Doug Dennis Ministries August 2020 newsletter
Dear friend,
Greetings! I hope all is well. Although most everything is closed in Venezuela, with the lockdowns and the inability to find gasoline, the Word is still going forth! So I’m grateful. The radio station has been a great tool. Like I said last month, the reason why the radio is such a great tool is because most people don’t have access to internet in the town where I have my station. The believers, because they are not allowed to congregate in a church, all divide up to many houses for the services that I preach live. It’s really turned into the only way possible to minister in Venezuela now. So I preach 8 times a week. In the mornings people can leave until 12 in the afternoon. At 12 no one can be in the streets, not in the car nor walking. Everyone must be in their houses. We are one of the few people in the town who can transit after hours. We have the privilege to drive in our truck after hours because of the radio station. There are messages everyday dealing with the corona virus that the government obligates all stations to transmit. The good thing is our ministry vehicle has permission to drive around after hours.
This month I will again send my Indian leaders to the different tribes to preach. (I pay 7 Venezuelans full time to evangelize and minister in the mountain Indian tribes in Venezuela and Colombia. For most months, after our Bible School, I pay additional teams of Indian leaders to go out to other far away mountain tribes to minister to.) My one Colombian leader, Rafael, has worked for me for 18 years. He is staying and ministering in the mountain Indian tribes almost permanently now. He is avoiding Machiques because a lot of people there are getting the corona virus. One of the leaders over my church in Machiques (I have 2 churches in that town, and 1 church in another town) thinks he had the coronavirus. He was passing out and had all the symptoms, but he didn’t want to get tested because they take you to Maracaibo and you aren’t allowed to communicate with other people (on the phone). He just quarantined himself and thankfully, he is doing well now.
I printed around 200 books to give away to the Venezuelan leaders. This month I am also finishing up a book that I am writing. It is on prayer. Then I will print and give away my book also. Once it’s finished, I will show a picture of it on the newsletter. I also was able to give away a lot of clothes. I bought someone who works at another radio station a bike. They broadcast me every morning. He had to get up very early in the morning and walk quite a distance to get to the radio station so he’s happy with his bike to get to and from the station.
We are looking for another church building in the town. (I already bought one building for the other church.) The main place where we used to have church (where we have the radio station), we were renting and the owner needs the building. So we are looking for another big house or building to buy (instead of paying rent) where we will be able to have the church. We will put the radio station there. For now, we will take the radio station down and set it up temporarily at the house of a pastor friend. It will just be off the air for 1 or 2 days while they are setting it up.
I wanted to share a story with you. The photos in the newsletter show a picture of a man and his children and his grandchildren. This man lives off with his family very high in the mountains. They live by themselves. His name is Felipe. (He’s the man in the photo with the blue coat on.) The first time I met Felipe was “by accident.” It happened about 17 years ago. We were lost trying to go to the next tribe. We were about 18 hours hiking into the mountains. We had left one remote tribe and was on our way to minister to the Pishicacao tribe which is very high in the mountains. I took the wrong pathway and we were lost. We had no idea how to go back to where we were, nor how to go to where we wanted to go. The sun was setting, and we were worried about where we would stay for the night. Then Felipe started yelling (their form of communication to call out and to locate people.) Somehow, he realized that we were lost. We hiked toward where his two huts were. That night after eating, I preached the Word, and he and his large family received Christ. He shared how though he didn’t know God, he knew there had to be a God. He was praying that someone would someday come to his hut and tell his family about God. After that, we would always stop at Felipe’s and minister to his family on our way to the Pishicacao tribe.
Well, Venancio went this past month and visited them. They still are believers and love the Lord. Venancio ministered to them and they sang and worshipped God together.
So while Venancio was there, Felip’s son, Ricardo, told Venancio about a past dream he had. Ricardo said that an angel appeared to him in a dream and spoke about things that were going to happen in the near future. He told about how the Tokuko river was going to overflow. (In a previous newsletter, I shared a testimony about how many Indians lost their huts, and there were 6 deaths involved when the river overflowed.) The angel also told Ricardo about the pandemic that was coming on the world. In the dream Ricardo saw many people dying from that pandemic in the entire world. Ricardo said that the angel who appeared to him in the dream had wings, wore a white robe, and had a trumpet. Ricardo had no prior knowledge to what was going on (as far as the pandemic) being that they live so far off in such an isolated place where no one ever goes. He said that he hasn’t even been to another Indian tribe for the last 10 years. He has had no contact with people from the outside world to be able to know about the pandemic.
Well thank you for your prayers and support. It makes all our ministry in Venezuela and Colombia possible. God bless you.
In His Service,
Doug, Veronica, James, and Ana