December 2018 Newsletter

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 Dear friend,

         Greetings from Venezuela!   

I’m looking forward to having many Indian leaders at my Bible school this month since it stopped raining so much. Like I said in the last newsletter, it becomes very dangerous to cross the rivers during rainy season and the Indians have to cross the river about 70 times to get to the Bible school when they travel down from their mountain tribe.

         As always, I have been keeping busy preaching almost every day. My family is doing well. James is looking forward to the Christmas break from school here in Venezuela.  I sent my Indian leader Venancio up to the far away tribe of Taremo (a 16 hours hike) with the new chainsaw. (The last one finally was put to rest, having made dozens of churches). He will be there working on replacing the old wood at the church. At that tribe they have church service every night so Venancio will also be preaching while he is there. 

         Within the last 3 months I was able to make more than 1,000 books and Bibles to give away (most books are anywhere from 80-160 pages.)  Many people have told me how their lives, and the lives of their families have changed for the better after receiving the books. Also many people have told me how their friends and family members have received Christ, and started going to church because of the books that I made so it has been an important part of my ministry. Since the economy is so bad, the people are very eager and grateful to get free books. 

         There is a testimony that I would like to share. I heard it at an Indian community that I visit on Mondays. Last Monday we all went- Veronica, James, Ana and I. There were a lot of mosquitos- they almost carried us away. 😊 Guillermo is the pastor of this Indian community and he is the one who shared the testimony. It occurred around 8 years ago. It happened when he was an Indian chief. Here’s his story: He was invited to a meeting with other Indian chiefs near a tribe called Rio Yasa.  After the meeting he was walking back to his tribe. It was at night and he was walking alone. As he was walking, he heard a voice from heaven that said, “Stop being the Indian chief. Give that responsibility to someone else and start to preach.”  As he heard the voice, he saw a light that shown down from heaven that illuminated his pathway for a moment. When he arrived at his hut, his wife had prepared him food. He then told his wife, “I’m a Christian now, and I’m not going to be an Indian chief anymore.” 

         That night he had a dream. He saw me (though at the time he didn’t know me and had never seen me before.) He said in the dream that I got out of the white vehicle I was driving and I gave him a Bible. The next morning, he told his wife the dream that he had. Then he told his wife to pray with him. He said, “I don’t know how to pray, but I am going to try.” 

         The next day they had another Indian chief meeting at a tribe called Neremu. At the meeting he told all the Indian chiefs that he was no longer going to be an Indian chief but he now was going to preach the Bible. All the other Indian chiefs tried to talk him out of it, but Guillermo insisted that he could not. He told them, “Now I am a Christian, and I am going to preach the Word.  When they got out of the meeting he heard those talking that “Pastor Douglas” was preaching the Word at an Indian tribe today. He said that he got excited and decided to go. He went to his hut and told his wife to get ready- they were going to walk to the tribe Paja Chiquita where they were going to hear the Word.  His wife didn’t want to go because she had never been to a Christian service before. He told her to get ready and to leave before him. He said he had to go get yucca and bananas so they would have food while they were at the tribe and that he would arrive there a little bit after her.  

         When Guillermo arrived, his wife who was already there was happy and showed him the Bible that I gave to her.  She said, “Look, the book that you saw in your dream!” After hugging the Bible, Guillermo went over to where I was having the church service. He said when he saw me playing my accordion he   realized that I was the person he saw in his dream. It was also the same Bible that he saw in the dream, and it was even the same car that I drove in his dream. There he and his wife accepted Christ in their hearts and he has been preaching the Word ever since.  

         Well thank you for all of your prayers and support which makes my ministry in Venezuela and Colombia possible.  We wish each of you a very blessed Christmas and a happy New Year.

 

                                                                    In His Service,

                                                                    Doug, Veronica, James & Ana