11 months!

This past Friday was the eleven month mark of me being in Venezuela!! Wow! Where has the time gone? I would like to thank God for these first 11 months here. Thanks for His protection every day. Thanks for the ability to learn and study Spanish and the knowledge for my teachers to teach me. I would also I like to give thanks for the churches here where I have been able to learn and observe the various ministries of each one.  Thanks to God for blessing me with the members of theses churches and how they have received me and helped me is many ways. Thanks to God for the kids in La Ceiba that I see every Thursday, their hugs, love and joy! I have learned so much Spanish and grown in His grace. I have a ways to go in learning but these first eleven months are the foundation to the future. Excited to see what God will continue to do in and through the ministry here in Venezuela. Glory to God!! 

Tomorrow, June 13th I am heading back to the States!! Please be in prayer as I travel tomorrow and then visit the Venezuela visa office in Chicago on Tuesday at 9AM. God is good and His plan is perfect. Trusting in Him. 

Then I will be in the Iowa/Nebraska/South Dakota areas until the middle of July. Here is a schedule. Also the churches I will be at each Sunday if you would like to hear me present and show pictures more about my ministry. 

June15-16: Ankeny, IA 

June 17-22: Sioux Falls, SD

June 22-25: Stanton, NE 

June 26th: Oakdale E Free, Meriden, IA- I will be sharing a brief summary during morning worship (10:30AM) 

June 26-July 1: Cherokee/Marcus, IA 

June 29: Open House at Valley View (Oakdale) 6PM- Update and powerpoint 

July 1-13: Des Moines/Ankeny area. 

July 3: Bethany Reformed church moments for missions during morning worship (10:30AM)

Prayers: 

*Safe and uneventful travel June 13

*Visa work to be processed without problems

*Good visit in the States 

*Rest for me and my teachers during our month off from class 

*The ministries here in Venezuela 

*Wisdom for the future 

Thank you for your continued prayers and support!! See you soon!!! 

Blessings,

Alicia 

awhitmore@fim.org 

The Lord is my protector

Psalms 121 

“I lift my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber or sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.”

God had protected me and cared for me tremendously the last month as several things have complicated the daily level of comfort here. I have had to learn to live without certain things making my daily routine more challenging. 

Internet: Our house has been without internet for more than a month and a half. My phone does have some data on it that lets me use the internet. However, I went crazy last month and ran out of data. Lucky there is a communication center down the street that I can use for internet. 

Electricity: Due to dry season the rivers and lakes are low and the electric plant that creates most of Venezuela’s electricity uses the water from the lakes and rivers to produce the electricity. In order to conserve electricity the lights are being rationed. For example my house was without electricity for 2 hours everyday the last two weeks. Now they have upped that time to 4 hours everyday. Good news is that my teacher’s house, my house and the church don’t all lose electricity at the same time, we don’t have to study without air-conditioning, I have found it hard to study in the heat. I am also learning that taking showers to cool off helps. Good news: rainy season has begun!!! 

Water: It is rumored that the water will be rationed at some point in the near future. A few different families at church have already experienced periods of time with no water. I have a trashcan of water in my bathroom now which I will be able to use, just in case. 

Food: There are certain food items that are difficult to find, nothing impossible. This just means I eat lots of fruit and veggies. (smile) 

Thanks be to God I have never been unloved, uncovered by God’s protection and grace, hungry, thirsty, friendless, or harmed in any way. God is good. People ask me all the time why I want to live here when the country is the way that it is and my answer is because God called me to serve His kingdom here, that is not some thing I want to say no to or miss out on. 

Other news, In my last blog I mentioned that my coworkers and I were going to the office here to do visa work. We did Marcia was blessed with the renewing of her visa and a cedula (Venezuela identification card). Praise the Lord!! My visa was a little more complicated and the people at the office have suggested that I go back to Chicago and do my paperwork through that office. This means I will be headed to Chicago June 13th. Please pray for this process and that I would be granted another visa. This also means that I will be back in Iowa while the visa is processed. I will post more information about visiting in my next blog. 

This past Saturday we had a day of fellowship in La Ceiba with the church family of Puerto Ordaz. 

Thank you all so much for your prayers. Here is a list of new things to pray for. 

*The people of Venezuela, that they would not be discouraged and that they would have open hearts to the Gospel. 

*That the kids of La Ceiba would apply the word of God to their lives and be changed. That God would raise up a strong generation of disciples in these kids. 

*That Ishmael’s leg would be healed and a heart seeking Biblical truth. 

*For the visa work I will be doing in June. 

Blessings, 

Alicia Whitmore 

awhitmore@fim.org 

Fruitful February

Answers to prayer requests and a few things to continue to pray for: 

That things would continue to take shape at the foundation. 

There are 6 kids that are learning to read and write with Laideth. Alirio, the man who is living at the foundation and taking care of the land, has started a garden with fruit and veggies to be enjoyed. 

Friendships: 

Continuing to build friendships with those around me. The leadership for the foundation invited me to take a weekend trip with them to Caripe (a town in the mountains). It was a great weekend of fellowship, cooler weather, coffee, strawberries with cream and planing the future of the foundation. 

These two little girls are so sweet and my shadows whenever I am in La Ceiba. 

Language is going great. Understanding more each day. We are now going to focus more on reading and developing my communication with vocabulary and complex sentences.

Visa work is still in the process. Marcia and Guillermo (co-workers) are coming back at the end of the month and we will all travel together to Caracas in order to visit the visa office there. Please pray this goes smoothly and God will go before me and provide the visa that I need. 

Ismael: One of the boys that the foundation is taking care of, (he still lives with mom) is learning to read and eats lunch at the foundation, injured his leg in September but is doing much better. Please pray for full healing and no more infection.  

Above Sait, Manuel(older brother to Ismael) and Ismael are trying to get a kite (made out of a grocery bag and sticks) to fly. 
And the other is a picture of the boys from church playing soccer on the foundation's land. 

Thank you for all of you prayer and support. Pray for the country of Venezuela and those that live here. God is good! 

Blessings,

Alicia

awhitmore@fim.org

Praise Him from whom all blessings flow!

December and January were filled with several activities to celebrate the birth of the Savior, I was amazed by the blessings I found along the way. 

We started off December celebrating the house in La Ceiba that God blessed the church with for the foundation to bless the kids of this town.  

The music class presented songs at the Villa Icabaru church party. 

The kids of Paso Nuevo put together a Nativity play. 

The kids of La Ceiba presented songs and dances they learned about the armor of God. 

With a few friends I spent the evening listening to Christmas music at the church of the music professor. 

On December 24th (the traditional day to celebrate Christmas) I was invited to Christmas at my teachers’ house. It was delicious! 

Rang in the new year with my teachers’ family again and watched the night sky light up with fireworks!! 

The day before my birthday we celebrated with friends. We played games and ate hamburgers and cake!! 

On my birthday I traveled to see mom and dad in Curacao. We had a great week taking in the warm sun and enjoyed smoothies on the beach and one of us even rode an ostrich(if you would like to see this a video is on my Facebook page). It was a blessings to see them and receive things from home, including encouraging notes from supporters. 

It was a huge blessing and answer to prayer to be surrounded by new friends over the first holidays in my new home. God is good and faithful. 

The new year is off to a great start. I have been blessed with the ability to learn Spanish. Classes are going great. I got 9/10 on my last test. My teachers are very happy with how good my Spanish is. I have even started taking notes during church to see how much I am understanding, I am understanding basic message of the sermon. This is another huge answer to prayer. 

Prayers and Praises for the New Year: 

-Continued language learning advancement. 

-Ismael and his brothers (Manuel and Leo), the church has purchased a house for them to live in, pray that things fall into place for this foundation and the ministry it will provided for La Ceiba. 

-Building friendships. 

-Visa work, getting the papers together in order to get the process started. 

Thank you so much for continuing to pray for me and support what God is doing here in Venezuela 

Blessings to each and everyone of you in the New Year!! 

Alicia 

awhitmore@fim.org 

Thanks be to God, great things He is doing

This week is Thanksgiving in the Sates. I knew this would be a difficult week from before I started support raising. Thanksgiving was hard for me the first time I was here. Some of my favorite traditions and memories are from Thanksgivings in the past. It is also the week that we lost my grandpa 3 years ago. So many things come to play in this week. Instead of being sad that I am missing out I am going to be thankful for the things I do have this week. They are as follows…

Arepas and café con leche: this is what I have for breakfast most mornings with my two wonderful, kind and caring teachers, Ana and Luz. It means that I am not only being taught by them but have become part of the family and they take care of me every day. 

Women’s bible studies: There are two fabulous women’s bible studies that are weekly praying for me. I get e-mails from them and encouragement that reminds me of the many people who love and care about me. 

E-mails: This is another wonderful thing that encourages me daily. The people who send thoughts and little pieces of the US to me. It may not be a long letter but I know they were thinking about me and send love and support. 

Videos and pictures: Along the same lines as the e-mails this is a way that I can watch some very special children grow. I am thankful for them and their parents everyday. 

The broken leg of an 8 year old: One of the kids here in La Ceiba (Ismael) broke his leg several months ago. This makes me thankful for Sait and Laideth and the love they have for the Lord that is shown through the way they take care of people. Ismael is now staying with them and they take him to therapy everyday. They love him when no one else would take care of him. It is a joy to watch. I even was a recipient of this love when I hurt my leg and Laideth helped me go to the doctor and get medicine for the infection. I am thankful for them all. 

Mistakes: I may not always be thankful for this one but in the end I will be. It keeps me humble which is a hard thing for me to learn. It also has been a fun way to interact with people here. Everyone loves to share funny things Alicia says with others. It is all in light hearted fun. I don’t hardly ever make the same mistake twice and everyone is more than willing to help me learn. Mistakes also mean that I am learning. People have been telling me for months that my Spanish is getting better. I am thankful that God has given me more grace and understanding in this area, looking forward to the next year of learning more. 

Memory verses said way to fast: Every Thursday I have the joy of going to La Ceiba with a group from the church. We have a service there for the kids in the evening. For a long time I have felt like I wasn’t really “needed” there or that I was even noticed. A few weeks ago one little girl came up to me and said something to me so fast I had no idea what it could have been. I asked to to repeat herself. This time I realized she was saying a verse when I recognized “Efesios” at the end. This touched my heart not only because she had memorized her verse but because she wanted to share it with me. Since then another little girl has picked my lap as her choice place to sit, I may have sore legs at the end of the lesson and don’t understand everything but I now know that I belong to this group and I am very thankful for each and every one of those kids!! 

Supper with friends: One Saturday we had a group of people over to bbq and celebrate my apartment. All 9 of us crammed into my little kitchen and shared a meal together. Sait told me how thankful they were to God for me coming to help them in the ministry here. I told him how thankful I was for all their help in learning and getting to know the area and culture. Not only am I thankful for their help for for their friendship. They have accepted me in to their group so quickly. They are all more than willing to help me with any thing and do an awesome job of explaining things to me when I don’t understand. Laideth’s love for the word of God is so big that she does her best to explain all sorts of things to me that she is learning, some of my most Spiritual conversations have been with her. Thankful for friends!! 

A God that speaks English: There have been many a time in the last 5 months that I have not had the words in Spanish to express an emotion or feeling fully, this is a very difficult place to be. However, no matter how happy or sad or frustrated I am I can always tell God about it because he understands and for that I am very thankful!! 

THANKFUL for each and everyone of you who read this and pray for me. Praise be to God! 

Blessings,

Alicia 

awhitmore@fim.org 

Home sweet home

Welcome to my home! Here is the little place I can call my own. Enjoy the tour ;) 

 The outside. 

 Looking at the kitchen from the front door. 

 Looking at the kitchen from the bedroom door. 

 Looking at the kitchen from the fridge. 

My God bring many friends to gather around this table with me. 

 My bedroom from the door. 

 Bedroom looking back toward the kitchen.

 Looking at the Bed from the couch.

Love my bed!! It is so pretty and comfy :) 

 My wonderful couch and dresser by the window. 

Love this place to relax. 

 Bathroom with storage and pretty mirror. 

Shower. 

God is good!! Love this place he has blessed me with. 

Thanks for your prayers and support. 

Blessings, 

Alicia 

awhitmore@fim.org

August and Septemer happenings

Hello everyone!! Sorry this is really late. It has been busy here and I did not have internet where I was living. I am now in my very own apartment!!! Hooray!!! God is good. Thank you so much to everyone who has asked me how I am doing and settling in. I am doing great. I love it here. The people feel like friends now and I am starting to call this place home. Thank you for your prayers, they are being felt. God is in control even when I don't feel like they are. So here is an update with pictures from the last 2 months!! 

August- In August I worked on my apartment for a week. Painting and cleaning. 

The second week of August was Plan Vocational (VBS) in Paso Nuevo. A group of about 10 of us from the church in Puerto Ordaz spent the week in Paso Nuevo, a small village about 2 hours away. We did Plan Vocational in the morning, swam in the river in the afternoon, did home visits to share the gospel and had a church service every evening. Three people came to the Lord this week. It was a long, busy and very special week investing in the lives of the people of the village. I helped Ana with the 7-8 year old class. 

August 17th I started classes with Ana and Luz here in Puerto Ordaz. I have class with Ana in the morning from 8-11 and class with Luz in the afternoons from 3-6. We work on grammar, pronunciation, reading, memorizing bible verses, vocabulary and culture. 

One Sunday I shared the Romans road verses I have memorized during the church service. Here is a small clip of that evening :) 

Every Thursday evening I go with the group (Said, Laideth, Ana and Catherine) to La Ceiba, another small village 30 mins away, for a service with the kids. We sing songs, Laideth gives a lesson, play games and have snacks. This has been a great way to practice Spanish and get to know more kids. 

One weekend in September a group of us from Puerto Ordaz went to Paso Nuevo for a baptism. Two young people were baptized in the river there. It was a special day celebrating what God is doing in their hearts and lives. 

This past week I went to Cruacao for a few days, I have to leave Venezuela every three months for my visa. A contact that Dean (from FIM) has there, Joice, took very good care of me!! Praise the Lord for other believers and for getting me back to Venezuela safely. 

Thank you so much for all your prayers and support. 

A few prayer requests: 

• Strength as I continue to learn Spanish and wisdom for my teachers as they teach. 
• Ismael (an 8year old who has a hard home life) he is recovering from an infected and broken leg.  
• Praise that God brought me safely back to Venezuela for another 3 months. 

Thanks!! 

Alicia 

awhitmore@fim.org