Dear Friends and Family,

Even though the political situation in Venezuela is unstable, we have experienced several blessings this past month that we also want to share with you. From March 16 to 24 we hosted for the third time the medical team that comes from First Presbyterian Church of Douglasville, Georgia. In four days we treated 1,750 persons in general medicine and 86 dental patients (286 extractions). The dentist also operated on two neck tumors and one ingrown toenail! Along with the medical treatment, we also tell the good news and pray with every patient. It appears that this year the harvest is riper than in years past. Praise be to God.

On the home front, our adoption case has finally been transferred from the Caracas courts to Los Teques, the capital of the state in which we live. Carlos visited the courts in Los Teques last week and found the people to be more helpful than in Caracas. We had planned to return there this week, but with the general strike it has not been possible. Please continue to pray that our adoption process will be over soon.

The church in Santa Barbara is growing stronger each day and even though we still have not grown much, the current members are more committed than ever to supporting the church program. We are just finishing remodeling the bathrooms and adding on a new storeroom. Our Sunday school program adopted a workshop rotation model and it appears to be drawing in more people than our old traditional program.

The seminary program continues developing as the Anglican church joins forces with the Presbyterian and Lutheran churches in this endeavor. Neither of us will be teaching this next semester. Deborah is going to focus her efforts more on the Jubilee Center, and Carlos will be administrative dean for the seminary.

While "surfing" for news on Venezuela in English, we came upon this site, the Venezuelan embassy in the U.S. It has helpful information and a really neat kids’ page, "Venezuela for Kids."

Many more blessings we could share, but it's time to put the kids to bed!

God's blessings upon each and every one of you.

Shalom,

Deborah and Carlos

The 2002 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 264