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Location:
6425 Jefferson Rd. For
directions, click here.
FROM
THE BISHOP From The
Methodist Church there is in its
infancy stage, and many missional and
structural issues are yet to be
resolved. However,
we were extremely impressed with the
passion for the Lord and the spiritual
maturity of our Methodist brothers and
sisters there. Much
of the early developmental work for the
Venezuelan church was been done with
resources and leadership from a church
in our own Conference, Mt. Pisgah UMC
in Alpharetta. We
were privileged to do our small part in
building upon the wonderful ministry
which they initiated. Travel
notes I
personally had the opportunity to
travel to San Christobal -- a community
of about 800,000 in the Andes mountains
-- along with my wife, Jennifer,
Conference Lay Leader Lyn Powell and
her husband, Don, and the Rev. Royeese
Stowe, pastor at Inman UMC. (Royeese
not only functioned as preacher and
teacher throughout our journey, but
also was the nurse for our
group.) Leaving
San Christobal, we made our way to
Barquisimeto, a city of more than one
million. Barquisimeto has become the
center for Methodist work in Venezuela,
and is the current location for a
Methodist seminary being
developed. We
were joined there by the rest of the
cabinet, and also by Jon and Jeanne
Herrin, new missionaries to Venezuela
from our Conference. (The Rev. David
Cosby has also come to Venezuela to be
dean of the seminary in
Barquisimeto.) We
spent the week conducting Bible schools
for children, preaching in area
churches each evening, and doing some
construction work at the Lugar Altisimo
church, which is being developed on the
outskirts of the city. Much
of our time was spent with children and
young adults. The Methodist Church in
Venezuela is a very young church. We
were so impressed by the generosity and
kindness of the young people who
provided support, security, and
wonderful hospitality to all of us
while we were there. We
look forward to seeing what the Lord
does in this country and how the
Kingdom will grow there. We
were privileged to be a small part of
this journey of faith. Continue to pray
for the church in Venezuela that it may
grow and prosper in the years to
come. And
thank you for your prayers for us while
we were away. A
reminder for us One
of the great things about being
involved with Christians outside of our
own culture is that they remind us of
what can be done, in the name of Jesus,
even with limited resources. Sometimes
we think we must have enormous
financial support to accomplish
anything for the Lord. What we learn in
places such as Venezuela is that all it
really takes is a heart for mission, a
passion for people, and a deep
commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Gateway
Church gathers
for worship
Sundays
at 10:30 a.m.
(Hwy. 129) in Athens,
Georgia.
Ministry
of the
Word:
Recent
sermons
Our quarterly e-magazine
Gateway
Today
For the Gateway family
Pastor
Jerry's Weekly
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Today
The
e-magazine of
Gateway Church
FALL
2005
Passion
for people,
commitment to Christ
In
Venezuela, a reminder that God can make
much
out of only a
little
In
August, I spent 12 days in Venezuela,
along with our North Georgia Conference
cabinet (the district superintendents
and the extended cabinet), as well as
many of their spouses.
In
all, 35 of us went to that South
American country and participated in a
variety of activities to support the
new Methodist Church of
Venezuela.
Bishop G. Lindsey Davis
North Georgia Conference
The United Methodist
Church