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
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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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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: 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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Missionary Update: John Mark & Judy Hatcher in France [February 2012]
Missionaries John Mark and Judy Hatcher have been serving the Lord in Tournefeuille, France since 1999. They define their ministry as “disciple-making,”
Dear Co-Laborers in Christ,
Greetings from frozen France. Well, I hope that we are not still frozen as you read this, but the last couple of weeks have been marked by unusually cold weather in all of Europe including Tournefeuille, France. Our winters are generally mild compared to where many of you live. There is rarely snow and little accumulation of the frozen flakes. We have only had mail service one day this week and trash collection is not taking place. Frozen pipes have been a common occurrence. This winter reminds us that God is in control! This includes opening doors that no man can close.
On Sunday afternoons after the meal, we have a review time and prayer for the work of the Lord here. Last Sunday, following prayer time I took a couple of the grandchildren out to do some impromptu sledding. The hill near our house was covered with sledders with parents watching. This gave me the opportunity to connect with many people I had not seen for a while and seems to have opened more doors for the future. God uses cold winters!
Greta with mother and siblings. She is the daughter of Joachim and Angela.
During the past month we have had a couple of first time visitors. One is the most recent child born to Angela and Joachim. What a joy to see God’s blessings on this couple who demonstrate clearly a love for the Lord since being saved. Joachim was the first person to be baptized into our congregation here. Greta is their third child. Two weeks ago, Joachim broke some sad news to us. This summer they will be moving to Germany with his job. This departure will leave a big gap. Former members of the Tournefeuille congregation are now living in six countries besides France. We have regular contact with most of these. Though it is sad to see them go, we know that historically God has used these movements of His people for the propagation of the Gospel. The church at Antioch and beyond are a good example of this. We work at preparing those who are saved to be good evangelists and disciple makers here or elsewhere.
Paolo, a young man that sings in the community choir in which I participate, came to our Sunday meeting for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I have been acquainted with him for about a year, but did not know much about him. With tears in his eyes, he told me about seeing is father for the first time in 20 years. His father’s departure from his home was quite abrupt and has marked his life. I told him about the Heavenly Father Who was always faithful. We pray that God will save this young man.
Pasqualine, is an eight year old girl who has been coming regular on Sundays. She is the daughter of a couple who also sing in the above mentioned choir. I have had the opportunity to witness to both of them but they have never come. Nevertheless, this daughter is quite interested. “Let the children come unto me.”
Sunday, Gilbert, another one of our men members, is teaching the adults for the first time. We are studying through the wonderful letter to the church at Colosse. This young man has really grown in the Lord during the last couple of years. His wife is saved and they participate regularly along with their 3 children. She also helps in Sunday School.
Thanks again for your participation in what God is doing here. Until next month, stay warm and above all seek to maintain a warm relationship with the Lord and His people.
For Christ in France,
John and Judy Hatcher
4, rue d’Aspin
31170 Tournefeuille, France
JMHatcher[at]aol.com
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Missionary Update: Nathan & Carrie Radford in Kenya [February 2012]
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 and premature babies.
Dear praying friends,
Another month has come and passed so quickly, and we thank the Lord for His care, protection, and guidance. What a great God we serve, and what a privilege it is to work for Him. God is so faithful, and we appreciate the opportunities we have to serve Him each day. This update will share ministry progress as well as prayer requests.
I realize that I don’t write a whole lot about our family, so I thought I would write a little about them. God has blessed me with a wonderful wife and two daughters that I love so much. Camille, Lord willing, will turn 1 year old later this month. Where has the time gone? She crawls all over, keeping us busy, and has even started taking steps when we hold her up. It is a joy to watch her grow and develop each day. McKenna is the typical 3 year old and she is also such a blessing. She turns 4 in April, Lord willing. She loves playing outside with our dogs and snuggling with her little kitten. She loves reading books and plans to start homeschooling in the future. Please pray for us as parents, that we would lead them in the ways of the Lord and be the example to them that we need to be. One of my favorite quotes is: “The family that prays together stays together.” How true this is.
The Annex prison ministry is continuing along well, and the Lord has provided good, serious Bible students who seem to be growing spiritually. I also am thankful for the administration for being supportive of this ministry and allowing it to continue on. We have studied several lessons of the course “Firm Foundations – From Creation to Christ.” It is a joy to minister to these men, when so much of society has forgotten them. The men seem to be enjoying the teaching and are also being challenged from the Scriptures. The Scriptures profit us in so many ways. 2 Timothy 3:16 states “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” We will keep you updated on this ministry and we thank you for your support and prayers.
Please pray for myself and my good friend Roger Tate, as we continue to work in Kitale in church planting. There are many challenges here and we would covet your prayer support. Please pray that the Lord would provide faithful servants to carry on His work here. We are working with different groups in their homes, teaching them the Word of God and challenging them from the Scriptures to carry it on to other villages that need the Gospel and churches started. It has been exciting to watch the Lord work in hearts and see men who want to take the teachings and reach others. In other words, reproduction. Please pray for us, that the Word would be taught with clarity, so that the Word of God would spread and many churches started in the Lord’s timing and plan. There are many challenges, but God is faithful and will help us each step of the way. I read a quote recently that I really liked. It said: “Nothing is too big for God.” What a great reminder this is, no matter what the task ahead of us is. Please keep this ministry in your prayers also.
We are so thankful to each one who writes us, encourages us, sends photos, etc. You all are so thoughtful and such a blessing. We appreciate each of you so much. Thanks also for your prayer support and sacrificial giving. We could not do this work without you. We will keep you updated of what God is doing in Kitale.
Until next month,
Nathan and Carrie Radford
P.O. Box 4150
Kitale, Kenya
East Africa 30200
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Missionary Update: Odali & Kathy Barros in Brazil [February 2012]
Odali and Kathy Barros have served the Lord in Sao Paulo, Brazil for many years. In addition to leading their newest church, they also run "Alpha Omega Family Development," which provides a home and stability for needy people, many of whom are recovering drug addicts, etc.
Time does not stop or wait, it keeps on moving, we must not loss time in sharing God’s love to those around us. The real purpose of why God put us on earth!! The final goal is eternity. Unfortunately most of the time we spend planning our earthly gains and forget the best investment of all times. SOULS! I pray each one of us will remember that the coming of our Savior is closer each day. That we will use each opportunity we have to tell someone about Jesus. We need to live a life that others may see Jesus in us.
Last Sunday we had a wonderful Sunday school. But, there was a specific thing that happened that touched my heart. One of the ladies who live with us, who has used drugs most of her life, asked me to go get a friend to come to church. I went with her to get her friend. The location is the worst place for drugs in this town. As I drove up the streets was full of people just standing around, drugged, drunk or both. People just standing around, with know meaning to life. The ladies husband at first hesitated in letting her go, but the friend finally convened him to let her come. When we got to church the bus route that Odali drives arrived. All of a sudden the lady I brought was hugging a little girl. It was the ladies daughter that she had not seen for 4 months. Because of the kind of life she was living the courts gave the children to her sister that does not let her see them. What a place to meet, at God’s house. This is only one story, but like this one there are many others. Pray for these children and these families that we can above all things place in their hearts that God loves them and that He died on the cross for our sins. That is worth living for!!!! God’s plan for us is simple. Let us not complicate it.
We have had lots of rain here in Brasil. Thankfully where we live is so high up that we do not run the danger of flooding. But in other places they have not been so fortunate. Many places have had some serious damage.
God has given us the opportunity to preach to 5 states with out going out of our house! Maybe you’re asking how could that be possible? Down the road from our house a construction company is building over 700 houses. The company needed a place to sleep their construction workers and came to talk to us. We let them use one of the halls where we used to have the school. They pay for the utilities they use. They are from at least 5 different states.
Most of them are from state in northeast Brasil. A mission field right in our yard! At the end of each day they play soccer with the guys that lives here at Alpha and Omega. We have made it a project to gain these men by our testimony. They have been here for 2 weeks. We have had the privileged of several of them come to church. Pray for them as they hear the gospel that they may understand and receive Him as Savior. Can you imagine these men getting saved and then going back to their families?! We praise God for this opportunity!
Kathy with her brother, missionary Paul Hatcher, and her son Gabriel.
I took our 3 boys to camp last week. What a time of refreshing. It is fun to watch them grow and enjoy camp in a different way. They made many new friends from other churches. They just had lots of fun and fellowship with other Christian teenagers. I also had a great time with my brother Paul and his wife Wanda and my parents. It is not often that we get together.
Odali & Kathy Barros
Caixa Postal 182
17400-000 Garca, SP
Brasil, S.A.
odali_kathy[at]hotmail.com
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Missionary Update: Roger & Julie Tate in Kenya [February 2012]
The Tate Family has served the Lord in Kitale, Kenya since January 2008. Their main ministry is indigenous church planting.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I want to sum up the last month with the following two words: Exciting challenges. That might seem like an oxy-moron to some. This is true even for me as I have to remind myself repeatedly that the challenges we face truly should be exciting because God is working and doing things and He can overcome all challenges. Obviously, I would like everything we do to succeed and go smoothly. That’s my nature. I really don’t like challenges and difficulties. But I guess if everything went exactly how I wanted and all things went smoothly then I would be less dependent on God and more confident in my own abilities (which I am learning are quite limited). Anyway, that’s my pep-talk to you and to me. So, what are some of the exciting challenges? They center around the groups that we have started and hope to groom and mature into churches.
In the first group we have difficulty starting on time and having people show up at all. Last week we waited and waited to start the meeting and by the time we realized only the host couple was going to show up, it was too late to actually conduct the meeting. But, the exciting thing is what the host couple has been doing. They have been putting into practice the things we have been teaching them. The wife has been sharing her faith to multiple people every week and so far has led three people to Christ. She has exciting stories to relate to us of people trusting in Christ each week. Now the challenge is getting these people to come to the group meetings so they can start to learn how to follow and love the Lord Jesus. The husband wants to take the lessons and the model we are teaching him and start another group with some people he witnessed to a couple of miles from his house. This would be a major goal coming to fruition, to see a group or church reaching out to start another group or church all on its own and without the direct intervention of the missionary. This would bring on a whole new set of challenges. We will see how it goes.
In the second group we saw the members who were coming dwindle down to just two. This was discouraging but the exciting part was that one of the members who was coming faithfully wanted to move the group to his own village (he was coming from about five miles away) so that some of his family could come. We decided to move the group out to his village and start the lessons from the beginning for the benefit of his family. I was expecting about four or five people at the most. There was already that many people there when we arrived and over the next fifteen minutes the crowd grew to sixteen people, not including me and Nathan. We were crammed into the little house very tightly and I was beginning to get very nervous about my Swahili abilities but God gave us a good meeting and I think many of these people will return again next week.
As of this week we will also start our third group. This group will meet for the first time this Sunday and I don’t know how many people to expect. A friend of ours got us into contact with the elderly man in whose house we will meet. He is a believer but the only church in his village is a church that he says looks a lot like a Catholic church and he doesn’t want to go there. This is a village of people who are from the Bakusu tribe and I am hoping that they all at least speak Swahili (this is not a given). The greatest challenge for this week might be in finding his house again. He lives about 20-25 minutes from my house in a remote village. It will be difficult to find again and the only way I can see to get there is on the motorcycle as I don’t think the car will make it to his house. We pray that God will use this man and his household to start another church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Until next month, beloved.
May God’s peace and joy be with you.
For the glory of God in East Africa,
Roger & Julie Tate (and Emily, Amy, & Josiah)
P.O. Box 761
Kitale, Kenya 30200
rojuta[at]gmail.com
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