Sharing Jesus and Making Friends

Started out the week Monday morning with street evangelism. We are working with groups from Nuevo Jerusalen Iglesia Bautista. They are trying to start new churches in various areas of the city of San Felipe, so we are going out each morning this week to witness, share Christ, and invite people to church.

All the houses have iron gates in front...often we would simply stand outside the gate and share Christ with those inside....other times we were invited in.

We worked with people from the local churches as well as Venezuelan nationals who have traveled to Yaracuy for these three weeks of evangelism emphasis. These are some of the kids in our large group....we broke up into three groups in the neighborhood.

Our meals are being prepared and served at a school near the church.

Buck and Mary Smith with several new Venezuelan friends....taken inside the school cafeteria.

We moved to a new hotel on Monday. The good news is that the room is much bigger and there is a restaurant at the hotel. The bad news is that there is no wi-fi in the rooms like the other hotel, so I have to rely on having time to go to the lobby to connect to the internet. The other good news is that this is our view......nice!



Toma de Yaracuy

Like many of you, we began our Sunday worshiping our Lord in the local church. We were guests in the Nuevo Jerusalem Iglesia Bautista here in San Felipe. The church service began with about an hour of music, followed by introductions and recognitions of volunteer workers who have come for this week of intense evangelism. BGCT is not the only partner in this endeavor. Venezuela also has a partnership with Mexico, so there are volunteers from Mexico and also from Panama, in addition to the U.S.

Kerry preached in the morning worship, speaking about 'preparing to meet God'. Keila Acosta, wife of Jerry Acosta who has been the 'man in charge' of Toma de Yaracuy, interpreted for Kerry. Our friend and translator, Ladimiro Urdaneta, will be here sometime tomorrow and will interpret for Kerry once he gets here.  It was a very effective message, and there were about 7 professions of faith and around 20 recommitments.

 This afternoon/evening was the kickoff rally for Toma de Yaracuy (Take Yaracuy). The rally was held in a local theater, and it was packed out! There were 1300 inside and another 200-300 who had to stay outside because there was no room.

The rally started with a lot of fabulous Christian music. 

Then several presentations were made to some of the prominent pastors and convention workers.

Buck was recognized as having started the first Baptist church in Yaracuy in San Felipe some 35 years ago. We have met many people who have told us that Buck was the one who led them to the Lord or was the one who baptized them. He is truly a part of Venezuelan Baptist history! 

Following the presentations, there was more music followed by an inspiring message from Wilfredo Velasquez, pastor from Maracaibo whom we met this morning at our hotel. His church in Maracaibo has missionaries all over the world! He has asked us about helping to provide Bibles to the people of Venezuela. For whatever reason, it is hard for people here to get Bibles. We assured him we would do whatever we could to help. Wrapping up the rally we sang again....Because He Lives and a song about "taking Christ to our town".

As we left the rally, we continued to meet people who had known Buck in the past. Then we saw people we knew! Santiago and his sister, Sonoma, and her husband who are all from Puerto Ayacucho. Their dad is a pastor there whom we met on our first trip to Venezuela 6 years ago!

After returning to the hotel, we sat and visited with some folks from New Jerusalem who had brought supper to us.....cachapa....basically a cornbread pancake with their wonderful cheese and butter inside. Pretty tasty!

San Felipe!

After 41 hours of travel, including layovers in two airports, we arrived in Caracas around 6AM this morning. The upside of taking that overnight flight out of Houston means almost NO LINES at customs! We were able to get through customs and received all our luggage with very little delay.

After arriving, we boarded buses for San Felipe. We had two busloads, between 70 and 80 people from all over the United States....mostly Texas and at least one couple from Mexico.

We rode for about an hour and a half before stopping for a breakfast of arepas! Ah yes...forgot how much I love arepas!

On the road again for another 4 hours or so before arriving in San Felipe. Everyone got some much needed sleep on the bus after the overnight flight.

Of all the mission trips I've been on, this is one of the most organized....at least so far. We arrived at the church where they had computers set up to help with team/church assignments. There were close to 100 volunteers to take care of. They had currency exchange all ready for us, followed by lunch, then team assignments began. Kerry & I will be working with Jerry Acosta and his wife at their church here and will be working with all of the churches throughout the week.

Finally we made it to our hotel and were able to freshen up and take a little nap. We do have internet here, but we are going to only be at this hotel a couple of nights. So we will do what we can do while we can do it! The weather today has been warm....possibly mid 80's....but it has been humid. This evening a wonderful cloud has come down over the edge of the mountain and it has cooled down very nicely. We are sitting outside at the hotel waiting for our guy to come and share details for tomorrow and the week ahead.

And there he is now...driving in!

According to Keila Acosta, there are about 120-135 North Americans here...47 came in yesterday and the rest of us came today. She has just told me that everyone is settled in wherever they are staying...some in homes and others in hotels. PLUS, there are many Venezuelan nationals who are coming to help during the week. It has been a tremendous task.

Tomorrow will be the kickoff for the Toma de Yaracuy 2011 campaign.

Please pray for a productive, confusion-free day!

Venezuela, Here We Come!

In less than 24 hours we will be off on our 2011 Venezuela Mission Trip! We are going to Yaracuy this year, to the city of San Felipe. We have never been to this area before and are excited to see another part of the country. There are seven in our team from San Angelo.....Kerry & Diane, Buck & Mary, Sherryl & De, and Jim. Several others are joining us from Texas, Tennessee, and South Carolina.

We will be flying in to Caracas early Saturday morning, then taking a bus ride to San Felipe. We will work with the churches there in an evangelistic effort including witnessing during the day and worship services at night. On Friday and Saturday we will host sports clinics. We are taking quite a bit of baseball and soccer equipment with us.

Depending on whether or not we have internet capabilities while there, I will try to post updates throughout the week on this blog.

Please pray for our team, for it's travel safety and personal safety and health while there. Pray for the people with whom we will share Christ. Pray for the pastors and churches with whom we will work.

Dear friends and family,


This letter just in from Ricardo in the Amazon of Venezuela. They are beginning the end of the year river trips to the jungles of Colombia and Venezuela. Two teams have already left and others will follow. Many of them will return after January 6th, 2011. They are taking Bibles and other teaching materials with them to be distributed to the pastors and leaders.

Pray for their safety as they travel. There are dangers from river travel and also danger from the bad people that roam around looking for someone to rob or something to steal.

Pray that the Holy Spirit will prepare hearts willing to listen to the Gospel message. Pray that His power will make known His will for their lives.

He needs help in buying the Bibles. Pray that the Lord will supply the funds.

In Him we have the Victory,
Buck



Hola mi hermano Rolando encargue 5 cajas de biblias 6000 bf con mi amigo de apure, me llegan hoy consegui las biblias a 25 bf trae 40 la caja.

Material de evangelismo, discipulado y para niños 3500bf. Quiero mandar algo a la gente que debo en colombia eso seria 7000bf que es la mitad de la deuda y que ellos retiren las biblias alla mismo osea en idioma indigena. Ayer hice la compra de la comida,aceite y hoy cargamos la gasolina y la permisologia, esto ya he gastado 2900 bf. Necesito que me llames a mi celular para hablar de esto, sobre todo de lo que quiero enviar a colombia de la deuda.

DIOS TE BENDIGA
Ricardo

A Report from Charles Harris - El Vigia, Merida, Venezuela

Hello

We returned from Venezuela on Monday afternoon. We were there for a week. I was assigned to work in El Vigia, near Merida. El Vigia is about the size of Kingsport. In El Vigia we had a team of six other Americans and myself. Matt Dykes and Richard Hanks were on a team in Merida. Merida is in the Andes Mountains and is a very comfortable climate.

Our team stayed in four different homes in El Vigia, where it was very hot and no air conditioning. On our team were two couples from San Angelo, TX and two female students from Texas A&M University. We had two interpreters, so most of the time we split into two teams. One of the interpreters was the local pastor's daughter and the other was an English teacher from a local university.

I stayed in the home of Pastor Cesar Leal ; he is the pastor of Christian Community, a local Baptist church. He also owned and operated a Christian radio station, that has Christian programming and music. The church has four missions, Pastor Leal is hoping the missions will grow and become Baptist churches .One mission has already become a church.

On Monday , we visited homes in a gated community. Most people were busy during the day and we had little success. In the evening we had a worship service in the yard of a resident, we had music, singing and preaching. At the end of the service 5 people came forward to be come new Christians.

On Tuesday, we rode a bus 8 miles to a mission community called To-Bar. We split into 2 groups and visited homes, we explained the plan of salvation to anyone who would talk with us. I gave the message at 5 pm in the yard of a local Christian. At the end of the day we counted 24 people who had prayed with us to become a Christian.

On Wednesday we traveled to Merida to do some shopping and see the Andes Mts. We traveled through the world's longest tunnel, built in the 1900's taking 27 years to complete.

On Wednesday night we came back to El Vigia and attended Pastor Leal's church. After church, on the request of a young man, we went to the home of his parents and talked with them about salvation and they prayed to become Christians.

On Thursday we traveled about 20 miles to another mission in the community of El Pinar. For several hours we visited homes and after returning to the mission we counted 24 people who had prayed to become a Christian. Later we ate together and attended worship service held by Pastor Leal.

On Friday we visited in the community near Pastor Leal's home. We did not have much success that day That afternoon we each gave our testimony on the Christian radio station The pastor's daughter was our interpreter. That evening a pastor from a church just outside of town came by requesting that we visit 2 families near his church. The interpreter, the college students and myself went and witnessed to the families. Three in one family and ten in another family prayed to become believers in Jesus Christ.

On Saturday about 50 people rode a bus to the city of Santa Cruz. We had a Celebration picnic. The interpreter and I talked with the bus driver and he prayed to become a Christian. We gave away 3 boxes of Bibles ( paid for by our church) to the new Christians.

Our team in El Vigia, counted 65 conversions for the week. A smaller group of Americans worked with a church on the other side of town and they reported 31 conversions.

We didn't do anything that every church member should be able to do, tell others about Jesus.

To God be the Glory
Charles Harris, Kingsport, Tennessee

Mission Completed, Yet Ongoing

As we finish up our 8 days in this beautiful state of Merida, we realize that we are not finished at all. God has done many wonderful and powerful things here through us, through the Venezuelan volunteers who have come from all over Venezuela, and through the members of the local churches here. We have seen close to 1,000 new Christians in the areas of Merida, El Vigia, and Mucachies, and the town just up the mountain from Mucachies. But many more seeds have been planted, and we leave today praying the God will send Christians to further nurture the seeds until they bloom in the hearts of His children.

Over the next few weeks there will be reports from those who have had the opportunity to spend a short time here in this little corner of the world. I will share them on this blog, and where I can, I will try to have some of them translated into Spanish for our friends in Venezuela.

We will travel today back down the mountain to El Vigia, join our friends who have been working there, then fly to Caracas. Joining us will be four young students from Texas who are finishing up two months of working in this area with Go Now Missions through the Baptist General Convention of Texas. We will stay overnight in Caracas, then fly home on Monday.

Please pray for our safe travel back home. Also please continue to pray for the people of Venezuela, especially the people of Merida, Barinas, Trujillo, and Portuguesa who have experienced this week of intense evangelism. Pray for the Venezuelan volunteers and the local church members as they disciple the new Christians and continue to share the Gospel here in this country.