September 2017 Newsletter
Doug Dennis Ministries – September 2017 Newsletter
Greetings! I want to begin my newsletter by saying thank you to all who pray and give to the ministry, making all of my work possible. We are waiting for James' passport and soon I will be leaving to go to Brazil. Then once we get James' renewed passport and I get back from Brazil we will go to Venezuela.
I'm looking forward to this trip to Brazil. I finally got my rechargeable video projector to take there. I also bought 2 more energy banks. That way, hopefully, at all the communities we minister to, we will be able to show Christian films. We will be preaching and then one night in every community we’ll show The Passion of Christ." That way they can see what Jesus did for them to pay the price for their sins and to make them righteous with God.
On my last trip to Brazil, there was a lot of traveling in the boat. Once I arrived in the heart of the Amazon- in Manaus, Brazil- it was a five-day boat ride upstream to get to the Brazilian town where Renildo (the man who goes with me to the Amazon) lives. Then from there it was another half day of traveling to arrive at the first indigenous community that we ministered to. For this next trip, after arriving in Manaus, I'm going to take an airplane to Tabatinga, a town in Brazil which is on the border of Peru and Colombia. Then from there, I'll take a 16-hour boat ride down river to where Renildo lives. This will be more time efficient. Reildo and I will then set out to minister to the Amazon indigenous villages.
Renildo's brother who is the mayor of Sao Paulo de Oliveca tried to get the votes of the indigenous people that live in these Amazon villages, but other than that he couldn't understand why his brother and I would want to go there. This is understandable because he's not a Christian. We as Christians don't live for ourselves, we live to do the will of God. Obviously, I feel I have a grace to go there. I feel that God has called me to go to the faraway places where many people don't want to go. The Bible says that the Gospel must be preached in all the world, and then the end will come. We are living in the last days- you can just look at the news and see that- but we have to remember that we must preach this gospel to all the world. Sure, it's far, and it’s expensive to travel there, and I have to learn another language, but if we can make a difference and further God’s Kingdom, if people are saved and lives transformed from it, then it's well worth it! (Actually I started to learn Portuguese about six months ago. I felt led to buy an application on my phone of the Rosetta Stone Portuguese language program, and to study it. Then, about two months after buying the app, I meet Renildo who asked me to go with him to the Amazon to evangelize areas that haven’t heard the gospel and to start churches. That’s the language spoken there! So I'm happy that I started to study Portuguese. God is continually working behind the scene preparing our way to do His Kingdom work. The devil doesn’t want us to do God’s Kingdom work. I believe that the devil doesn't want the gospel preached for two main reasons. One is because people will be saved, and secondly, he knows that when every person hears the gospel the end will come.
At the last Bible school with the indigenous people in Venezuela there was a testimony that I would like to share. The testimony is from one of my indigenous leaders named Jose Shared who always attends my monthly Bible school. He had a dream and in the dream, there was a voice that told him that we were in the last days. Then he said that I appeared to him in the dream and I told him not to get discouraged with the difficulties and temptations that we face in these end days. I told him to be strong in the Lord, and to read Revelations 3:19. After the dream, he woke up. He took his Bible, went outside his house and sat down to read the Bible verse in Revelations. This is what he read:
“As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. Revelation 3:19-21 KJV
A little later while he was reading and meditating on the verses, a member of his church came up to him and pointed out an indigenous pastor who used to preach. The man was drunk. Jose said that he thought of his dream when I told him not to get discouraged and to read Revelations 3:19. Jose said he was reminded of the man in Paul's dream who gave Paul a word of wisdom and told him to go to Macedonia. Jose said that in his dream he, too, received encouragement and a word of wisdom, because if he hadn't read the Bible passage about overcoming (Rev. 3:21) and if in the dream I hadn't said to “be encouraged” telling him about difficulties in the last days, he would have gotten discouraged when seeing the other "pastor" drunk. Of course, any leader could get discouraged by seeing another leader fall but the Bible verse is saying that we should be zealous and not complacent in our Christian walk, and we should repent of not being zealous.
Well, I've been sending out my teams of Indian leaders to the different indigenous mountain tribes taking my Bible school with my preaching videos of “how to be led by the Holy Spirit,” with the electric generator, and video projector. People are being saved and lives are being transformed. I've also been recording many radio messages, about one a day.
Thank you for all of your prayers and financial support. It makes all of my work in Venezuela, Colombia and Brazil possible. God bless you.
In His Service,
Doug, Veronica, James and baby Ana