Hope Store Sale to Benefit the Seminary

Great Results

I asked Dean Dan to share a couple of recent reports from Venezuela.  What you see below are a few examples of how your prayers and contributions are making a real Kingdom difference in Venezuela.  Please send gifts to Venezuela Now, Inc.  PO Box 1655, Duluth, GA 30096.

 

This week Wilmer Perez, pastor of a congregation in Nirgua, Venezuela, is finishing the installation of equipment and finishing of interior walls in the kitchen/dining room behind their sanctuary. It will be used for a ministry of feeding 30 senior citizens once per day, Monday - Friday.  When I preached there a few weeks ago and Wilmer shared this vision with me, I mentioned words of congratulations and thanks for addressing community needs.  His reply to me was "I was taught and inspired to do this kind of ministry through the Wesleyan Seminary of Venezuela." Pastor Wilmer was in the first graduating class of the Seminary and now teaches the Inductive Bible Courses at the Seminary and serves on the Advisory Group.

 

Bishop Juvenal Perez preached at Ondas de Paz United Methodist Church on October 17, and 14 people gave their lives to Christ.  Among those 14 was a young man who was a drug addict.  He owed money to his supplier, and that week he went to his supplier and paid his debit, and told him he wouldn't be coming back, because he was a new man in Christ.  The dealer offered him some free drugs, but he continued to repeat "I'm a new man in Christ."  He also burned over 300 CD's that had inappropriate lyrics in them. Bishop Perez is a gradate of the Seminary and the first Bishop of the United Methodist Church of Venezuela.

 

Also on October 17, Franklin and Hilde Perez were welcomed into the United Methodist Church family in Venezuela, as Bishop Juvenal consecrated them as pastors in the UMC.  Franklin and Hilde have taught two workshops now for a local church in Barquisimeto on cell group ministry.  The first workshop was so well-received that the pastor of the church invited 3 pastoral friends from out of town to come to the second workshop, which they did.  Franklin and Hilde are extremely thankful for this and other material they are learning through the Seminary. Both are currently enrolled in the Seminary and through their association with United Methodists at the Seminary made the very prayerful and significant decision to become a part of the work of the UMC in Venezuela.  They are also extremely supportive of the work of the seminary and are giving excellent leadership among the student body.

 

Dan shares these prayer concerns: 1. financial provision for completing the security fence around the property.  2.God to raise up mission teams to come work at the Seminary. 3, (We add) The needed $30,000 due December 31 for the annual mortgage payment on the property.  If we pay this amount on time, it is interest free (We owe $140,000 on a facility worth over $500,000 and have an interest free loan as long as we make the annual $30,000 payment.)