News > Latin America

Venezuela UBF

May 25, 2013

GLORY TO GOD!

Praise God who gave US visas to all 11 UBF Venezuelan members (including my wife and my little son) who attended the May 17 interview. That makes a total of 21 participants from Venezuela UBF who are confirmed along with 3 Venezuelan missionaries in Panama (Josue, Maiker, Victoria), and one Venezuelan missionary in Chicago (Helen). This will be the largest number of UBF Venezuelan participants ever in a UBF International Conference in another country.

Especially, I can see the love of God that helped me to forget past failures (I was rejected for a US visa three times before) and to know that with Him all things are possible.

When we knew about the conference, M. Juan Seo said to me: “You have to go considering the fact that you will become the pastor of UBF Venezuela after July.” As I said before, I had been rejected for a US visa three times before (to go to past International Conferences and to go to a Leader conference), so I had little faith but decided to apply again. Only this time I wanted to prepare myself for the interview in a better way, spiritually as well as humanly.

So we decided to apply through group mode, a way that uses the US Embassy to interview people who go together to participate in cultural activities in USA. We needed a minimum of 10 members to apply to group mode, but we reached only 8, so after speaking with my wife, she decided to go and with our child too. Finally, one more sister confirmed so we reached a total of 11. But we needed to wait because some of the members did not have passports. While the time was passing sometimes I felt that we wouldn’t have enough time to buy tickets. But every Friday night we prayed for this at our weekly prayer meeting and my faith was strengthened.

While we waited for passports I received the invitation to be one of the main speakers at the conference. I had to confirm before receiving my visa and I was remembering that I had been rejected three times before!. I confirmed and started to prepare the message. So Chicago UBF began to pray for us too, and many other UBF people around the world.

After receiving the passports we started the process to prepare documents for our visas and registration at the US embassy web page. I had to coordinate our brothers and sisters to put the right information about the conference since they had no experience doing that. And also we worked together with Sara Little and Paul Shin to write the letters required by the US embassy and they asked for all documents one week before the interview, which were as follows: 1) Invitation letter from Chicago UBF to all members 2) Special Invitation letter from Chicago UBF for me 3) Bank Account statement of Chicago UBF. These letters were written and reviewed again and again until we get what we needed. Besides this, I prepared others letters like 4) Venezuela UBF letter confirming that we are members of the organization, 5) A special document with a list of all members applying for visas and  6) A special  letter from me to the embassy explaining my sincere motives to participate in this conference explaining clearly that though I had been rejected three times before because of my poor preparation to demonstrate my ties with Venezuela, I have honest purposes to go and come back to my country showing all my ties (work, church, family, properties).

That was a lot of work. Many times I felt so tired with all the crosses I had to carry (church, message preparation, job, family) and sometimes I was not very diligent. But I felt the help of the Holy Spirit giving me strength again and again and helping me to remember all the prayers around the world. During the preparation I delivered a Sunday message about Jesus who stopped the storm, and I learned that Jesus made his disciples pass through the storm training. His objective was not to destroy them but to help them so that they could have faith to pass through the storm and get to the other side. And God wants me to also have that faith that He has a good and loving purpose through storm training and that he has the power to make us pass through the storms in victory. Just that week, I received an e-mail from Mr. Henry Park who offered voluntarily to help us to get a recommendation letter from a US Senator for all of us. That was the seventh letter sent by God!

We heard from Mr. Joseph Ahn that in Chicago they were praying every morning for all of us to receive visas. And their prayers helped us a lot.

During this time God also worked in my heart, because I remembered that when I was rejected before, after I went out from the embassy, I pronounced bad words against the American officials. I needed to confess this so I told it to my wife and repented before God. I was so different from Jesus who pronounced forgiving words from the cross to his executors, and I had no shepherd heart toward Americans. But the Holy Spirit helped me to remember and to ask for forgiveness before Jesus’ cross and I could receive the peace of God in my heart.

Finally, we received the original letters from Chicago UBF and submitted them to the embassy. And after five months of conversation and preparation we finally went to the embassy. That really was a struggle of faith to the end in my heart.

My wife, my son and I were the first to arrive at the interview and many were watching us. I was nervous but praying in my heart answering every question the official asked me. And finally, after many questions, we received approval. It was amazing! God answered our prayers. But not only that, I could see how each of our members one by one received their visas. It was like a reception of victorious soldiers after the battle. Between smiles and hugs, we received one another. When the last of 11 received their visa, my reaction was to say loudly in the middle of all the people around us: GLORY TO GOD!

I was so happy seeing the grace of God!

When we went out from the embassy, I shared some words with our brothers and sisters, most of whom had known the Lord only two or three years. And tears were flowing from my eyes remembering the three times I was rejected and how the love of God helped me to overcome my past failures for his glory. I felt like Peter on Lake Gennesaret after the miraculous catch. I am only a sinner but God forgave me and called me to be a fisher of men. After having been rejected three times, I could see that God had a better purpose to reveal his glory, and I had a conviction that he called me to preach his precious gospel at the ISBC and helped me to have a shepherd heart for Americans and all people around the world.

In conclusion, I learned the following:

1. The power of prayer. Many people around the world prayed for this. I am sure that the living God answered all their prayers and our prayers and gave us strength to go ahead with this long process until we got the victory.
2. The grace, love and power of God. God is a sovereign Lord. He makes me come to USA in His time and only for his glory. He loves us and gives us training to show what is really in our hearts: our weakness and sins. And afterward He helps us to repent and rescues us to show us His power, forgiveness, sovereignty, and love. The glory is only to Him.
3. God has a good purpose in this conference despite our weakness. He wants to do great things in our ISBC this year. God has hope for our ministry to continue to be a blessing for many young people around the world.
4. Young Venezuelan UBF members could receive the support and love of Chicago UBF; that means that we are strengthening the fellowship ties with UBF in North America. I pray that all of them can go to ISBC 2013 with prepared-hearts to receive the word of God and God’s vision and to have great desire to be servants of Jesus.

Please continue praying for my message preparation.

We will also pray for other UBF members applying for visas.

In Christ,

Gustavo Prato