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In addition, you have participated directly through letters to
your U.S. senators, who made sure that the American ambassador
in Colombia kept the CUR project alive when it could have gotten
bogged down in a bureaucratic moraine. And your sacrificial gifts
for our Extra Commitment projects help pay for staff salaries,
light bills, desks and chairs, computers, musical instruments,
and books for the library. Your support of the scholarship fund
makes theological education possible for many of our students.
Thanks!
New dean
I have been serving as dean of the School of Theology, but it
is a PC(USA) policy (with which I agree 100%) that missionaries
should not hold administrative positions in partner churches.
Thus my position has always been interim, although it has lasted
over two years. I have been praying that God would provide a new
dean, and that prayer has now been answered in the person of Esteban
Arias, a former student of mine from the very first graduating
class of the old Presbyterian Theological Seminary (predecessor
of the School of Theology of the CUR). You have had a part in
his coming: your gifts for the seminary paid his tuition and that
of his wife María, whom he met while both were studying
in the STP. After pastoring several churches, Esteban and María
obtained scholarships from the PC(USA) for graduate study in Brazil.
Colombia's new president
Alvaro Uribe was elected president of Colombia in May on a hard-line
platform that promised to crush the violence here by means of
tougher military action. There was an outbreak of violence during
his installation, but in general the situation has been calmer
since Uribe took office. A major increase in the number of army
recruits is to be financed by a tax reform, which will extend
the 16% value-added sales tax to groceries, medicine, and other
products. In addition, networks of civilian informers have been
set up to denounce suspicious activities, a policy which does
help to control crime, but has also produced consternation among
those who struggle to defend human rights in Colombia.
You as Americans have a part in all this through aid such as
the famous Plan Colombia—this aid package, originally limited
to combating drug traffic, has now been broadened by the U.S.
Congress to include combat against terrorists, mainly guerrilla
forces, although the paramilitaries have also been formally classified
as a terrorist group. The ambassador has stated that a major focus
of U.S. intervention in this 40-year-old internal struggle is
the protection of American interests, such as a major oil pipeline
of Occidental Petroleum, a U.S. company. (This pipeline has often
been targeted by guerrillas who protest the channeling of profits
to foreign shareholders with minimum benefit to the Colombian
people.)
New opportunities
Someone admitted to being "totally flabbergasted" that
we are setting up branch campuses in areas where the violence
has done its worst. But life does go on, and the violence has
calmed. Groups from the U.S. are again visiting Colombia and learning
firsthand about the work here. One important trip, coming up in
March, is being organized by a group of Presbyterians concerned
about Colombia in collaboration with Witness for Peace. They will
meet with the church here and with labor leaders, army officers,
peace workers and others. They will also visit refugee settlements,
schools and, of course, the CUR. For more information, contact:
Anne Barstow, annebarstow@juno.com
or Betty Kersting, sfkerst@rt66.com
If you can't come on a real trip, how about a virtual visit?
We have made a video about the CUR and the educational work of
the Presbyterian Church of Colombia. It is available in Spanish
or English on CD or VHS, and we will be happy to send it to those
who have supported our work with their gifts and prayers. Please
let me know if you are interested and the form in which you would
like to receive. Thank you again for all you have done to build
up the work here. May God bless you richly this Christmas and
during all the New Year.
Alice Winters
The 2002 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, page
262
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