Familia Valencia – A family Separated

Over the course of the last several years, he has made several valiant efforts to leave. On one occasion, he and his family were able to leave, but his mother and father became ill in Venezuela, and he was forced to return to care for both of them in their final days.

Several months back he decided to make another attempt. I asked for assistance from family and friends to help facilitate this effort, and you all responded in force.

To leave Venezuela Familia Valencia is preparing to travel to Ecuador. Right now Alahin is working to sell the few possessions he has to help pay for his trip. Because Alahin has duel citizenship, he is fortunate to go between Colombia and Venezuela a little easier than most Venezuelans. The trip still takes him a few days, but he has made it a few times. At one point the man he traveled with was murdered during a robbery in which he lost everything of value that he carried. My rusty Spanish made getting the details difficult, but it was apparent that he suffered a great deal of trauma.

Currently, there is no real way to get any money into Venezuela, but I can send it via Western Union to Colombia. Alahin intends to travel over the border to Colombia on December 26th by himself where he will purchase travel tickets for his family to travel from the point of entry into Colombia, to the city of Barranquilla Colombia. For safety reasons, we have decided to drop only a portion of the money when he gets there on the 26th to help pay for his family travel and to get him back to Venezuela.

Once he has the tickets and some money, he will return to Venezuela and get his wife and 3 kids. They will not leave Venezuela until January 9th 2018.
On January 9th, Alahin, his wife, and the kids will travel over the border to Colombia. Once the whole family is in Colombia, I will send him another drop of money to help them further in their travels. They will travel from the point of entry to Barranquilla Colombia, where he has a cousin. Alahin will then leave his wife and kids in Colombia with his cousin for what will likely be several months. Alahin will then travel to Equador alone. It is likely that I will attempt a 3rd drop once he makes it to Equador if it is feasible. Once Alahin is in Equador, he will try to get established so that he can bring his wife and kids down, where he currently plans to start a new life.

A lot can happen between Maracaibo and Ecuador. Communication is sparse and nothing is certain, but with Gods help, and the generosity of strangers, it is possible. It may be some time before I have more information, but I sent the Western Union Drop tonight, so it is there for him when he gets to Colombia on the 26th.
I will update on the other family as things develop. Last time I messaged him he did not have a set plan, and my communication with him has been very inconsistent, but we have identified a way for him to get money, if he can work through the other challenges he has.

January 1, 2018

I heard from Alaihin Today. He was able to retrieve the small amount of money I sent to him in Colombia. He was unable to purchase the tickets for the family because there was a problem with the paperwork on his 6-year-old son, and they can’t get him out of the country. He advised me that they expect to resolve the travel restrictions on his son within the next 2 weeks. I anticipated some of these set backs… more than some to be honest. I intend to send him more as time goes on, but I am careful how much is send at one time for safety and for inflation reasons. Although he is using Colombian money for many of the expenses, the Venezuelan inflation affects his overall ability to provide for the family. Alaihin also told me that they have blocked all news inside the country, and they have lost a lot of information they were previously getting. He asked me what I knew and I told him my information was also limited, but it appears that they may close the borders more permanently. Right now they open and close them depending on various moods of the dictator.

January 15, 2018

I received a brief instant message from Alahin, they are still waiting for his child’s passport then He and his oldest son will travel to Ecuador while his wife and the younger kids go to Colombia and stay with a cousin. That is currently the plan. I have provided him with one drop so far. I anticipate sending him another drop in the near future when he finally gets back to Colombia. It is my hope that this will be enough to get them started.

January 28, 2018

Alahin was one of my closest friends in the mission. I have tried to help him several times over the years, and I am sure my efforts won’t stop with this, but I am excited to see some progress for him and his family. They still have a long, unstable path ahead of them, but I think this is progress.

Alahin was able to contact me via Facebook Messanger this week. He said that they have not yet been able to get his youngest son out of the country. I am unclear on what the hold up is, but it appears to be a permission to leave the country of some kind. He said that he and his oldest son (17 or 18 years of age) made the decision to leave the family in Venezuela. His wife will continue to wait and try to work through the red tape so that his youngest son can get out of the country. In the meantime, he and his oldest son were able to safely get out of the country and they made it to a city in Colombia where I was able to send them a drop to purchase some train tickets and provide some food for the trip. He will travel to Equador next where he believes he can find some work. He and his son will then try to get established and send for his wife and the other two children.

I asked how he intended to get established when he got there. He told me that he had carried with him a family heirloom that he intended to sell when he got there if he ran out of money. Upon further discussion, he identified the heirloom as one of the wood carvings that a member made him while on the mission. I served in the same area and knew what he spoke of. I asked that he send me a photo, which he did. This is a hand-carved piece of wood that several of us got when we were in the mission field. I told him I may be interested in holding it for him if he ever gets to the point that he wants to sell it. I think Ecuador might have a way of shipping it, and perhaps someday I can deliver it back to him :-). He said it would be the last thing he did, as it was the only thing he had kept from home.

May 6, 2018

Last time I asked for donations we received enough money to help get Alahin Valencia and his oldest son down to Equador. It was a challenging journey. We didn’t fund the trip enough to send the whole family, but even if we had been able to, his one child has not been granted a passport. Knowing the difficulties that they will have as immigrants and the difficulty passing the border, they could not chance traveling with the kids even if they had the resources to do so. He and his oldest son made the trip and have since then been able to find employment in Ecuador. They are still trying to get established and bring his wife and remaining two son’s down from Venezuela.

I have been in regular contact with Alahin. With the recent contact from Nirobis I informed him of the information we had been receiving and he was aware of the high likelihood that they would close the boarders. I asked Nirobis to see if Alahin’s wife and kids could travel with them. Nirobis was able to work it out to add them to the group. Unfortunately, Alahin’s wife and Nirobis have not been able to make contact yet. Internet connections and phones are not reliable nor readily available. Nirobis has left some information for Alahin’s wife, but at this point it is not very likely that we will be able to use this opportunity to get Alahin’s family out of Venezuela. He is still trying to see if he can manage it, but communication has been a challenge. I have told Alahin that if they can get to Colombia I will help get them to Ecuador. It will likely be several days before I know anything further from them. I am hoping that by some miracle, she has gotten the messages and been able to get the legal documents she needs and can be at the meeting location by Tuesday morning.
Thanks again. I will try and update again when I have more information.

May 8th

Nairobis was able to contact Alahin and his wife. Unfortunately, Alahin’s family will not be able to leave the country at this time. From what I understood, there just isn’t enough time to get what is needed, and it sounds like his wife or one of his kids might have some kind of health issue right now that will make it difficult to travel.

June 11, 2018

Currently, Alahin’s wife and kids are planning to leave within the next two weeks. We received some news that the borders are being shut down completely, but we have heard this before so I guess we will see. The tickets for travel from Colombia for this wife and 2 kids will require a drop. I intend to send this to facilitate the effort once they get to Colombia. I will keep you updated.

July 24 , 2018
07/24/18

Last week Alahin’s wife was able to make it to Colombia with the two youngest children. I wired them another drop to complete the trip to Ecuador.

I don’t fully know the details of their departure, other than small updates along the way. Over the weekend I got several photos from Alahin. He is once again with his family, and they are in Ecuador with a new start on life. He has expressed his gratitude and asked that I pass it on to this group. He is not naive about the hard days ahead, but he has a strong testimony of Jesus Christ and he knows that as long as he is with his family they will get through it.