When Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chavez, ordered American evangelical missionaries from the Florida-based New Tribes Missions out of the country late last year, it left no doubt this paranoid leftist grossly misunderstands the true role of a missionary. And the repercussions are only now beginning to be felt among Venezuela’s indigenous people.

            In October, the BBC reported this was done because of fears that “American evangelicals are part of a broader conspiracy in Washington to topple a president whose regional influence is growing thanks to massive oil revenues.”  

            Calling the missionaries “imperialists,” saying he felt “ashamed” because of their presence among the indigenous tribes in Venezuela’s jungle regions and accusing them of setting up luxurious camps amid poverty, Chavez stated, “This is an irreversible decision that I have made. We don't want the New Tribes here. Enough colonialism.”

            In 1998 I spent a week in the Venezuelan rain forest in the Yekwana Indian village of Chajuraña as a guest of the Vernoy family. The Vernoys are Baptist missionaries who, at the invitation of the Yekwana, moved to Chajuraña in 1996.

             “We found living among the Yekwana to be more demanding than we had ever imagined,” Rev. Clint Vernoy told me in a recent interview. “Not only were we forced to build a house from materials totally alien to us, we also had to experience first hand the rigors of malaria and other tropical diseases. At the same time we were raising our four young children without the conveniences of electricity, running water, or for that matter, floors.”

            Chavez’s sweeping edict forced the Vernoys to leave their jungle ministry several months ago. They are currently stationed in the larger, more cosmopolitan city of Barquisimeto where they are working on completing a translation of the Old Testament into the Yekwana dialect.

            A missionary can be generally thought of as one who travels to a foreign country, learns the language, culture and customs of the people in order to be able to share with them the Gospel. Rev. Vernoy said they had a fruitful ministry up until the time Chavez’s order forced them to leave the jungle. Quoting the apostle Paul, Rev. Vernoy said, “We saw many who ‘turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God’”

            But the Vernoy’s ministry was hardly limited to preaching and teaching. “At the same time one is the preacher-teacher, we also assumed the role of doctor, dentist, pharmacist, midwife, airstrip builder, village mechanic and carpenter. On a regular basis we were awakened at night to attend to the sick or to deliver babies.”

            Now that they have been expelled from Chajuraña, the repercussions of Chavez’s decision are starting to be felt. Rev. Vernoy explains: “We were the only medical help in the area. The missionary pilots who routinely flew into the jungle to deliver supplies are no longer allowed to fly the sick to the hospitals. Already, two from our area have died needlessly because of this. There is no longer medicine available in the dispensary, as this also came through mission donations.”

            Many of the mission stations are being converted into military posts. There are ongoing “psychological operations” for the purpose of re-indoctrinating the Indians who have been under missionary influence. “The Indians are being told to return to their old ways and their old religion,” Rev. Vernoy told me.  

            During the Vernoy’s last church service in Chajuraña, Victor, the national Indian pastor said, “They can take the missionaries out of our village, but they cannot take the Holy Spirit from our hearts.”

            “Although we are not able to be with our congregation in Chajuraña they remain in our hearts,” Rev. Vernoy said. “Our youngest daughter has cried during church service wishing she could be in our Indian church. God has put a love in our heart that goes beyond the physical separation.  Not a day goes by that we are not thinking of them, praying for them, and missing them.”

            This can hardly be characterized as “imperialism,” “colonialism” or anything that remotely resembles a “broader conspiracy” to topple Venezuela’s president.

            What the myopic Chavez should be “ashamed” of are his own actions. In his warped zeal to rid the country of American missionaries, he is hurting—and in some cases, killing—the very people he claims he wants to protect. n