We appreciate your prayers for our prison ministry and Venezuela, a country currently experiencing its worst social unrest in the last 25 years. This social unrest is quickly turning into a full-scale civil war; it is also becoming a vast humanitarian crisis as the country is starting to run low on food and medical supplies.
Several weeks ago, I travelled to the Venezuelan border to meet our prison ministry team. The goal was to plan our lead in the Venezuelan national pastor conference and train 160 prison volunteers in agriculture development with volunteers from Venezuela Prison Fellowship as we had made a strategic alliance. Since the Venezuelan national elections were so close to our planned retreat, plus given the many uncertainties I perceived, I asked my team to start coming up with a plan B just in case, after the elections, the country would turn into chaos. It has...
Plan B was for the team to suspend all prison visits, rent some property, and start developing a greenhouse and a worm farm. The greenhouse would provide seedlings, and the worm farm would provide natural fertilizing. We had already successfully done this project in Venezuela, but it failed to have continuity due to a lack of vision from the leadership. Gratefully, all the investments into this project were not lost since this project was able to flow when Patmos Prison Ministry adopted it.
Unfortunately, my predictions about possible social unrest in Venezuela after the elections were accurate. Venezuela is currently engaged in a civil war, yet fortunately, we were prepared to implement plan B. We have now purchased enough supplies, so while this crisis lasts, we will rent a house to host our leadership team and some farm property. We will start building the greenhouse and the worm farm. Hopefully, when this crisis ends, we will be ready to help prisons and churches with agricultural supplies to assist their recovery.
My leadership team is comprised of three pastors and one agriculture technician who have left prison. Our agriculture technician is a former physician who cannot practice medicine. The second member of our team is a pastor who started a vibrant church inside Venezuela's most secure prison camp, and the other pastor led a 5,000-member church inside a penitentiary. It is most likely the largest prison church in the world. The last member of my team is its director, Pastor Jorge. At a young age, he became a feared criminal trained by the Russian mafia as a hitman. After that, he joined the most ruthless gang in Venezuela, landing him in jail, where he was led to Christ by his own family. His family started this prison ministry 30 years ago, and pastor Jorge and his two daughters have faithfully supported this ministry despite many challenges due to the ongoing social and economic crisis.
What to pray for:
Pastor Jorge is currently at the Venezuelan border, returning from purchasing humanitarian and building supplies. On his way to Colombia, he was detained. In the last three weeks, pastor Jorge has landed in jail three times. Gratefully, our prison ministry has obtained great credibility, and people with influence have gotten him promptly out of jail. Pastor Jorge reacted severely to the tear gas as he had to cross through several riots while travelling to procure supplies for our project. In one of the riots he encountered, he had to cross through live ammunition. We also learned that last night, a friend of ours lost a close relative. The kid was only 15 years old and was tortured before his death.
Three leadership team members will soon travel to Merida to meet and start this agriculture development project. Travelling across Venezuela is restricted and dangerous since all cities have ongoing unrest. Sometime this month, we intend to have a planning and prayer retreat, which I hope to attend.
Pray for me on August 20th. I intend to travel to San Antonio, Venezuela, to meet with my team to encourage them, and if needed, I will stay longer volunteering my medical/rescue skills. Pray also for our prison ministry and me. Our prison ministry has ministered directly to several people, leading the crackdown on this social unrest. Pray that we may encourage them to do what is right before the Lord.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you feel led to support this humanitarian crisis financially.
Nery
"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you." Book of Deuteronomy
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Indicate the account designation: Nery Duarte, IBC Costa Rica.
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PayPal: nduarte1961@gmail.com
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