Dear friend,

         Greetings! I want to begin my newsletter with a testimony from an Indian lady named Lorena. Lorena is a believer from the mountain Indian tribe called Toromo.  Lorena was at her tribe one night reading the Bible. She was reading Jeremiah 33:3 which says, “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” As she read it she felt like the Holy Spirit told her to go to her neighbor’s house, where an Indian women named Iyopa lives and to pray for her healing. Iyopa, had been bedridden for a long time. She was not able to walk or even move around. At first Lorena ignored the Spirit’s prompting. A few minutes later she couldn’t shake it, so she went. Lorena said she felt like “who am I to pray for Iyopa’s healing.” 

          So Lorena went to Iyopa’s house and asked for her. There were two people outside the house and they told her that Iyopa was inside on her bed but not to go in because Iyopa didn’t feel good. Lorena responded that she was going to pray for Iyopa and Iyopa would be healed. With that they allowed her to go in.  Lorena said that Iyopa was crying when she went in saying that she could not feel her legs and that her body hurt. Lorena talked to Iyopa about the Word of God. She then prayed for her, telling her that God was going to heal her body. Iyopa prayed the sinner’s prayer to receive Christ. After this Lorena left Iyopa’s house. 

         The next day Lorena saw Iyopa and Iyopa was outside the house. When Iyopa saw Lorena she was very happy. Iyopa told Lorena she wanted to share what had happened to her. Iyopa told her that a few minutes after her prayer she felt something leaving her body, legs and head. She told Lorena that she was healed! Iyopa said that God healed her because before she couldn’t walk but now she could!

 

         This past month after my Bible School I organized and paid four groups of my Indian leaders to go to the mountain tribes to evangelize new tribes and disciple the tribes where we have already established a church at. Two of the groups went to Colombian tribes and two went to tribes in Venezuela. They will be gone for around three weeks. It was very difficult to get them food for their journey. My workers had to go to Colombia to buy the food and then take it back to Venezuela. (Though the borders are shut there are ways to go around the borders.) My Indian preachers should be back in a few days and I am looking forward to hearing their testimonies. 

        This past month I recorded 8 video preachings about the subject of faith for this month’s Bible School with the Indian leaders. When the Indian leaders come down from their mountain tribes for the Bible School this month I will of course not be there in person but I will have my teachings on video tape for them. Venancio, my main Indian leader who has been with me for 17 years, will be there to teach and run the school while I am in the United States. He will also help in my sending out the groups of Indian leaders to the mountain tribes after April’s Bible School. I send them out each month.  I also recorded many radio messages and sent them through the internet to one of my workers. He will then take all the preachings to the radio stations that I’m currently on in Venezuela. I am having my Indian leaders continue to construct the churches in the mountain Indian tribes I am able to continue all of my ministry in Venezuela except I am of course not able to preach at the churches. Even if we were there I wouldn’t really be able to preach much since most churches aren’t having service because of no electricity and because there is no gasoline for transportation. They are just meeting in different people’s houses. I am, though, going to start preaching in Colombia.

          So in a few days I will be leaving for Colombia to preach. I will be there for about 2 weeks. Rafael, who has been working for me and going to the Indian tribes for the last 18 years,is from Colombia. He left Venezuela about a month ago. We are going to start up a new work in Colombia while monitoring Venezuela. Our initial thoughts are to start up a ministry where there is no church. Rafael would pastor the church and I would come there every month, to minister and preach. I would also preach live through the internet once a week. That’s our plans, though they could change. 

         Veronica and I are looking forward to going back to Venezuela whenever possible. Things though are very bad there. Their borders are shut and airlines have stopped flying to Venezuela. American Airlines, which was the only airline to fly from Venezuela to the United States, does no go there anymore. I know people who were trying to pay $5,000 to leave Venezuela right before American Airlines stopped flying, but they couldn’t get on because the flights were full. There have been 3 country blackouts in Venezuela this past month. One left the country without electricity for 5 days. People, not having water or food, looted businesses and stores on the 5th day. Where we live there were over 500 businesses, stores, and warehouses looted in search for food. Cash is very scarce, and during the blackouts there is no way to pay using a credit or debit card. As I write this newsletter they are on the 3rd blackout this month.  It’s already been 4 days straight that no one has had electricity, No one knows how long it will last. Even when it is “fixed” there is rationing from 12 to 5 hours a day. 

         The main problem with the electricity is that 80% of Venezuela’s electricity comes from a hydroelectric power plant. Though Venezuela blames the US for a “cyber attack” most experts attribute the failure to aging infrastructure and insufficient maintenance. The hydroelectric dam is totally stopped and every time they try to restart it- it causes other substations in the country to blow-up. So it’s going to take a long time to fix the cause of their electric problems. 

         The Russians have arrived in Venezuela bringing weapons and troops trying to deter a US military intervention. Venezuela has China and Russia supporting the Venezuelan regime, therefore it’s a tricky situation. It all sounds like an exaggeration but unfortunately, it’s not. Thank you for praying for Venezuela.

         This past month, Wonderkids from World Outreach Church paid for 2 mules. I just got the mules, and I will have their pictures in an upcoming newsletter as soon as I get the photo.

          I want to thank each and every one of you who pray and support my ministry in Venezuela and Colombia. It is because of your support that all of our work is possible. Thank you so much! God bless you.. 

                                                                                           In His service,

                                                                                         Doug, Veronica, James & Ana