Monday, August 25, 2008

Carepa

I’ve been somewhat startled to discover that some people here take me for an evangelist. It makes sense, really: here in Carepa they’re having a revival campaign from Thursday to Sunday. There’s a lot of talk about evangelism and winning souls for Christ. Tonight and Wednesday I’m supposed to give brief reflections at the prayer meetings, and tomorrow a Bible study. I think I’ll use the book of Ruth, since I have a fairly solid base of knowledge there.

The water situation is very different here from anything I had personally experienced before. Since you never know when the running water will be shut off, houses tend to have a basin full of water to use for washing and some stores of water for bathing and for consumption. In many homes, you will bathe from water in a bucket. Public education posters are displayed in many places, informing that basins should be emptied and cleaned every week to prevent the spread of mosquitos. Mosquitos are more of a problem in some houses/neighborhoods than others.

This morning I went with the pastor and his wife to visit some parishioners. At the very edge of town are a number of little campo-style ranchitos and many displaced people live there. Some months ago one woman set fire to her house through a kitchen mishap, and several other houses went down with it. Now the families are being told not to rebuild there, but to wait for the mayor to assign them a new place—because the city plans to build a street right where the houses were. One woman, a single mother with three special needs children, lost her only means of income in the fire: her bicycle and machine for making empanadas and arepas to sell.

Friday, August 22, 2008

Arriving in Urabá

From the moment our plane took off in Medellín for Apartadó and I heard the cheeping of the little chicks in the cargo hold, I knew that we were on our way to a different reality. Urabá is far more rural and less developed than the other presbyteries. The heat and humidity are unrelenting, and air conditioning is uncommon.

The tropical climate brings frequent downpours in the “winter” season, and the roads that remain unpaved (which are many) are often muddy. The swift changes from hot sun to breezy rain result in frequent illness. The prevalence of toxins from the vast plantations of banana and plantain also contribute to illness in the local population.

I arrived in Apartadó on Tuesday afternoon. After a brief meeting with members of the presbytery council where we outlined the schedule for my visit, I was taken to the home of my host for these days in Apartadó. Her home is still in the development stage, unfinished, but very open and hospitable. This pastoral visit has already been filled with opportunities to preach and share in prayer services, more than I was expecting!

On Thursday I spent the morning with the children in the Colegio Americano. We started with a long time for conversation with the oldest ones, and they asked me questions about life in the U.S.—everything from global warming to gun violence to education and fast food. It was fascinating to see what they have learned about the U.S. and what concerns are on their minds. Their dismay about the ease of gun purchases in the U.S. became especially significant to me a few weeks later, when I attended the Stony Point peacemaking colloquium on gun violence and gospel values and had the connection between guns and drugs brought home in very clear terms. How tragic that most folks in our churches have little concern about the prevalence of guns in our society, while these fourth- and fifth-grade students in rural Colombia, whose lives have been closely touched by gun violence, are worried about gun sales in the United States.