Dear Friends and Family,

Greetings from sunny and breezy Venezuela (83 degrees right now). Our many thanks to all who have been praying for the situation here in Venezuela and to all of you have written to express your concern.

Nationally, the sparing between the government and the opposition continues unabated. This week:

• Many of the main arteries in Caracas were blocked all week for half a day by the opposition and pro-government groups arrived at the same places in order to protest the blockage.
• Tension between local opposition and pro-government groups eased as some joined together to march in their neighborhoods and play soccer together on one of the highways being blocked by the opposition.
• A record number of Venezuelans are registering to vote in hopes of participating in the February 2003 referendum on the current government.
• The Supreme Court ruled the petroleum strike illegal and ordered all workers back to their posts, but few have obeyed.
• After 17 days of trying, the government finally moved and began to unload the Pilín León, the first of the oil tankers to join the petroleum strike. Gasoline supplies from the tanker are enough to supply one city for approximately ten days.
• Two million people streamed down the main highway in Caracas to converge upon Plaza Venezuela in support of the strike. An even larger march is being organized to the heavily armed and guarded presidential palace.

In midst of the current reality we are:

• learning to cope with the constant tension that fills the air and weighs down on everyone
• being holed up in Ocumare due to the gasoline shortage and our decision not to travel to Caracas due to the volatile situation there
• watching lines a mile long as people wait in their cars for almost two days in hopes that gasoline will arrive
• seeing military guarding the gas stations and banks
• checking the supermarkets regularly to see if milk and other food staples have arrived
• hearing daily that people have begun to cook with wood because they cannot find natural gas for their stoves explaining every day to the kids why McDonald's is closed
• expressing thanks to God because the area we live in has been peaceful throughout the four weeks of the strike praying and
• hoping that the two sides reach an agreement soon in order to end this conflict.

In spite of all this we are anticipating a joyous Christmas celebrations with our children, church members and friends. Just about all our presents are bought. Jefferson and Jodimar keep asking how many more days until Christmas. We, Mom and Dad, still need to buy a little something for each of us, though we are already enjoying our main gift to each other, a new box spring and mattress.

May the gift of the Christ child fill you with anticipation and hope as we await the New Jerusalem.

Now God's home is with his people. He will live among them and they will be his people and he will be their God, God-with-them. He will wipe away all tears from their eyes; there will be no more death and no more grief or crying or pain. The world of the past has disappeared.
Rev. 21:3b-4

Carlos, Deborah, Jefferson and Jodimar

The 2003 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 264