Come to Macedonia and help us

Our focus for Sunday Bible study since Trinity Sunday has been the missionary journeys of St. Paul. What could be more fitting for summer vacation? We even had a sort of campfire song based on Acts 16:10. These are the lyrics in English:

"Come to Macedonia and help us pray, that the kingdom of God may be revealed to the lost souls in this world. Oh, come to Macedonia and help us pray!"

Our goal is not only to help the youth visualize the distant lands described in the Acts of the Apostles, but also the people whom Paul met there and his companions in his travels. Many of these people are mentioned in the Pauline epistles, which comprise a great part of the New Testament. We passed out prizes for those who could memorize the most names and places. 

COVID/dengue: A one-two punch

Venezuelans expect most of their annual rainfall from May through December. But this season has brought the heaviest rains and most turbulent storms in decades. Rivers have overflowed their banks, dams have burst, landslides have destroyed homes and highways. The most affected areas are located in the western part of the country, including our state of Barinas. According to official estimates, 8,000 families have been affected, nearly 400 homes have been damaged, and at least 25 bridges have collapsed. Agricultural losses have been reported, with more than 150 hectares in Mérida state and over 6,000 hectares of crops lost in the states of Bolívar and Portuguesa. The Orinoco River's rising levels have forced evacuations in Amazonas and Bolívar, with hundreds of families taking refuge in temporary shelters. The Venezuelan government activated emergency response plan. Medical teams have attended to hundreds of affected individuals.

Although the property damage is costly, there has been relatively little loss of life. These are not flash floods, as in Texas. People have time to run away. Here in La Caramuca, we have remained relatively high and dry.

But the heavy rains and humidity create an ideal environment for Aedes aegypti, the species of mosquito which is the primary carrier of dengue fever. Dengue is endemic in over 100 tropical and subtropical countries, primarily in Asia, the Pacific, the Americas, Africa, and the Caribbean.

But here is a new wrinkle: Co-infection of dengue and COVID-19. Individuals with a history of dengue have been found to be at an increased risk of developing COVID-19. Moreover, co-infection of dengue and COVID-19 results in worse outcomes, including a high mortality rate, more frequent admissions to intensive care units (ICUs), and prolonged hospital stays. Although the viruses enter the human body in different ways, COVID-19 and dengue share clinical symptoms, making differentiation difficult, especially in dengue-endemic regions, which increases the risk of misdiagnosis. There have been a number of people in our surrounding community diagnosed and hospitalized with this co-infection.

Blessed Lord, defend us from fire and floods, earthquakes and landslides, Let not any plague come near the dwelling of those who have made the Most High their refuge. Give your angels charge over us to keep us in all our ways. Amen.

I preached and administered the Lord's Supper at our sister church in Barinas, Corpus Christi, on July 6 and July 27. Please pray that the Corpus Christi congregation might call a full-time pastor.

Close of school year

Sandro Dionel Perez.

For the first time in 22 years, a school year ended without our preschool in operation. But Luz Maria continued with afterschool tutoring of children with learning challenges. In addition to remedial exercises in grammar and mathematics, tutoring sessions include prayer and Bible. One boy, Mateo, was pleased to discover that he was named after one of the four evangelists (Matthew). Now we are renovating the former preschool space for an expanded tutoring program for the school year which begins in September. One of our former preschool students, Sandro Dionel Perez, who was baptized December 15, 2019, graduated from the community preschool and will begin first grade next school year.