MARACAY messenger           

12/07/07

In our last edition, we asked you to pray for several items as we planned our return to Venezuela. Let us share with you how your prayers have been answered.

God provided us a direct flight from Newark to Caracas at a very low price that arrived in the middle of the afternoon, giving us time to make the 2 hour trip from the airport to town while still light, thus minimizing the possibility of robbery. There was absolutely no problem going through immigration or customs although we were rolling 5 big bags.

Before leaving the US we wrote 12 realtors in Maracay telling them that we needed an apartment in either La Soledad or El Bosque, the two primary areas where professionals live. Only two responded indicating that they knew of an available apartment.

When we arrived in Venezuela we bought the local newspapers, but again there were no other options. We contacted the realtors to see the apartments and discovered that one was far beyond our budget. Thus, only one remained. 

We went to the apartment and immediately fell in love with it. It is in La Soledad, our first choice. It is in a secure area, on the third floor, with three bedrooms, and a balcony where we can sit overlooking and praying for the area where God has called us to minister. It faces a plaza around which there is a hotel, bakery, and communications center, all of which will serve us well when volunteer teams come to minister. Most importantly our landlord was willing to negotiate a price that the board could accept.

In other words, God led us directly to the ideal apartment that He had already selected for us and worked out all the details.

The 17^th of May we turned in our paperwork to renew our visas. The normal renewal time is 10 working days. By June 8 we had still not received our visas, and we were wondering if we were going to get them in time to travel to our annual mission meeting in Ecuador the last week of June. On Friday, June 9, Jan sent an e-mail asking all our prayer partners to pray. On Sunday, June 11, we went to Falcon and asked the church members there to pray as well.  On Monday morning, June 12, we got a call from the office saying that the visas had been issued. God loves to hear and answer the prayers of His people.

UPDATE FROM FALCON

The Love of God Church in Coro, pastored by Elias Hernandez, now has a very active youth group consisting of 8-10 young people who attend regularly. The church has begun lighthouses of prayer, small groups of 3-4 people meeting throughout the city, in an attempt to reach neighbors with the gospel, and new leaders are being trained using John Maxwell’s Equip modules.

Elias asks that you pray that he not become discouraged and that he would have wisdom as to how best to lead the body. Pray that the men in the congregation would assume leadership, and pray that some members would stop saying, "When Mike was here, he did it this way."

The Walking With God Church in Punto Fijo, although it has no pastor, has amazed us with its maturity and growth in our absence. The leadership has done a remarkable job, not only in creating an environment where the people love and care for one another but also reach out to their unsaved friends.

 When we visited in June every person whom we had baptized remained faithful to the church and had a testimony of how God had been working in his/her life. New people were in the service, and 7 people were baptized.

Durvin & Carlos Oscar & Mai

The group is also excited about a volunteer team coming in August to help them with a VBS which they hope to use to reach out to professional families in the area.

The Good Shepherd Baptist Church is located in the heart of Maracay, directly behind the state capitol. It has approximately 60 members, a small number of which are professionals who have a desire to reach their colleagues for Christ. The pastor, Daniel Rodriguez, has welcomed the Bennetts with open arms, and they hope to begin training soon for those members who are interested in starting bible studies among professionals.

Pray for Maria, our landlord, that she will continue to seek the Lord and make a confession of faith.

Pray for the Bennetts that the Lord will bring into their lives those professionals who have an interest in spiritual things.

Pray for Members of the Good Shepherd church that they will catch a vision for reaching the professionals in Maracay and form a team that will work effectively with the Bennetts.

Pray for Professionals in Maracay that they will have a hunger to study the word of God