A letter from Alice Winters in Colombia
November 2010
Dear friends,
It’s the end of another year! Well, not really — it’s only Thanksgiving as I write. But it is the end of the school year in Colombia, and graduation at the Reformed University is tomorrow. I want to tell you about Giovanny, one of our upcoming graduates, son of a Presbyterian pastor in the city of Valledupar — a five-hour bus trip across the mountains (if there are no landslides or other obstacles en route).
Giovanny’s pastoral vocation became clear to us early on. He has done field work in several churches in and around Barranquilla and is beloved by every congregation he served. But tragedy struck during his second year: Giovanny's father died suddenly. Of course Giovanny returned to Valledupar for the funeral and to help his mother cope. That put him behind in his studies; even so, he went to Valledupar most weekends that semester to help the congregation deal with the trauma of sudden loss.
In the following years Giovanny had many new opportunities through the university and the presbytery. He represented the student body on the university council. He was one of two students participating in an ecumenical forum sponsored by the Latin American Council of Churches and coordinated a regional forum held at our university. He was sent by the presbytery as a delegate to demonstrations and other activities protesting human rights violations. His father no longer paid his tuition, so he received aid from the university scholarship fund to which so many of you have contributed. He also served as our messenger boy in addition to his classwork and leadership roles.
I had at least one course with Giovanny every semester: Introduction to the Old Testament, Hebrew, exegetical methods, exegetical studies of the Books of Esther, Leviticus and Song of Solomon and of the prophetic and apocaliptic literature of the Bible. His work was often creative. You may think Leviticus is hard to understand, but Giovanny wrote an excellent paper on Chapter 19, finding new depths in this familiar passage. That is exciting for any teacher: to learn something new from the work of a student.
After 10 semesters of coursework, candidates for graduation from Colombian universities must write a research paper on a topic of their own choosing in order to graduate. However, Giovanny did not graduate with others in his class. The presbytery asked him to return to Valledupar and work with the congregation there. It was hard to do research in Valledupar when the library was in Barranquilla and the congregation had so many needs, so he ended up taking another year to finish his research.
When the paper is finally ready, the candidate makes a formal presentation and defense of his or her thesis before the student body and interested members of the public. A jury hears the presentation and the student’s response to questions and makes its recommendation: approved, not approved or action postponed. I was on the jury for Giovanny’s paper. He had a truly interesting subject. His first chapter analyzed problems of the world we live in and compared them to problems of the Roman Empire in New Testament times. His second chapter examined texts in 2 Corinthians related to Paul’s call for an offering to help the saints in Jerusalem, taking the view that this offering was in fact an act of resistance against economic and social structures of the Roman empire. His third chapter suggested ways in which this offering could provide a model for a response to unhealthy social, economic, political and spiritual forces that the church faces today.
It was clear to the jury that Giovanny’s basic idea was good, but we did not immediately approve his thesis. We postponed action for a week so that he could revise the paper both as to format (there is a required style for research papers) and content (his third chapter was only loosely related to the first one). Giovanny worked hard that week, consulting with his faculty tutor and each member of the jury. At a second, private defense of his thesis we saw that he had made the recommended changes, and we approved his work.
Giovanny’s mother and several members of the Valledupar congregation have come to Barranquilla for his graduation. Some of our graduates have trouble finding jobs even though they have their degrees, but not Giovanny. Valledupar has called him as pastor! Please pray for Giovanny, now formally recognized by the government of Colombia as a theologian and soon to be ordained to the gospel ministry by the presbytery. And pray for Giovanny's classmate Angélica, who graduated last year and was ordained just a month ago as pastor of the church in Cartagena. (I wish I had space to tell you her story.)
Please know that your prayers and your gifts to the university scholarship fund have opened doors for these young people to serve the Lord and strengthen His church in Colombia. Others like them are now studying in the Reformed University or will begin in February. They too will need prayer and scholarship aid when they return for the 2011 school year. Thank you for all you do for the university and for me personally as we prepare gifted men and women like Giovanny and Angélica for the gospel ministry.
Wishing you the happiest New Year ever...
Alice Winters
The 2010 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 293
