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Venezuela is located in the northern region of South America, and its northern border is a coastline to the Caribbean. It has the largest oil reserves and is the eighth largest natural gas reserve in the world. It has depended largely on oil sales. About 15 years ago, it was rich enough to have a $15,000 GDP per capita. However, the oil price has been declining globally since the second half of 2008. Therefore, it has been hard for Venezuelans to obtain necessities such as milk, meat, chicken, coffee, rice and so on; they must wait in lines for hours to receive a corn-flour ration, similar to North Korea.  

This country has a large amount of reserves in gold, diamonds, and iron ore, with the exception of oil.  The country has also produced many renowned beauty queens in global beauty pageants: 7 in the Miss Universe pageant, 6 in the Miss World, and 7 in the Miss International. In this country, baseball is a more popular sport than soccer due to their influence by the U.S., which is rare in South America. Politically, this country has been ruled by a leftist government, since the rule of Chávez (1999-2013). 92% of the population is Catholic and 8% is Protestant.

The director of Venezuela UBF is Shp. Gustavo Prato. His family, along with the missionary family of Juan and Susanna Baek, has been serving sheep. M. Juan Baek supports Shp. Gustavo especially in times of distress. Venezuela UBF is the largest chapter in South America with 150 Sunday Worship Service attendants. It sent two missionaries to La Plata in Argentina, and has also sent one missionary family to Chile and Ecuador.

At the conference, we studied Ephesians 1:1-19 with thirty leaders. I also delivered a Sunday worship message. We had two lectures on Ephesians, as well as one on Galatians Chapter 5, and another on principles of Biblical children’s education. We studied these with Korean missionaries and shared testimonies together. M. Juan Baek previously pioneered Panama and is now serving the Lord’s work through self-support in Venezuela. He repented of the desires of the flesh that he may receive the Holy Spirit’s guidance. 

Prayer Topics:

1)  For Shp. Gustavo’s Sunday worship message and for him to serve all co- workers with the Lord’s love,

2)  To continuously raise disciples of Jesus,

3)  For M. Juan Baek’s health.