Missionary Gas

It's been another of those strange few days. The national newspaper, El Colombiano reports that life expectancy in our area has suddenly risen by four years owing to the substantial reduction in the murder rate. For the first time for a number of years, homicide is not the main cause of death. People are enjoying this extra span of life in a variety of ways. On Friday Olwen was propositioned by a widower trying to persuade her with his ownership of fields. On Saturday, I administered the Lord´s Supper to a student mission team going for a month into a hazardous part of the country and on the same day, Olwen went to put out the washing and met a man standing on his head. Sunday evening saw the title win for Medellín in the Colombian soccer premiership. We were warned not to go out after the match: 42 car crashes occurred as celebrating fans returned home. Monday was the start of the Seminary's staff meetings. There are now 353 full and part-time students but the institution is

Yesterday we had our lecturers' day away. Sixteen of us went about 45 minutes from the city to a finca. In Colombia many fincas are small rural houses with one or two fields attached that are particularly popular at weekends. The one we went to was owned by an ex-Rector of the Seminary, Jaime Ortiz, which he has dedicated to the benefit of Christian groups. The day consisted of two parts. In the morning we had Gloria, a psychologist, leading workshops on human emotions and in the afternoon we were free. As I had been put under strict instructions by Olwen to behave myself during the psychology sessions, it was a peaceful morning, apart from four of us being told off for playing soccer when we should have been examining our inner selves and then unfortunately I looked far too happy when doing my presentation on sadness. The afternoon was great: mixed sex soccer, ping-pong, and billiards. I don´t know about the psychology of it, but sport enables you to share with others in ways tha

Yesterday Barbara received the news every holidaymaker dreads, "Your mother has only a few hours to live". Such a shock is compounded with the difficulty of communicating from South America. Even making a phone call to the UK is a complex process using internet phone cards that may not work. Rearranging flights needs to be done through local friends who know who to contact. And buying a new ticket with a credit card can be straight forward, but as Barbara found out, having your card blocked is common. If you can unravel all that and manage to reach the UK within 48 hours you are doing well extremely well. Holidaying in Europe does not prepare you for a world where people only speak Spanish, tasty foods may possibly be prepared in hepatitis rich water and a speeding motorcyclist will suddenly veer dangerously close if a pretty girl catches his eye or he´s going to snatch your bag. After a few months you develop a street-wiseness that would get you an appointment with a consul