Missionary Update: John & Alta Hatcher in Brazil [March 2012]
Missionaries John and Alta Hatcher have served the Lord in Brazil since 1955, planting over 70 churches that are still in existence.
Dear Brethren and Friends,
The harvest is truly great and the reapers are not very abundant. We need laborers, urgently. People are needy, people are hurting and the only answer to their needs is Jesus. This past month Alta and I have gone to the city of Assai each Sunday and needless to say, we and the few who attend have been thrilled to have the new building that was graciously built by the Chapada Baptist Church in Manaus.
On February 20, about 45 persons came from the Duartina Baptist Church and spent two days in fellowship with the Urai and Cornelio Procopio churches. It was a great two days of Bible study and recreation. The Duartina Church was one we started in about 1976. Marcio Moraes, the pastor of Urai was saved there.
One morning the phone rang and a brother asked if he could come talk to me. He is a saved person, but his life is worse than that of the Samaritan woman. He has been married, separated and courted three others. God has been working in his life and he has come to realize his problem is: there has not been any emptying of self and surrendering to the Lord. He has made some serious commitments to the Lord and he seems to be growing in grace.
Another similar case was a medical doctor who asked me to sit down and listen to his case. He is a professing believer. This is a summary: “I have all that a man could desire. I have a great family, I have all the material things a man could want or need. I have money and I am not happy. I am very unhappy. When we leave our first love — Jesus — and confide in things the world offers, this is the result. The Manual for Joy is 1st John—that your joy may be complete.
There is a small circus here in town. Yesterday morning, I visited it to talk to the people about the Lord. They stopped and listened with attention and some were moved. I gave them some books of John and Romans. Pray with me that some of those families will be in Heaven. At eighty-six, life is not easy, but every day we seek to tell needy people about the Wonderful Savior who died on the cross, was buried and on the third day arose to save sinners.
Your servants for Jesus’ sake,
John and Alta Hatcher
Caixa Postal 112
Urai, PR, Brazil 86280-000
jhatcher[at]uol.com.br
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Missionary Update: Jud & Raquel Hatcher in Brazil [February 2012]
Jud and Raquel Hatcher serve the Lord in Manaus, Brazil. They are part of the "SeedFactory" church planting initiative, which is a movement to plant churches in all 26 Brazilian capitals. Since 2006, 43 churches have been started in 5 states.
Dear friends,
In this issue is a testimony of how the Lord saved a hopeless teenager from suicide and into new life in Christ. You will also be encouraged about a new church plant and get a quick update on our family.
Suicidal
A couple of weeks ago I received a desperate phone call from a mother who pleaded for help. Her 17-year-old son had attempted suicide and was in dire condition at the hospital. According to his Facebook post, it was approximately 3:00pm when he swallowed 70 muscle relaxants in the attempt to take his life. His mother arrived home from work at 6:30pm unaware of what happened earlier that day. She found him in convulsions laying on his bed. Quickly she called a neighbor with a car & rushed him to the nearest hospital. Only to discover there was no room & to look for another hospital. They stopped at multiple locations in search for an available ICU bed. It was only at the fifth hospital where they were able to find an available bed. At this point, with his vital signs virtually null, fluids in his lungs & with possible neurological damage the doctors informed the mother his chances of survival were slim to none. In hopelessness, she was instructed to give her last farewell to her son. Shortly after she called me for help. I have visited them daily at the hospital. The good news is that the Lord was merciful and allowed him to live, leaving the doctors confused by his comeback with no neurological damage. A few days ago, he surrendered to Christ and found new life. Unfortunately, many people live without hope. Our Messiah is the only hope. I am so grateful this teenage boy finally found a reason to live. Pray for him and his mother.
Church Planting Innovation
In August of 2011 the Lord laid on my heart to take on a new challenge. The previous four years of my ministry were focused on supervising construction/remodeling of buildings, in training & equipping pastors, while guiding them side-by-side (mentoring & coaching) as THEY led the church plant as senior pastors. Leading dedicated men in a “pastoral team in training” was fantastic and worked great!
Unfortunately, the Brazilian legal system is changing. Many new laws are already in place against churches, and more are on the way. So, upon our return to Brazil the Lord led me to do something different – to be the senior pastor of a new church plant & to train pastors in a slightly different fashion. In late 2011, I began church-planting conversations with two other couples the Lord laid on my heart. God is incredible. He confirmed our prayers and this is what happened:
On the second Sunday of January we had our first team meeting. We began with a prayer tour in a van throughout our city. We asked God to lead us where to start a church. Since then, we have met once a week for 5 hours at a time each Sunday. We decided not to focus on a church building, but instead invest more time on the people and meet in homes. Three weeks ago we started a weekly home prayer meeting on Wednesdays and now have 16 people attending. Last Sunday we had our first pre-evangelism cookout. We had 5 unsaved first time guests at the barbecue. We plan to have these cookouts every two weeks until May and reassess. Each event is hosted & sponsored by a different couple of the team, who are in charge of inviting friends and colleagues to their house. At the cookout we all mingle and connect with the new friends. The prayer before eating is a crucial moment for the guests to identify us as Christians, pave the way for the Gospel presentation and connect them into the Wednesday prayer meeting. March 25th will be our inaugural Sunday service. The new work will be called “Active Baptist Church”. Pray for us. It sure has been a lot of fun.
Family Life
Sarah, Laura and Benjamin are enrolled in school and doing well. Melissa Nicole was born December 1, 2011. She cries a lot due to gases. Sarah has shown to have a good ear for identifying instruments in songs as she hears them play on the cd player. Laura loves to tell stories and jokes. She has a charming laughter. Benjamin is a fast runner and likes to go with his daddy to the store. Raquel is lovely, as always. I am doing well. I’ve lost 5lbs since January.
Please, continue to support, challenge others to invest into the Kingdom through Baptist Faith Missions and pray for us. And, if the Lord leads, speak to your pastor, reach out and start a church! America still needs church-planters.
Grateful,
Jud & Raquel Hatcher
judsonhatcher@hotmail.com
Website | Twitter
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Missionary Update: Sheridan & Anita Stanton in Peru [February 2012]
Sheridan and Anita Stanton have served the Lord in Peru for 28 years. Their main ministry is church planting and they have helped establish churches all over the country. Sheridan also works to train pastors and Anita works with the ladies' ministry and developing children's material.
Dear friends and family,
December was a fairly quiet month for us; Christmas was just the two of us, but we were able to get a lot of work done. We did have two more professions of faith in the Calvary mission work. We are excited about the new year and all that the Lord will be doing.
January was spent trying to get everything ready for construction to begin at the new property for the Calvary work. Paper work moves slow here but this time of the year is the rainy season in the mountains so construction would probably have been delayed anyway. I had the joy of baptizing eight young believers for the Faith Baptist mission work, also here in Huánuco. Brother Hugo Cotrina is the young worker at this mission.
I have baptized in a lot of mountain streams before, but never with water rushing as fast as this time. One brother had to brace the feet of each one baptized in order to keep them from washing down stream! Hundreds baptized in almost forty years of ministry and I haven’t lost one yet! (Or drowned anyone either!), so I guess I’m still doing pretty well. Pray for brother Hugo, his home church wanted to ordain him five years ago but he just did not respond well to his interrogation and the council recommended against his ordination. He continues to be a very faithful servant of the Lord, and the Lord continues to use him, but he still “grimaces” when ordination is mentioned to him.
Bro. Sheridan's second name-sake (who is a remarkable singer).
In my last letter I showed a picture of my first name-sake in Lima. To the left is number two! Yeah, this poor little guy got stuck with my name also. He is a remarkably good singer; he wins most of the church singing competitions. There are three more Sheridans, I think, in other parts of Peru.
Gil and Ronda Gilpin of Lexington, Kentucky, recently spent a couple of weeks with the Stantons.
Anita and I recently had the great joy of having our dear friends from Lexington, Kentucky, Gil and Ronda Gilpin, spend two weeks with us. We had a great time showing them the work in Huánuco and some of the major attractions of Peru – Machu Picchu, Cusco and Lima, man-made Uro Islands, and the Ballesta Islands. We hope they will return someday for a trip to the jungle! 
For the past several months, the directors of Baptist Faith Missions have had to make substantial cuts in our monthly deposits (BFM missionaries); about 25%. For years BFM has had to rely on the Thanksgiving Offering to make it through to the end of each year. But for a long time now, that yearly offering has been less and less. We know times are rough in the States right now and the “trickle-down” effect has arrived at your missionaries also. But maybe some of you that have not been affected much would consider an increase in your monthly giving to the General Fund of Baptist Faith Mission. Anita and I will be coming to the States this year for our scheduled furlough visits to the supporting churches. We hope to be with each of you. Contact me at the e-mail address below if you would like to have us visit your church.
In HIM by HIS grace,
Sheridan and Anita Stanton
Apartado Postal 140
Huanuco, Perú
South América
sestantonperu[at]hotmail.com – Sheridan
Phone: 614-500-8823
arstantonperu[at]gmail.com – Anita
Phone: 615-562-0529
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Jessica Wacaser, Latest Recipient of the H.H. Overbey Scholarship
We maintain a fund of designated offerings called “H. H. OVERBEY SCHOLARSHIP FUND.” We use this fund to give assistance to children of our missionaries who are pursuing college work. Brother Overbey loved to help young people who were continuing their education to be used in serving the Lord. Many of you could testify to his generous gifts he gave to you when you were a struggling college student. So, several years ago, some money was given to BFM to be used for this purpose. We named it the “H. H. OVERBEY SCHOLARSHIP FUND” in his memory and honor. Qualifying children of our missionaries may receive up to $1000 per school year when they apply and ask for the funds. But, these are designated funds and must be specifically given to this fund; no offerings from the General Fund go for this use. For quite some time, Storms Creek Missionary Baptist Church in Ironton, Ohio has been the only contributor to this designated fund. We want to thank them for their faithfulness and hope others will be inspired by their example.
Jessica Wacaser is the latest recipient of the H.H. Overbey Scholarship. She is pictured here with her father, Bobby Wacaser, missionary to Brazil.
The latest recipient of this scholarship is Jessica Wacaser. Here is her 2012 letter of request and appreciation.
Hello everyone,
My name is Jessica Wacaser. I am the daughter of Bobby and Charlene Wacaser.
I am currently living in the United States for college studies. I am attending at Hillsborough Community College. The degree I am working on is Counseling and Human Resources.
I chose this course mainly because I enjoy working with people and love to help them in times of need. Hopefully in the near future, if God wants me there, I would like to use this in Brazil either with Projeto Vida as a missionary or helping my father´s mission with new churches.
I am very excited to see what God has in store for me!
If you all would, please keep me in your prayers here, as it truly is a challenge.
I am so thankful that through BFM these funds are provided to help with my schooling. I would especially like to thank Storm’s Creek Missionary Baptist Church for being so faithful every year in contributing these funds.
May God bless,
Jessica Wacaser
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Missionary Update: Paul & Wanda Hatcher in Brazil [February 2012]
Paul and Wanda Hatcher have been serving the Lord together in Brazil for 36 years. Paul pastors Tabernacle Baptist Church in Manaus, Brazil. Their main ministry is church planting.
January 2012
Dear Friends,
Praise the Lord for a great month. It has been a busy and enjoyable time. We began the new year in south Brazil at my parents’, John and Alta Hatcher. On the weekends, we visited the mission at Assai, where Dad is starting a church. It was a blessing to be with them.
We also visited the church at Uraí, where I preached twice. It’s always good to see the believers we know and rejoice that new believers are being added to the church.
The first full week of January, several of the churches from the state of Parana and São Paulo have family camp. I spoke in the morning services. We always have a great time when we see our friends and Pastors in South Brazil. The distance from Manaus to Uraí is nearly 2,600 miles (distance between Detroit, MI and San Francisco, CA); and, we don’t see them very often. I always love to see how God is blessing each of the churches.
Near the end of last year, the Lord opened the doors to start two new missions in homes here in Manaus. Let me tell about one of the churches. We are in a poor subdivision and the houses are small and built wall to wall. That is, each house shares two walls; the wall on each side is the neighbor’s wall also. The width of the house is twelve feet and we meet in front in an area twelve by sixteen which reaches right out to the street curb. The street is narrow and the gate to the house across the street is about thirty feet away. The main drug trafficker in the subdivision lives there. As we have our Bible Study and services, druggies come and go. We started a few months ago with a handful of people. The Lord has blessed. Two Sundays ago six were baptized and six more are waiting to be baptized next time. At our last service we had forty-two adults crowded in the space. They are growing in knowledge and trust in Jesus our Lord and Saviour. What is very noticeable in the community is how they love and help each other. This has been the greatest influence in bringing the neighbors and the new converts’ own families.
Praise the Lord! May the Lord bless each of us as we invest in spreading the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
Paul and Wanda Hatcher
Avenida J. Carlos Antony, 172
65063-150 Manaus
Amazonas, Brasil SA
hatcher[at]argo.com.br
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Missionary Update: AJ & Barbara Hensley in Brazil [February 2012]
The Hensleys have spent nearly 15 years serving in Brazil. They run a vocational school and orphanage in Caraguatatuba and have also established a church and mission points throughout the city.
Dear friends,
Aj and I have been in the States for a while and have traveled to various Churches. We will be here through March so if we have not seen you yet, maybe we will see you in the next month.
During our travels we realized that many people have never heard my testimony. So we thought that this would be a good time to let you hear about Barbara Alaine Hensley. I was born in Owsley County, Kentucky to Hubert and Reba Baker. I grew up in a Christian home. Before we had a car we would pay a taxi to take us to Church, but because we could only afford a taxi once, we would walk back home. That walk was about seven miles. At this time I was small, so my dad would carry me on his shoulders and my mom would lead my sister Ada Marie. It was after this period of my life that my dad was called to be a Pastor. We lived in the Appalachia where almost all of the homes had no indoor pluming and their potties were on the outside. We were no different from those homes. As we grew my dad opened many mission points and we, as a family, helped him in those works. Our week was very busy as we were were in Church 4 times on Sunday and every night of the week except for Monday night. In these times most of the people did not have transportation. We would pick them up and take them to the services. We were blessed with an old panel truck and dad had made benches in the back. That way we could take lots of people.This truck was always full to the brim. Our home was always open to visitors and sister and I were always giving our bed to visitors. Mom could whip up a meal in a little time and she could take the little that we had to make it stretch to fit the numbers.
When I was 9 years dad accepted a Church in Owensboro. It was there that I accepted Christ as my savior.We only stayed there for two years and then moved back to Booneville,Ky. Back in Booneville we continued the work that we had been doing before. I remember on Sundays we did not even have time for lunch as we did a relay getting to each of the mission points. We would have Sunday School at Elk Lick Baptist Church then dad would take mom me and my sister to the first mission where we would have Sunday School and dad would go preach at the other mission then he would come preach at the mission point where we had just done Sunday School and then we would go back to the main Church for night services.
I met Aj when I was in my junior year of high school. We dated for 2 years and married in 1966. It was not til 1996 that Aj surrendered to be a missionary and Baptist Faith Missions sent us to Brazil. Many people ask me when I received my call to become a missionary and I tell them that it was when I was born. Because you see God knew my life and knew each step that I would take and He knew that he had prepared Alex Hensley to be my husband and He knew that Aj would become a missionary. He prepared me from birth with each and every thing that I was doing with my parents because He knew that I would go through all these same things in Brazil.
At one of the Churches that we were visiting these past weeks I had a pastor ask me to forgive him and I said that I would but would he please tell me why. He said that when Aj came before BFM to be sent out he had told someone that we would not last on the field. The reason he gave for his opinion was that I would not make it on the mission field. He did not know of the rigorous training that I had went through to get me where God wanted me to be.
The one thing that I know is that God equips those that He calls. And here we are 16 years later and still going strong in Brazil. To God be the glory.
We would love to have you come down and see what God is doing there in Caraguatatuba, Brazil. Our home is open to visitors and the light is on and the mint is on the pillow. So come on down.
In His service,
Barbara Hensley
ajcaragua[at]gmail.com
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Missionary Update: Bobby & Charlene Wacaser in Brazil [February 2012]
Bobby, Charlene, Jessie, and Brennen Wacaser have served the Lord as church planters in Curitiba, Parana, Brazil, since 1985.
February 8, 2012
Dear Friends,
Charlene isn’t really fond of public attention. She will speak in public if it is for God’s glory. She will stand in front of a class and teach for people to come to know the Lord, or to know him better, but not because she enjoys the limelight. She hates either side of a camera, and a microphone even worse. But recently I was mentally going over nearly all the names and faces of the people we have involved in our new work and I see that these relationships began with contact with Charlene. She is unassuming, but is amazingly captivating. Though she is beautiful, other women don’t feel threatened. Though she is shy, she notices others in their need and gets beyond her comfort zone to reach out to them. This letter will become public soon, and knowing her, she’ll be embarrassed, but because of what I’m about to say, she’ll be glad it was written after all.
You see, Charlene doesn’t start up new friendships because she seeks attention to meet her needs, nor does she make herself available to help others because she feels incomplete herself. Her motivation behind all these acts and attitudes is her love and gratitude to God, who through Jesus Christ, has given her joy, salvation and a purpose for living. With Charlene, I can say, Thank you Lord for calling us into a relationship of love and service for your glory and our happiness.
School started back again this week, so our main venue for taking the gospel to unreached masses has opened again. Projeto Vida started planning and practicing this week to have gospel skits and musical presentations ready to go into the hundreds of cities where there are no evangelical churches. We are also getting the buses/motorhomes ready for highway travel. The first two weeks of February are spent training new volunteers and tweaking programs and preparing equipment. Last year we reached nearly 100,000 people with the gospel through this ministry and we hope to do the same or better this year, with God’s help.
Bro. Wacaser in front of their new work.
The construction on our new work is progressing steadily. We had to install some protective fencing around the property because of the constant threat of theft, so we are now able to install electrical wiring and bathroom fixtures that would otherwise run the risk of being stolen. It would be nice to live in a world where we didn’t need to spend our precious little resources on barricades, but this is part of the reality that we face in a fallen world. We pray, hope and work in such a way that some of those who would today steal from God’s servants, may shortly become his servants. But in the meantime, we need to keep our guard up to safeguard what has been entrusted to us to build a lighthouse in the community.
They have installed some protective fencing around the property because of the constant threat of theft. Now they can install electrical wiring and bathroom fixtures that would otherwise run the risk of being stolen.
We have Brazil’s Carnaval week coming up soon and we are really excited about the opportunities for evangelism that are available. Our mother and daughter churches will be holding an evangelistic camp for the entire family (as opposed to “youth camp”). We are encouraging all our members to invite lost families to participate since this holiday weekend is usually a carnal mess in Brazilian culture (picture Mardi Gras over the whole country, not just in one city). Also, Projeto Vida will be heading to three beach cities to evangelize right out among the throngs of party-goers, being with them, but not like them. We have seen some amazing results in years past through this avenue of outreach and we are praying that this year will be even greater.
We are thrilled to have all these ministry opportunities to make our great God and Savior known. We thank Him also for your partnership with us in this endeavor. May you be blessed for your love, prayers, concern and support of our ministries.
In Christ’s love,
Bobby, Charlene and Brennen Wacaser
Rua Manoel Valdomiro de Macedo, 2281
81170-150 Curitiba, PR Brasil
(813)436-9980
robertmw[at]brturbo.com.br
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Additional deductions from our missionaries’ monthly deposits
We had the sad responsibility again last month [January] of having to make additional deductions from our missionaries’ monthly deposits in order to cover the Essential Maintenance Transactions that provide their base support from month to month [salaries, standard expense allowances, hospitalization, and Mission Sheets]. If our monthly General Fund offerings don’t meet these disbursements, then we must make additional deductions from what we have committed and given to our missionaries to make it balance. Last month’s total additional deductions from their combined offerings was $8869.67. A proportionate additional deduction is made from each missionary’s total offerings designated to them by name. They are not able to sustain these amounts of deductions from their already-much-too-modest and sorely-needed monthly support funds. Please give additional offerings to our monthly General Fund as God enables you.
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