Welcome!

Welcome to the Venezuela Now, Inc. Blog. VZ NOW is a US non-profit organization formed to support the work of the United Methodist Church of Venezuela. Its' purpose is to reach the lost of Venezuela. The principals of VZ NOW and their associates have worked in Venezuela since 1996. One primary ministry is the Wesley Seminary of Venezuela in Barquisimeto. Other ministries include planting churches, building church buildings, starting orphanages, evangelistic efforts, short-term mission teams, etc.

McEachern & Punto Fijo UMC's

Orphanage Construction Begins!

Site preparation is completed as Mount Pisgah, Venezuela Now, Inc. and others begin construction of our first orphanage in Venezuela. This structure will house 20 children and is located adjacent to the Lugar Altisimo United Methodist Church. The orphanage project has been part of our ministry plan for a couple of years and we are excited to see it finally begin construction. If you would like to contribute to the construction cost or perhaps send a team to work on this exciting project, just contact us. This will be a great mission trip for your church or group.

Pastors Efrain and Yolanda will oversee this project. Yolanda is not only the lay pastor at Lugar Altisimo UMC, but also a Social Worker responsible for 8 Childcare Centers in the area focusing on the needs of poor working families. In her spare time she is a fourth year student at the Wesley Seminary of Venezuela.

Dan and Nancy Dunn, Missionaries to Venezuela

Rev. Dan and Nancy Dunn are finishing 13 years on staff at Mount Pisgah United Methodist Church in Alpharetta, GA. While serving at Mount Pisgah Dan functioned as Minister of Discipleship, then Evangelism and finally Worship and Missions. During his tenure, Mount Pisgah grew to have the 3rd largest worship attendance in United Methodism.

Dan and Nancy have been heavily involved in Missions since 2001 after Dan took his first short term mission trip to Venezuela. God broke Dan's heart for the people of Venezuela and the need of the pastors for training and equipping. He has subsequently traveled to Venezuela dozens of times, learned and preached in Spanish and co-founded the Wesley Seminary of Venezuela where he has served as Academic Dean and Vice-President.

Continuing to follow God's call on their lives, Dan and Nancy will move to Kentucky in July where Dan will pursue a PhD. in Missiology at Asbury Theological Seminary. He will also serve as a missionary of Venezuela Now, Inc. where he will devote himself to raising up friends of Venezuela, resourcing churches in developing a mission focus and teach in seminaries of Latin America, especially Venezuela and Costa Rica.

God continues to raise up very devoted and gifted people to resource the United Methodist Church of Venezuela to enhance its effectiveness in reaching the lost of that Caribbean country. Perhaps God is calling you to give yourself to this mission. Contact us at this blog. Pray for Dan and Nancy.

Future Seminary Site?

The directors of the Wesley Association of Venezuela and the Board of Venezuela Now, Inc. are prayerfully considering securing the above property for the site of the Seminario Wesleyano de Venezuela. This 32 acre site is located just a few miles from the main bus station in Barquisimeto (the primary mode of transportation for our students) and just a block off the Pan American Highway. It is the site of the Lugar Altissimo United Methodist Church shown above during the initial stages of construction.

The area is a high desert much like Tucson, Arizona, USA. It is a place of natural beauty and marvelous weather. While the afternoons can be very hot, the evenings generally are quite cool and comfortable. We are also exploring the availability of adjoining property and considering purchasing more land if funding becomes available. This site is currently in a rural area. However, Barquisimeto is rapidly growing in the direction of this property. The city's largest mall is being built on this side of town and the major regional bus terminal is under construction on what is now the edge of town. In the few years we have been traveling to Venezuela, we have seen rapid growth of the city in the direction of this property.

We believe the location is adequate for the present and will be quite strategic in the future. The cost of the property allows us to acquire a large tract (32 acres) versus a comparable cost for one or two acres in the city. It reminds one of the one-time rural location of Emory University in Atlanta and how it is now in the heart of the city. We believe in time this will be the case with this property.

Of course, if we decide to acquire this land and locate the seminary on this location, we will have a great deal to do to get ready for classes. The first step will be to complete the church which will serve as our first classroom. Concurrently, we will have to build our first dormitory and dining area. Pray for funds and human resources to complete these initial stages. Pray for those of us charged with making this strategic decision to be completely open to God's will and secure in whatever decision the Lord leads us to make - for the sake of the lost of Venezuela.

Send a Mission Team

McEachern Memorial United Methodist Church in Marietta, GA adopted the Punta Fijo United Methodist Church a couple of years ago. Mission Teams have constructed a church building, shown above in its earliest stages. They have also led Vacation Bible Schools, participated in reaching the lost of Punta Fijo and provided support and scholarship aide to the pastors, Juvenal and Nohely Perez (below). The Perez's are in their fourth year of seminary and are leading this congregation in a dynamic ministry with children and their families. They expect to serve over 1,000 children in the second half of 2006. Much of this is made possible by the faithful and generous service of the congregation in Marietta. Mission Team members testitify this experience with Punta Fijo has been the most significant spiritual experience of their lives. Mission Pastor, Donna Goff, tells Venezuela Now that McEachern is ready to partner with a second UMC congregation in Venezuela. We are expectantly waiting to see what God will do through this new partnership. When McEachern started working with the Punta Fijo UMC, the Venezuelan congregation had lost their lease, had no land and had no place to meet or do ministry. The pastors and family were surviving on about $50 US a month. Today this is one of the many thriving UMC's in Venezuela. What a difference one church can make in the development of a new Conference of the UMC in Venezuela!

Now, your church can make the same kind of difference in the life of a congregation in Venezuela while exposing members of your mission team to a life changing experience. A short four hour direct flight (as of this writing) from Atlanta, Venezuela is very accessible to US mission teams. The people of Venezuela are generous, warm and welcoming. Venezuela Now focuses its ministry on the population centers of that country. Currently we have only one UMC in Caracas, a strategic city of Venezuela and South America. The Caracas First UMC desperately needs a US congregatioon to form a strategic partnership and cooperatively develop this UM ministry to this major city. This is true of of a dozen other cities and churches across Venezuela.

Additionally, The Wesley Association (the Venezuelan corporate experession of Venezuela Now, Inc.) is on the verge of purchasing the land for the building of the Seminaro Weselyano de Venezuela and we will need dozens of mission teams for its construction.

For an exciting, transforming, long-term mission partnership, consider a relationship with the brand new United Methodist Church of Venezuela and the only UM Seminary in Venezuela. Contact wlathem@aslangroup.com, for more information.