Venezuela Exploits

Venezuela

When i think of this short yet epic tale i am reminded of the words that The Lord spoke to me through uncle joe at the beginning of the year..." Let's go and do exploits, my girl" oh WOW what a little exploit this was.

 To explain this i have to back track and share what God had started in Fusa... whilst  There we got word from a number of sources that warned very strongly against setting foot in the country let alone ministering there. Upon seeking The Lord we sensed That He was detouring us to the North.  though we believed that the Lord was detouring us, there were a few words that He gave us that we felt that He would fulfill later, also with the hint that we may in fact set foot in the politically unstable country. ( before i continue the explanation of this story i would like to make a disclaimer: there are VERY many details involved and so many will be left out. The detail really just builds into and colours in a beautiful picture of Our Glorious God who continues to prepare the way before us, but due to a lack of time i will give a basic outline and trust that you will grasp the magnitude of what God did here). i would like to share some of the word that The Lord gave us that we did not understand at the time but would prove to be significant later.
- We saw an airplane
- We got a picture of a folding paper moving forward (it folded from two sides, the interpretation was that we would link up with another team to move forward which was later confirmed by a picture of an arrow being shot forward by two strings.

So unaware of what God was planning, in obedience we took the step of Faith and headed to Santa Marta where we experienced the Lord's hand move mightily as we preached, taught, sung and acted the Word in university,  parks, schools, churches and   really just took the time to sit down with people and  love them with time.

During this time The Lord began to impress on my heart that we needed to go to Venezuela. This was also confirmed by a dream that one of the team members had without knowing that God was laying this on my heart.He also impressed on my heart that we would go quickly with a very specific message. Just so that you understand what a radical step this would have been i would like to share a couple of things:

 1. We expected to overland to Guyana through Venezuela hitchhiking so the budget did not cater for traveling expenses at all!
2. We had a little over a week to get to Guyana to catch our flight. Upon research we discovered that there is not in fact a direct road through Venezuela into Guyana but that it goes through brazil first, which would lengthen the time that it would take to get to Guyana and we could not guarantee that we could catch our flight to Barbados.
3. To get into the country we would need an invitation letter (which we would not get in time)
4.  Due to political situation there was a lot of civil unrest and  we could expect to find riots and road blocks and violence especially for tourists and foreigners.
So in short we had no way in really, if we got in then we had a long way through and no quick way out...

Please understand me clearly, i share this in no way to encourage recklessness, but rather to explain the nature of the faith step that God was encouraging us to take.

Whilst in santa Marta we had no certainty of what lay before us once we completed the ministry planned, so we were asking God on a daily basis: "what next?". Graciously Jon and Amanda (the wonderful SAM missionaries) and Bea (local who had become a good friend and translator;) graciously took us in and fed us. It was during this time that God began releasing word again. He told us the number of days we would stay before we left, and confirmed words that He released previously. He also confirmed specific roles of team members and gave us a clear mandate of bringing word to the church ("feed my sheep".  And so The Lord once again put the ball in our courts in a sense and asked us to take  another leap of faith...

We bought a bus ticket to CARACAS with our last chunk of money, that would travel through the Northern border (better known as "the Wild West" buy Colombian locals). A very Specific bus company and time of departure proved to be the hand of The Lord in the end because we soon found out that we were on a bus with another missionary team.  We got through the border miraculously with no questions asked and saw the Lord's hand of protection working for us as we passed through two night riots safely.
At one point i remember sitting on the bus telling The Lord that this was crazy, wondering if i heard Him right when i was approached by the leader of the other team, who proceeded to explain that he had phoned a pastor in Caracas that was willing to help us when we arrived in a few hours... And so the two strings were pulled and shot us right into the hands of an incredible servant pastor who lead us into a very specific two days of ministry "feeding the sheep of Venezuela".

 Not once sharing our financial situation we saw The Lord provide through a church who allowed us to sleep in their sanctuary, who fed us like kings and even gave us toiletries and a hair cut;) God used us to encourage 200 young people with testimonies of God using ordinary people to do His extra ordinary will and bring word to pastors from all around Caracas who had gathered to receive teaching on evangelism. All on the first evening...

That evening both meetings collected a tithe for us which was enough when pooled together with another donation to get us plane tickets to Guyana.

The next morning we were invited to a meeting for Pastors from all over Venezuela that were gathering to share word and pray through this time of persecution. I believe beyond the shadow of a doubt that this was the reason that we needed to come.

One thing that God impressed very deeply on my heart while we sat in the meeting with the pastors that will remain a mark was this: i cannot afford to be judgmental because if i am judgmental i will never love. and love is what God has called me to do. He has called me to speak truth in Love! truth has to be birthed from love, by nature that is what makes it truth (Jesus is the truth and He is love so the truth will always bear the fruit of love). this is what made me realize why pride is something that God despises because it will always keep me blind to what He is doing, and distracted by what i see at face value. humility helps me to see beyond face value, it helps me to see God at work and respond to what He is doing. If i am responding to Him then i am able to love, and i am able to speak truth that is soaked in love!

As we sat there i began to experience what Jeremiah explains as the word being like a fire in His bones that he  could not keep it in...As God drove me to my knees with love for His people i was so moved  that  i felt compelled to share the truth that He had laid on my heart. It was like  God had ordained that moment and that He had prepared me for it and had been for a long time. As i shared what He had written on my heart it was if He was affirming something in me that He had set in place before the foundation of the world... 'My girl, you will be a speaker of truth to all mankind".

I am still blown away that the King of the universe would chose to use ordinary people to share His heart and the beauty of it is that is as He speaks to the hearts of people through people the one whom he is speaking through cannot walk away unchanged! Truth sets free and when it flows through me it MUST change me...and it has changed me and will continue to change me.

Once the meeting was done it was like the HOly spirit began to speak with a loud speaker into my inner most being...LEAVE, you need to leave! What i did not share was that the day that we had arrived we were briefed and told that all foreigners had been deported two weeks earlier and that they were deploying soldiers into the streets, so danger was very real and we were kicked into motion once again. This was such an important prompting not only for safety but as we would soon find out would prove to be God's divine timing in opening a new door in Guyana. And so Distant Worlds FLEW out of Venezuela into a yet another adventure....

THings learnt:

- That our God truly goes before us and His word always accomplishes that which He sends it out to do.
-That no matter how many people tell you that you are crazy, the safest place to be is smack bang in the centre of God's will!
- That we do not chase signs and wonders but rather we listen to The Voice behind us saying: "this is the way walk in it"
- And that a life surrendered to Christ cannot help but be a life that loves, a life that responds in obedience and a life that is lived in an extraordinary way.

stay tuned for more adventures in the chronicles of the Exploits:)