Marveling at God’s Creation in Celebration of Good News
March 29, 2022
Dear friends,
March was packed with excitement for our family. My parents came to visit us in Wheaton, IL from Florida. It was short but sweet! Truly blessed by them. Melissa received the school district’s superintendent art award. This month we also celebrated Benjamin´s 14th and Sarah´s 17th birthdays. The Lord blesses us to see our children grow physically and in their knowledge of Christ with the desire to serve Him. We thank the Lord for them. What made this month particularly unique was the confirmation from my oncologist (based on the imaging and blood exams). I am cancer free! We bless the Lord and thank Him for His healing hand. Thank you for your prayers during this treatment time.
So, how did we celebrate? Raquel suggested that we marvel at God´s mighty creation handiwork by going to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. We love admiring His creation. We especially loved visiting the “Amazon” display. Seeing the variety of fish, fauna, and flora common to us felt like home. Four of us were born in Manaus, a city in the heart of the Amazon basin. We saw the largest fish, the pirarucu (which can grow more than ten ft. long) to the most vicious of fish, the piranha. (All of which we have stories to speak of and know what they taste like.) We watched the beluga whale show, the dolphins and the penguins, the seawater fish and the freshwater fish. It was a special day to admire the details of God´s fancy work within His creation. We were impressed! Part of our discussion that day contrasted what we observed with mankind, which was created in the triune God´s image. Yes, we are Imago Dei. Dolphins may be more intelligent than other mammals. But we are much more; we were designed in His likeness. Furthermore, He made us His chosen people through Christ Jesus. What a way to celebrate birthdays and cancer-free news!
This month three people surrendered to Christ in São Paulo. Preparations are underway for an evangelistic campaign during April. Pray with us and the leadership teams in Brazil for success in pointing people to Christ and people within the community to surrender to Him. This month I also was privileged to speak at the Addyston Baptist Church men’s retreat at West Harris, IN. Several churches participated in this marvelous weekend. Thank you Pastors Philip duBarry and David Pitman for organizing this event. I was also honored to share about our ministry and to preach at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Bellbrook, OH. What a wonderful weekend with church people, Pastor Darrell & Mrs. Messer. By invitation of Jarell & Beverly Sill (second cousins of mine), I managed to squeeze in a visit with my great Uncle Joe and Aunt Jessie Sills in Cincinnati, OH.
Grateful always,
Judson & Raquel
Contact Info:
Jud & Raquel Hatcher
São Paulo, Brazil
judsonhatcher@gmail.com
(872) 400-6522
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
First River Mission Trip of 2022
March 28, 2022
Dear Brethren,
Back on the river again! Yeah! Several days ago I was able to get my boat and motor ready for the first river mission trip of 2022. Manoel went with me to the upper Juruá River. We have had a lot of rain and the river is full. We caught it at the perfect stage: full, but not too many logs coming down.
We left at a little before 6:00AM. We went all the way to the border the first day. It took us 11 hours. I didn’t eat anything all day. We got in at just after 5:00 that afternoon. It hadn’t come to mind that it was Wednesday. That meant that we would just have time for a bath before time for services. We had a really good crowd and I really enjoyed speaking to the congregation from Matthew 6:33. It wasn’t until after 9:00PM that I had something to eat. I was so tired after all the piloting and preaching of the day that I wasn’t sure which was going to be better, food or sleep. The first night on a ¾ inch sleeping mat in a tent is usually not that great. This time was better than great.
From Foz do Breu we continued across the border to Tipisca in Peru. It is only another hour upriver with my 60HP and the river was going down, so it was one of the easiest trips ever on that section of river. We had a couple of days of sunshine, so most of the mud had dried up. That made the mile hike with all our gear on our backs much easier.
The visit with our missionary couple, José Maia and Silvânia was really good. While there I was privileged to meet a couple from Paraguay who comes to Tipisca twice a year to help José Maia. It was fascinating to talk to Fritz and Ana Elize. They are both from separate German Mennonite colonies in Paraguay. They both ended up in Canada studying at different stages of their lives in different schools. They knew of each other back in Paraguay, but didn’t come together until later in life. They married in their middle age and are now missionaries. He works as a professor at a seminary in Pucalpa, Peru that specializes in training indigenous workers. She works in the offices there. During their breaks between semesters, they come to Tipisca to help out. They had always dreamed of working with unreached peoples. Fortunately, you might say, there aren’t many of those anymore. Tipisca offers many opportunities though as there is a confluence of 4 different ethnic groups in the town. They have fallen in love with Tipisca and the folks there. That is nothing less than a miracle, as there is not much to love about Tipisca! You would only need a few minutes there to understand what I mean.
Baptism at Foz do Breu 
Baptism at Foz do Breu 
Baptism at Foz do Breu 
José Maia, Silvânia, Fritz, & Ana Elize
They had dinner with us at José’s house. They invited me to have breakfast with them the next day. They speak Spanish (obviously), but also are fluent in English and German. At dinner they mentioned that they understood not a word that Manoel spoke (Portuguese). Everyone has a hard time understanding Manoel. He seems to always have a mouth full of marbles. They mentioned that they don’t understand much of what José and his wife say when they are speaking Portuguese. They were surprised that they were able to understand almost all of my Portuguese. Even though I don’t speak much Spanish, I know how to make the adjustments so Spanish speakers can follow my Portuguese. At breakfast the next day was just English. It was Manoel’s turn to just sit there and not understand a single word. We had a great visit though and shared a ton of information. Very edifying.
We came back to Foz do Breu to spend a couple more days. The tropical rains started up again. On Sunday we had 24 hours non-stop. The river had gone way down, but in just a couple of hours it was on its way back up. Even with all the rain we had big crowds in all services. On Sunday morning I baptized 10 new members. The rain let up just a little and long enough to get in the baptismal service.
The morning we left to come back to Cruzeiro do Sul it was just a light mist at 5:30AM. Within just a few minutes the rains started again. My windshield wiper on my boat is manual. I spent the whole day cranking the wiper while jockeying the throttle and helm. The Juruá River and all her tributaries were pumping out new flood waters from all the rain. The rivers were also pumping out a steady flow of logs. It was a challenge, to say the least. I have done this all my life though. I was cold and worn out by time I got back to the house late in the afternoon. After a warm shower and a hot meal prepared by my beautiful Beverly Jean all was well again.
What isn’t well are the gas prices, as you guys are now finding out. Ours is “just” $6.20 a gallon. How about yours? Running these motors on these trips has always been expensive, but the investment is worth it.
Thanks for all of your prayers and support. God bless you as much as He has us.
In Christ,
Mike Creiglow
CONTACT INFO
Mike & Beverly Creiglow
Caixa Postal 24
69980 Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre
Brasil, SA
mdcreig@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
Mission Expedition to Delmiro Gouveia – Alagoas, Brazil
Projeto Vida (Project Life) is an NGO (non-government-organization) and not-for-profit mission organization. It was founded and has operated since March 1997. Projeto Vida’s strategy is to evangelize through community services, education, sports, music, theatrical arts, literacy and technical job training. All these means are used to share the gospel of Jesus Christ to those outside the walls of the church building.
Our team travels throughout Brazil and South America to remote towns and cities ministering in public schools, parks and town squares. The platform used to open doors by Projeto Vida is to address social ills such as drug abuse, depression, suicide, self-mutilation, teen pregnancy, bullying, and sexually transmitted diseases. A personal relationship with Jesus Christ is presented as the solution to every issue and the team presents this good news through drama, choreographed music, testimonies, and evangelistic messages.
The travel team has a tremendous opportunity and challenge ahead, to take the Gospel to the northeast region of Brazil. Specifically, the team will be traveling to the rural area of the state of Alagoas where a population of over 15 million inhabitants live and less than 1% is evangelized. In this region there are over 10,000 towns without a single evangelical church.
In addition to the region’s dire evangelical situation is the added burden of social and economic poverty. This rural zone of the northeast of Brazil presents the worst cases of illiteracy, mal-nutrition, school dropouts, and poor health care.
We believe that only the Gospel can radically, profoundly, and eternally transform the inhabitants of northeastern Brazil. This desperately needy region continues to wait for the good news of God’s love, peace, and redemption in Jesus Christ. Our team plans to travel to them, sharing God’s love through community services, evangelistic skits, testimonies, and personal evangelism.
We believe the task of reaching these unreached people is an urgent need. We alone can not reach every one of these 15 million citizens, but with your help we can reach many of them.
Our team will, by God’s grace, be going to the city of Delmiro Gouveia, in Alagoas state. The population of this city in a rural region is more than 50,000. The distance from our headquarters here in Curitiba, Parana is 1,800 miles.
In the month of May 2022, our team of 20 evangelists plans to go to this town and the surrounding area to minister and win the lost to Christ.
The challenges of this expedition are great. Some are spiritual, some emotional and others financial. The trip will be 18 days in a 21-passenger travel van. You can help with your prayers for the Lord’s protection
over the team, vehicle, and equipment. You can also help with financial assistance by giving toward the expenses in detail below.
Contact Info:
Bobby & Charlene Wacaser
Rua Laudelino Ferreira Lopes, 279
Sobrado 1, Novo Mundo
81050-310 Curitiba, PR. Brasil
Phone: 55-41-99899-2333
bobbymichael_1@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
Blessings in Ubim
March 24, 2022
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We pray and hope that all of you dear friends are doing well! We are doing well. Thank God things are doing well and getting back to normal. We are being able to start back our services in the different communities. We are making plans to have special programs in these different communities and also have some special programs in schools. Since distance is a problem here, we want to go into the communities. One of the things that we are planning is to have a special pizza day in each of these places and different schools. If you would like to help us with this project, we would be grateful. We figure that it will cost around $400.00 for the places we plan on going.
Our Friday services in homes is doing well. In the village of Ubim, we have started night services. Kathy has been going there for 7 years and works with 50 to 60 kids under 15. Pray as we have services and reach out to the adults and families there.
At the main church, Pedras Vivas, we are doing fine and still working on training adults for different ministries. We hope and pray that they will see the need more and more to reach out to the lost people around us.
A special thing happened with one of the teenagers who stays here with us most of the week. He has helped Kathy in Ubim for several months. He wanted to continue helping there but because of being in school he couldn’t go. But he decided to ask the principal if on Monday he could leave a little earlier to go with Kathy. The principal said sure, bring a letter from your pastor saying that you’re going there to help every week. So, he took the letter. The day he went to talk to the principal it was a different person. She seemed to be giving him a hard time. After questioning him a lot he thought that she was going to say he couldn’t go. But was he surprised!!!! She said, you can go, and I also want you to play some praise songs here at the school and talk about God! He sent Kathy a message totally surprised!!!!! Praise the Lord. Pray for the teen. His name is Gabriel, and he is 15 years old.
Gabriel 
Friday Night Service 
Jump rope with kids in Ubim
We thank God for each one of you who pray and support our ministry. God bless each of you!
Love in Christ,
Odali and Kathy Barros
Contact Info:
Odali & Kathy Barros
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
False Accusation Leads to Positive Opportunity
March 23, 2022
Dear Friends,
We are often looking for opportunities to get the message of the gospel out to people who wouldn’t ordinarily receive it, and we pray for guidance so that we can recognize those opportunities when they arise. The Lord recently answered those prayers with an opportunity that I couldn’t have imagined if I tried to for a hundred years.
In May of 2021 I wrote about a man who had been a Satan-worshiper for many years that had been won to Christ by the witness and behavior of his teenage daughter who attended our church. After his conversion and baptism, he had begun to study the Bible and was growing steadily in his walk with the Lord. An amazing orchestration of events turned that man into a vessel of God in getting the gospel to men incarcerated in the jail system here in our state. After living decades in sinful behavior, but never suffering legal repercussions, he was falsely accused of assaulting a young woman and ended up in jail for several months awaiting judgement. He had shared with me that he was not guilty of the accusation, and I had given him a small Bible that he could easily keep with him and read while incarcerated. After all the investigations and testimonies, he was released last month. The amazing opportunity that I mentioned earlier is that, while in jail, he began to devour the Word of God daily and his spiritual life developed tremendously. Instead of being angry and upset that he was falsely imprisoned, he saw that God had placed him in there for a reason, so he sought to serve the Lord faithfully in his predicament. He told me that his situation there helped him to more fully appreciate how Jesus willingly died our substitutionary death on the cross, though He himself had never committed a sin. His name is Francisco, and now he and I are developing a ministry where he’ll use his inside knowledge of life in jail to reach the inmates with the message of God’s grace and forgiveness in Christ. He is presently working on obtaining his chaplain’s license and he and I meet from time to time to discuss how to implement this new ministry most effectively. We are also combining our Projeto Vida team’s gospel skit presentations to accompany Francisco on some of his visits to the inmates. I would never have dreamed that a false accusation could turn out as such a positive opportunity, but I am extremely thankful that the Lord doesn’t need to wait on my creativity to provide doors for sharing the gospel. Francisco told me recently that being arrested and sent to jail is the second-best thing that has happened to him. The first, his being saved by God’s grace.
We finally “bit the bullet” so to speak and began having double worship services on Sundays. Our attendance had reached near standing room only, so we knew we had to make the decision soon. We had an excellent turnout on our first Sunday and a lot of our folks helped us by choosing to attend the service that wouldn’t normally be considered regular “church time.” By their doing this, space was freed up for both services’ attendance to grow without overcrowding. We are so thankful to the Lord for this growth “problem” and I’m grateful that our people are willing to step out of their comfort zone in order to grow God’s kingdom.
Charlene and I are grateful to you who pray for us and give so that we can focus on God’s calling on our lives to plant churches and disciple new converts.
In Christ’s love,
Bobby and Charlene Wacaser
Contact Info:
Bobby & Charlene Wacaser
Rua Laudelino Ferreira Lopes, 279
Sobrado 1, Novo Mundo
81050-310 Curitiba, PR. Brasil
Phone: 55-41-99899-2333
bobbymichael_1@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
Rejoicing Over a New Believer in France
March 17, 2022
Dear Co-Laborers in Christ,
We hope this finds you enjoying the presence of the Lord in your life. Judy and I just returned from Florida where we spent just over three weeks taking care of my dad while my brother Paul recovered from a hernia surgery—a hernia brought on by physically managing the care of our father. We are grateful beyond words for the care that Paul and Wanda continue to joyfully give. After forty years of service in Brazil they moved to the USA to care for Mom, Dad and Wanda’s mother. The two mothers moved in the presence of the Lord four years ago. Dad and Mom were missionaries serving with support through Baptist Faith Missions for 60 years in three different regions of Brazil. Dad is now very limited mentally and physically.
God has continued to work through His people here in France. Three weeks ago, Timo, an eighteen-year-old young man, contacted Philip indicating that he wanted to follow the Lord in baptism. He has been coming to church activities along with his family since he was in grade school. Timo has clearly expressed his faith in Christ for the last few months and grown spiritually in a very evident way. This is a great encouragement to us.
Some have asked us how far we are from the events in Ukraine. There are about two thousand miles between us and the ongoing conflict. Thank you for your concern and remember to pray for believers who are on site and people who need Christ in Ukraine and Russia.
Thank you for your faithful support in many different ways.
Your brother and sister in Christ,
John and Judy Hatcher
Contact Info:
John & Judy Hatcher
4, rue d’Aspin
31170 Tournefeuille, France
JMHatcher@aol.com
Present USA phone 1-812-416-1033
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 8 Years of Caragua Baptist Church
March 16, 2022
Dear friends and family,
Time seems to be so short and seems that I am always running behind (this is maybe because of my maturity—age).
We have just finished two seminary classes in São Paulo taught by Pastor Raymond Edge of First Baptist Church of Bastrop, Texas. The classes were Old Testament Survey and an elective from the Old Testament, the book of Jonah. Our plans were to have these classes in person and to do zoom classes also; however, circumstances (COVID and finances) only allowed us to do the zoom classes.
Barbara and I are planning to be in Brazil for March and April. We will be visiting family in Caraguatatuba, São Paulo. While there, I will be preaching in a meeting at Caragua Baptist Church for the 8-year anniversary of the church. This will be the 26th and the 27th of March. It is AWESOME to participate in celebrating these 8 years of this church spreading God’s Word in Brazil.
While preaching and visiting in Caragua, I will also be visiting São Paulo and meeting with several pastors and two churches. São Paulo has just lowered its COVID 19 level, and this will allow me to travel more freely.
Please be praying for these pastors as their churches have lots of fear about COVID-19 and their financial ability to properly fight the pandemic. Not so different as from here, but there somewhat more severe.
The Bibles for the Guarani Indians have not arrived as of yet. I am hoping to be able to deliver them while there. How AWESOME will it be to be able to read God’s word in their own language. Pastor Valdival, the missionary working with these Indians, is now out of the hospital and doing well. We have been friends and have worked with him for 10 years. We were happy for him to get out of the hospital and hope to be able to see him when we are there.
Dr. Derek and I along with our wives will be going to a Pastors Conference in Recife representing Bluegrass Baptist Seminary and the work being done, talking to the pastors and those in attendance on July 18–22. Pray for this upcoming trip as we work to continue to teach God’s Word in Brazil. Thanks to all of you for the continuing prayers and contributions for the work God has called us to do here in Brazil. Without both of those we would have a greater problem doing our work. Thanks to Baptist Faith Missions and all the churches who support our missionaries. Keep up the good work.
In His service,
Aj and Barbara
CONTACT INFO
AJ & Barbara Hensley
30524 Mimi St
Sebring, FL 33870-0530
AJ: 859-539-2302 | Barbara: 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
Adjusting Back to Life in Kenya
March 5th, 2022
Dear praying friends,
Another month has come and gone, and we are already into the third month of 2022. Time passes so fast, and may we be busy in our service to the Lord. This prayer letter will share current prayer requests, as well as update you on my (Nathan’s) upcoming ministry plans.
I am in the process of recruiting potential younger Kenyan men to disciple, train, and send out to start churches in their village areas. I have spoken with different men who have lived in Africa or are living in Africa about church planting, and they had a basic model to follow: recruit the men, (preferably men who are already employed), disciple them so they have a firm foundation in their faith, then send them out to villages to start churches.
This is the model I followed this past term, and it was the best progress of any prior term. Unfortunately, covid came to Kenya and we had to close things down. Now that it is possible to meet again, by practicing social distancing, and also masks are encouraged, we can continue.
Lord willing, I plan to start in a village called Taito, which is about a fifteen minute drive from Kitale town. In all of these endeavors, it is God that gives the increase. I am reminded of 1 Corinthians 3:6, where Paul says “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.” Amen. It is the same today. We must trust God for the results in all our endeavors.
In family news, our daughters have adjusted well back to life here in Kenya. They are homeschooling, and my wife is doing a great job teaching them. She is very qualified, and I am blessed with all the sacrifices she makes daily, and for our family. Please pray both for her and our daughters as they continue along in this school year.
There have been many changes in the missionary community since we have returned, and unfortunately, the family that had a daughter our daughter’s ages moved away to another area. We are blessed that there are some Kenyan girls nearby who speak good English, and they are invited to play with them at any time. This is a major blessing. Would you please pray with us that God would provide other families with daughters that could be friends with our daughters? This is a big prayer request for us now, and we are waiting upon the Lord. Psalm 27:14 says “Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.” May we wait in faith, trusting Him each step of the way.
Thanks so much to each of you for your heart for missions. We appreciate the prayers, sacrificial giving, and letters so much. May God bless each of you.
Until next month,
Nathan and Carrie Radford
Contact Info:
Nathan and Carrie Radford
naterad[at]yahoo.com
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
