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Venezuela UBF
April 8, 2014

"You will be a Blessing"

Genesis 12:2 "I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. "

By the grace of God we had the Disciples’ Conference 2014 on March 28-30 in a nice mountain place one hour from Caracas. With this, we finished our 2013-2014 Discipleship Program. The title of the conference was "You will be a Blessing." God called Abram and asked him to leave his land of sin and planted God's great vision for his life. We prayed that God may grant repentance and plant his great vision in the hearts of the disciples and in our hearts. God heard our prayers and the conference was filled with the grace of God and the work of confession, repentance and forgiveness of sins. We also heard the voice of God through Gen 12:2 "You will be a blessing." Seven brothers completed the discipleship program : Alexis ( UPEL - Teacher ) , Anny ( UCV- 1st year), Ana , Adolfo Prato (my 66 year old father ) , Mary ( UCV- Nursing ) , Abigail (Anthropology -UCV ) , Arelys (Design) , Solangely ( Military Academy) could not come because the academy, but we are praying for her to have a special activity for her

New youth messengers were raised and trained , Raul (Engineering -USB) and Raymond ( Enginner UCV ) . Activities :

Friday: Raul (Jesus called the twelve - Marcos 3 :) , P. Luis Barcenas gave a seminar on the life of Joseph .

Saturday: Raymond -Daily Bread (The work will be perfect Philippians 1:6 ) Gen 12:1-4 Bible Study and main Message Leibins ( Education - UCV ) He delivered the main message powerfully. After that we had time to write testimonies and sharing by groups . We heard the testimony of the P. Sara (The first woman fruit of M. Ana Seo in Venezuela). She went away from her land of sin in immoral relationships. Then God blessed her as a mother of nations. We could see the fulfillment of God's promise to see how God lifted her as the mother of many nations. His sheep , raised sheep, who raised sheep. Many of them are missionaries in Panama ( Maria Mercedes M. ), Chicago ( Helen M. ) , Maracaibo (P. Hugo ) , Mérida (P. Carmen María ) and my wife (P. Katiuska ) . Now she is praying that her husband Richard , can stand as a good disciple of Jesus. She confessed that through the conference she could remember the faithfulness of God. After his moving testimony we had a drama about Pilgrim’s Progress by Juan Bunyan represented by the candidates.

Sunday: We had the Sunday service, I preached on John 15:1-8 ( Remain in Jesus). (S. Anibal preached in Caracas to brothers who stayed there). After that, we had the time to share testimonies. Candidates wrote 2 pages of testimony focused on confession of sins and the decision to be Jesus’ disciples. They shed many tears receiving the grace of Jesus.

Then we had a time to hear their discipleship declarations and they received the diploma for completion of the program of discipleship. We believe that we all received great grace and courage to continue our journey of faith .

Now there are many young students who have grown as disciples. We pray that they may be raised as good coworkers for the work of God . Amen .

I learned that I am unable to lead the chapter of Caracas UBF - just like Abram was unable to be a great nation by himself. But when I repent of my sins and believe in God, God will bless me and make me a blessing to all universities of Venezuela.

Please pray we can be focused on deep Bible Study during this difficult time and to take care of the sheep.
Pray also for Disciples’ Conference in Maracaibo and Valles del Tuy into two weeks.

I thank God that the church is growing in difficult times (See pictures of demonstrations against the president that happened today only one street from my office - And many others around the country).

Now it looks more clear that a strong communist regime wants to take control of Venezuela. Please pray that God may have mercy ofn us and not allow the communism take control of Venezuela.

Thanks for your prayers around the world.

One Word: You will be a blessing.

By Gustavo Prato