October 13, 2009

Yesterday was the Jesus March here in Caracas. What an encouraging event to be with God's family. This city is so big and hearts so hard that it is easy to get discouraged. But being together in the Jesus March helps one to realize we are not alone and what joy it will one day be to worship and praise God together in heaven.

It seems like yesterday that I wrote on this blog.
There is always plenty to do. Harry started his fall session in the Center for Ministry Development, teaching a class on "The Sermon on the Mount". He has 5 students who seems to be enjoying the class. He has also been mentoring Pastor Armando and has a class with him weekly. We are also involved in Pastor Armando's house church, helping where we can by teaching or preaching in the Sunday Morning worship service or Friday evening discipleship class. This past month the administrator of our Christian Bookstore, "Hidden Treasures" has been on vacation in Brazil visiting her sister, so Harry is filling in for her till she gets back in another week.

Lynn continues to be involved in the Macaracuay ladies ministry at Fabian Rubio, a prison half-way house. We've been going through Celebrate Recovery material and have seen the Lord work in these women's lives in a very encouraging way. A couple of the women have recently attended a retreat on "Forgiveness" as a result of their desire to have the Lord heal their lives. We praise the Lord for his transforming power in our lives and the lives of these women.

Discipling a couple of women who were baptized this past summer has been a real joy for Lynn also. What a blessing from the Lord to help these women grow in their understanding of God's Word and what it means to follow Jesus.

Continue to pray for us, that God will use us to bring glory to His name and extend His Kingdom here in Caracas.

End of the summer

Summer activities of retreats, Vacation Bible School, vacations, etc. are winding down for us as well as for Venezuelans. We had an absolutely wonderful time at FEC convention and the Missionary Retreat as well as a week with our family the first part of August. Our 9 grandchildren couldn´t be more perfect and charming in our eyes. We will have to admit though we need to be around them more to get used to the high noise level in the house!!

We are looking forward to the next several months before Christmas. Harry´s classes in the Ministry Development Center will be starting again soon. He´ll be teaching the Sermon on the Mount. Pray that the Lord will bring new students, especially men and young people to begin this training program. Our desire is that when we ultimately leave Venezuela, the church here will have a firm foundation of God´s Word. Also that they will have a way to train future leaders and pastors, so that no matter what happens in this country the Lord´s church will prevail.
Some other major events this month of September will be a Marriage Retreat sponsored by the Association of Venezuelan Bible Churches (AVIB) and the Macaracuay annual church anniversary celebration. Then the end of October will bring the annual assembly of AVIB. (We look forward to IM Director Earl Cecil being with us for that time.) In the midst of these special occasions we have our regular discipleship classes, teaching Sunday school, mentoring of our pastors, the women’s prison half way house ministry, hospital visitation and all the other things that go on in everyday life here that keep us plenty active. Pray that we will use our time wisely, that we will have open eyes and hearts to where God is working so that we might be his vessels, useful in extending His Kingdom and bringing glory to Him.

July 25, 2009

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade- kept in heaven for you. I Peter 1: 3, 4
This is a time of praise to our God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. For a long time we have been asking many you to pray that God would raise up men in our churches here in Caracas. We are beginning to see this happen. Two men whose wives have been faithful believers have recently made public professions of their new birth in Christ. Another through a Father’s day gift from the church, a devotional book of “Our Daily Bread”, is reading his Bible and this book daily. Several other men through invitations of friends, ministries of our Christian Bookstore and the Conference men’s retreat are now attending church and beginning their journey with the Lord.

Last Saturday, our 3 churches had a combined baptismal service. Fifteen new believers were baptized! It was thrilling to hear their testimonies of what God is doing in their lives. One of those baptized was a man, who is the school bus driver for Pastor Armando’s children. Pastor Armando, a year ago invited Genaro to the Men’s Retreat. Genaro’s life was a mess, his marriage on the rocks and his health in bad shape with very high blood pressure and an irregular heart rate. He went to the retreat to just get away from everything but also a bit afraid of what he was getting himself into. That weekend he gave his heart to the Lord, his blood pressure has dropped to normal and he hasn’t had another irregular heart beat. God is strengthening his marriage and his wife has also accepted Christ as her Savior. They both were baptized this last week. The above picture on the left is Genaro about to be baptized by Pastor Armando.

Keep praying for God to raise up men who are willing to count the cost and that their faith which is worth more than gold may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus is revealed.

Lynn has been teaching the discipleship, baptismal class for the new believers who were baptized from the Macaracuay church. It has been so exciting to see their joy and eagerness to learn the things of the Lord. The above picture on the right is the group from Macaracuay who were baptized.

May 23, 2009

This past month has been one of those regular, nothing exciting or nothing new is happening months. We continue to be involved in teaching and discipling new believers, mentoring pastors, supporting and attending the three AVIB churches here in Venezuela.
The church in La Urbina, Center for the Christian Family, has made this month a time of stressing the importance of the Christian family. They had a family outing at a local park with games and a lunch and seminars on the family the last 2 Saturdays. These have been excellent for us in spending extra time with this church since we don't normally attend their services. The seminars were also very good and helped us understand many cultural aspects of the Venezuelan family that we knew were different than our background but hadn't understood the thinking behind them. We have so much to learn and then to think how that applies or affects the Christian life and family is mind boggling to us sometimes.
The Macaracuay Church has a leadership retreat the first weekend of June to do some vision casting and praying. Lynn has recently been asked to develop a discipleship program for new believers for the church and Harry to help them develop some kind of a Sunday School program. They have had Sunday School but it has been a very weak program with very few attendees. Don't know if he can resurrect it or not. We'll see how the Lord directs us in these 2 different ministries.
In Guatire we continue to enjoy and be encouraged with the fellowship of these young Christian brothers and sisters. Their enthusiasm for their new faith is contagious even in the midst of struggles and sometimes failures. The teenage son of one of these families is really struggling with the new faith of his parents and all the changes that have happened in their home. He is not so sure where he fits in all of it and whether he wants to give his life to the Lord or not, because of the changes it would mean to him. On Mother's day we enjoyed a great lunch of grilled hamburgers Venezuelan style with all the works on them. The sandwich was almost the size of our plate, huge but delicious!

Prayer Requests
1. That the Lord would continue to strengthen his church here in Venezuela amid the insecurity and changing government system.
2. That the Lord would raise up men and young people committed to Him and willing to serve Him with their lives, especially as pastors and church leaders. (Just as in the States, material things speak louder than sacrificial living for the Lord.)
3. Pray that the Lord will give us wisdom and direction as Harry leads the Sunday School and Lynn the discipleship program in the Macarcuay church. That we will be able to involve our Venezuelan brothers and sisters and that they will take ownership and make the programs work.
4. Pray for the outreach retreats this summer that friends, co-workers, neighbors, and family members will attend and that they will come to know the Lord as their Savior.
5. We are in the midst of transferring Church and the Christian Bookstore property titles to our Venezuelan churches. It is a tremendously complicated process. Pray that the Lord will hasten this process, that it will happen without complications and with little cost.

Easter Week 2009

Praises:The Lord has been working in the youth group we taught last winter in wonderful ways. Several have asked to meet with their leader for discipleship classes, others who had dropped out of the group have come back and asked for forgiveness for leaving and others are seeking and asking for godly counsel regarding situations in their lives. Keep praying for these youth that they will become firm and strong in their faith.

Prayer requests:
1. The Lord will bring forward a couple who feel called by God to start a new house church or church.
2. For Pastor Armando and his wife Carolina, as they get passports and attempt to get visas so they might attend FEC convention in August.
3. For Auris, the young woman who lives with us, as she travels to Argentina this week to attend a training seminar led by Desert Streams from the USA. She has never flown in an airplane before so this will a big adventure for her.

How is Easter celebrated in Venezuela? Holy week as it is called is a big vacation time. Since we don't have seasonal changes here we do not have spring time and all the new life it brings. As a result one of the things that is noticeably different is the lack of commercialism during Easter week connected with spring. New spring clothes, Easter baskets, Easter candy, chocolate bunnies and colored eggs are definitely not apart of Easter here. The church here has it's Good Friday services, honoring the crucifixion of Jesus. The Catholic church through the centuries has large processions protraying the crucified Christ. But to most people Holy Week means, "Lets go to the beach!"

The city of Caracas empties; businesses and stores shut down, some for all week and others from Wednesday until the following Monday. There are long traffic lines as people leave the city for the ocean, river or lake. By Friday streets were nearly empty and you could go anywhere in the city in record time. It is a great time for those who stay in the city. Resorts and beaches are shoulder to shoulder people.

Whereever we are it is easy to forget the real reason for Easter when you look at how the world lives. How we rejoice and thank God for loving us so much to provide a way for us to have a relationship with Him through the shed blood of Jesus and the hope we have through his resurrection for eternal life.

We went to Guatire like usual on Friday but we had a birthday party instead of Bible Study. Our group had a big backyard party, grilling Venezuelan style steak and garlic and blood sausages accompanied with boiled yuca, and cabbage salad. The blood sausages are a little more than we can handle but the rest of the food was super delicious. Birthday cake, a lemon tart, strawberry jello and chocolate oatmeal cookies were the dessert. What a fun time with our friends.

Easter Sunday or Resurrection Sunday as it is called here was celebrated by our three churches having a united service in a park with about 90 people in attendance. Before the service Bible tracts were passed out to people in the park inviting them to attend. After a great time of worship together we enjoyed picnic lunches brought by each family and a relaxing afternoon in the park.

March 10, 2009

March 10, 2009 Harry's mom, Helen Hyde at 96 years of age went from her sleep to eternity with Jesus. No matter how much we might know with our minds that death could come at any time it is still a shock and sorrow to our hearts. We as a family will miss Mom Hyde but know she was ready to meet her Savior and we look forward to one day meeting again in eternity. Harry flew back home for her funeral. We are thankful for his brother Jerry and our sons and their families who were there to celebrate her homegoing with him. Also to so many other family and friends who came to share and support them in their sorrow, thank you!

March, 2009

Praise and Thanksgiving:
1. Lynn was able to spend 20 days of February in Indiana. We had 2 new grandchildren born in January, Daniel Grayson to Jeremy and Gwen Hyde on January 4 and Melody Joy to Jonathan and Abby Hyde on January 30. These were really special days for Lynn as she spent a week with each of these families and then the weekends with our other 2 sons and their families. Harry continued teaching his classes and work here in Venezuela and endured a quiet house till Lynn returned.
2. Praise for the classes on finances that Harry recently finished. He hopes to be able to teach this class this fall in the Dominican Republic.


Prayer Requests:
1.Wisdom for Pastor Armando on the next steps and vision for the future of the house church in Guatire. Will the house church continue as such or begin to develop into a regular church? They are outgrowing the space of the pastors home.
2. That we might be able to encourage more young people and male leadership to participate in the classes that the Center for Ministry Development is offering.
3. March 24 Harry will start teaching a class on using Inductive Bible Study with Romans as the base.
4. Easter Sunday outreach in Miranda Park with our 3 churches participating in a united service and doing some evangelizing in the park afterward.

Mountains around Merida

What's been happening?! It's been more than a month.
* Christmas and New Years celebrations. There were lots of loud fireworks, good times with friends and lots of hallacas to eat! We missed our family but thank the Lord for Skype and video. We were able to talk and share a bit with each one. It sure helped the lonliness one can feel not being able to be present.

*Our youth Bible studies are almost finished. We feel the Lord has used these and we were prepared and shared in the best way we could. The Holy Spirit is the one who changes lives and we know He is working. The outward results are perhaps not what we hoped for but we are so glad for the opportunity we had to share what it means to be obedient and committed to the Lord.

* An all night prayer vigil for Venezuela, AVIB, our churches and personal requests. This was a new experience for Lynn. She wasn't sure she could stay awake all night but she made it. It really was a neat experience as we shared, listened and prayed together in small groups mixed with music, devotionals and other interactive dynamics to keep us all awake.

* Harry has started teaching a class on personal finances in the Center of Ministry Development. The teaching of the prosperity gospel here in Venezuela is quite strong and a good balanced Biblical approach to finances and stewardship is needed.

* We took a few days off and enjoyed the Andes Mountains in the southwest part of Venezuela. It was a 12 hour, all night bus ride to get to Merida. This is a very beautiful area and a great opportunity to learn more of Venezuela history and culture

Prayer requests:

1. Our pastors: That they would continue to remain pure and steadfast to the Word of God and give good leadship and vision to their churches.
Jorge Barrada and his wife Ludi
Jaime Torrealba and his wife Ruth
Armando Diaz and his wife Carolina

2. The house church in Guatire (Pastor Armando): That the church will continue to grow. We are just excited how God is changing lives there and the committment of these new believers.

3. We just heard yesterday of a Family from our Macaracuay Church that is interested in starting a church in Guarenas. This is a city between Caracas and Guatire. Pray that the Lord will guide in this possiblity. We have been praying for another couple interested in starting a new church. It will be neat to see how the Lord brings all of this together.

4. Harry's class on personal finances that it will be Bibical and practical for all taking it. The class is Tuesday evenings and Saturday mornings for 6 weeks.