wordt vervolgd

Zalige bezigheid om zo weer onderweg te zijn net als in het begin van de jaren zestig van de vorige eeuw: lopend, liftend, varend, vliegend met een rugzakje & slaapzak via de Po~delta, Brindisi, Patras, Korinte, Athene, Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Levanon, Turkije, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan & India tot & met Nippon & Birobeidjan, Moscow & Odessa, Istanbul eind jaren zestig again & again. Ik vul nu die plaatjes in met meer kleuren ...

Blijkbaar duurt zoiets dan ook minstens vijftig jaar om een heel leven achteraf wat beter te kunnen verwerken: onvermijdelijk verleidelijk ...

Terug naar Samartha via de Apples: in de jaren zestig was dat ook 'n tophit in 'n lange reeks van New Babylon, THE BIG APPLE, IMAGINE enzo.

During many ages all kinds of missionaries were sent all over the world after Sjapo & Columbus, Pisarro & Cortez, Africa, Asia, Australia a.s.o.

The Basel Mission Group were sent to India in 1834. They made Mangalore, on the Kanara coast, their centre, for that region was as yet practi-cally untouched by Protestant missions & from that time on the work of the BM considerably extended. Schools were set up, churches built, agri-cultural and industrial enterprises undertaken and orphanages and hospitals opened. Because of the First World War, however, the German missi-onaries were interned by the British. The Kanarese Evangelical Mission took over from the Basel Mission. The first Basel missionaries came back to India (Malabar) in 1924, in charge of the London Missionary Society! Only in 1927 did the BM take over again from the Kanarese Evangelical Mis-sion. In the first half of the thirties, the Mission strove after the union and greater independence of the three District churches, South Kanara, Sputh Mahratta & Malabar. In 1935, these three District Churches were united into the United Basel Mission Church. The first Synod, under the leadership of Reverend Ariel Sumitra, was held in May 1937 in Mangalore. Stanley Samartha, at that time a high school student, greatly admired Sumitra, 'his personality, his sermons, the way he could influence people and his fearless criticism of missionaries when it was necessary took care of the work of the church!' The Mission was, in the first place, responsible for evangelization, and for the BEM Theological Seminary in Mangalore. After all it took all these ages from Paul to Obama to realize what we have been doing up till now: 'it continues' ...