Doug Dennis Ministries
June 2023 Newsletter
Warm greetings! I hope everyone is doing well. Our eighth radio station located in Mérida is working out so well and is such a powerful evangelistic and discipling tool! Its impressive FM coverage is due to its extraordinary altitude- about 1.5 miles high!
We are constructing an additional room for the radio station we currently had in Venancio's house within the Marewa Indian tribe. This is the radio station where we preach to the mountain Indian tribes in the Yukpa language. His house has only two rooms and the one was being used for the radio station. This room was bustling all day with Indigenous leaders eager to preach. Plus the FM transmitters produced a constant noise similar to a vacuum cleaner running 24/7. Because of this, we are building a radio station room adjacent to his house. Since the station will be separate, the transmitter's noise will no longer be audible. This new arrangement will allow the Indigenous preachers to comfortably wait for their turn to preach their sermons.
At the end of April, I began incorporating interactive preaching sessions alongside my daily radio sermons at the Machiques radio station. In May, I expanded these interactive sessions to my other radio stations. The format of these sessions involves me preaching a brief sermon on a topic, after which listeners send their questions to the radio station's cell phone. We receive about 50 or so questions and I answer as many as I can during an hour session. I really enjoy engaging with the audience in this weekly program.
In addition to my interactive radio sessions, I continue to preach my daily sermons. On days when I have the interactive program, I preach twice. My radio preaching schedule is from Monday to Friday and I also preach on Sundays. On Wednesdays, I conduct my cell meeting (house meeting). I usually preach on an average week 7-8 times.
This past month we held our Bible School at the Marewa tribe. Next month we are planning to have the Bible School at the Pututchi tribe. Due to its very high elevation, it has very nice weather during the day. I have decided that instead of having the Bible School in the same tribe every month, we should move it to other tribes so that more people in the area can participate.
Venancio is nearing completion of the translation of the book of Genesis into the Yukpa language. He is currently working on chapter 45. We already have translated and printed the New Testament and Proverbs in the Yupka language. As soon as Venancio finishes the book, I will start printing them. At the beginning, I’m going to print the book of Genesis by itself. We will distribute those to the Indians in the mountain tribes alongside with our New Testament and Proverbs. Recently, I've also been printing different Christian books to help believers grow in their walk with God.
I would like to share a testimony with you. This testimony comes from Esteban, the Indian pastor of the Taremo tribe. He told this to Venancio, my main Indian leader. When I evangelized his tribe about 22 years ago, I led him to the Lord and he later became the pastor to his tribe. I knew that Esteban was severely ill- he was just skin and bones. His tribe is very isolated and it is a 16-hour walk to the nearest tribe where he could then be transported by truck to the nearest town that had a hospital. On one occasion, I helped him in making the journey to seek medical aid, even covering the cost of his hospital's visit. Unfortunately, the doctors informed us there was nothing they could do.
During his illness, he found himself on the verge of death. It was then that he had a vision. He was visited by two angels who assured him, "Esteban, we are your guardian angels, pledged to safeguard you in all trials, especially to your spiritual well-being and physical health." Esteban was too weak to respond to the angels, but they remained a constant presence in his daily life, appearing to him every day.
There were times when he seemed to be teetering between life and death. During one of these times, the angels revealed to him two paths: the narrow path leading to life, and the wide path leading to death. They led him to heaven's gates but did not allow him to cross. Instead, he was granted a vision of the splendors within heaven from the outside. More angels stood guard at the heavenly gate. They informed him that only those who have died in Christ could enter—he was on the brink of death but had not yet crossed over. The vision they presented before him was like a giant television screen.
In his vision, he could see the inhabitants of heaven, all dressed in white robes, crowns adorning their heads, and hands lifted in praise to God. They sang hymns and worshiped God in unison. The angel told him, "That is what lies within heaven's gates.'' Esteban said there was nothing on earth he could compare to the beauty he saw in heaven. Then the angel said, "Now, you must witness another place." A vast, descending tunnel opened up in his vision. It was a horrific sight, shrouded in darkness and engulfed in fire. He recognized two Indians from his tribe, Eladio Cobarara and Ramon Tuayuru, who had passed away. They looked like skeletons, with remnants of skin clinging to their bones. In hell he saw an innumerable multitude of beings, but the angel reassured him, "Fear not, for you are not alone, I am here with you." The angel then said, "I have revealed both realms to you so that you may bear witness to their existence." God then healed Esteban and he is back to preaching!
Well thank you for all of your prayers and support. It makes all of our work in Venezuela and Colombia possible. God bless you.
In His Service,
Doug, Veronica, James, & Ana