Doug Dennis Ministry
December Newsletter 2021
Greetings! First of all, I want to say a big thank you to all who support and pray for the ministry. Through your prayers and support we are making a big difference in Venezuela and Colombia. It’s a blessing to love your job, and I love preaching! I am so excited that next month I should have my 5th radio station up and running. Sometimes I almost have to pinch myself when thinking about how daily, sometimes multiple times a day, I can go live on all 4 stations and soon it will be 5 stations. I can even go live preaching to all the mountain Indian tribes in Venezuela and Colombia. Also at the Marewa tribe, where I have my Indigenous radio station, (where Venancio is from) they watch me live through the video projector on Sunday mornings.
Venancio tells me that many Indians are listening to the station and many congratulate him. Many Indian preachers come down from the tribes and they can preach for hours. I try to keep my messages somewhat concise, around 30-40 minutes, but they go for hours without even batting an eye. Many write to the various radio stations saying it’s their favorite station. They give their prayer requests and ask for different songs to be played. Soon we will start a prayer hour where the people can interact and send their prayer requests during the program.
This past month I bought 20 more solar radios for the tribes. These are louder than the ones I originally bought. It’s great because the whole tribe can listen together.
The place where I am putting the new radio station is called Punto Fijo, Venezuela. My friend Gustavo lives there. He was one of the first people that I met in Venezuela when I moved there in 2001. Gustavo and I lived in my father-in-law’s church (it was before I was married so it was before he became my father-in-law.) Then later once the church building changed, I stayed with him at his brother-in-law’s house a few months before making my own house at an Indian community. He moved from the state of Zulia Venezuela, to the Falcon state to start a church. A few months ago, he and his wife visited my wife and I. When I shared that I have 4 other radio stations, he said that it would be a dream come true to have a radio station where he is. He has a big church, and many people would preach live on the station. He of course would put me on to preach daily. There are more than 500 people that go to the church. Punto Fijo is a desert-like place. I believe that this really will be a great place to preach the Word. I am going to keep on putting up more and more radio stations as the Lord permits, because I believe that, at this point in time, this is the calling that I have. Like I have shared before, many people in Venezuela don’t have an internet connection, but they do have a radio and many people connect through the radio stations. Even the Indians can connect live via radio.
The Indigenous radio station is really a blessing! For example, this month I had to change the dates for my monthly Bible School. Usually, to inform the far away tribes about the dates or a date change for the Bible School someone would have to hike 16 hours to inform 1 tribe and then from there they would have to hike to the other far away mountain tribes to inform them. Now, we can just change the dates announcing it through the Indian radio station, which makes it a lot easier for many people.
This past month there were many new believers who were baptized in the mountain tribes that we minister to. I’ve enclosed some photos of them. There were 32 new believers that were baptized.
At one of my churches in Venezuela there are now over 100 people attending service on Sunday. I will have to buy some more chairs here soon so they don’t have to stand. The other church is growing also. There are around 80 believers on the average Sunday morning.
This past month I was finally able to finish a book that I wrote. Then, next month I will probably be finished with my second book. I will print, bind and give away these books. One book is on prayer, the other book is on how to be led by the Holy Spirit. The prayer book is completed and the being led by the Holy Spirit book will be ready within a few weeks. Each book of course is in Spanish and is around 150 pages.
This past month’s Indian Bible School went great. Many Indian leaders were able to attend. We usually have the Bible School for 3 days every month. After the Indian Bible School I sent out 5 groups of Indians to preach and disciple the different tribes in the mountains of Venezuela and Colombia. Venancio will be going to the farthest tribes in Colombia- that takes almost a week of trekking through the mountain jungles. Venancio showed his wife and my other Indian leaders how to operate the radio station while he is out preaching.
I would like to share a testimony. This testimony is about an Indian named Rafael Chektape. He is from the Marakita tribe. He said that he went to his land on the mountainside to work and while working he got very sick. He said that he was nauseous, dizzy and he had a headache. He sat down under a tree but it didn’t help. He went back to his hut at the mountain Indian tribe. When his family saw him, they got worried because of his countenance and decided to rush him on a motorcycle to the hospital that is at the closest town of Machiques (where I have my one radio station). Even though he went to the hospital he didn’t get any better. He lost a lot of weight because for a few weeks he didn’t eat anything due to the sickness. They didn’t have any more money to take him to the hospital again so he continued to suffer and he got a lot worse. He got so bad that he thought he was going to die. Everyone from the tribe also thought that he was dying. While he was dying he saw an angel. Rafael told his wife, “Here is a god.” His wife said, “There are only people here, no angel.”
The next day while sleeping on the hammock, all of a sudden he felt a hand touch him on his chest. Chektape said that he saw that it was a hand of an angel and he heard, “Now you will be healed.” He said he felt healing enter his body and then he woke up. He was healed of the sickness that the doctors couldn’t heal! He said that was when he started to believe in Jesus Christ. He found a Bible and opened it up to “Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10) Now he is a believer and is going to the church services at his tribe!
God has placed many great people who have come along side of me to help with the ministry, and I thank God for all of you who, through your prayers and support, make the ministry possible. We would like to wish each of you a very blessed Christmas and a happy New Year!
In His Service,
Doug, Veronica, James & Ana