Last April my wife Cindy and I decided to step out of our comfort zone and join a group from our church, Evergreen Community Church, that was going to work with a sister church in Valencia, Venezuela for 10 days. The church in Valencia had only 80 members and part of our efforts would be to direct individuals, we introduced to Jesus, to the church for the pastor to disciple.

The only Spanish that Cindy and I knew was what little we had picked up while working in Brooklyn and from an introduction to Spanish CD. We were told there were a few English schools in the area where we may find people who spoke some English. Three of the team of 11 from our church also spoke Spanish and would work as translators if need be.

The plan was to witness to individuals and preach to groups when possible on the Valencia University Campus, show a Billy Graham movie on a street in front of a church members house and end the week with a rally at the medical club auditorium. However, just before we arrived he university went on strike accompanied by riots and firebombs. The street where we were to show the movie was on military property and an army officer who had always been friendly suddenly called off the meeting the day before it was to happen. We later found out that there had been an announcement on TV the night before saying that all religions that were not catholic were cults.

We spent the first few weekdays talking to individuals at food courts in shopping center. Toward the end of the week we gained access to the English-students, which was a blessing for those of us who didn’t speak much Spanish. The movie went on as scheduled only on the next street over. The rally turned out to be a success with many of the young people we had prayed with during the week attending. When the week was over we had shared the gospel with a few dozen individuals and had prayed with about 20 to receive Christ as savior.

Last fall when the announcement was made that a group was again going this February we weren’t sure we were up to the trip again that soon, but my daughter Christa and her husband Dave decided they wanted to go along this time. To go on a mission trip with our daughter and son in law was enough motivation for us to put aside all our reasons we couldn’t go and to start preparing for the trip.

Last year’s team had prayed all year for the people in Valencia and this trip was going to prove to be a completely different experience. After three days of witnessing on the university campus the 10 of us from the United States and five from the church in Valencia watched as 90 individuals prayed to put their faith in Jesus Christ as their savior. Most of those we were privileged to lead to the Lord gave us their name, address and phone number so the church members in Valencia could contact them. Wednesday noon we put on a skit followed by a simple gospel message given by one of the team from the United States. That afternoon as we talked to students, groups of up to 12 would gather around a team member as we shared the good news. Dave, my son in law who said on the way down he would be happy if he saw just one person become saved was personally involved in 17 people accepting Jesus.

The most memorable experience I had on campus that week was at the cantina when my Venezuela friend and I took a break to have some of that great coffee they make there. We had just sat down when a twenty-three year old, third year medical student named Wilfreds came over to me and asked who we were and why were we there. I told him if he had a few minutes I would be glad to tell him. When he sat down he was not even sure there was a God, except he could not explain his existence or the world around him without a God. It was amazing to watch as we shared the scriptures with him the change in his countenance. After an hour of answering questions from the scripture and his buddy, who had just that day accepted Jesus, telling him of the peace he found Wilfreds prayed with me to put his faith in Jesus. After we prayed I gave him my Spanish-English Bible as we were very low on Bibles and I knew he would need one for his faith to grow.

Cindy and I had the privilege of together leading several students to the Lord as we worked with the English-speaking students. There is a spiritual vacuum and hunger in many of the South American countries that we don’t experience much here. Their religion has not answered the deep hunger of the heart and they are, right now, a field ripe unto harvest. Our group leader said the day we arrived in Valencia, "We are not here to plant, it is harvest time." How true that is.

Rev. Dick Harden