Getting Back to Normal
June 22, 2020
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Hope that all is well with each one of you dear friends and supporters. Praise God we are all well here. Things have been so different with what you can do and what you can’t do. But slowly, things are going back to normal. Almost all the services are back to normal. This week, two of the missions will start back. While we could not have services, we maintained contact with as many as we could through internet, and for those who don’t have internet, we made quick visits. We tried to help as many as we could by giving food and taking fish to various families. Also, some food was donated by a family in the church to help other families in need. We are doing some remodeling at the church at Iranduba to solve some problems. There is a big problem with water there, so we need to build a tank to reserve water. The water only comes once a day and is very weak. At the church at the community of Cacau, we are still working fixing the church building. It was in poor condition when we took over the church.
Ubim 
Cleaning Ubim 
Pedras Vivas 
Sunday School & Snack Area
Kathy went to Ubim today and washed the church building and cut the grass. Everything is ready for next week. Kathy visited around the community and talked to the people from the Indian tribe. She loved seeing all of them and they had fun seeing Kathy. Kathy talked to the leaders there and everything is ok to start next Monday.
For us that have so much freedom, it was kind of hard not to go to church and other places. Hopefully through this we can remember those in others places of the world that can’t do what they want when they want to—especially when it comes to the gospel. Our prayer is that all of us come out of this situation stronger in the Lord!
Since there was not much we could do outside our home, we took advantage and are working on our house doing some remodeling. Things are looking good!
We thank you for your prayers and your support. May God richly bless each one of you. Pray that as the ministries get back into the swing that we can reach more people and that they may see their need for the Lord in their lives.
In Christ,
Odali & Kathy
Contact Info:
Iranduba, Amazonas
Brasil, SA
odali_kathy@hotmail.com
For ministry donations:
Pastor George Sledd, Treasurer of BFM
P.O. Box 471280 | Lake Monroe, FL 32747-1280
or click here to donate to BFM online.
Read more
Preparing to Equip Amidst Bumps in the Road
June 22, 2020
Friends and family,
Serving as a missionary has been and is one of the most AWESOME things of my life. Though there have been some bumps on the road, the love of this calling is still AWESOME. These last three years have been filled with more bumps than the others. First there was the discovery of cancer, the operation of the cancer (they did not get all the cancer with this surgery), then after the waiting time for the surgery to heal, I had 38 radiation treatments—and to further assure that the cancer was gone, they started injections in the stomach of hormones for a year (this was more painful than any of the other treatments).
We do not always know what God has in store for our lives, but we know that He is in control. After all this I was sure that God was not finished with me yet. So instead of planting churches, my focus has moved to equipping the pastors and church workers with a seminary to train them in the Word. So, the way of doing God’s work has changed, not our focus.
As we enter into the second year of the seminary there is another bump in our road. The COVID-19 virus. As you know, this has changed all our lives and our way of life. So, we have had to cancel all the classes for 2020. Not only has COVID-19 changed our lives, but also the lives of the Brazilians. So, now we can no longer go to Brazil, and when the virus reaches Brazil, they are like Americans, they are quarantined and without work. This all means that we cannot go to Brazil, but even if we could, the pastors will not have any money to pay for their courses.
Now we are using this time to plan for next year. And boy, what a year it will be. So that we can make up the year we are losing this year, we are looking at having 20 classes in 2021. This means that we have to schedule the classes back-to-back so that I will be able to accompany each of the American professors.
We will be allowed to conduct 7 of the classes in the virtual format. This is something that we have been working on since the virus. The rest of the classes will be held in seven different locations. These will be with the professors, the translators, and me.
Well, I have seemed to ramble, but all to show that even though we have been in quarantine, we have continued to work.
We need much prayer for these plans to go forward smoothly. So please get on your knees and lift us up to the Lord because we know the AWESOME God that is in charge, and He knows the plans He has for our lives.
In His service,
Aj and Barb
Contact Info:
AJ & Barbara Hensley
Cell #s — AJ: 859-539-2302 / Barb: 859-539-1424
ajcaragua@gmail.com
For ministry donations:
Pastor George Sledd, Treasurer of BFM
P.O. Box 471280 | Lake Monroe, FL 32747-1280
or click here to donate to BFM online.
Read more
Celebrating 50 Years of Marriage
June 20, 2020
Dear Brethren,
Well now we are 3 months without services in our building. I had to have all of our congregations, mission points and chapels suspend public meetings. This includes our works in the far-flung towns and villages where we have missionaries in their fields. The home church has continued to do well financially so far, and we are able to continue to support all of our missionaries with their full salaries. Last week I did authorize our congregation at Foz do Breu (on the border with Peru) to resume services. They are still not authorized to conduct their regular river trips to the various mission points that they cover. I gave this order even though the state has not given permission for any churches to hold public meetings. The town there still has not had any cases of the virus, so I went ahead and gave them the go ahead with regular services.
Bev and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary. We were married on Friday, June 12, 1970. We had planned to celebrate this date by going to the States for a few weeks. We had even bought tickets, hotel reservations etc. The church here bought our tickets for the international flight. All those plans imploded. We are still just as happy as always though. A lady from church came out and took some pictures for us. That evening Andrew’s family and Crissy’s family were with us for a meal. God has blessed us with a very full and fulfilling life. We have 4 beautiful children who honor God with their lives. We have a bunch of beautiful, talented grands who are also His. We have our adopted kids, too. We have many children in the faith, as well. We are part of an incredible church and mission work. Our love grows steadily. It is just hard to understand how 2 people, so different, could be so right. We have spent almost all of these 50 years in a very isolated place, under mostly harsh circumstances, depending on one another and our Lord. Bev and I have been a “unit”, a “capsule” from the time we met. Many have wondered why we are so insular. We confess: we really aren’t very “social”. This is the way it had to be to do the job He separated us for. Only He could do such a miracle.
Mike & Bev with Andrew & Crissy’s Families
Bev has not been out for the last 2 months. I do our shopping once every 15 days. Every item is sanitized, one by one. The past few weeks I have been working at camp doing some good ole hard labor and getting home late every night. Three days a week I record lessons and messages for our YouTube channel, Facebook and radio programs, too. Although the governor will probably open stores, restaurants and churches this week, we won’t be back to regular meetings any time soon. Cruzeiro do Sul is 2 months behind the rest of the country. All of Brazil is in a mess. We are the worst in the world right now in numbers of confirmed new daily cases. Politically we are in deeps trouble, too. The president is on the right track, but has no backing in either the senate or the congress. To top it off the 11 justices on the supreme court are all either communist or leftist appointed by socialist over the past 30 years. Not one conservative to be found. The supreme court over the past few weeks has decided to take over the country. It is a disaster. Pray for us.
Thanks for all of your prayers and support. God bless you as much as He has us.
In Christ,
Mike Creiglow
Mike and Beverly Creiglow
Caixa Postal 24
Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil 69980
mdcreig [at] hotmail.com
For ministry donations:
Pastor George Sledd, Treasurer of BFM
P.O. Box 471280
Lake Monroe, FL 32747-1280
or click here to donate to BFM online
Read more
With Bad News All Around, the Good News Still Stands
June 19, 2020
Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ,
Unfortunately, this month’s newsletter is mostly just bad news. I wish I could say otherwise but the truth is the truth – Corona is wreaking havoc on our ministries here. Churches, schools and government offices are all closed so you can imagine what effects that is having on us.
Bad news #1: Government offices still closed. My work permit officially expired back in March. I had already filed to renew it and it was “accepted”. However, the offices closed before I could receive my paperwork. Where is my paperwork now? I don’t know. What does that mean for my status as a resident in Kenya? I don’t know that either.
Bad news #2: Schools are still closed. If you’ve been following our newsletters on a monthly basis you know that for the last two years Julie has been working diligently and feverishly as the Head Teacher of the newly started Milimani Christian Homeschooling Community (MCHC), a project started by some of our dear Kenyan friends here in Kitale. We didn’t start this school, nor does it belong to us, but Julie especially has been very instrumental in getting it off the ground and keeping it running. It obviously means a great deal to us. When Corona hit Kenya, this school was also shut down. The implications of this are grave. With no school fees coming in the teachers cannot be paid and the rent for the property has not been paid for months. While the directors of the school are trying to get extensions for the lease, the landlady has not been compliant and is demanding all back payments as well. I do not see how the school as a business survives this Corona Virus. There is simply no cash flow and the property almost certainly will be lost unless something miraculous happens. The imminent demise of the school is a source of much pain for Julie especially.
Bad news #3: Upper Room Baptist Chapel will lose its meeting place. Yes, you may have guessed it – URBC rents the facilities from MCHC and holds its weekly worship services there on that property. When and if MCHC loses its property then URBC loses its venue for worship and ministry. URBC cannot officially meet right now either (although I am in the process of getting special permission to do so) but when our services do start back up it looks like we will have to also start looking for a new location in which to meet. This is very depressing to me, as you might be able to imagine. I liked our current location very much as it was very conducive to the way we wanted the Chapel to run and operate. Now it looks as if we almost certainly will lose this venue as well.
Bad news #4: It just seems like Satan is against us at every turn. Our ministries are in disarray; Our main grocery store in town closed down; Our landlord will not allow any of our friends to come onto our compound; Josiah cannot get out of the country to get back to the U.S. and start college; I keep getting arrested by corrupt police officers who are not arresting me over legalities or infractions but simply to extort bribes from me because I have a target on my back. Ever feel like nothing is going right?
Good news: God is still on the throne; God is still in control; God still loves us; Jesus is still King; Jesus’ work on the cross still stands; Our salvation is sure; Jesus will come back and will triumph; God’s work will progress. In this we stand. In this we trust. In this we move forward.
Blessings to you all,
Roger, Julie, Amy, Josiah & Chloe
Contact Info:
Roger & Julie Tate
P.O. Box 96
Kitale, Kenya 30200
rojuta@gmail.com
For ministry donations:
Pastor George Sledd, Treasurer of BFM
P.O. Box 471280 | Lake Monroe, FL 32747-1280
or click here to donate to BFM online.
Read more
Challenging Times in Kenya
Nathan and Carrie Radford serve the Lord in Kitale, Kenya. Their main ministries include indigenous church planting, a prison ministry, and a hospital ministry for mothers with premature babies.
June 5, 2020
Dear praying friends,
Another month has come and gone, and we are nearly halfway into 2020. Hard to believe.
What a year this has been, especially with the coronavirus. It has been challenging here the past few weeks, which I will explain shortly. May God bless each of you for your prayers, sacrificial giving, and interest in work here. We know it is truly sacrificially giving at this time and we appreciate it so much.
To say that things have been abnormal the last few weeks would be an understatement. There are many police at the entrance to town, and there is a 7 pm curfew. Also, Nairobi, the capital city, is locked down and has been for the past several weeks. It is difficult to get entry, and from my understanding, you have to have special permission. International flights have also been restricted and are much more expensive to purchase than previously. Schools, churches, and other public gatherings have also been locked down the past few weeks.
My wife continues to homeschool our daughters. She is enjoying it and the girls are doing well in their studies. This has been a challenging and anxious time for them, as we simply don’t have the answers at present and have to trust the Lord.
We are thinking of and praying for you all in America as well at this challenging time.
May we trust God each step of the way, as He is in control. We will keep you updated and appreciate each of you so much.
Nathan and Carrie Radford
Contact Info:
Nathan and Carrie Radford
P.O. Box 4150
Kitale, Kenya
East Africa 30200
For ministry donations:
Pastor George Sledd, Treasurer of BFM
P.O. Box 471280 | Lake Monroe, FL 32747-1280
or click here to donate to BFM online.
Read more
News & Reports – June 2020
The Online Edition of the June 2020 BFM News & Reports is available at the link below. Read how God is working through the lives of our faithful missionaries and continue to pray for them.
Note: You can also click on any headline to view the story on our blog.
Read more
Doors of Opportunity Unlocked Amidst Lockdown
May 20, 2020
Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ,
It’s still all Corona, Corona, Corona around here. And as a result of that not much has been altered since the last time I wrote a report.
Schools are all closed so the kids are all at home. Josiah is at home doing on-line schooling. He is finishing his final term as a senior at Rift Valley Academy. He has missed his interim trip, his senior trip has been canceled and his graduation ceremony is probably canceled as well. It is unlikely he will ever see any of his friends again before they all head off to their home countries and home continents. Chloe is home too. Julie is homeschooling her and I am assisting by teaching math.
Churches are all closed. I haven’t been able to meet with the folks at Upper Room Baptist Church for many weeks now except individually. Everyone I talk to wants to get our worship services started back up again but to do so would be against the lock-down orders. At what point do we say we have to meet anyway?
Nairobi is locked down. Nobody is allowed in or out.
At least we still have access to food, water, and medicines. Our supply lines are operating as normal and all the necessities of life are still readily available.
The one thing we are desperately trying to avoid is Kenyan quarantine. People who test positive for Covid19 AND everyone they come into contact with are quarantined in official Kenyan quarantine centers. We all hear that these places are nightmares – No care, crowded, Corona-contracting centers. Healthy people get quarantined and are not allowed to leave. They end up coming down with the virus. I was in town today and saw a sign at the store: “Help contain Covid19 – Donate here to send street kids to quarantine centers”. I had to shudder.
But not all is bad news. There are opportunities as well. The other day I was in town picking up some supplies and I was at the store of a Hindu proprietor. He started talking about Corona and I said, “All I can do is pray, and trust God, and leave the rest in His hands”. The Hindu store owner stopped and said, “Yes, thank you. I guess we should be talking more about God than about Corona Virus”. Now I know that the “god” in his mind is different than the God in mine but we have small opportunities to talk to people these days in a way we might not be able to during a normal time.
Another opportunity is to invest in the lives of other people. As a result of the schools closing, we have two Kenyan teenagers studying here at our house and Julie is overseeing their education and I am teaching them Geometry. One is staying with us around the clock, including boarding here and the other comes every day for school purposes and then leaves at the end of the day. Yesterday, during their morning break, the four of us (myself, Josiah and the two Kenyan teenagers) sat on the veranda while they drank their chai and we just talked. And the most amazing questions and discussions came out. We talked about salvation, heaven, missions, f=ma and e=mc2, the movements of planets, English idioms, biological taxonomy, sin, grace verses the law, Jesus’ interpretation of the 10 Commandments in Matthew 5, Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and what happens to morally upright Muslims who have never heard about Jesus. It was all done in a casual way and I didn’t lead them to any of these topics. We just talked about whatever came up out of their brains. What an amazing time to try and make sure they heard wisdom from a Biblical perspective on all of these topics.
Let’s ask God to give us more of these kinds of opportunities during this chaotic and unnerving time of uncertainty.
Blessings to you all, Roger, Julie, Amy, Josiah & Chloe
Contact Info:
Roger & Julie Tate
P.O. Box 96
Kitale, Kenya 30200
rojuta@gmail.com
For ministry donations:
Pastor George Sledd, Treasurer of BFM
P.O. Box 471280 | Lake Monroe, FL 32747-1280
or click here to donate to BFM online.
Read more
A Month of Quarantine with 4 Kids in Brazil
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
I hope this letter finds you well and joyful, despite the circumstances. As you can imagine, we also are facing the threat of this new virus. The city of São Paulo has been in quarantine since March 20th. All schools, public and private, were closed, as well as non-essential businesses. Those who can are staying at home as much as possible. Our kids transitioned from traditional schooling to online home schooling. That in itself has been a major challenge. I thank God for my husband, who has helped them adjust to distance learning, and daily assists our four children in their studies. We had two computers, now we are trying borrow two more in order to accommodate their needs. Overall, they are doing amazing. Laura had all A’s this past quarter, Sarah and Benjamin also had A’s and B’s. Melissa has more difficulties, as she was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder and memory problems, although she was also placed in the superior range for IQ. We ask your prayers regarding this subject. We do our best to find strategies and didactic approaches to teach her, but we notice that, in many ways, it has affected her self-worth. But we are blessed. Sarah turned fifteen on May 30th and Ben turned twelve on May 24th. Laura will be fourteen on July 20th, and Melissa will be nine December 1st. During this time of social distance, they have not left the house, so we try to keep them busy with different fun family activities, tasty meals and treats. They also enjoy videoconferencing with friends and family.
Benjamin 
Laura 
Melissa 
Sarah 
Regarding myself, I have been substituting for a missionary friend in his coordination position of a Christian Fostercare Project. He asked me to replace him temporary, as he needed to be with his family. He and his wife have five children and one of them, a 10-year-old boy, has battled leukemia for almost two years. A few weeks ago, he received a bone marrow transplant, but he is in critical condition. He has been hospitalized for the past seven weeks. There are hundreds of people interceding for his life and for his family. Please, pray for them also.
Our church, like most of them here in Brazil, has been meeting online to pray and encourage each other. One of the ladies who meets with us also has cancer and she does chemotherapy. Pray for her, and her husband and daughter.
I would also like to share about another friend of mine; we were neighbors during my graduate school, and since then we have been best friends. One year and six months ago, she was diagnosed with cancer in her pancreas. During this time, she did all the treatment she could at John Hopkins Hospital. For some months it was in remission, and it seemed to be fine. But now, she is sick again, and with little hope any treatment will help. I have been supporting her during this long journey, and I feel very sad. She adopted a little boy just five years ago. I ask you to please pray for my friend, her name is Vanessa Martiny. She lives in Pennsylvania, she is a believer in Jesus, she has a strong faith, and she holds on to the hope she has in Christ.
We sure live in difficult times. But we remember what the apostle Paul said in Romans 8:38-39 “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
We are the happiest people in the world because we know there is so much more ahead of us. Thank you for reading. Thank you for praying, thank you for supporting us with your finances, thank you for caring. May God give you peace and joy.
Much love,
Raquel Hatcher
Contact Info:
Jud & Raquel Hatcher
São Paulo, Brazil
judsonhatcher@gmail.com
For ministry donations:
Pastor George Sledd, Treasurer of BFM
P.O. Box 471280 | Lake Monroe, FL 32747-1280
or click here to donate to BFM online.
Read more
