Thanks for praying into the Kingdom expansion in Venezuela. We had powerful meetings in Valencia, San Diego, Merida, El Vigia, Caracas and Vargus. With staying in homes, restaurantes, all night bus rides and a grueling schedule there was no missed appointments and no sickness. God is on His throne. Many, many Christians and leaders were challenged to include simple church multiplication core values in their efforts to fulfill the great commission of Christ. The open doors are amazing to say the least. Most of the people we are working with are in traditional evangelical church settings. Which means that most of our vision shows up as “hybrid models” of church life. We have been asking God to raise up examples that people can see. I want to share two powerful examples.
Iglesia Bautista Los Carrales in Vargus with Pastor Carlos Fuentes celebrated their fourteenth anniversary in 2006 when Carlos became pastor. They had 50 members. I met Carlos in 2007 and we began a journey together. He was one of the first to catch the vision of multiplication. They now have eight traditional mission churches and eleven house churches with 658 people. Listen, it took 14 years to get to 50. Now with simple church core values they have grown to over 600.
We were in Porte Ayacucho, gateway to the rainforest in May of this year with Baptist missionary Pablo Colina. He is a member of the Yekuana indigenous tribe of the Amazon which is one of the largest tribes with more people in Brazil than in Venezuela. We helped train him and a small group of dedicated disciples in simple church multiplication. He was pastor of one church of 42 members in Porte Ayacucho. Since May his church in Porte Ayacucho has doubled to 87. They have started 3 house churches in the city and 4 in the jungle with approximately 160 people meeting. I was able to spend several days with him this trip helping him to understand more fully what our Lord is doing around the world.
As you pray you are a part of these victories. Thank you so much. Please continue to ask God for the nation. Please respond if you have not already to help me get this info to those who want it. Your brother, gail.
Please join me in praying the Luke 10:2 prayer. Set your cell phone alarm at 10:02am and pray each day to the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into the harvest.
Gail L Graves