Northwestern Venezuela Mission

Northwestern Venezuela Mission, located in the state of Falcón in the western part of the country, is an organization within the West Venezuela Union Mission of the Inter-American Division. Northwestern Venezuela Mission’s headquarters are in Calle San José No. 25, Sector Los Claritos; Parroquia San Antonio; Municipio Miranda Coro, Edo. Falcón; Venezuela.¹

In 2015, a property was acquired and remodeled to fit the needs of the emerging Northwestern Venezuela Mission. It was inaugurated on December 14, 2017, with the West Venezuela Union Mission leaders, Pastor Orlando Ramírez, executive secretary, and Nolwin Guillarte, treasurer, in attendance.

Statistics

At the end of 2023, Northwestern Venezuela Mission had 60 organized churches and a membership of 9,866 in a population of 1,027,376.² The organization has 21 organized groups, 11 pastoral districts, three ordained pastors, six licensed ministers, two district leaders, five ministers of the printed page, one school, and one radio station.³

Institutions

Mariscal de Ayacucho Secondary School

On July 25, 1979, an elementary school was registered with the Ministry of Education through the director of the Falcón Educational District with legal decree # 49. Professor Gerardo Gómez authorized the opening of the school with permission to teach the pre-school and elementary levels. The school’s name was Coro Adventist School until 1996.

In 1996, permission was given for Coro Adventist School to add a full secondary level, and its name was changed to Mariscal de Ayacucho Secondary School. In 2021, the combined elementary and secondary levels had 417 students and the staff that included a principal, a primary coordinator, a secondary coordinator, a chaplain, an academic plan coordinator, an administrator, a cashier, 14 teachers, three janitors, an entrance gate guard, and two security guards.

La Voz Internacional Radio Station

The radio ministry Radio La Voz Internacional has been sharing the message of salvation since July 2002 through religious programs broadcast 24 hours a day. La Voz Internacional Radio Station’s central office is in Punto Fijo, with branches in Santa Ana de Coro (Coro), Dabajuro, Churuguara, and Puerto Cumarebo.

Origins of the Adventist Church in the Territory

The presence of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the state of Falcón of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has a long history. It begins with the 1919 organization of the Seventh-day Adventist Venezuela Mission, with its headquarters in Caracas. When the territory was divided in 1950, this state became a part of West Venezuela Mission, with headquarters in Barquisimeto. When the territory of West Venezuela Mission was restructured again in October 1992, its headquarters was moved to Maracaibo. It remained there until 2013 when another restructuring of the territory created an experimental region with headquarters in Coro, Falcón State.

In 1945, Brother Gluni Williams came to Coro from the British island of Grenada and was hired as an English teacher at the Cecilio Acosta Secondary School. At the same time, he was teaching private English classes. Soon, he began to give Bible studies to his students. In 1956, Brother Gluni and his wife, María, had a tragedy in their home. One of their daughters was cooking the meals for Sabbath when a kerosene container exploded near her and caused 3^rd degree burns on her body. Within 24 hours, she died. The story says she died singing the hymn, “Oh How Glorious Will Be That Great Morning.”

At the end of the 1950s, the Adventist Church Ministry of Publications sent a group of colporteurs to Coro. This group came from the Colombia-Venezuela Union Training School in Medellín. This group of colporteurs consisting of José Holguín, José Mendoza, and Guillermina Tapia brought the Adventist message through the printed page. They focused primarily on those who showed interest and had been nurtured by the Williams family.

In 1961, Brother Andrés Valenzuela and his wife, Alicia, a Chilean couple from Maracaibo, arrived in Coro to manage a laundry called “Lasa.” While working in that business, they contacted some Adventist believers, namely the colporteur José Escalona, the Darío couple, and Ada de Gervis, all of whom were also originally from Maracaibo. Sometime after that, Brother Andrés Valenzuela, a colporteur in Coro, informed West Venezuela Mission in Barquisimeto of a group of Adventist believers in Coro. He asked for the services of a pastor who could care for them. As a result of the Bible studies given by Brother Valenzuela, the Gervis couple decided to give their lives to Christ and were baptized in 1962 by Pastor Eliseo Freites.

Once they were baptized, this group began to meet on Sabbaths. They worked with Saúl Becerrit, Dimas Chirinos, and Hilda de Chirinos, who originally learned about the doctrines of the Seventh-day Adventist Church through the testimony of the Gluni Williams family and the colporteurs from Colombia-Venezuela Union Training School. Their meetings were carried out in a building on Democracia Street between the streets of Iturbe and Colina. From there, the group moved its meetings to Comercio Street, where they waited for the arrival of a new pastor so they could be baptized.

The first ministerial family, Pastor José Rodríguez and his wife, María Teresa de Rodríguez, arrived in Coro in 1966. As a result, the first baptism was carried out that same year. Pastor Max Martínez and Pastor Eliseo Freites, respectively, the president and the director of publications for West Venezuela Mission, officiated. That day, 13 people were baptized, including Saúl Becerrit, Dimas Chirinos and his wife, Hilda, Héctor, Rafael and Román Caldera, Ana Medina and one of her sons, María Antonia de Williams, Bertha Williams, and Mireya Williams.

The Adventist church continued growing after that as Sister Engracia Chirinos de Revilla, Eligio Castro, Moisés Pereira, and Xiomara Partidas joined. The church began to hold large evangelistic meetings during which the concerts of the trio Los Hermanos Caldera made a significant impact. As a result of these evangelistic meetings, a church was organized in 1968. It had 50 members, and José Rodríguez was its first pastor. The inauguration ceremony was carried out in a public building called Poliformativo, and Pastor Max Martínez, the mission president, and Pastor Jaime Acosta, the mission secretary, were present.

For the next ten years, this new church rented various places to hold their meetings. On May 26, 1978, the Coro Seventh-day Adventist Church inaugurated its church building on Buchivacoa Street, between Sierralta Alley and Chevrolet Street, under the leadership of Pastor Saúl Yánez. As the church grew and established itself in Coro, the members began to visit other towns. Among these was the municipality of Dabajuro in the western part of the state. Pastor José Rodríguez, the Valenzuela family, and Los Hermanos Caldera started an Adventist church there in 1966. The first to be baptized were the Caraballo family, Miguel Muyales and his wife, the Piña family, and Brother Prieto. This group began to meet in the garage of a house of one of these families.

Pastor Rodríguez, José Escalona, Dima Chirinos, Eligio Castro, and Andrés Valenzuela began an excellent program based out of the Radio Postal School. One of those who received the materials for this program was Luis Patiño. He and others began to meet in several different rented houses until it became necessary to build a church. The church had a place to build through the generosity of Brother Ramos, who donated a piece of land in the Carrizalito Sector. Brother Abelardo Coronado financed the construction of the church, and on October 29, 1967, the 17 members were organized as a church. Pastors Ernesto Santos and Ismael de Ángel, respectively president and treasurer of West Venezuela Mission, presided over the inauguration ceremony.

Adventism continued to extend its influence further from the state’s capital. In 1970, working with the Voice of Prophecy radio program and the Radio Postal correspondence school, Pastor Rafael Rodríguez established a church in Cumarebo. There, the families of Brother Héctor Caldera, Sister Ana de Medina, and Brother Riera accepted the Adventist message. The Adventist message was also received in Punto Fijo on the Paraguaná Peninsula. The streets and pathways of Paraguaná are imprinted with the footsteps of colporteurs and lay members who forged paths through the sand dunes, cactus plants, and thorn bushes which populate the landscape of that sun-drenched land.

By 1971, there had been many colporteurs sent by Colombia-Venezuela Union Training School to sell their literature in Punto Fijo. Dr. Tania Betancourt de Rodríguez, originally from Barquisimeto, with the help of Pastor Pedro Peña and his wife, Carlota, evangelized the Yajure family. As there was not yet an Adventist congregation in Punto Fijo, those who had accepted the gospel at that time attended the Coro Central Adventist Church. Each Sabbath, they traveled 106 miles roundtrip. Two years later, the mission sent Cirilo and Marta Graterol to Punto Fijo as permanent colporteurs. They were from northern Colombia, and their objective was to continue the work that the lay members had started in Punto Fijo. The group grew through the Graterols’ persistent efforts when Gladis Pérez, Johnny Salcedo, Josefina Lugo, and the Escobar Bernal family joined the Yajure family.

One of the last places to be reached by the Adventist message was Churuguara in the southern part of Falcón. In 1991, a group of church members from Barquisimeto led by Pastor Martín Meza helped convert the first Adventists in that location.

Organizational History of Northwestern Venezuela Mission

From 2009-2012, Venezuela-Antilles Union Mission studied the possibility of establishing a mission to cover the Falcón territory in the territory of West Venezuela Conference in Maracaibo. To verify its viability, meetings were conducted with the Coro and Punto Fijo congregations, resulting in the challenging task of organizing it as an experimental region.

On July 8, 2013, at the Venezuela-Antilles Union Mission board of directors’ mid-year meeting, the recommendation of the evaluation committee to create a new territory in Falcón, part of West Venezuela Conference, was accepted. It would be called the Northwestern Venezuela Region of Seventh-day Adventists to begin operations on January 2, 2014, from its offices in Coro.⁴ On September 12, 2013, the Venezuela-Antilles Union Mission board of directors elected the administrators for the Northwestern Venezuela Region: Reymer Sánchez, president; Samuel Latouche, secretary; and Juan Zúñiga, treasurer.⁵

After several evaluations, on April 27, 2015, the West Venezuela Union Mission board of directors voted to submit to the Inter-American Division the Northwestern Venezuela Region board’s request for an evaluation committee to study the possibility of a change from region to mission and to be called Northwestern Venezuela Mission.⁶ The inaugural event was conducted on August 20, 2015, at the Hotel Cumberland in Coro. Its first administrative office was in the Urbanización Las Begonias in Sector Bobare. A while later, the office was moved to its own headquarters in Sector Los Claritos and inaugurated on December 14, 2017.

Projected Growth for Northwestern Venezuela Mission

The geographical location of Northwestern Venezuela Mission makes it vulnerable to the country’s current economic and health conditions. During this dire situation, ADRA and the Adventist Community Services Center hold critical roles in helping low-income Adventist families and other vulnerable sectors of the community who are also at risk and in need. At the same time, programs such as Cerca de Ti (“Close to You”) and Rescate al Caído (“Rescue to the Fallen”) offer services of food distribution, clothing donation, and the coordination of blood drives, among others, to the communities that battle the humanitarian crisis and terminal illness they experience.

List of Presidents

Reymer Sánchez (2013-2015); Samuel Latouche (2015-2017); Johan Mendoza (2018-2021); Giovanny Martín (October-December 2021); Pablo Yendes (2022- ).

Sources

Northwestern Venezuela Mission Board of Directors minutes, secretary’s statistical report: fourth quarter, 2019. Secretariat archives, Edo. Falcón, Venezuela.

“Northwestern Venezuela Mission.” Seventh-day Adventist Online Yearbook. Accessed October 13, 2024. https://www.adventistyearbook.org/entity?EntityID=53265.

Venezuela-Antilles Union Board of Directors minutes, September 12, 2013. Vote 146-2013. Secretariat archives, Barquisimeto, Lara, Venezuela.

Venezuela-Antilles Union Mid-Year Board of Directors minutes, July 8, 2013. Vote 134-2013. Secretariat archives, Barquisimeto, Lara, Venezuela.

West Venezuela Union Board of Directors minutes, April 27, 2015. Vote 035-2015. Secretariat archives, Barquisimeto, Lara, Venezuela.

Notes

1. “Northwestern Venezuela Mission,” Seventh-day Adventist Online Yearbook, accessed October 13, 2024, https://www.adventistyearbook.org/entity?EntityID=53265.↩

2. Ibid.↩

3. Northwestern Venezuela Mission board meeting, secretary’s statistical report: fourth quarter, 2019, secretariat archives.↩

4. Venezuela-Antilles Union Mid-Year Board of Directors meeting, July 8, 2013, vote 134-2013, secretariat archives.↩

5. Venezuela-Antilles Union Board of Directors meeting, September 12, 2013, vote 146-2013, secretariat archives.↩

6. West Venezuela Union Board of Directors meeting, April 27, 2015, vote 035-2015, secretariat archives.↩