Back to Venezuela ~ August 6-16

In about 10 days, there will be a group of approximately 83 Texas Baptists going to Venezuela to participate in an evangelistic effort in four different areas....Merida, Portaguesa, Barinas, and Trujillo. This trip is being sponsored by the Baptist General Convention of Texas in partnership with the Venezuela Baptist Convention. We expect over 600 Venezuelans from across the country to join us in our efforts. Our goal will be to work with local churches in personal evangelism by day, revival services each evening, and church planting.

We hope you will begin now to pray with us for this effort. Alexander Montero, director of the Venezuela Baptist Convention, says that one of the goals of this campaign is to start 100 new churches. We also are praying for 10,000 souls to be saved.

Our San Angelo team will be going to the beautiful city of Merida up in the mountains. This is the home of our beloved friend and interpreter, Ladimiro. Our team is made up of 8 members from First Baptist-San Angelo: Buck & Mary Smith, Kerry & Diane Peacock, Tom & Murf Dufresne, Bobby Catt and Sandy Meeks; 4 members from Calvary Baptist-San Angelo: Sherrill & De McCleery, G.I. Norris, and Ross Davis; and 3 lay missionaries from Kingsport, Tennessee who have been on numerous trips to Venezuela with us: Matt Dykes, Richard Hanks, and Charles Harris.

Less than 100 North Americans will go, but thousands will be left at home praying for those who go....will you be one of those? We cannot do what needs to be done without the prayers of those back in the States. We need you!!

Really??

Really? It's been TWO years since there was a post to this blog? Although there has been an obvious lack of activity on our blog, there has been plenty of activity in Venezuela in the arena of sharing the Gospel. In 2009 there was a big crusade event in Maracaibo, and there have been numerous smaller mission trips to various cities throughout Venezuela. At a recent meeting of UBLA (United Baptists of Latin America) in Costa Rica, it was reported that the number of new believers in Venezuela is growing faster than the population! Go back and read that again! Can you believe that? When we went to Caracas in 2008, there were approximately 60 New Testament churches in the greater Caracas area. Now there are a little over 100 churches, most of which were direct products of the Caracas evangelistic effort in January of '08. And this does not even take into account the number of house church groups that have been established since that time. God is alive and well in Venezuela, and the people are sitting up and taking notice!! Praise God!!