September 2019 Newsletter
Dear friend,
Greetings! I am happy to announce that we have the new radio station up and running. I preach live every day on it to the town of Machiques, Venezuela, where there are around 70,000 people. The radio station’s airwaves cover all of the people in the town. It’s 90.5 FM. I am testing to see if it goes all the way to the Indian tribes. If it doesn’t, in the future I can modify different parts of the radio station so that it can reach these tribes. Then I will have my Indian leader, Venancio, preach in the Indian language to the tribes at a certain time every week.
This month I have been preaching a lot. I have preached more than 35 times (many times I preach a few times a day.)
I am having the Bible School with the Indian leaders at my church in Machiques on the 30 th of August. They will be there for 3 days for the Bible School. The leaders will then go back to their own mountain tribes and other tribes to teach their people what they learned. After the Bible School I will form 4 teams of my Indian leaders to go out and take the Word to the many different Indian tribes in the mountains of Venezuela and Colombia. I pay them wages and provide their food and supplies and they go to evangelize and disciple the tribes in the faraway mountain tribes. They are usually there for 3 weeks. This past month I sent some teams to not only preach but to help fix some old church buildings in the mountain tribes. I started my ministry to the mountain tribes in Venezuela in 2001 so some of the church structures that we put up are quite old. After a while they start to deteriorate under the mountain’s harsh conditions. When my Indian leaders return, I always look forward to their testimonies.
Some other things going on in my ministry is that on the 17 th of September I will be going to Colombia to preach for 2 weeks. Also soon I will start printing out and binding Bibles and books for the people in Venezuela and Colombia. I will print out the Bible in the Indian language also. My church in Machiques is growing. We bought used plastic chairs but since more people keep coming there aren’t enough chairs for everyone. But that’s a good problem to have 😊so soon we will buy more.
I also bought a used air conditioner for the church. We mainly needed it because the radio station equipment has to be in a cool environment while in use. I also had a new sound system shipped to Venezuela. The one we use now is borrowed. This new system will be a lot better.
Of course the electric situation is very bad. Usually people don’t have electricity. We use the electric generator (the one I bought for my Indian leaders to run the projector when they went to the faraway mountain tribes) at the church if during the service there is no electricity.
I want to share a testimony from Yolindo, one of my Indian leaders. Yolindo is a Yukpa indigenous who lives in the mountains in Venezuela. He doesn’t live in a certain tribe but rather he lives off with his family in a very isolated place in the mountains. He is 25 years old, and many times has accompanied me on my preaching trips to the faraway mountain Indian tribes. He has been a believer for many years now. I preached to him probably around 10 years ago when he accepted Christ in his heart. His testimony deals with how he believes angels helped him in a difficult time. Yolindo says, “while walking on a steep mountain ridge somewhat close to where I live, I slipped. I fell down the mountain ridge hitting my head and body many times. When I finally stopped falling, I was in the middle of nowhere on the side of the mountain.
I tried to get up, but my body was paralyzed. My whole body was wet with blood. I lost a lot of blood. While in and out of unconsciousness I saw 2 people walk towards me. At first I thought they were my father and brother. It was not them; I believe they were angels. They told me not to worry, and that they would take care of me. I fell during the morning hours but because I couldn’t move, I stayed there till evening. Once the sun was going down, I tried to yell as loud as I could for someone to find me. Finally my brother found me. Once he arrived the 2 angels disappeared. My brother helped me back and now I am healed from my fall.”
Well I have been busy, and I am looking forward to going to Colombia in 2 weeks. Thanks for all of your prayers and support, which makes my ministry in Venezuela and Colombia possible.
In His Service,
Doug, Veronica, James, & Ana
In His Service,
Doug, Veronica, James & Ana