The Venezuelan federal government has grown in strength since the election of Hugo Chavez in 1998, said Ken Blackwood, an International Mission Board missionary from Massey.
The economy has been in a downward spiral and it is reaching critical levels, Blackwood said.
Blackwood, who works with the Andean Agriculture Team, said the Andeans are “very reserved at first, but very friendly once the ice is broken.
“The Andeans are very hard working, staunchly Catholic, very superstitious and very family oriented.” A major part of Venezuelan culture and mindset is Catholicism, he added.
Andeans are receptive to the gospel, he said, but loathe to break from their traditional religious festivals. Confrontational evangelism rarely works in the Andes.
Blackwood, who has been on the field since December 1998, said in Merida evangelism must be taken slowly.
“Once trust is established, friends can lead friends to Jesus,” he said.
“The gospel multiplies fastest through family circles, in spite of subtle discouragement and even persecution by non-believers.”
Subtle approaches
The persecution does exist, but usually in the form of subtle pressure and ostracizing.
As for trying to reach the largely Roman Catholic population in Venezuela, Blackwood said they try to focus on things in the people’s belief system that are similar to the Baptist faith such as the Trinity, Bible and Mary as a blessed woman.
“We are trying to let the gospel speak for itself without adding offense to something that is already offensive to the lost,” Blackwood said.
“We don’t pick fights. We want to show the people that we love them and that we do what we say and/or promise,” he said.
Unfortunately the Venezuelans think of all non-Catholics as “evangelicals”, according to Blackwood, and this group, for them, includes Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses.
“We are trying to establish the fact that Baptists are different than these cults.”
While many claim Catholicism as their religion, Rich Hutchens, who works with the Caracas Poor Team and has ties to Alabama, said Venezuelans are not “overtly religious, but hold strongly to a kind of ‘folk catholicism’ …a mixture of family traditions and pagan superstitions with the trappings of the Catholic faith.
“Those who accept Christ are often seen as having rejected the family, since the family is Catholic,” Hutchens said, noting a popular saying, “to be Venezuelan is to be Catholic.”
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