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Our Websites
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Our PC(USA) web page Our
official link on the PC(USA) website. More links here on ways to contribute financially to support us, pages for other Mission
Personnel, and other
ministries of the church.
Our blog, with musings, photos, links, and other digitized thoughts on our journey. We update this often, so check in regularly, or subscribe on the web page to get notified about updates.
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Prayer Requests:
* For the displaced people of Piojó who are trying to regain their footing in a new place. For much needed rain, and much needed encouragement.
* For the Presbyterian Church of Colombia (IPC) as they go into their General Assembly this January. Don't we all need prayers around General Assembly time?
* For the Knauert family. We continue to think of our friends who so suddenly lost their
partner and father. Please keep them in your prayers as we do.
* Prayers of thanksgiving for Terry Presbyterian Church in Terry, MT who followed up on their support of John and Paula Ewers to offer their prayers and financial support to us as well. We are blessed and amazed (and proud!) of the Holy Spirit's work to keep Presbyterians connected.
* For the
safe travel of Alice Winters as she returns, and for that of a delegation from PCUSA in January that includes Vice-Moderator Bryon Wade. May their travel be uneventful and their experience transformative.
* For us - continued patience, openness, ardor, and curiosity.
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To Reach Us
| We are in our new apartment! Post can still reach us at Reformed University, or you can ask us for our home address.
Reformed University
Cra 46, #48-50
Barranquilla, Colombia
South America
Mamie's email:
revmamie@gmail.com
Richard's email:
rawillia13@gmail.com
Mamie and Richard are on Facebook, Richard is on Twitter (rawillia13), and Mamie is on Skype (mamie.broadhurst). We are glad to be in touch!
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Adios 2009, Bienvenido 2010...
The start of this new year has left us reflective about our time so far, and excited about what is to come. Much of the three months we have been in Colombia has been focused on getting to know our new home. We have been reading (see below for book suggestions), traveling, and generally soaking things up. We have a lot more to learn, but we have a lot of folks here to help us.
When we were in mission orientation, one of the points that was stressed was to try and find someone who could be your "cultural insider" - someone who could help you figure out what was going on when you just didn't know. We are lucky enough to have moved in beside them!
Our new neighbors, the Smiths (no kidding), have been an  enormous help to us. From arguing with the furniture people to get them to deliver our bed, to showing us how to cook yucca, we have been blessed by their hospitality and kindness. We have now shared birthdays and tried each other's cooking experiments. Many of you have moved to new communities and know that finding people who can tell you how to catch the bus, where to buy fishing wire (to hang your Christmas decorations), and the best way to kill termites (ick) is invaluable. We are grateful, and we truly feel as if they are a gift from God to us.
Besides settling in to the new apartment, in the past 6 weeks Mamie has had the chance to teach a bible study to
young adults participating with the Council for Latin American Churches
(CLAI), and Richard has continued to sharpen his language skills.
Together we walked an hour and a half to visit a community of
displaced people in Piojó and listen to their concerns, experienced the season of Advent and the celebration of Christmas with the church, and much more. We continue to
learn what our work will be here, and we are working together with the
leadership of the Presbyterian Church of Colombia (IPC) to fashion that
role.
We have more stories and pictures on our blog so please check in there as well.
As always, we appreciate your support and prayers. Blessings to all of you in 2010, and let us know when you'll be coming down! ;)
Peace~
Mamie and Richard
If you want to add emails, there is a sign up form on our website. Please feel free to pass any information along! You can also unsubscribe at any time through a link at the bottom of the email.
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Our Partners:
 
* Westminster Presbyterian Church of Odessa, Texas |
Reading Suggestions:
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins
- A memoir in which Perkins' says his function was to convince the political
and financial leadership of underdeveloped countries to accept enormous
development loans from institutions like the World Bank and USAID. Saddled with huge debts they could not hope to pay, these countries were forced to acquiesce to political pressure from the United States on a variety of issues.
Walking Ghosts by Steven Dudley
- Dudley’s book, which is based on a master’s thesis he wrote while
filing reports for the Washington Post and National Public Radio in
Colombia in the late 1990s, seeks to dig out the complicated roots of
the political party the Unión Patriótica. This leads him into tangled accounts of the FARC, drug
trafficking and paramilitarism. The book is dense, but compelling.
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