03/05/04: Tribal Update: Hoping for a peaceful solution

Hello Everyone:

In recent months, political unrest has been growing in Venezuela. Last August, the people took up a petition to call for a recall election of the President. More people signed the petition than originally voted for the president. As part of the process, there is an organization whose function is to check the petitions to validate or negate signatures. It would appear that the final outcome will be that they will negate enough signatures to invalidate the petition. Of course, this has many people very upset. A week ago in the capital city of Caracas, a protest march turned violent as protesters approached an area where there was an international meeting of leaders from developing countries The National Guard began firing on the crowd with tear gas, plastic bullets and shot guns. Two people were killed and many others were injured. The other day, the protests continued in about 50 locations around the city with concentrations of people, burning tires blocking major roadways, more tear gas, and more exchange of fire. This is not just happening in Caracas but in other major cities throughout the country. So far 8 people have been killed, hundreds have been injured, over 300 have been jailed unjustly, and many are seething with anger. Please pray that the political situation can come to a peaceful solution soon. No doubt you have seen the violence that has been occurring in Haiti. Hopefully, things will not deteriorate to those same levels in this country....although many here feel it will have to come to that. We continue to be safe and continue to trust Him for His protection.

Thanks for your prayers as we continue to prepare for our upcoming 3 week rendezvous with the Tribal pastors and some of their wives. Looks like we will have 15 people out for this visit. We are looking forward very much to the time to visit and share with one another. Pray for wisdom, endurance, and insight as we do translation checking, Bible lesson checking, and discipleship. We will be doing the final check of Acts together with our Tribal translation helper, after which it must be formatted and prepared for printing. We are busily revising and preparing lessons right now from the book of Genesis, and want to do a seminar to instruct the church leaders how to teach these foundational truths from Genesis on through the Ascension of Christ. Looks like we may end up with a 1000 pages of lessons in total for this course. We hope to have 300 pages ready to check with the Tribal and to use for teaching the seminar in this upcoming visit.

Lord willing, we will be heading for furlough April 23. We look forward to spending time with our kids and grandkids, seeing our parents and siblings, and seeing many of you during the nine months that we will be in the States and Canada. Sure would appreciate your prayers for us as we trust Him for the funds needed to purchase a vehicle during our time of home assignment. We also ask for prayer for safety in our many travels as we drive from Miami up to eastern Canada, and then west to California, and then up into western Canada, and then over to the central part of Canada as well.

Okay, all for now. Thanks again for your encouragement and partnership.

Enjoying the adventure in Him
Merrill and Teresa