MARACAY messenger           

12/07/07

Four believers from the Good Shepherd Baptist Church in Maracay have agreed to help us reaching professionals in the city.

Javier, Winelia, Jahyn and Wilmer

Javier Villamarin is 22, recently graduated with a junior college degree in mechanical engineering and is working for the leading firm in Venezuela in the field of cryogenics. Javier brings much enthusiasm to the team.

Winelia is 25, a junior college graduate in occupational therapy. She specializes in infants with motor nerve disabilities. She has a number of contacts in the medical community and brings many fresh, novel ideas to the group.

Jahyn and Wilmer Herrera have been married for 15 years and have two children. Wilmer works for AGA, a bottled gas company. Jahyn is the director of sales of 3M corporation. They are well respected in the community and lend stability and maturity to the team.

All have received 6 weeks of orientation, explaining how we will conduct seminars to attract the professionals, emphasize the need to focus on the professional, family and spiritual life to be a well-rounded person, and invite them to attend formation groups where they will hear the gospel for the first time.

Last month we asked you to pray for our landlord, Maria, that she would continue her interest in spiritual things. A couple of weeks after our last letter was distributed, Maria became a believer.

We truly believe that Maria is the person of peace for whom we were praying before we returned to Venezuela. She is well respected in the community and has innumerable contacts in the professional community.

She is anxious to help us in our work and wants to form a bible study in her apartment house. Pray that Maria will grow as a disciple, that she will be baptized, and that her family and neighbors will believe.

Whenever the gospel enters a new territory for the first time, the terrain has to be softened by persistent prayer. The enemy does not want his territory invaded, and spiritual warfare is common. People do no go to conferences due to unexpected meetings, falls, illnesses, commitments or any other obstacle that the enemy can put in their way. People oppose the work of evangelicals no matter how inoffensive it may be. There are gatekeepers who recommend that people not attend activities, and there are barriers or prejudices that have formed over the years that must be overcome as well as spiritual blindness.

For this reason we have emphasized much prayer walking around La Soledad, El Bosque, Base Aragua, and San Isidro, the four major areas where professionals live in the city.

In August a team of 12 came from Red Lane Baptist Church in Richmond, VA to pray for our work. In September a group of 8 came from Punto Fijo to help us in this respect. It was an eye-opening experience for them since none had ever participated in a prayer walk before. The first weekend of October another group comes from Coro to pray over the city.

You can help us pray too! We have posted a virtual prayer walk on our website: www.maracaymessenger.com . You can go there, see the same sights that people see here, and be led as to how to pray for our ministry. Please take advantage of this tool to help us overcome the darkness.

The last week of September, after vacations had ended, the team initiated its first series of talks: How to Manage Conflict in Your Life. Promotion was basically done by word of mouth among friends of team members. The goal was to have 50 in attendance whereby three healthy small groups could be formed afterward.

The talks are entering the final of three weeks as this paper goes to press. There has been an average attendance of 14 each week. Though this number is smaller than anticipated, the attendees have been faithful and very interested in the material.

Next week we will be asking these same individuals to attend a formation group each week where we will begin introducing the gospel. Pray that they will be attend and become our first disciples in Maracay.

Likewise pray for our team members. All cannot participate in the small groups at this time due to the small number of participants. Some will be disappointed. Pray for unity, harmony, and a continuing desire to serve.