Dear friend,
Greetings! My trip to Colombia went very well. We found a great place to start sharing the gospel. We want to plant a church in a town called Repelon. My friend Willian is from there and they have very few churches in that area. We are planning to start services next week at the house where Willian and his family are renting. The people of Repelon were very receptive when hearing about us starting a church. We were given permission to hold weekly meetings at the town square for free. I enclosed a picture of the place. We plan to hold one or two services there every week and the other services, for now, will be held in the house Willian is renting. Lord willing, I will travel again to visit and preach there next month.
When I was in Colombia, I preached at a church in the city of Riohacha. I then went and stayed at an Indigenous community in the desert and preached there every day. At night I had evangelistic services with the Indigenous people and during the day I had services with the believers. In the desert there was no electricity so I rented a generator so I could have an all-night service and also to show Christian movies after the evening preachings. There were over one hundred Indigenous people from the area that showed up, and many accepted Christ in their hearts.
Last month I told you how I was sending Venancio and eleven of my Indian leaders to some far away tribes in Colombia. These tribes have never heard the gospel. These were the tribes that we have been trying to evangelize but were unable to do so until now. Before the Indian chief would not allow us to preach to the tribes in that area. But like I said last month, Venancio met an Indian who had family in that tribe and with that connection, we were hoping to get in. Venancio said that all went well. It was a 6-day trek (walking all day, very fast) to arrive at the tribes. Venancio said they went to 6 tribes all together. There were more tribes but because this was the first time going, many Indian leaders went and the food only lasted 2 weeks once they were there. They were only able to take two of our mules to carry all the food and supplies because one of our mules was injured and had to stay in Colombia. He will be able to go on the next trip.
Venancio asked if others had preached there. The Indian chief said that people have gone there asking to preach but the chiefs in the area always declined, not letting them. Praise God, this time they were allowed! So, they announced the gospel to those Indian tribes. They were receptive- some accepted Christ upon hearing the gospel while others told them that they wanted to hear more. Venancio and my Indian leaders will go back next month. Once there, they will be taken to the other tribes that they weren’t able to go and preach to last month.
What is interesting is that I was actually able to communicate with Venancio when he was at those faraway mountain Indian tribes. We were able to communicate because in the mountains there were guerrilla armies and they would turn on their Wi-Fi with a generator sometimes during the evenings to communicate. They must have had satellite internet. They didn’t put a WI-FI password on because no one in the area has any smartphones or laptops. I had bought Venancio a smartphone last year, so Venancio was able to write me via Whatsapp and send me pictures and videos. He explained how they wanted to stay and preach another 3 weeks but that the food situation wouldn’t allow it.
Some other exciting news is that we were able to switch out the radio transmitter and I believe now we will have the capacity to transmit all the way to the Colombian mountain tribes! There is a tribe that was able to listen to the radio station and that tribe is about a 12-hour walk. Therefore, I think with this new transmitter, which is almost 3xs more powerful, that it will give radio coverage to all the mountain tribes. I bought 2 solar radios and they will be taken to the farthest tribes as soon as possible, to see if they have the radio coverage there. They should have coverage. Then we will inform them and make a day and hour once a week for them to listen to the station. I will preach live and I will have Venancio preach in the Indian language, when he is in town. At the other radio station, in La Concepcion, Venezuela, we were able to upgrade that transmitter by over 10xs the coverage!
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I wanted to share with you a testimony. It is from an Indian named Nestor who lives in a faraway mountain tribe in Colombia. I sent one of my Indian leaders named Americo to the tribes in Colombia to preach. Nestor told Americo this testimony while he was at his tribe. Here is his testimony:
Nestor said he had a dream. In the dream two angels appeared to him and took him to heaven. They arrived outside the gates of heaven. The angel said, “This place is called heaven. I want you to testify what you see to the people.” Nestor said that the gates looked as if they were made of gold, and there was a gold table.
They then entered heaven. The angel showed him different places in heaven. Nestor described the streets as being transparent like crystal, glass-like. He said there were fields with green grass and beautiful landscape. He saw huge buildings and a city in heaven. He described seeing angels with white robes and blond hair. He said everything was all so beautiful. He went on to say that it would be difficult to explain everything he saw because he would need something to compare it to. But he said with many of the things that he saw in heaven, he had nothing to compare it to.
Well I want to thank each of you for your prayers and support. It makes all our work in Venezuela and Colombia possible. I wish each of you a merry Christmas and a very blessed New Year. God bless you.
In His Service,
Doug, Veronica, James & Ana