By Chris DeWelt
The amazing story of the churches that were planted in and around Caracas, Venezuela, began with some young missionary recruits and interns back the late 80s and early 90s. In the early days, Eric and Chris Barry, Dave and Donna Linn, Brent Linn, and the Jim and Judy Dye family (who came from their work in the Dominican Republic) began a faithful labor that would soon take on a life of its own.
They had all been drawn to the bustling city of Caracas on the north side of South America. At that time, this international center of millions was only nominally religious with no more than three percent of the population having activity in any regular religious gatherings. The opportunity for gospel impact was great.
Filled with a passion for lost people and a desire to see a truly Venezuelan church network, these young leaders began to work. They followed a plan of evangelization (using many different forms), discipling new believers, church planting, and soon, handing the work over to the capable national leaders that God would provide. This has been, and is, the consistent strategy of the Caracas church network.
Right now, this same country is going through a very turbulent time socially and politically. Millions of people have left the country for more stable lives. However, in previous years, the country of Venezuela was much more conducive to mission work. Visas were not hard to come by, which facilitated the arrival of more new members to the growing team. Soon, Eric and Michelle Derry joined the work as did Kylan and Christie Kirkendall, Rebekah Hannum, and many others. Things were happening and the national church began to take off!
A Goal of 12 New Churches in the Capital – Their Jerusalem
In partnership with Team Expansion, the work in Caracas soon grew far beyond the original vision. Today there is a sizable network of churches in and around the capital, but it started small with vision and faith.
In 1990, the missionaries set a goal in accordance with their vision of church planting. After prayer and fasting, an ambitious target of 12 new churches planted in and around the capital area was agreed upon.
Following much arduous labor with both failures and triumphs, the goal of 12 churches was accomplished and even exceeded. Key names and faces that had joined in on this work of seed planting and harvest included the entire Dye family (John, Steve, Diana, and Carol), Jorge Navarette, German Orta, John Brice, Jorge Lugo, and many others.
Today there are more than 20 congregations in and around Caracas. The Lord has blessed the faithful work of Christian leaders, both foreign and national, whose vision for a thriving network has come to pass. The prayers that had been raised reflecting Jesus’ call to prayer for workers in the harvest (Matthew 9:38) are being answered and the results are visibly encouraging.
The missional effort of the foreign workers from the north and the fruitful work that they were doing was soon augmented and even eclipsed by the work of Venezuelan hands and voices. In accordance with good missions philosophy, those who had come to faith were maturing and moving into key leadership roles with the churches.
Work with the Unreached In-Country – Their Judea and Samaria
In an organic manner, and following the divine commission given by our Lord Jesus in Acts 1:8, the mission work in Venezuela began moving concentrically out from its own Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and ultimately beyond that to include the nations of the earth. It should be noted that from the very beginning, the new churches, were taught to be self-led, self-correcting, self-reproducing, and self-governing.
In an obvious parallel to the early church in Antioch that is described in the book of Acts, soon these recent followers of Jesus were sensing the prodding of the Holy Spirit to take the gospel to their own Judea and Samaria. This resulted in the on-going work with indigenous unreached people groups in the jungles and remote areas of the beautiful country of Venezuela.
It is a special privilege to hear the national workers speaking of one another with respect and gratitude. While gathering information for this article, one Venezuelan brother spoke of Diana Molina who has been working for many years among the Warao people, bringing them the words of life in the way of Bible translation and literacy materials. The villages of this people group are in the remote northeastern part of Venezuela in an area known as the Orinoco basin.
Fellow Venezuelan missionary, Victor Urdaneta, describes his co-worker Diana’s labors as well as the quality and commitment of our brothers and sisters that are hungry to share the love of Christ with those who have no Scriptures and little work among them.
Sister Diana, an exceptional woman, for the past decade, has been dedicated to translating the Scriptures from Spanish into the Warao language. Currently, she is training to become a Bible consultant with Wycliffe, has traveled to Israel, studies Hebrew, and since last year, has also been a trainee consultant for the Quechua people in Peru, traveling there two or three times a year.
Others saw the need among the unreached within the country. Deserving mention is the story of the Mazzarri family and their willingness to leave a comfortable life as a doctor and restaurant owners in the capital to go to the Warao. They moved to the banks of the Orinoco River where for more than 15 years they have labored to establish an orphanage among the same unreached tribal people, even in the face of many challenges. They have done this by means of the financial and prayer support of the church network in Caracas.
The New Testament church did not stop with their work among people that were close at hand. Soon they were going to the far reaches of their known world. In a similar manner, it was not long before the young church that was full of passion for the Lord and his heart for the nation would be sending their own to the field.
The Venezuelan Church Sends 17 Missionaries to the Nations: Their “Ends of the Earth”
Leaders began to emerge from the new Latino Christians and soon some were “set aside” for ministry. Alfredo was a brother called to ministry from a secular occupation. As described by missionary David Linn, Alfredo was one of the first leaders in the national church, the first pastor to be ordained, and he, along with his wife, Tamara, were the first workers to be sent out to the mission field. They have seen many come to Christ through their faithful witness and mostly unseen work in North Africa.
Another couple, the Kirkendalls, joined the work in the early days. They began emphasizing the need to see unreached people come to know the Lord outside of Venezuela. Later others would continue this focus by introducing a training process using a course of study known as Kairos. This, along with other initiatives, served to build the missionary zeal among the Latino leaders and with the mission workers themselves.
Kylan describes this process by stating that as the national leaders moved forward in faith, other fellow countrymen and women came and joined them. “They wanted to hear about Venezuelans doing the work, and Latinos became the support-system prayer warriors when decisions were made about going to the field.”
The way the church in Caracas grew has the characteristics of the church in Acts 13. The new believers were serious about their faith, and at the same time were listening closely for the Lord to lead and guide them into the paths that lay ahead. The result of their commitment to holiness and their fervent prayer and fasting was the birth of missions. The church prays, the Lord answers. and proven leaders are sent out to the field to take the gospel to those that have not heard.
In a manner similar to the church in Antioch, the church(es) of Caracas, moved by The Holy Spirit, sent workers out to places such as North Africa, Spain, Tenerife, south Asia, Peru, and other far-flung places where they continue to work to this day. The names are many and include the Ayalas, Alfredo and Tamara, the Lugos, Stefanie, Victor, Heidi, and many more including Rebekkah Hannum, who went as a missionary to Venezuela but was then sent out by that very church to reach lost people in post-Christian Spain.
In a beautiful move of reciprocity, some Venezuelans have also come to plant churches among Spanish speakers here in the USA. Jorge Lugo speaks of Miguel Lara, a disciple of John Dye, who “is doing amazing work with the Hispanic church in Indiana.”
Another instance saw one of the lead pastors of the original churches in Caracas hear the call to go to Peru. Pastor Luis and his family have been faithfully working for more than a decade with a network of churches in the capital city of Lima.
In spite of the many successes seen with the work in Venezuela, there have been some setbacks. The work has grown, but there have been seasons of adversity both from outside and from within the movement. Those that were interviewed for this article mentioned times of great challenges at various levels. At the same time, those same voices were quick to underline the faithfulness of our heavenly Father to grant the wisdom and protection that is needed.
The Key
Having surveyed the workers from the field and having been on the field myself with the churches of Caracas, this scribe can say without reservation that this story is an amazing work of God. The same passion God expressed to the prophet Habakkuk, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14), is a reality in the Venezuelan church.
Ministering for the Lord in Spain, Victor Urdaneta offers both his testimony and his analysis of how these things have come to happen as he shared it with me:
We have learned from the founders of our church to carry a profound burden for the Great Commission. Personally, I left my business, home, and career in Caracas to answer God’s call to reach Muslims in southern Spain. God has taught us that he is everything, that he is worth it all, and we feel deeply honored to stand on the shoulders of those who, back in the 1980s, said “yes” to the call to go to Venezuela and fill Caracas with the gospel. I believe it is immeasurable how far God has expanded this work and how much more he will continue to do through it.
Praise the Lord for what he has done!
Please remember our brothers and sisters in your prayers as their homeland is suffering today.
Pray for their endurance and for more of the same fruitful work that the Lord has so graciously provided.
To God be the glory!
Chris DeWelt is a former missionary to Chile, the retired president of College Press Publishing Company, and a retired professor of missions at Ozark Christian College.
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