Many of you already know this, but starting back in April, I began to have some problems with frequent palpitations and occasional dizziness. On June 22, while in an elevator, I passed out and was transported to a hospital. After three days of testing, the final test indicated that I had a problem called Sick Sinus Syndrome. I had never heard of this before but basically it is a malfunction of the heart’s natural pacemaker.
On June 25 a pacemaker was implanted and I am on the road to recovery. I praise God for the quality of medical care that we can receive in Caracas and that we did not have to come home for an extended time to have tests redone, the surgery and then recovery, before coming back. The outpouring of prayers and support, both down here and from up there, has meant so much during this time.
To those of you who knew nothing of all this, I am sorry, but I know that you lift us up on a regular basis anyway, and we are grateful to you. We could not and would not attempt to do our ministry without the support of our prayer partners. You are vital to our ministry.
One of the things that has taken much of our time this year has been the coordination for an evangelism campaign scheduled for July 24–31 in the three states of Yaracuy, Lara and Trujillo. Several planning/coordination trips have been made to the Barquisimeto area and lots of e-mail and phone calls have gone back and forth between up there, here and Montgomery. There are between 110 and 115 people scheduled to be here.
There will be a medical team of around 10, a block party of around 10 and the rest will be made up of teams of two to four people each, which will be placed with the local churches to do evangelism. These local churches have been praying over specific individuals that they want to be reached by these teams.
Discipleship will be started immediately for those making decisions. Campaigns like this have already been done in other parts of Venezuela with tremendous outpouring of people won to the Lord.
I am so very thankful that the timing of my pacemaker implantation is such that in all likelihood I will be able to be up there for this campaign.
Pray for the leaders, both down here and in Alabama as they participate in this campaign.
Pray for each church involved in this campaign. Pray that they will be blessed with a large number of new believers.
Pray for the follow-up on all those new believers after the medical teams, block parties and the evangelism teams have finished. The pastors of the churches will then have to get the new Christians active in their growth.
Pray for each person on the teams. They have sacrificed time and money to come serve God in Venezuela. Pray that they will take that same zeal home to be used in their neighborhoods, in Alabama, throughout the United States and around the world. Pray for the peace in Venezuela.
Gary and Donna Clayton
Caracas, Venezuela
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