Venezuela – First Missions

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VENEZEULA, SOUTH AMERICA

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When did the workers first arrive? April 2, 1980

Who were the first brother workers? Ted Rozema and Lynn Walker, both originally from US. Rozema had worked for years in Brazil and Walker worked in Central America. Rozema died December 19, 2020, aged 101.

Who were the first sister workers?

Who was the first to profess, what year and where?

Who were the first native workers to go in the work and When?
First Native Brother Worker:
First Native Sister Worker:

When & Where was the first Gospel Meeting?
When & Where was the first Sunday fellowship meeting?

When & Where was the first baptism?

When & Where was the first convention?
Where have subsequent conventions been held?
Where is the convention now held?

Who have the Overseers been? In 2022, John Newlands from Scotland, UK.

What is the Native Language? Spanish

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Currently, in 2020, there are about 150 baptized members, distributed in 13 cities/towns; the largest numbers are located in Valencia, Carabobo State, in the central zone of the country. There are five pairs of workers; two of them are Venezuelan men; the rest are foreigners. Three Venezuelan female workers are working between Colombia and Guyana. 

The official church name is Iglesia Cristiana (Christian Church).

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Obituary of Theodore "Ted" Dick Rozema

September 25, 1919 – December 19, 2020, aged 101 (died from Covid).

Theodore (Ted) Dick Rozema was born on September 25, 1919, in Wheatland, Wyoming, the son of Dick and Bertha Rozema. Ted passed away on December 19, 2020, in Sheridan, Wyoming.  He was the youngest of seven children in his family.  They lived on a farm west of Slater, Wyoming.  His parents passed away when he was a child and he later lived with his sister, Frances Hooper. 

Ted made the decision for him at the age of 16 in Cheyenne, Wyoming, at a preaching meeting.  He was started in the Work in 1940 in Nebraska.  In 1945 he went to Missouri where he stayed for 4 years and then to Michigan for 1 year.  Ted moved to Brazil in 1950 and worked there for 30 years.  In 1980 Lynn Walker and Ted were the first servants to go to Venezuela and they stayed there until January 2012.

Ted returned to the US and moved to the Redbud Canyon, Oklahoma home in June 2012. In May 2017 he moved  to the Sheridan Manor home in Sheridan, Wyoming.  Ted was able to attend the meetings until March 2020, when facility residents were not allowed to leave due to Covid-19. 

Ted was the last of his siblings to die. Those who remain of his natural family are a sister-in-law and many nieces and nephews.  Those who remain of his spiritual family, both in South America and the United States, cannot be counted.