Sunday Worship in South America

Many of us learned today that Sunday worship in South America, while similar in many ways to worship in North America, is quite different in many ways. The team divided up today and attended about 15 different churches across the city of Caracas. We have heard many wonderful testimonies from the different team members as they have returned to the hotel tonight. One of our teams was on their way back to the hotel after church and Rogelio led the taxi driver to the Lord! You never know when the Lord will put an opportunity to lead another soul to heaven...whether you are in Caracas or at home! Another team member left his Bible in a taxi, with money in the Bible...within a half hour, the taxi was back and the driver, who found the Bible, returned it and the money! Many saw people come forward in the church services this morning although we do not have a total count. Kerry and I went with Buck and our interpreter friend, Ladimiro, to a park where over 200 volunteers from all over the country are coming in to help in the churches this week. They come to the park to register and get their assignment. We saw many friends whom we have met on our previous visits to Venezuela. Then we went to Emanuel Baptist where they have 3 services, each one TWO HOURS LONG! Gloria a Dios! as they say here! We also had a group of young people come in to serve as interpreters for us...about 15 of them. They come from all over the country and part of a ministry called E-3 or Global Missions.

While so many wonderful things are happening and the Lord is working miraculously in big and small ways, Satan is also at work, bringing up petty little things to have to be dealt with...such a bother! Please pray that Satan be bound and that he will have no power whatsoever in the midst of this huge city this week.

We are excited as our team members will be going out tomorrow to visit in the neighborhoods and as we begin our baseball clinics. We agreed as a team on Saturday to claim 1000 young souls for Christ through the baseball clinics...won't you join with us in praying this? Pray for our team members. Continue to pray for Kerry and me as we oversee all that is going on...it is a huge task which we have never done before, but an exciting task that God has given us to do.

It is late...I will report back tomorrow!!!

Love to all,
Diane

Arrival and Orientation

What a day yesterday! After traveling all day, catching flights in airports across the country, twenty-nine members of our team arrived in Caracas. After arriving, we had the pleasure of standing in l – o – n – g lines at immigration, claiming baggage, and then standing in another l – o – n – g line at customs. The whole process takes from an hour to an hour and half. Then we had to load up all the baggage and drive about 30-45 minutes to the hotel. Kerry says it is like running a marathon, then having to run a sprint when you get to the finish line! By the time the last ones arrived at the hotel it was 3:00 in the morning. Two of our members, Mike & Maria, did not make it until today, having had two separate problems with their plane in Dallas and missing their connection in Miami. But what a testimony they have! God had work for them to do, people who needed their ministry and testimony, while sitting on an airplane! Three members of our team had arrived early, so there are 34 of us here now. Another 18 (our house church planters) will be coming in next week to complete the team.

This morning (after a very short night!) we had an excellent time of getting to know one another, I felt like I already knew all everyone from the many phone calls and e-mails involved in setting everything up. I was so glad to meet people at the airport last night and others at the hotel this morning and be able to put faces with names! Richard Beal, one of our IMB missionaries, gave a brief orientation on our stay in Caracas, and Jacobo gave a little pep talk, thanking us for coming to Caracas to help share Christ with the people here. He also shared some of the history of the church here in Venezuela.

This afternoon is pretty much a free time for everyone…some are catching up on their zzzz’s, taking the traditional siesta. Others have ventured out to explore the neighborhood around the hotel. Some of the guys are going to the baseball game tonight.

Tomorrow we will all go to different churches. Each team member will be assigned to one of the local churches.

Everyone is so excited about the upcoming week and is eager to see how God will move among His people. I am excited about writing this report every night (I hope!) and sharing our week with you. After getting here I have learned that the internet access is only in the lobby, and the connection is not very strong. I can't pull up the blogspot tonight. So it's e-mail....I'll try the blog later.

Keep praying...you don't know how much it means to us to have our friends and family praying for us. And prayer is what makes the difference in our witness here and in the saving of souls. So pray, pray, pray!

We are exhausted...going to be early. Tomorrow will be a long day.
Love to all,
Diane & Kerry

(I posted this on Sunday night...finally got a connection!)

A Change in Plans....

Friends and Family,
This is a copy of a letter we just sent to all of our team members, explaining a change in our plans. We want each of you to be aware of what is happening so you can better know how to pray for us. PLEASE PRAY...prayer is the most important part of an undertaking such as this. Satan is working hard to keep us home and to keep us from doing what God wants us to do in Caracas. We cannot allow him victory! We pray that only God will have the victory and glory in our work in Caracas.

Dear Team Members,
We have a major development that affects our ministry in Caracas. When Chavez called for the referendum vote on December 2, all baseball games were canceled for the week. That delay caused the baseball season to be extended one week, which in turn caused us to lose our contract on the stadium. Therefore, we will not have the city-wide crusade, but will work through the local churches conducting week-long revivals and various outreach activities. We will still participate in daily one-on-one ministry and evangelism during the day, and our baseball teams will host clinics for the children. Also, the house church planters will work in the local communities to start new congregations.

In regard to your lodging and flights, nothing has changed. Everything is going forward as planned. There is still much work to do in sharing the Gospel and winning lost souls to Christ. Many, many people from all over Venezuela will join us to distribute Bibles and tracts. I believe that God will bless our time with many souls.

Jacobo Garcia and his team of local pastors are planning a crusade in Caracas for the second week in April. We have not yet decided as to our involvement in that effort.

Yours in Christ,
Kerry & Diane


There are over 50 on our team...about 2/3 of them will arrive in Caracas on Jan 18 and stay 10 days. The other 1/3, mostly house church planters, will arrive Jan 23 and stay until Feb 4.
You can get a daily report on this blogsite while we are gone.

Thank you for your support and your prayers!
Kerry & Diane

Lack of Blogging

Yes, you are right...I have been lax in keeping you up to date in our process. The holidays have been especially busy and hectic, it seems. We went to San Diego one weekend to see our youngest son who was not able to be home for Christmas, I went to Odessa one Saturday to a Christmas event with my mother, I was sick for a week just before Christmas, my sister and her family came for the weekend before Christmas, we had our kids and grandkids in the week after Christmas, then our annual New Year's Day open house, followed by more out of town guests this past weekend (my niece whom I have mentioned before on this blogspot and her four children)...and that brings us to today which has been spent trying to get information and name tags in order to mail out to all of the team members tomorrow or the next day. And yes, my Christmas trees and decorations are still up...maybe they will find their way to the boxes this week. At least Kerry got the outside lights down this afternoon!

I will try to do better, but no promises. The next 12 days will be filled with packing up Christmas, packing suitcases, going over lists and charts making sure everyone on the team has everything they need, making last minute decisions that should have been made already but could not be until now...does that make sense? Read my other blog for today, and maybe you will understand.

I understand the hotel where we will be staying will have internet access, so hopefully I will be able to post an update each day while we are gone. Check it out...and pray, pray, pray!!!

The Time Is Upon Us!

How can you work and plan for something for over a year and come down to the final two weeks and still have everything in such chaos? We leave for Caracas in 12 days; the crusade is to start in 18 days. Do we have everything in order? NO! Three weeks ago we were ecstatic because we finally got permission to use the stadium for the crusade. Now, we have just found out that the baseball season in Venezuela has been extended one week because no games were played the weekend of the ‘referendum’ vote. That means they will be playing play-off games IN the stadium during the nights scheduled for the crusade! Buck has already gone down to Caracas, and he and Jacobo will seek this week for a new location. Publicity is at a stand-still until a new location can be found. We still need a sound system…not as big as we once thought, obviously. That, too, is put on hold until a new location is found so we know what size system is needed.

This is definitely teaching us that no matter how much we think we have things under control, God is really the only one who has control. As we’ve said all along, God knows all the answers to the how and where of this crusade. And He is certainly stretching our faith as we travel on this journey!

Please be in fervent prayer these next two weeks that God will direct and guide us in these final days of preparation. Then be in prayer the following week as we minister and evangelize in the city of Caracas. Here again is the schedule:

January 18 – the first group (20-25 of us) will arrive in Caracas
January 20-23 – revivals in the local churches with many of us preaching and singing
January 21-26 – ministering and evangelizing one-on-one with the people of Caracas
January 23 – the second group (10-15 more) will arrive in Caracas
January 24-27 – the city-wide crusade held each evening
January 25-Feb 3 – follow-up of new believers and start-up of new house churches

We are supposed to have internet access in our hotel suites, so I will try to write a daily update each evening on this blogspot.

One big answer to prayer…the New Testaments arrived safe and sound in Caracas about 3 weeks ago! Forty thousand of them!!!!

I have been busy finalizing team members’ information, making name tags, printing a letter to mail out tomorrow, etc., etc. At this point, we have 39 people going from the US with the possibility of another 3 or 4 signing up before we leave. We also have 1 person, possibly 6 more, from Africa! Apparently God didn't need as many folks to do this as we thought He might! Also, there will over 200 across Venezuela who will travel to Caracas to help.

We will spend the next week and a half preparing and packing to take not only ourselves and our personal belongings, but all of our “office” setup that we will need there. Again, praying and lifting us up before God is the best thing you can do for us.

Hopefully I will have time to post at least one more blog before we leave.

Diane Peacock

Critical Weekend for Prayer

This is the weekend we typically set aside to say "Thank You" for our blessings...although we all know we should be thankful every day of the year. So after you have thanked the Lord for everything He has done for you, thank Him for what He is going to do in Caracas in January.

There are three critical areas that need prayer this weekend. First of all, the December 2 election in Venezuela...a referendum which, if passed, will do away with presidential term limits. Much of what we are trying to do will be affected by the outcome of this election. Second, many of the ballplayers are making decisions in these next few weeks whether or not to participate in the crusade. A couple of BIG name players will make their decision this weekend...we NEED them...pray that they will be able to be a part of this. Along this same vein, many coaches and minor league players want to go but need funds...pray that God will provide for them. Third, the New Testaments are en route and have hit a small snag...we think everything will work out, but it is definitely a matter of prayer that the Bibles get to Caracas before January.

There are many of you who have been so faithful in your support of us and this vision to share the Gospel with the people of Caracas and Venezuela. We thank God for you. You have prayed with us, prayed for us, encouraged us when we were discouraged, given sacrificially to the cause. And we thank you.

It is our prayer that you enjoy your blessings...your family, your health, your place as a child of God.

Thanking God for you,
Kerry & Diane

Baseball and Jesus

Peanut butter and jelly…socks and shoes…little boys and frogs…some things just naturally go together. We found out this weekend that baseball and Jesus go together! We met with men who have spent years using baseball to bring people to Jesus! What a concept!

We met in Atlanta to discuss and plan how to use baseball clinics and professional baseball players to our advantage at the crusade in Caracas. These are the men who sat at the table:
Dr. Bill Cashion…the first sports evangelist for the International Mission Board who spent nearly 12 years building churches in Caracas through baseball clinics. He currently pastors in Georgia and is our man-in-charge for lining up baseball players to share their testimonies at the crusade and to lead baseball clinics for kids.
Dave Altopp…Executive Director of the Baseball Ministry of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He coached baseball and led students to the Lord for 35 years, retiring at Lee University in Georgia. He was inducted into the Coaches Hall of Fame that night following our meeting!
Don Gordon…played professional baseball for 10 years (Toronto Blue Jays and Cleveland Indians) including 4 off-seasons in Venezuela. Now Don is the International Baseball Director for SCORE International organizing Christian baseball clinics around the world.
Carlos Subero…manager of the Caracas Leones when they won their national championship two years ago and stood before the cameras on national television giving the glory to God. Carlos has just been hired by the Chicago White Sox to manage their AA team in Birmingham. He is also involved in a foundation in Caracas that ministers to young people through baseball.
Hector Rodriguez…pitched for the Caracas Leones and managed teams throughout Europe. Hector is the president and founder of an international motivational organization in Venezuela called 100% Actitud de Vencedor (Winning Attitude) and works with local churches in starting sports ministries. He will soon come to the U.S. to pastor a small Hispanic church in Clinton, Iowa.

WOW! What a group of guys who use their love of baseball to share the love of Christ to others! And they all share our vision of bringing all of that to Caracas in 2008! We truly believe that the meeting was a success, that God has brought all of these guys together for a purpose. We came home with a list of nearly 20 professional baseball players who will be contacted over the next month about going to Caracas to share their faith at the crusade. Many other minor leaguers, umpires, and coaches will be contacted about going to lead baseball clinics for the kids. The plan is to have at least 10 clinics a day throughout Greater Caracas (which includes 5 “zones”) for 5 days.

Of course, we also came home with more prayer requests. In addition to praying that God will prepare these players, umpires, and coaches to go (and have the funds to do so), pray for these:
1. Accept the challenge to pray that God will pour out His Spirit on His people. Caracas 2008 will be the beginning point for His Spirit to spread throughout the country.
2. Pray that new believers will be cared for adequately by the local churches.
3. Everything is in the hands of the President…he says yes or no…about the stadium, about the hotel, about everything. Pray that God will allow us to have the use of the stadium and the hotel and every area that is needed to carry out His plan.
4. The month of November is very critical and dangerous in Venezuela. Riots have already begun on both sides of the political issue. Pray for the small groups already being formed that they will grow and be cared for so they might grow and multiply. This will begin a network of groups all across Caracas.

Baseball and Jesus…they go together quite nicely!