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| More Bibles and books from Lutheran Heritage Foundation. |
Christ is risen! He
is risen indeed! In this joyous Easter season, we remember our Lord’s
victory over the condemnation of sin, the power of the devil, and,
especially that last enemy, death. For 40 days the risen Christ
walked among His disciples and was seen by as many as 500 at one time
(1 Corinthians 15:6). We continue to celebrate His resurrection until
the day of Ascension, when He was taken up into the clouds with the
promise that one day He would return among the clouds. Alleluia!
I am pleased to
report that we have achieved one of our goals for the material
benefit of the mission. That is the purchase of a 2008 Volkswagen Golf station wagon, kept
in excellent condition by its former owner, a schoolteacher. This
will be a great help in overcoming the problems we face with the
increasing scarcity and unreliability of public transportation. (No photos of the car for security reasons.)
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| In Parque del Este, Caracas. |
On April 27, Luz
Maria left for Caracas to investigate leads on cars for sale there,
accompanied by her brothers, Robert and Moisés Henríquez, and her
nephew, Roamird Castillo (the son of her sister, Rosaura, not Robert
or Moisés). They expected to be gone only two or three days, but
spent the entire week in Caracas.
This was because on
April 30, there was another uprising against the socialist regime. It
was significant that, for the first time, members of the Venezuelan
military openly supported the opposition. In a bold move, the
soldiers freed Leopold López, an opposition leader, from house
arrest. Lopéz
appeared with Juan Guaidó, president of the opposition-led
National Assembly, in a press conference outside La Carlota Air Force
Base. The soldiers then acted as bodyguards for Lopéz and Guaidó as
they led a day of street demonstrations. The backlash was brutal,
however, as troops on the other side attacked even the unarmed
demonstrators. Images
of armored vehicles running over protesters were broadcast by
international news media and social networks. By the end of the day,
four young people had been killed and dozens were injured.
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| Planning Lutheran women's gathering. |
Thanks be to God,
Luz Maria and company were unharmed. But, at the risk of sounding
flippant, it really complicated the closing of the deal on the car.
Luz Maria had to stay through the weekend. But this gave her the
opportunity to sit in on a meeting of women from our sister
congregations in Caracas, who were planning the next national
convention of the Venezuelan Lutheran women’s organization.
Upon finalizing the
deal, Luz Maria immediately put the car to use by transporting back
to La Caramuca boxes of Spanish Bibles and copies of “A Child’s
Garden of Bible Stories” in Spanish, both published by the Lutheran
Heritage Foundation.
Keeping the
lights on
Our next project
will be setting up an electrical backup system to cope with
continuing power outages. Blackouts now last about six hours at a
time, occurring at least once a day, but sometimes twice. I would
like to install an inverter (which would switch to backup power when
the grid goes down), batteries and auxiliary power source, such as
solar panels or a gasoline-powered generator. All of these things
could be found in Venezuela. However, although I have a general idea
of how such systems work, I have no experience in designing one. If
anyone could offer me advice on estimating load, capacity, quality of
materials, etc., I would appreciate it.
Remember in prayer
1. All of Venezuela
as the country’s crisis continues.
2. Eleno Sanchez and
Anyi Garrido, who have begun studying Luther’s Small Catechism.
Eleno’s goal is to join the church by profession of faith; Anyi
looks forward to her first communion.
3. The many
Venezuelans in exile. Praise be to God for the missionaries who
minister to Venezuelans in Chile and Peru, but especially remember
the expatriates in Ecuador, where there is no confessional Lutheran
presence.
