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Robertson told CNN on Sunday that Chavez "is negotiating with the Iranians to get nuclear material. And he also sent $1.2 million in cash to Osama bin Laden right after 9/11." Robertson offered no evidence to support his accusation.

In response to Chavez's plan to expel NTM, another mission group wrote in a confidential prayer e-mail, "While we believe that Chavez has been planning to expel foreign missionaries for some time, statements like those made by Robertson have provided him with an excuse to do so and might actually justify his actions in the eyes of many Venezuelans who otherwise would have been more ambivalent."

"We are confident that President Chavez wants the best for the people of Venezuela. New Tribes Mission considers it a privilege to have served the indigenous people of Venezuela for the past 59 years. We deeply desire to be able to continue serving them."

NTM spokesperson Nita Zelenak said that the mission has not received any formal notice from the government demanding its departure from Venezuela. "We always respect the laws of countries we work in," Zelenak said. Should such a notice come, "with sadness" the mission would leave Venezuela.

Asked whether the mission saw Chavez's move coming, Zelenak said that similar accusations have come up in the past in Venezuela. The government has investigated, each time concluding all charges against the ministry were unfounded. "We're there to help the indigenous people," Zelenak told Christianity Today. "We're not involved with any government agencies, not involved with the CIA, not involved with uranium mining. Our purpose there is to help the people."

Specifically addressing Chavez's accusations, she said, "Any kind of air travel we do, we always do within the guidelines of what the government allows. We always file reports." On the lavish lifestyle issue she said, "(The missionaries) live in homes that make it possible for them to continue the work that they do. The homes that they live in are very simple."

In Venezuela as in every area where NTM ministers, "our goal is to help and to eventually work ourselves out of a job," Zelenak said. "As the church is established and the Bible is translated, they don't need us any more. Until that time, we want to stay so we can help them."

Why New Tribes?
Samuel Olson, president of the Evangelical Council of Venezuela, said that the council, of which NTM is a member, will meet Friday afternoon to discuss the government's plan to expel NTM and the council's response. He said that he didn't know why Chavez has singled out NTM.

Olson praised NTM's almost six decades of ministry in the country. "It's unfortunate that this has happened," he told CT. "New Tribes has done very, very fine work among many of the tribes in Venezuela."

Olson cited NTM's many endeavors among Venezuela's indigenous people: building health units and dispensaries, schools where children are taught academics in their own indigenous languages by indigenous teachers. In addition, the group has planted churches with indigenous leadership. At NTM's Bible institute, Venezuelans have become involved in reaching unreached groups within the nation's borders.

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October (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49