March 1, 2023
Dear Praying Friends, Thank you so much for your prayers for us during this difficult time and now, we have another prayer request for you all.
About a month ago, Keila’s mom who is a retired teacher, went into a Kariña Indian village to help with their school there. She does this type of work often and goes into many of the surrounding indigenous villages to help in their schools. While working in the school, she also holds Bible classes with the children. She was only going in for a week, but no one heard from her for over a month and had no way of getting in touch with her.
Finally on Sunday the 19th, Keila got a very “weird” phone call from her. She called her brother telling him about the call and expressing her concern as her mom kept talking about being abducted and escaping from the men who had abducted her. Then, someone in their town reported to her family they had seen her wondering around very bedraggled and barefoot. They finally did find her, but she was totally out of her mind and had no idea even where she was or anything.
We helped her son, Isaac get over from Brazil, where he is living and working, get to her. He has since taken her back to Brazil with him. She still is not right, although, making improvements. It does seem like she had been abducted and was probably given some kind of drugs. They seem to be slowly wearing off and she is now showing signs of improvement. We covet your prayers for her and for Isaac and his wife as they take care of her.
We are told in Ephesians 6:12 “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Honestly, this last year we have lived this. I am not trying to be dramatic, but our families have been hit with one thing after another. We do know that God promises that all things work together for our good, but this year has been rough. We honestly covet your prayers, not only for just us, but for our families.
On Monday, our contact in Venezuela informed us that we can fly into the jungle in roughly three weeks. Yesterday we took our shipment to a shipping company to get it to Miami for us. As soon as the freight forwarding company in Miami receives it, they will let us know what date it should be arriving in Caracas. Once we have this date, we will purchase our tickets to head back so that we arrive Caracas one or two days before our cargo gets there. Again, so much prayer is requested. When I think of all that has to go “right” to get all this equipment from here into the jungle, ourselves included, it boggles my mind. Praise Him, it does not boggle HIM. By the way, we have never gone back to Venezuela as well equipped as we are now. God has been so gracious and you all our partners have been so incredibly generous in making sure we have the resources to work down there. This is including torches, messengers and our translated King of Glory books. Praise HIM!
Once again, thank you so much for your partnership and friendship!
Michael and Keila