Back in Brazil!
Jud and Raquel Hatcher serve the Lord in São Paulo, 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.
August 5, 2016
WE ARE BACK IN BRAZIL!! These last few weeks were intense. We departed from Lynchburg, VA, on July 19 at 6:00am and arrived at our destination in São Paulo on July 20 at 11am. Praise the Lord, we arrived with all of our 16 luggage items, 6 hand bags and 6 backpacks. We’d like to say a special thank you to all who were intricately involved in our departure. We are appreciative of your time and love poured into our lives.
We were able to sell our vehicle and keep it until the day we traveled. Since we’ve arrived, we’ve looked at over 30 (7 seat) vehicles around the city and almost the same amount of homes for rent. This means driving from one end of town to another, at times it takes 2.5 hours, just to cross the city. (At least I enjoy driving. LOL ). We have placed a rental bid on a home, but different than in the States, the process of renting a house is not short of extensive paperwork.
The Lord is already opening doors within the subway neighborhoods for church planting. I’ve shared the Gospel on numerous occasions and have made several new friends. Pray for us over the coming months as we survey the targeted areas, search for host homes, begin Bible Studies and assemble teams for each neighborhood.
Please, continue to pray for us as we settle into the city. We are searching for a car to purchase and a house to live. It is exhausting and satisfying at the same time. Certainly, the Lord has and is our strength.
The kids are doing well. They are always excited about each new step. Although, they are getting tired of looking at cars and homes. This new school year will be an interesting one, as we will be homeschooling all four of our children. This is our first time as homeschooling parents. Pray for us as we establish our new educational routine with the children.
Thank you for your prayers and support. We couldn’t do it without you.
Grateful always,
Jud Hatcher
Address:
Pray as they search for a home!
(859) 608-4742
judsonhatcher@gmail.com
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Safely Back in America on Furlough; More Break-in Attempts at Compound
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.
August 1, 2016
Dear praying friends,
We hope this update finds each of you doing well. Thanks so much to each of you who sacrificially give, pray for us, or encourage us in any way. We truly appreciate each of you and thank you for your kindness.
I (Nathan) am now back in the United States. It was definitely an interesting few weeks at the end of this term. As I have said before, there were repeated break-in attempts at our compound over the past few weeks. This is very unusual for Kitale. After my family left for furlough, I stayed at a safe guest house in Kitale for a few weeks while closing down. I thank all the staff at the guest house where I stayed, as they were wonderful. While I was at the guest house, there were two attempts at our compound. One was during the morning hours at the compound next to us, and another was at night along the front road. We are thankful both attempts were unsuccessful for the thieves but we remain vigilant to keep our family safe. We have worked hard to increase our security on our compound and for the past several weeks it has been quiet. However, a couple days ago, we found out there was yet another attempt at our compound. It occurred during the day, which is unusual and shows the boldness of the thieves. There were at least 2 thieves, possibly more, who cut through the hedge and barbed wire (that we just installed) at the back of our compound. Our day guard confronted the thieves and had his hand hurt by a machete (panga in Swahili) during the process. Our day guard was successful, though, in capturing 2 thieves, tied them up and turned them over to the police. We are hopeful that turning them over to the police, as well as planting new thornbushes all around the compound will deter more thieves from attempting to break in. We have also gotten a third guard dog to help keep the compound safe as Kenyans fear dogs almost more than other security measures. Please pray for the police and all the security companies, that they would work hard to catch all these thugs. Our trust is in the Lord for all these matters. I love Proverbs 18:10 which says “The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.” We will keep you updated on these matters.
It was a difficult final few weeks, but I thank the Lord that I am now safely back in America with friends and family. Family is so important, and I am looking forward to spending quality time with them. After being out of the United States for two years, it was both overwhelming and wonderful to step foot on American soil. I am now in a stage known as “reverse culture shock,” where it will take time to adjust back to America. It was neat to fly over the Middle East (Iraq, Iran) on my way home, as this is part of the world I have never been to.
Please pray for all the ministries while we are on furlough, as well as our friends and partners, the Tate family. There is much to do over the next few weeks, such as finalizing the missions presentation, getting a missions DVD done, doing a family prayer card, etc. I will soon be scheduling churches for our furlough, so if you are interested, you can email me at: naterad@yahoo.com. I will also send a DVD to those who are interested in the work that God is doing in Kitale, Kenya. I have learned that God doesn’t need us, but we certainly need Him. We can do nothing without Him. How we need to pray regularly, read the Bible, seek His will, and follow His leading. Weneed Him for everything. Psalm 86:11 says “Teach me thy way, O Lord; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name.” May this be the sincere prayer and desire of our hearts.
We will keep you updated.
Blessings.
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.
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The Land of Big Macs, Smooth Roads, & Endless Choices of Cheez-its
The Tate Family has served the Lord in Kitale, Kenya since January 2008. Their main ministry is indigenous church planting.
July 29, 2016
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I find myself in the United States of America. The land of Big Macs, smooth roads and endless choices of Cheez-its at Walmart. I arrived in Detroit and had a short two-hour drive to my in-laws’ house. While everyone else went inside the house I stood out on the green grass, closed my eyes and took a deep breath. The sun shone on my face and the wind blew in my hair. This may sound crazy but it just felt different than Africa feels. It sounded different, it smelled different, it just felt different. It felt familiar. Like a hot Michigan summer should feel like. Now, I didn’t say it felt better, just familiar. Homey. Like I remember it feeling when I was younger. My beloved country.
We are currently in the States for just a short visit, just until the end of August and then we will return to Kenya. We are here because Emily will be getting married on August 6th, just 8 days from the date of my writing this report. It has been a hectic visit so far. Up to northern Michigan to visit my parents, back to southern Michigan to visit Julie’s parents, a quick trip to Dayton to visit our home church, back to southern Michigan, and we head back to Dayton tomorrow for another quick visit to Emmanuel Baptist. Finally, a hectic week next week leading up to the wedding. This will be my first experience of a child of mine getting married so I don’t know exactly what to expect. I don’t want to predict how I will be feeling come next Saturday but I suppose those of you who have already gone through this experience could teach me a thing or two.
We temporarily leave some very precious things back in Kenya. One is Chloe. We tried and tried to get her to the US but we did not succeed. We spent a lot of time, effort and money but in the end we were not able to procure the documents that we needed for her to travel to the US. Kenyan immigration refused. We were greatly disappointed, even heartbroken. The thought of leaving her in Kenya for a month was devastating. But in the end we knew and accepted that it was not in God’s plan for her to travel here with us. We have left her in God’s hands and also in the hands of some very dear friends of ours in Kitale who had graciously accepted to keep her until we return. We know she is in good hands but getting back to her will make returning to Kenya sweeter. The other things we leave in Kenya is obviously our ministries. Because our trip to the US is only a short trip, we were able to suspend most of our ministries until we return. The people we are working with in Kitale are eager to start the teachings and ministries back up upon our return and we should be able to restart things without a hitch. Other ministries have been left in good hands. I was excited when Kefa volunteered to continue the group meetings that meet in his house while we are absent. He will take over the teaching and leading responsibilities until I return. I was praying that he would be willing to do this and I know this ministry is in good hands.
Our hearts are torn between two places that we love so much. We have children, family, friends and churches on both continents that are dear to us. It is hard to live with your heart in two places when your physical body can only be in one.
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 & Chloe)
rojuta[at]gmail.com
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Outreach Festival at Main Church, Growth in Iranduba & Multirão
Odali and Kathy Barros served the Lord in Sao Paulo, Brazil together from 1987-2013. In late 2013, they transitioned to Manaus in Northern Brazil to start sharing the Gospel and planting churches in villages along the river.
July 27, 2o16
Greetings to all our friends and supporters!
Hope you all are doing well and rejoicing in the Lord. We are doing great.
We have had great things happening in our different missions. Here at the main church we have had great blessings. We planned an outreach festival. The area here is rural, so we asked the members to bring friends that were not church members—and especially lots of people. We started planning for 150, but, as time went on, we realized that people were really getting excited and that we better plan for more people. Good thing we did! We had 300 hundred come. It was exciting! We had the youth group from the mission in Iranduba do a skit and then I spoke. It was great! Last Sunday we had a family that came as a result.
At the mission in Iranduba we have started a new program for the youth to reach out to lost youth in their community. They are really excited. It’s called “Missiom” Rescue.
The mission at the community of Multirão is doing well. We are training a team to work here. They are doing well and keeping the number of people and visiting. The mission at Ubim is doing great and growing. The families where we have been having services have been so gracious, but with the growing number we are limited. We are praying and looking for God to show us a place to buy and or build.
Also the mission at Iranduba, we need to look for a place to buy land to build. The place we meet is rented and really is not cheap for the size it is. And we don’t have any class space. Please pray that God will direct us to some good deals and good locations.
We praise God for all of you that have faithfully supported our ministry. God bless each of you tremendously!
Love,
Odali & Kathy
Odali & Kathy Barros
Caixa Postal 1
Iranduba, Amazonas 69.415.000
Brasil, S.A.
odali_kathy[at]hotmail.com
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News & Reports – August 2016 [Online Edition]
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God Uses a Blackout to Shine the Light of His Gospel
Bobby, Charlene, Jessie, and Brennen Wacaser have served the Lord as church planters in Curitiba, Parana, Brazil, since 1985.
July 12, 2016
Dear Friends,
Projeto Vida was in two towns recently that are virtually unreached by the Gospel. I want to share two amazing things the Lord did to open the door for reaching folks who otherwise would not hear the message of Christ.
First, after our team got set up to begin their public presentation of skits and testimonies in a local park, they could see that in every house people were sitting inside with their TVs on, not showing any interest in coming out to see or hear what was being offered. Then, all of a sudden, the electricity for the entire neighborhood went out! The only light or sound that could be seen or heard was where they were presenting the Gospel. The Projeto Vida motorhomes are equipped with gas-powered electric generators and the team had light and music and was ready to begin their presentation. The local blackout continued, so the neighbors began to leave their homes and make their way over to the park to watch as the teams shared the gospel through music, skits, testimonies and preaching. At the end of the presentation, several dozens of people made public professions of faith in Jesus Christ. When the leader of the team was speaking individually with one neighbor after the event, the lady said that she had been praying for her city to come to Christ and it didn’t seem like anything was happening. She prayed that the Lord would send along some help in reaching her neighbors and they rejoiced in believing that God had sent the blackout as an answer to prayer so that the Gospel would be heard.
Another event occurred that also showed God’s power at work. One of the other outreach teams was getting set up outdoors to give a public presentation of the Gospel when heavy rainclouds moved in and threatened to drench the event. We have seen God act in many ways and we know that He is not obligated to do what we tell Him. But, we also know that He has taught us to pray and to expect that He will answer according to His will and for His glory. The team paused to pray before deciding to dismantle all the equipment that could be harmed by rain. They sensed that God wanted them to continue with the program and so they did in faith. The Lord blessed to hold the rain back throughout the two-hour presentation. At the final invitation to surrender to Christ, several people professed that they had accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior. After the team dismantled and stored the equipment the rain began, and hard, and did not quit for 3 days. God is so good and powerful.
We are excited about being really close to being able to purchase our first passenger van to replace one of our burdensome travel buses. Several folks have contributed toward the purchase of the first of what we hope to be four vans to carry on the outreach ministry more efficiently. We thank each one of you who has contributed and we hope that very soon you will be able to hear about the first mission journey of that first van.
In God’s love,
Bobby Wacaser
Bobby and Charlene Wacaser
Furlough Address:
3912 Casaba Loop
Valrico, FL 33596
Field Address:
Rua Laudelino Ferreira Lopes, 279-1
Sobrado 1, Bairro Novo Mundo
81050-310 Curitiba, PR Brasil
Phone: (813) 481-7007
Cell Phone: (813) 727-6405
Email: bobbymichael_1@hotmail.com
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Inauguration, Construction, and Radiation
The Hensleys have spent nearly 20 years serving in Brazil. They have established a church in Caraguatatuba and mission points throughout the city. They have also recently started a seminary to train pastors.
July 12, 2016
Dear friends and family,
We started this month with a special meeting in our church: we inaugurated our new pastor. Here in Brasil, the coming of a new pastor to a church is a big deal. There is a special service with a Pastor from another Church preaching, a laying on of hands, and an eating meeting. So we had the whole thing and accepted Walmir Quaresma as the lead Pastor of Igreja Batista Caragua. This means that I am now the second Pastor and will have less duties; this will let me come home to the States to have my radiation treatments. I can do this with one less preoccupation while doing so.
We have had a hard month of construction this month. We are still doing remodeling at the church and we are remodeling the house on the lot for our new pastor and family. Also, at our house, we have painted the outside and are waiting to do the same to the inside. Here in Brasil the homes require much more maintenance than the homes in the States, especially here in Caragua because of the closeness to the beach. This means that the water level is closer to the surface so the walls of the homes sometimes get water saturated and begin to bubble and peal. This also brings mold and that is a big problem for Barbara. Little by little, we are getting it done.
The house for the pastor and family was supposed to be done the last of June but we are still waiting for the completion, so the pastor and family are living with us—but you know how much grandparents love their grandchildren, so we are loving every minute of it. We are hoping that they will be in their home by the end of this month.
We are anxiously waiting for the group from Georgia to come in July to get the tile laid in the church. This not only will make the sanctuary look beautiful but will also make it so much easier to clean. We did get the bathrooms installed but the funds ran out so we will wait a bit more for the glass doors to cut the road noise in the sanctuary. Pray for the funds for this project.
We have our tickets purchased for our trip back to the States. We will leave here on the 25th of July. The purpose for this trip is for me to begin my radiation treatments. Pray for us on this trip. The date of the starting of the treatments will depend on the extent of my improvement since my surgery. I am scheduled for 30 treatments all done on week days. The weekends will be for rest and getting ready for the next week of treatments. I don’t know what to expect because I have never had cancer before nor have I had radiation. So pray for me and God’s grace for this next part of my life. I want to thank you all in advance for your prayers during this time. I can do all things through God who strengthens me.
Since we will be home for about 3 months I cannot invite you down but I can say “Get ready for your mission trip next year.” Caraguatatuba is a great place to serve God so come on down and visit us.
In His service,
Aj and Barbara
Aj and Barbara Hensley
ajcaragua[at]gmail.com
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New Full-Time Missionary in Tipisca; Two More Ready to Go
Mike and Beverly Creiglow have served the Lord in Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil together since 1971. In addition to pastoring First Baptist of Cruzeiro do Sul, Mike builds his own boats and frequently travels up and down rivers to share the Gospel with those who have never heard.
July 9, 2016
Dear Brethren,
Our missionary to Peru, Brother José Maia, just made another visit to the Kaxinauá tribe on the Breu River. This river is the border between Peru and Brazil. The tribe lives 35 miles upstream. This is a very hard trip this time of year. The river is tiny, shallow and full of log jams. He took a young and new arrival from another reservation on the Purús River. This missionary was recommended by a former worker, Eduardo Puricho, who is now working in Pucalpa, Peru. The new guy is Brother Fred. As you may recall, José always has to preach through an interpreter. This time Fred did the preaching in the native language. Seven made professions of faith. Two of these were the twins, Cosma and Damiana’s, parents. Fred has now gone back to bring his wife and children back to Tipisca. He will be our newest full time missionary. Now we are trying to get his support together. With the economic crisis that Brazil is going through, it will be a big challenge. The Lord will provide. We have two other missionaries ready to go to two other fields. They are also waiting for us to get their support together. Pray for us.
Last month I made a visit to our congregation at Serra do Moa on the upper reaches of the Moa River near the mountains. Two of my grandsons went with me. These are 2 of Crissy and Dauro’s boys. Caleb, their oldest, is 11 years old and Adriel is 8. The river is already at its lowest, so we went in and open boat with a jet drive outboard. The going was slow, but easy to get over the logs and shallows. They were really good travelling buddies. On Sunday morning we had a really big crowd. The building was as full as it could get, the porch was full and many standing in the field outside. We had folks from four of our congregations from three other tributaries of the Moa River. After the regular service we went down to the river for a baptism. The river is plenty wide, but very shallow. There is a beach on the church side of the river. The crowd was standing on the beach. I was almost on the other side of the river to find enough depth. Five were baptized. Some of these were Nukini Indians. For the first time ever I took a water proof camera out into the river with me and was able to take a picture of the congregation back on the beach. Pretty neat and I will send you one of those shots along with a picture of the candidates.
We held a baptism and Lord’s supper service at First Baptist Church on Sunday, June 26. There were 21 new members added. The crowds were as big as they could be for our “little” building, both in the morning and at night. It has been a while since both of these services have been this big.
Bev and I are in Rio Branco right now. She underwent some minor surgery and is recovering well. I am here to take care of her. We hope that the doctor will let us go home next Thursday.
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
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