Pictured are Missionaries Scott and Charity Smith,
their five children and Pastor Ty Van-Thomas (right) of Sandhills Assembly of
God in Southern Pines.
“God, I will not go,” Scott
Smith said when he was 33 years of age (in 2008) and felt “God calling” him to
leave the N.C. trucking industry and serve as a missionary to South America.
Smith, 40, and his wife,
Charity, spoke recently at Sandhills Assembly of God in Southern Pines, N.C., telling
of their mission endeavor in Caracas, Venezuela. Their children, who lived with
them in Caracas, include Malachi, 17, Mariah, 15, Micah, 14, Matthew, 12, and
Merci, 9.
Smith, a “country boy” who
grew up in N.C., said that about two months after telling God he wouldn’t serve
as a missionary, he felt a “strange pain” in his left arm. He sought medical
assistance. At that time, Smith and his wife headed up the children’s ministry
at Raleigh First Assembly of God, and a church elder quickly drove over to pray
for Smith, before he underwent two EKGs and a stress test.
“After the tests, they told
me, ‘You had a heart attack, but it’s now as if you never did,’” Smith said. “It
was as if Jesus wiped away that heart attack. God healed me.”
Endorsed by the Assemblies of
God, Smith and his family raised funds and moved to Costa Rica in Sept. 2012
for a year. They next moved to Venezuela and eventually settled in Caracas, the
nation’s capital.
They worked in a public
school of 700 students, teaching “values” classes where they discussed “citizenship,
integrity and self-control” and were free to refer to the Bible.
“Santeria,” a religion that
has roots in the Yoruba people of West Africa, is growing in Venezuela, Smith said,
noting that some Venezuelan children wear “green-and-yellow bracelets” that
indicate Santeria involvement. Adherents of Santeria often identify as
Catholic, attend masses and baptize their children as Catholic, while also
practicing Santeria, which survives via oral tradition. As Cubans left their
island, many took Santeria to the U.S., Europe and other South American
countries.
Smith said that gang violence
and inflation plague Venezuela.
“I’ve waited in line for
three hours to buy one liter of milk,” he said, adding that gasoline, however,
is extremely cheap.
The Smiths hope to return soon
to Venezuela.
Some members of Sandhills Assembly gather around the Smiths to pray them.
