Dear Friends and Family,

We hope you are all well and enjoying this wonderful life that God has so graciously granted us.

We have been as busy as usual since our last note, which means lots of news. But we’ll try to be brief.

Personal

For those who have not heard, we have been officially approved to adopt children here. We still have no news of actual children, but are busy preparing the apartment to receive whoever God may send our way. Thank you so much for all your many prayers.

In the midst of all the work we are doing, we managed to get away for a week of vacation in Aruba. The Brazilian missionary couple who work in Maracaibo, Marcos y Lilia Martins, and their son, Felipe, accompanied us. We had a wonderful time together and were able to get some much-needed rest.

Seminary

Next month we have our last session for this semester. It has been a mixed semester for attendance due to many schedule conflicts the students have had. However, we are gearing up for next semester and are excited as we move towards the electronic era. The first step is having direct e-mail contact with the all the students, and then we are looking at the possibility of having course offerings via Internet. We would still maintain three sessions in Barquisimeto because we find being together motivates everyone in their studies. These continue to be exciting times for the seminary program.

Jubilee Center

Despite funds still frozen in the Chase Manhattan account in the United States, the Synod advanced us some funds so we can continue working. We have begun to host several Venezuelan groups, and the new caretakers are doing an excellent job of keeping everything clean and orderly.

Disaster Relief

Last week, we accompanied Dr. Kim Brown to Vargas State, the worst areas of the Venezuela disaster. A PC(USA) missionary from Nicaragua, Kim has worked in the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch. She came here to offer guidance on how to set up a pastoral care program for victims and their families. It was a heartbreaking experience, even six months after the event. We passed many places where everything was swept out to sea by raging waters, mud, trees and huge boulders and many places where houses and apartment buildings are packed completely in mud. In some areas what remains are the tops of telephone poles sticking out of the mud. Many buildings, homes, shops and stores are buried in what have been described as muddy graveyards. Thousands of missing were buried alive, and their bodies may never be found. The roads are still not all clear, and the greater part of rebuilding is still ahead. The pictures and videos on TV can't describe the depth of the destruction.

A thousand refugees are housed in a military base near our home. This is one of hundreds of refugee centers around the country. Having already provided essential food and emergency supplies to thousands of people in the months since the disaster, the church is now working with the regional health director and the military base commander to provide medicines from Interchurch Medical Assistance. The church is developing two housing projects to provide homes for 50 families.

Thanks to all of you for your prayers and support. Please continue to pray for the victims and send support via the Presbyterian Disaster Relief Fund as the reconstruction of all the areas will be a long arduous process.

Upcoming Elections

Over all, things are calm for the elections, rescheduled for July 30. There have been some demonstrations and the campaign between Chavez and Arias continues to be dirty, but controlled.

Prayer requests

• That the churches of Venezuela and other countries with recent flooding continue to respond to the material, psychological, and spiritual needs of the victims
  
• That more people receive God’s call to the ministry here in Venezuelaand that the seminary program continues to flourish
  
• That God work through the Jubilee Center to provide assistance to the community and churches, materially and spiritually.
  
• That our own family may soon be multiplied!

God bless each and every one of you richly,

Deborah and Carlos Clugy-Soto

The 2000 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 258