June 2018 Newsletter

Dear friend,

    Greetings from Venezuela! It’s hard to believe that it’s already June- time sure flies when you’re having fun. In spite of the difficulties, the ministry is going forward and prospering in these hard times.  

    In last month’s newsletter I shared a testimony about how Makupu Matoya, one of my Indigenous leaders, went to an isolated hut and preached. There a woman was healed. In the past she was paralyzed and had to have her family carry her everywhere. Makupa prayed for her and God healed her, and now she can move around fine. Makupu also shared another testimony when he preached at a different isolated hut in the mountains. Here is the testimony. 

    After Makupu finished a church service in the mountains of Venezuela, an Indigenous woman named Guanita Miyilli approached him to testify about what God had done in her life. Guanita told him that for a few months she was very sick and she would have high fevers and sharp pains in her legs. Nothing would make the symptoms go away.  One afternoon while she was sick, she wanted to sleep. She asked her son to get her a reed mat to lay on and she laid down underneath a mango tree near her hut. She explained, “I then had a dream where I saw a tree. From inside the tree a voice spoke. To my surprise the tree was floating. The tree transformed into a silhouette of a man (Jesus) with white garments which shone like the sun.   The voice said, ‘The disease that you have is because you are traveling on the wrong pathway- wide is the gate that leads to destruction.’ The voice then said, ‘I am the Way and the Truth and the Life.’ Then I woke up.” 

    Many of these Indians that live in such remote places have hardly any knowledge about Biblical things. So Guanita preceded to ask Makupu to explain what it meant “the way, the truth, and the life.” 

    Makupu showed her the Bible verse in John 14:6 where Jesus says that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He told her how Jesus is the only way to get to heaven, and that she was sick because of disobedience to the Word of God. She accepted Jesus in her heart and she was healed. 

                                   

Why a tree? Maybe because Jesus is a type of the tree of life that we see in Genesis and in Revelations. And if we partake of Him we will have eternal life, in the same way the tree of life gave, or gives eternal life. 

 

Genesis 2:9 

9 And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.  The tree of life  was  also in the midst of the garden , and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

 

Genesis 3:22-24 

22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now,  lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live foreve r”— 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way,  to guard the way to the tree of life .

 

 

 

Revelation 22:2 

2 In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river,  was  the  tree of life , which bore twelve fruits, each  tree  yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree  were  for the healing of the nations.

 

Revelation 22:14 

14 Blessed are those who [a]do His commandments, that they may have the right to the  tree of life , and may enter through the gates into the city.

 

 Or maybe it has to do with John 15.

 

John 15 

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He [a]takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.

5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw  them  into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you[b] will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.

                                                                                        

 

       Lately I have been preaching at churches, at church leadership meetings, live on the radio, and at evangelistic meetings. Many have been saved and lives transformed. Also, I have been helping with praise and worship at a few churches weekly and having my Bible school with my Indigenous leaders.

      This last month, like most months, I sent out my teams of Indigenous leaders to the various Indian tribes and huts in the mountains of Venezuela and Colombia. One team took the generator, the video projector, and my preaching videos. I sent the other teams to different tribes and huts in the mountains. I tried to send them out right after last month’s Bible school but because the majority of them or their immediate family members had malaria, they had to postpone it until they were better. That is the reason I moved the monthly Bible school dates back farther so that I could send them on their preaching trips and then they could come back to attend my Bible school. Along with all the many problems in Venezuela, many of the Indians in the mountains have malaria. 

      Well thank you for all of your prayers and support. It makes all of the work possible in Venezuela and Colombia.

                                               In His Service,

                                               Doug, Veronica, James, and baby Ana