Dear friend,
Greetings! This month my wife and I are looking forward to our trip to Colombia. It’s always a blessing to preach at our church we have there and at our different outreaches. I’m also planning to preach twice a day at the radio station we have in Colombia. Diomedes, one of my leaders who does maintenance to and installs our radio stations, will be there with me in Colombia. We will be trying to fine-tune the radio station we have here in Villa Rosa so that it has a greater reach. There is always maintenance and fine-tuning needed for the radio stations. Diomedes has been studying online at Rhema Colombia. He said it is helping him fulfill his place in the body of Christ.
Our last Bible school went great! We held it in the tribe of Taremo. Taremo was the first far away tribe I ever preached at! It was 20 years ago that I started going to the faraway tribes to preach the gospel. At the time, it was difficult to imagine that there would ever be believers there. It looked like a lost cause in the natural. But then God started performing miracles and the people started believing. Now, 20 years later, almost all the Indians at the tribe are disciplined believers. They have church service every night. Though it’s far away (about a 16-hour hike), it’s a very beautiful place, with beautiful people.
Last month we had our 2nd year anniversary for the FM Indian radio station in the tribe of Marewa, (I included a picture of the celebration.) There have been a lot of new believers added to the church in the Marewa tribe. This is Venancio’s tribe. Lately Venancio has been translating "The Believer’s Authority" by Kenneth Hagin into the Yupka language – the language of the mountain Indians. (We were given permission.) He has given me all but the last 2 chapters of the book. Once he gives me the last 2 chapters I will start to print out "The Believer’s Authority" in the Yukpa dialect and will give them free to the believers to study. Venancio was translating it in the past, and had finished it but right before sending it to me someone held him at gunpoint in Maracaibo and stole his phone (where he translated the book). He had to translate it over again so that’s why we haven’t done it until now.
This month I bought 10 more solar powered radios for some of the far away mountain tribes so they could listen to our radio station. We are the only FM station in their language. The radio evangelizes and disciples the believers at all the tribes. The FM radio station in the Yukpa language covers all the tribes in Venezuela and Colombia.
In August we had two women’s retreats, “Dancing in Fields of Grace- A Journey of Love and Transformation.” It was a powerful time where women’s lives were touched by God and transformed!
My one Indian friend, Jose, lives a few hours away from the Taremo tribe. He lives in a very isolated place. He is taking the Word to all the tribes in that area. I pay him monthly to visit and preach to the 6 tribes and he also goes to places which aren’t tribes, but where maybe a family, or a few families, live. This month I am sending him to Colombian tribes which are quite a bit farther. He is faithful and loves to preach the Word.
I also have another Indian leader, named Fredi, who lives in another isolated area in the mountains. I pay him to do similar work as Jose- taking the gospel to the tribes, and the isolated families who do not live in a tribal setting. He is seeing great progress. In one tribe, all the people except one family, believes in the gospel. We were able to water baptize all except the 1 family. At the other tribes, there has been great progress also. Jesus says we should preach the gospel and also make disciples. Making disciples is a very important part of the process, and thank God we are seeing many believers become disciples.
One of my main Indian leaders is Rafael. He has been working for me for 20 years. He has taken the gospel all over to the Indians in the mountains of Venezuela and Colombia. Recently he gave his mule away to another Indian who needed it more than him to travel to the faraway tribes to evangelize and disciple. Therefore, I bought Rafael a motorcycle so he could continue to go to the tribes where he usually visits.
I would like to end the newsletter with a testimony that Rafael shared with me. It happened at an Yupka Indian tribe called Guamo Viejo. These are Rafael’s words telling about the miracle:
“Sister Moraima Romero, wife of the Chief and pastor of the community, Elisaul Romero, was pregnant and had uncontrolled bleeding. She prayed fervently for her healing throughout the day. That night, she had a dream. In the dream, she saw two angels. The angels told her, ‘You are going to be ok; Pastor Rafael is coming here and he will pray for your healing.’
The next day, her husband, Elisaul, passed by another community called Guamopamocha. I had been in that community for two days when he saw me and came in to greet me. I told him I was on my way to their community. When he returned to Guamo Viejo, he told his wife, ‘Pastor Rafael is coming here.’ She replied, ‘I already knew he was coming.’ He asked her, ‘How did you know?’ That’s when she told him about the dream and what the angels said.
Later, I arrived there with my friend Lino from the Neremu indigenous community and two brothers from the Arara community. The people there were joyful and happy to see me. The day went by, and I was unaware of the dream. That night, after the service ended, I called her and asked her to come forward so I could pray for her. I said, ‘I will pray for you.’ She claimed that as soon as I finished praying for her, the bleeding stopped and she felt completely healed. That’s when she told me about the dream. Immediately I understood that God was guiding me, and I was walking in His will because three days before heading to those indigenous communities, I had prayed to God and asked Him to guide me with His Holy Spirit. I wanted to go, but according to His will, not my own. In His will, Amen.”
Well thank you so much for your prayers and support. It makes all of our work here possible.
In His Service,
Doug, Veronica. James & Ana