speaking world,   but based in Lenzie.   It was a pleasant morning:  published a sermon in Spanish on building your house on the rock/sand (Mat 7:24-29),  and started writing an evaluation of   Textos fuente y contextuales de la narrativa evangélica .     This is a Jewish background commentary on Mark from the Qumran texts and the like,    written by a Catholic professor in Granada,   and is a challenging read. Hanging over me is a series for From the Frontiers .    Offering to do them for Charlie a couple of months ago was easy enough.  So also was signing up for a 10k race in aid of missions in Strathclyde Country Park.   I definitely need some kind of make-you-go-faster socks.
Read more