Rivers Baptist Church - Christ alone - and Him crucified

Dear praying friends

In summary
- Praise God that I finally got my tickets for my trip to Thailand.
- Pray for me as I travel most of this month, and for Marion and the kids back home.
- Pray for Marion on a ladies retreat, and Alex & his Carolinas looking after the kids while we are both away.
- Continue to praise God for all of us in good health.
- Continue to pray for Jorge (car accident - March), Natalie and their daughter… Pray against further infection, and that his brain cells will start rejuvenating so that the left side of his body can function properly.
- Pray for Bolivia – and the shortages of food & fuel.
- Continue to pray for our protection in this dangerous city
- Continue to pray for Caracas to be transformed into a city which glorifies God

Geof

The details

Some weeks have a theme, and this past week is one such week. Over this past week I have been really aware of God’s protection over me as I have traveled the streets of Caracas. On two consecutive days accidents occurred (one 2 cars; the other a car and a motor bike) as I walked past. In the short time between these two incidents buses I was in went past 3 separate accidents. I have not been able to recall exactly how many accidents I’ve passed this past week.

On Wednesday I needed to meet up with my pastor (Ps Leonel). En route I arrived at one of the regular bus stops I use, and where I had waited for a bus the previous day. I found the bus stop shelter wrecked - the sign that either a bus or truck had mounted the curb and destroyed the bus stop shelter. I was so grateful that I wasn’t waiting at the bus stop when it happened. Anyway after getting to the bus stop I was very surprised that I had to wait 25 minutes for the next bus because usually that particular route has a bus every 10 minutes. The bus finally arrived and I hopped on. About 15 minutes later we joined a traffic jam (which is never surprising in Caracas). As my bus inched forward I eventually saw that 2 buses had collided. Most passengers walked away relatively unscathed and actually hopped onto my bus. One of the buses which had crashed had been the previous bus to the one I was on. I had probably only missed that bus by a minute or two! For me it was a reminder that we are here in God’s hands. On the way back home the accident still had not been cleared up and the queue was adding at least another ½-1 hour to everyone’s journeys.

On Sunday we were informed that Ephraim (one of the members of our church) was now in hospital after a motor bike collided into him (as in literally collided into his leg, not his car) as he was getting out of his car.

Yesterday afternoon I met up with a pastor. On the way to our meeting armed criminals hopped onto his bus and demanded items of value. With a real God-given authority my friend stood up and commanded them to go in the name of Jesus, and they went. Praise God.

Yesterday’s paper had an article which places Caracas as the murder capital of the world. (You can read the English version in http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4480). Yes it is true that Caracas is a dangerous city. We are told that Caracas averages 80 murders every weekend. The statistics only confirm what to us is obvious… that Caracas desperately needs the love of Christ. It needs the church here to become unified and to be a unified beacon of light in a dark city. On Sunday next week (12th) Caracas has its annual march for Christ. Pray for the testimony of this event.

For Marion and I we know that God has brought us here, and we know that there is nowhere safer than in the hands of God. We are reminded of God’s hand of protection again and again, and this week more than usual. But yet we know that God’s promise for protection does not negate the possibility of something happening. Please continue to pray for us, and pray that God will raise up others who can join us here.

Pray especially for Marion and the kids over the next few weeks as I travel first to Lima (Peru) for a Pioneers’ team leaders’ retreat (6-10th) and then as I continue onto Chiang Mai (Thailand) for training and meetings (18-24th) related to our bringing the Kairos course (see www.kairoscourse.org) into Venezuela. I will be visiting some of our Pioneers’ offices en-route. By the way, I did end up finalising my bookings (but it still took much longer than I anticipated). The airline I was trying to book through was useless, to say the least, and I ended up going across to the ‘opposition’ who were extremely helpful. While I am away Marion has the opportunity to go to a Ladies’ retreat (7th–9th). With my being away, this is only possible because my friend (Alex), his wife (Carolina) and his sister (Carolina) are going to stay at our place and work as a team to look after the kids. Segana and Michael are really looking forward to this time. We praise God for the relationship we have with them and the way they are so keen to step in and help in a very real way.

Continue to pray for Bolivia which has internal strife and problems at the moment. It has been a while since we’ve had news of the problems there. I have not heard whether the blockades have been lifted or whether fuel and food are now available but what I have heard is that the underlying issues have not been resolved. Continue to pray for Bolivia.

Geof