Too happy!

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 that you couldn´t do in small group sessions. As if to make this point even stronger, on the way home we could see lecturer Mark Wittig's soccer stadium in the distance.

And one of the things that worries me about the Seminary is the reports of bad sportsmanship in the students' soccer matches. The Colombian church is strong on praise, music, even projects, but connecting the Bible to the mundane doesn't seem to have really arrived, well apart from in the lives of the Jaime Ortiz's.


Photo: Manuel and Patty Reaño preparing lunch at the outing

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