We Don't Talk About Politics

Hello - Alejandra and I decided to travel to the States before the Venezuelan elections just because the situation seemed pretty delicate... It still is kind of, so we prolonged our trip a little more, but that hasn't necessarily slowed us down in ministry.

The only thing that slowed us down in ministry was hanging out with my nephew Kaleb, as he got me hooked on the A Quiet Place trilogy.

The three movies that we binged on are basically post-apocalyptic horror films about different people who survive in the midst of an alien take over, and in classic horror film fashion - it taught us about all sorts of wonderful things such as: family unity, family love, family sacrifice, obedience towards our parents, resourcefulness, urgency, logic, creativity, sensitivity, perseverance, friendship, love towards pizza, and last of all but not least - how to stay silent!

While watching all 3 of these lovely movies about psycho monsters eating up humans at any moment that anyone made any noise, I must say that a part of me identified with the vulnerable characters as they tried to uphold this terrible principle: The principle that if you want to survive in this world - sometimes it's better just to keep your mouth shut... That's a tough one for me, but anyway, what was super inspiring for us was the fact that somehow there was a woman in the film who gave birth to a baby in a basement in a silent enough manner so as to keep both herself and her new born baby alive! (wow) ...Naturally however, the husband wasn't quite as fortunate, as he got eaten up while he screamed out (and simultaneously said in sign language) that he loved both his deaf and non-deaf kids.

As a Colombian/ partially American couple living in Venezuela - Alejandra and I don't have anything to say about the political situation there... Talking about that can only get us in trouble, so why would we do that?

I took the above pic at the entrance to Venezuela, and it says, "we don't talk bad about Chavez."

This next pic is interesting because I'm sure that on November 5th it won't be relevant anymore, but yeah... Whenever I would see it, I always thought it was a somewhat funny way to communicate to Biden, as if he ever happened to be walking around Venezuela and then arbitrarily stumbled across this sign and read, "Biden - lift the sanctions now!" and so then he would be like, "okay, well, since you asked politely."

And then there's this one - where it's remarkable how the truth can get reversed in such a way so that all the main opponents of the dictatorship are actually declared "the sanctions train" as if whoever put the sign up was trying to say that if they never tried to do anything to bring about change, well then Venezuela never would have been sanctioned to begin with!

Instead we have this one, where Mr. Nick is seen as a tender man embracing a lady on the street promising "more change and transformation"... Like what kind of change are we talking about again?

Anyway - as I said before, the way to get by in Venezuela is by not talking about politics... Instead, we can pray, and post really neutral pictures on social media.

I suppose it goes the same for US politics, but yes - speaking your mind out is a right defended by the American constitution.

Anyway, it was really cool recently to see my Venezuelan friends in the above pic here in the land of the free.

We also got to meet up with Elisa - one of Alejandra's and my Venezuelan immigrant friends, that like so many, has made the arduous trip up Central America and into the States in hopes of a better life.

Some friends and I made a documentary about her back in 2018, even as she was starting out her journey as an immigrant. You can check it out at this link if you like: I mentioned her in a message I gave in Denver the Sunday before last

And just this last Sunday she went and visited that same church in Denver herself

So yeah - even though I'm apathetic about politics (or at least I'm not willing to die for what I think about the situation either here in the States or back home in Venezuela) - Alejandra and I are still very much in favor of speaking the truth of God's Word wherever we go.

Just like in A Quiet Place, there's monsters that will eat you up for talking about the Bible as well - but that's not a responsibility and joy that we're willing to give up... But politics? ...maybe yes.

Sam and Alejandra Missionary Profile: