The Outlook for Colombia by B. E. Connerly

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 17, 1916

The Outlook for Colombia

By B. E. Connerly

B. E. CONNERLY

COLOMBIA is indeed ready for the message of God; in fact, has been ready for five and forty years. One by one, the nations have been taught, until soon the Master’s great commission, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations,” will have been accomplished. Colombia is one of the last to be entered; and though missionaries have seemed to delay, the God of missionaries has gone before. He who has made us strong to go and give, has made the people here strong to ask and receive.

Physically, Colombia is a country of gigantic proportions, being the third state in South America in population, and the third in area. It is more than twelve times the size of the State of Ohio. Its topography presents a unique array of contrasts, such as high mountains over against deep valleys; arid plateaus here, and water-soaked pampas there; hot, vermin-infested districts adjacent to snow-capped mountains; and universal poverty in the midst of matchless unclaimed wealth.

Its natural resources are rich minerals, vast forests, broad pastures, and immense agricultural districts. The principal products are coffee, sugar, cacao, tropical fruits, and live stock. The exports are coffee, bananas, gold, and hides. In 1913 the foreign trade amounted to $62,000,000, the balance in favor of exports.

The climate is radically tropical. For 365 days in the year old Sol pours down his virulent rays so ardently that he appears, instead of a universal blessing, to be enraged and pouring out his venom. At times, however, the heat is no more excessive here than in the States, especially during the months of July and August. There is here a sample of all the zones, though the frigid is found in high altitudes instead of north latitudes. We might describe the climate thus: Always summer on the coast, perpetual autumn on the plains, and perennial spring in the mountains, with ever snow-capped mountains in the highest altitudes.

Politically, Colombia is old, yet new. She had colleges, convents, and walled cities before our Pilgrim Fathers saw Plymouth Rock or the James River. She has had her dark past of revolutions and bloodshed; but the Latin-Americans hardly look upon these proverbial South American revolutions with the degree of horror that we in the North have been accustomed to think of them. They call them “making things lively at election.” The time of the religious dictator and the religious tyrant is past, at least in the open. Today Colombia is proud of her free institutions, and is working to maintain them.

The present administration is giving the country a good government, domestic tranquillity, freedom in religious worship, and legitimate relations abroad are guaranteed. The church, of course, is medieval and fanatical. Though separated from the state, it wields a powerful influence over national affairs, and untold power over the masses. He who comes forth from the sacred precincts of the sacristy, garbed in the holy robes of the church, has a magical power over the majority of the people that nothing but the grace of Christ can break.

Why South America is the Neglected Continent, and Colombia the most neglected state of that continent, is not easy to explain; but we are glad that the work is now begun. We have made no mistake by beginning with the medical books. This is a move upon which the whole denomination can place its seal of approval. A look at these cities and their homes is evidence enough that to teach this people something of the structure and functions of the human body, of domestic hygiene, and municipal sanitation is the very greatest blessing that can come to them. It must come before they can properly appreciate the Sabbath and kindred truths.

One of the first serious problems that confronts the worker in Colombia is the question of travel, how to get from city to city. There are but five hundred miles of railroad in the country, and that is broken up in little pieces and distributed over ten states, and the most that can be said of the few existing public highways is that they are the poorest of the poor; but we can thank God for one grand river that flows through the country. To give some idea of the expense and difficulty one experiences in traveling, let me say that from Barranquilla to Bogota, the capital, is but five hundred miles, yet the trip requires from thirteen to sixteen days, at a cost of $34, second-class; and from Barranquilla to a near-by state capital, Cucuta, requires three days’ travel by river, and costs nine dollars, second-class, then twelve days by mule at a cost of fifty dollars, and a charge of twenty-five cents for every book taken into the country. This is general. We could make dozens of such trips.

But none of these things can impede the message. Now is the time, and it must go. All alone in this great country, as large as Germany, France, and half of Spain, I sometimes almost feel as did Elijah. But I am not alone. There are mighty helpers with me. Everywhere I see signs that the Lord is working. The outlook for a speedy work in Colombia is good.

Barranquilla.