Still Hope in Venezuela?

A few days ago and again today I got more email reports from missionary friend Merrill Dyck in Venezuela. He said earlier this week a couple of Indians got on TV and spoke in favor of the New Tribes Mission missionaries. They said they were fed up with anthropologists living in nice houses in the cities trying to micro-manage their lives. Then yesterday, Friday, there were mass demonstrations in Puerto Ayacucho. Some people had traveled for several days from remote Amazon locations to demonstrate. The AP reported about 400 people but the local sources reported as many as 4,000. They were saying that they are not opposed to the government but they disagree with the president. They also are saying that the missionaries are the best help they have ever gotten and that the government has never done anything significant for them. It seems the debate is lively down there, the people who are affected are speaking up and their voices are being heard on the streets and in the local media. Pressure is being brought to bear. Interestingly, though the governor of the Amzonas region has supported President Chavez and ordered the missionaries out immediately, neither he nor the federal authorities have actually signed the legal documents to make what they have decreed law. So things are really still in limbo. About 200 Mormon missionaries have already been pulled out citing difficulties renewing visas. At this time, the NTM people in the Amazon region have pulled out to the cities. Others are staying at their village locations. NTM is trying to get a meeting with the government but so far that has not happened. All are on edge wondering what will happen next. Just maybe Chavez will back down. That would be quite a miraculous thing. Merrill asks us all to pray.