What Happened in Venezuela?

For more than 50 years, The Voice in the Wilderness has partnered with churches and missionaries across Venezuela. From the deep jungle to the modern city, we have come alongside the pastor with preaching, teaching and support. In the late 1990s, Bro. Ronnie traveled into the very jungle where Missionary Sophie Muller once walked, opening the door of Indigenous tribes to the Gospel. That visit included distributing Bibles in four tribal languages. Not long afterward, Hugo Chávez expelled all missionaries from the jungle, ending our contact with many of our Christian brethren.

A few years later, the Lillys joined the work of The Voice in the Wilderness. Their first trip took them to Caracas, where they taught English as a second language to college students, church members, and the surrounding community. On that trip, they met a young man recently returned from Peru, trained in sign language and burdened to start a church in La Guaira, a coastal town on the Caribbean Sea about 45 minutes from Caracas.

From that point on, whenever we flew into Caracas, Pastor R—the “angel of La Guaira”—as we called him, was graciously there to meet us at the airport and guide us to the hotel where his church gathered. When the country closed again under Maduro, we continued support through periodic Scripture and aid shipments to him. Many of you have sacrificially given so that he and other pastors could receive John and Romans booklets with the specialized “Jesus Loves Venezuela” cover.

Several years ago, Pastor R was invited to the National Guard training center in La Guaira. He faithfully carried the John and Romans booklets we sent and taught the soldiers from the Gospel of John, explaining how they too could come to Christ.

With recent events in Venezuela, La Guaira—basically unheard of by most — made national news as one of the locations targeted during the U.S. military operation to capture Nicolás Maduro. By God’s grace, Pastor R and his family are safe, though quite rattled by the bombs. In fact, the very outpost of which he distributed the John and Romans booklets was targeted. The nation remains in turmoil, and many pastors in other regions still do not fully understand what has taken place. Their “normal” has consisted of blackouts, shortages, rations, complete economic collapse, fraud, blackmail, medical malpractice and more. Some have no knowledge of the 15 year indictment of Maduro for drug-trafficking and worse.

Your financial support has played a vital role in ensuring that the Gospel continues to reach Venezuela during these uncertain days. Please continue to pray. This is a door of opportunity for Venezuela to return to its democratic, free election, prosperous day. Pray for wisdom and enlightenment to truth for the Venezuelans. The spiritual needs of the people, safety of the pastors, and strength of the churches are great prayer needs as they stand firm in this hour of upheaval.