Missionary Update: Sheridan & Anita Stanton in Peru [July 2013]
Sheridan and Anita Stanton have served the Lord in Peru since 1983. 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.
July 10, 2013
Dear friends,
The entire street in front of our house is in the process of being repaved. New water and sewer lines are to be installed. Many times they work late into the night; the noise from jackhammers, dump trucks and backhoes can keep the noise level uncomfortably high while at other times we experience an unusual and peaceful quiet when they are on a break and there is no traffic. I can sleep through just about anything but Anita is a “light sleeper” and has had a tougher time adjusting to the “progress.”
The street in front of the Stantons’ house is being repaved…
The end of June, I traveled to Bogota, Columbia to be one of three expositors in an International Training Seminar for Christian Counseling. The organization that sponsored the event is called CENFOL, and they had asked Grace Fellowship International – GFI (an excellent Christian Counseling organization) to come and teach on the Exchanged Life Counseling Method, sometimes known as “Spirituotherapy™.” GFI asked me if I would help with the teaching, all in Spanish, and I agreed. It was a great experience and many Christian psychologists and counselors gave testimony of finding victory in Jesus after understanding the true identity as believers “in Christ Jesus.” The teaching was very well received and as result I have been asked to teach seminars at a later time, in the countries of Venezuela and Ecuador, and at a marriage retreat for couples in Cartagena, Columbia. I thank Dr. Charles Solomon and Dr. John Woodward of GFI for inviting me to participate with them in this extraordinary event. It seems the Lord keeps opening up more and more doors in this area of ministry, Christian counseling. May God receive all the glory in all that He chooses to do through us, in Christ.
My son, Joshua, has been deployed for the third time to Afghanistan. Anita and I hope you will all put him on your prayer list. It will be about eight months this time. Thank you.
The Calvary Baptist Mission here in Huánuco continues to do well and the enthusiasm to learn continues to be high in my Monday night preacher’s class. Anita and I support a dozen Peruvian missionaries on a monthly basis. These missionaries have works scattered around the country. We are able to help them with the support that you send us each month by way of Baptist Faith Mission. They all are reporting good attendance and most of them have seen souls come to know Christ as Savior each month. We thank God for you, our supporters, for your willingness to sacrificially give each month so that the Lord’s work will continue not only here in Peru, but around the world.
I have still not heard from those of you that were planning a mission trip for next year to Peru. Write me soon and lets set some dates.
Bro. Sheridan Stanton was one of three expositors at an International Training Seminar for Christian Counseling in Columbia. This opportunity opened even more doors!
Until next month,
Being “in Christ” by God’s Grace,
Apartado Postal 860
Huanuco, Peru
South America
(614) 500-8823 – Internet Number
sestantonperu[at]hotmail.com – Sheridan
arstantonperu[at]gmail.com – Anita
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Missionary Update: AJ & Barbara Hensley [June 2013]
The Hensleys have spent nearly 15 years serving in Brazil. They run a vocational school and orphanage in Caraguatatuba and have also established a church and mission points throughout the city.
Friday, June 21
Friends and family,
It has been an AWESOME 3 and 1/2 weeks here. We have had 2 groups back to back, what a blessing for us and the new Church start. When you put together a group of people on a mission trip (ie: firemen, policemen, students,teens, moms, electricians, office workers, teachers, pastors), miracles happen. Our Church building is just about remodeled and it is beautiful!!
Members from FBC Centerville begin painting the church.
They have completely painted the exterior of the Church building, put in an extra bathroom, constructed the sound booth area, built 3 cabinets for the kitchen, tiled the floor, worked at the vocational school, did 3 vacation Bible Schools (one at the Indian Village), repaired a trailer (electrical and fenders), and started putting up speakers in the Church. How AWESOME is that? Two of these Bible Schools were in Public Schools. It don’t get much better than that!!! Also at these Schools, we were able to do a work project. We painted the exterior walls around the schools. These groups have been an AWESOME testimony around the schools where they did the Bible Schools. And due to people passing the Church while we were working, joking, talking differently, and playing, we have had an amazing increase in attendance these past 3 weeks. We have been in the high 80s. How AWESOME God is!!! The Lord is moving in this neighborhood. Thanks Hallsville Baptist Church of Hallsville, Ky., Centerville Baptist Church of Centerville, Ga., and Central Baptist Church of Paris, Ky. Thank you is such a little thing to say after so much work, but THANK YOU ALL for helping expand the kingdom of God here in Brasil these past weeks.
Bible School in a public school!
So if you are a church thinking about a mission trip, I highly recommend a mission experience here in Caraguatatuba, Brasil. You can make new friends, create amazing relationships, accomplish impossible tasks, and also help build the Kingdom of God. (Sounds a little bit like a job for Superman), but with God the impossible becomes possible.
Well what more can I say —COME ON DOWN.
Barb and I are so blessed to have friends and Churches that pray for us, and help financially in this ministry here in Caraguatatuba, Brasil. So continue to pray for us as you know Satan is never happy when you are expanding Gods kingdom and he is very angry with us right now. So I ask you to pray a hedge of protection about us as we work for the Lord here in Brasil. Without you and your prayers and financial help, we would not be experiencing the joy of seeing God at work here. Thank you all so very much.
Again, come and see what your help is doing here and put your hand to the plow with us, even if it is only for a week. God can do many miracles in just a week.
In His service,
Aj and Barbara Hensley
ajcaragua[at]gmail.com
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Missionary Update: The Wacasers in Brazil [July 2013]
Bobby, Charlene, Jessie, and Brennen Wacaser have served the Lord as church planters in Curitiba, Parana, Brazil, since 1985.
July 4, 2013
Dear Friends,
We are in the middle of one of those experiences that we have been privileged to enjoy several times since beginning our ministry in Brazil. On several occasions we have been asked to host individual youth in our home who were sensing a call from the Lord to use their life in missions or gospel ministry and who wanted to have a cross-cultural experience to validate that call.
This summer (our winter in southern Brazil), we are getting that privilege threefold. We are hosting two teenage girls from the Tampa, Florida area and one young man from the Houston, Texas area. I am going to let them share with you a short report of their experience as they traveled and ministered together with our outreach ministry, Projeto Vida, on a three week mission trip to the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. They traveled with a team of 12 Brazilian missionaries in a motorhome, which was their “home” for three weeks.
Carley Clark (age nineteen from Brandon, Florida)
“And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.” (Acts 5:41-42)
When I first came to Brazil in 2010, I began to feel the call to missions. Every year that I came back to Brazil with my student ministry, the call became stronger and stronger. In August of 2012, I felt the Lord calling me to come to Brazil for a summer to experience the true life of a missionary–not just the week-long trip that I had experienced several times before. I thought that I was prepared for everything until I went on a three week long trip with Projeto Vida to Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.
The Wacasers’ summer interns! The last girl on the right is Rachel Weaver, another intern, but she’ll be around for 10 months, not just the summer.
Our first week in Rio was really great. We were able to witness to a lot of people and many people from the church responded to the call to missions. We left this church to go stay at a camp for what I thought was a couple of days, but turned out to be for a week and a half. The camp that we stayed at was in rough state. The room that the girls stayed in had dirty concrete floors, the bathroom was disgusting and had no doors to the stalls or the showers, and there were spiders and bugs everywhere. I was not excited to spend the next few days here. The next morning, I woke up with an eye infection, a cold, and what seemed like a thousand mosquito bites all over my legs. I was really missing my family, and I had no way of contacting them. I was also on clothes washing duty, so I spent the day with a few others washing the clothes of fifteen people by hand, and later that day I took a freezing cold shower.
While thinking about how awful my circumstances seemed to be, I thought back to my devotional time a few days before where I read about how the apostles were beaten and left rejoicing because they were counted worthy to suffer for the Name. Day after day, no matter what their circumstances were, they preached the gospel, and that is what we are called to do. I realized how selfish I was being and that I needed to rejoice that I am counted worthy to suffer for the gospel. When I take an abundance of cold showers- I rejoice. When I have an eye infection and a cold- I rejoice. When I have to paint Spiderman on a little boy’s face who probably hasn’t had a shower in a week- I rejoice. I’ve learned that missions is not easy. It’s not glamorous. It’s exhausting. But it’s worth it. We are called to spread the love of Christ to the nations and I rejoice that God has chosen me to share His Name to the people of Brazil this summer!
Paige Rechsteiner (age 19 from Tampa, Florida)
One of the days when we were in Sao Paulo we went to an area with favelas, which are like small shacks stacked on top of each other. This area was known for being rough and for drug trafficking so we decided it would be best if no pictures were taken. Two other girls and I were face painting for the kids and it was awesome to see that a simple design on the children’s faces would make them so happy. Few of the children had nice clothes and they didn’t smell very good, but God reminded me how dirty we are with sin. We are filthy and smelly in His eyes, but God still looks to us with open arms and a loving heart, which is exactly how He wanted us to look at those children. No matter how dirty or smelly they were, I still wanted them to come to me and talk to me. And when they saw their face colorful with paint, they were happy and all of their smiles that day made being there worth it.
Trent Smith (age 20 from Lufkin, Texas)
My first trip with the Alpha Team of Projeto Vida to Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo was incredible! I met the team in Rio during their time of rest after they had already worked with another church the week before. It was nice to arrive during their days of rest as it gave me an opportunity to get to know the people that were with Alpha team. It also gave me an opportunity to learn some skits that we would perform before we went into schools.
There are two things that stick out in my mind about the trip that are special to me. While we were putting on a presentation in a school in Rio de Janeiro, I was praying for the people that were present and listening to the presentation. I looked up and noticed that many members of the team had their head down and were praying for the presentation as a whole as well. This happened without any prompting from the leaders of the team. It was a blessing to see people responding to the Spirit prompting them to pray!
The other moment that is really special to me happened on our first night in Sao Paulo. Daniel and Victor, two of the leaders, had asked me to play guitar and sing a song at the end of the church service that we were attending. I was feeling really negative about the whole thing. I’m not really sure why, but I just kept thinking, “They aren’t going to understand the words because I’m singing in English.” And I just thought that it was going to be awkward with no actual worship taking place. As I began to sing, everyone present began to sing along in a beautiful mixture of English and Portuguese. God was able to use me, despite my bad attitude, to lead people to the throne in worship. I was floored. That is a moment that I will never forget.
Bobby, Charlene and Brennen Wacaser
Rua Laudelino Ferreira Lopes, 279-1
Bairro Novo Mundo
81050-310 Curitiba, PR Brasil
(813)436-9980
robertmw[at]brturbo.com.br
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Missionary Update: The Radfords in Kenya [July 2013]
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.
Dear praying friends,
Another month has come and passed, and we are now over halfway through the year of 2013. We thank the Lord that He has given us another month to serve Him, follow Him, and also for health and strength to do His work here in Kenya. The Lord gives us so many blessings, and many times I forget to thank Him and praise Him for His faithfulness. Even though there are many trials throughout life, may we take the time to thank the Lord for all He does for us. As the old saying goes, “Don’t get so busy adding up your troubles, that you forget to count your blessings.” This prayer letter will give a current update, as well as prayer requests.
We thank the Lord for the progress that we have been seeing here in Kitale in church planting. It has been exciting to hear the reports that are coming from the national that my good friend Roger Tate and I have been training. God has really blessed his efforts, and several churches have been started in differing areas of Kitale. With the help of the Lord, not only has he begun a church, but he has been training other faithful men to go and do the same in their respective villages. I feel that this is a fulfillment of 2 Timothy 2:2, which states “And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.” We praise the Lord for this, and this can only be done with the Lord’s help. How we need to rely on Him each day, for strength, guidance, and wisdom as we do His work here. We are also continuing with the church in Shangalamwe, and giving the church elder more and more responsibility to lead as we gradually pull away. Please keep all of these ministries in your prayers.
Since I have not reported on the hospital in a while, I thought I would write some about it also. We thank each of you for your sacrificial giving and prayers with this ministry. You are such a blessing. Recently, my wife went to the Kitale district hospital and there were three abandoned babies. This of course, is difficult to see these babies in this condition, so she does her best to get them placed in good children’s homes in the Kitale area. The Lord has blessed with this, and she has been able to assist many of them with getting placed after their stay at the hospital. The needs here are so great, and we ask you to please keep praying for this ministry and also for my wife, as she is faithful to go and assist as she can and the Lord provides. Isaiah 1:17 states “Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.” We will keep you updated of this ministry.
Our children are continuing to progress well. McKenna is now five years old and will be starting kindergarten soon. That is so hard to believe. I can remember like it was just yesterday that she was crawling, learning to talk, etc. Life passes by so fast. She is developing into a wonderful daughter. Camille is now two years old. She is walking well now, slurring words that she tries to put together, and also is doing well. How we thank the Lord for the two daughters that He has blessed us with. Please continue to pray for them, and as before, we ask you to pray that the Lord would provide other children their age here in Kitale to play with. We trust the Lord with this.
In closing, we would like to briefly share our current needs. We are planning to return to the States in just a few months, and our current needs now are for housing and for a good, reliable vehicle to use while on furlough. We would prefer housing in the Charleston/Huntington WV area, if possible. Also, we really need a minivan to be able to have the room for our family and travels. We would be interested if anyone is interested in donating the minivan or selling it so us at a reasonable price. Furlough is very expensive, as we have to pay not only our expenses here in Kenya while away, but also expenses while we are in America.
If anyone would like to assist, we would be very grateful. We are just praying and waiting on the Lord for these needs. Psalm 33:20 says “Our soul waiteth for the LORD: he is our help and our shield.” You can email me at: naterad[at]yahoo.com if you are interested in assisting. Thank you for allowing us to share.
May God bless each of you for your prayers, interest in missions, and sacrificial giving. I wish each of you a wonderful celebration tomorrow for the fourth of July. We will keep you updated.
Nathan and Carrie Radford
P.O. Box 4150
Kitale, Kenya
East Africa 30200
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Missionary Update: The Tates in Kenya [July 2013]
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,
Usually in my newsletters I speak mostly of the progress or needs of the ministry, or I speak to matters of the culture, or I give you general updates on how I think things are going. This month I feel compelled to take a slightly different turn and speak of things that touch me much more personally, both as a missionary and as a father. What has spawned this thinking and caused me to write as I am this month is that my oldest child, Emily, will graduate from high school in 10 days. It would be extremely difficult to explain the mixture of joy and sadness I feel just thinking about that fact. Joy, because of the great accomplishment she has achieved by graduating from a boarding school in Kenya. Sadness, because after I take her back to the States, in a couple of months I know I will leave her there, 8000 miles away, and return to Africa without the knowledge of when I will see her again. But this letter is not about me, it’s about her.
Emily is a very strong person. She draws strength from deep reserves that I cannot see. I am enormously proud of her. I believe that when I leave her in the States, her heart is prepared to fly straight and strong. But I want you to explore with me the tremendous amount of change this young lady will be going through over the next few months. 1. In 10 days she will graduate from Rift Valley Academy. She will leave all her friends as they scatter around the world, and it is likely she will never see any of them ever again. She will leave the campus where she has lived for most of the last four years and most likely never see it again. 2. In August she will leave the continent of Africa. She will leave her home, pets, and things behind with no knowledge of whether she will see these things again. She will leave the country and culture that has become familiar to her over the past 5 years. 3. She will enter into a culture which has become foreign to her, one in which she has not spent many of her formative years – Namely, the American culture. She is what is called a Third-Culture Kid. A Third Culture Kid is a child who was taken from their original culture (the American culture, to which they no longer relate) and moved to a new culture (the Kenyan culture, to which they never have related). Thus, because they no longer fit in to either culture, the original one or the new one, they form their own culture, a third one, which is different from all others. Third Culture Kids can find it very difficult to assimilate into either their original or host countries’ cultures, and they often find it difficult to adjust and get close to others. They can often seem emotionally aloof, though they don’t mean to. 4. She will probably have to find a job to help pay for college without any knowledge of American work culture. 5. She will have to learn to drive again (she obtained her driving license just a few days before we left to return to Kenya). 6. In January she will begin college in the States, breaking into that new university culture half way into the college year. Most of the incoming freshman will have already acclimated and formed new friendships by then. 7. A couple of months after starting college, her parents and siblings will leave her by herself and return to ministry in Africa, 8000 miles away (she may be looking forward to this but it will rip my own heart out).
I am writing this to help you contemplate the tremendous amount of change and challenges that a missionary kid, and in this case, my kid, Emily, faces. I’m not saying she feels this way, but I would be scared out of my skin to be facing these same challenges. I implore you, enter into prayer with me for Emily as she commences upon these new challenges and opportunities. Pray that God would shower her with His grace, that He would be with her every step of the way, that He would strengthen her with His love and faithfulness, and that she would thrive as she looks to Him in all things. And while you are praying for her, remember the other missionary kids that you know. I have two others (Amy and Josiah) and you probably know other MK’s as well. I can tell you from experience that the issue of their children is probably what worries missionaries on the field more than anything else in their lives. Pray with us, won’t you?
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 96
Kitale, Kenya 30200
rojuta[at]gmail.com
Visit their blog!
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Missionary Update: John & Alta Hatcher [July 2013]
Missionaries John and Alta Hatcher have served the Lord in Brazil since 1955, planting over 70 churches that are still in existence.
Dear Brethren and Friends,
First of all, let me say a word to our wonderful missionary wives. I have read or am reading your wonderful letters of testimony as faithful partners with your husbands on the mission field. I am so touched by each one that I cannot read more than one at a time. Your dedication to your husbands and families cannot be fully understood except by those who have gone through a similar experience.
Dear Missionary friends and fellow-helpers, please pray faithfully for these missionary wives. On them depends the faithfulness of their missionary husbands, the spiritual development of their children, and the acceptance of the family among the people with whom they work to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ. God bless you, dear missionary wives.
MONTHLY MEETING OF PASTORS AND WIVES – Several years ago Valdir dos Santos, pastor of the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Cornelio Procopio began having a meeting of all the pastors of our churches and missions on the first Monday of each Month. The pastors met in the church auditorium and the wives met in his home that was on the second floor of the building. He asked Alta to bring a Bible Study for the ladies. She continues to prepare and bring this study each month.
For the Pastors, it was and continues to be an informal and profitable meeting. Each tell about their services, blessings and disappointments, what they have tried that worked and what did not work. Each Bible texts are discussed as well as subjects where there are doubts or truths discovered. Finally, the meeting is closed with Prayers by each for the works, special needs and new outreach. It is a time that each looks forward to and benefits in their spiritual fellowship with our brethren.
Pray for these dear servants and their wives.
Sincerely, in the Name above every Name,
John A. and Alta Hatcher
Caixa Postal 112
Urai, PR, Brazil 86280-000
jhatcher[at]uol.com.br
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Missionary Update: John Mark & Judy Hatcher in France [July 2013]
Missionaries John Mark and Judy Hatcher have been serving the Lord in Tournefeuille, France since 1999. They define their ministry as “disciple-making.”
July 1, 2013
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Cast your bread upon the waters,
For you will find it after many days.
In the morning sow your seed,
And in the evening do not withhold your hand;
For you do not know which will prosper,
Either this or that,
Or whether both alike will be good.
(Ecclesiastes 11:1,6)
The preceding passage in the concluding portion of Ecclesiastes has often been an encouragement to me. The value of this inspired advice was once again evident in some of the events that took place in June. I will share a bit that might also encourage you.
On Wednesday nights, I have Bible study with a young man named Samuel. We have studied through the Gospel according to John and are now in the letter to the Romans. This young engineer had not made a profession of faith though we have been studying the Bible together weekly for nearly a year. Because he comes straight from work we enjoy Judy’s good cooking each Wednesday evening before diving into the Bible. As we ate a couple of weeks ago, he mentioned how long we had been having the studies together and I did not quite see where the conversation was heading. However, at the end of our study that evening, he again said something similar and then added, “I was wondering when I could get baptized.” He then went on to share how he had always seen Christianity as do, do, do and that now he could see that it was a joy to live out what Christ has done for us. He has trusted Christ and will be baptized next Sunday.
In the middle of the month, the community choir that I sing in had a planned a retreat. I was not particularly interested in going because my worldview is so different from the other members of the choir. However, remembering that I joined this choir to make friends to whom I could witness of Christ, I signed up to go. Most of the members of this choir are atheists or agnostics. You could count on the fingers of one hand those who are religious and they know nothing about the Christ of the Scriptures. During this weekend, I was able to “sow the Good Seed” in several lengthy and in depth conversations. I do not know “which will prosper” but I will mention an event that happened the following week that underscores the importance of sowing.
As Judy and I were praying Wednesday morning following the above mentioned retreat, there was a knock at the front door. When I opened the front door a lady from the next block over was standing there with her two young boys. We met this lady at the annual neighborhood picnic a year ago. She immediately asked if we had Bible instruction for children. We had invited these two boys to our last “Vacation Bible Club” and they did not come. We often speak to this lady as we pass in front of her house walking. We pray for her and many of our other neighbors nearly every day by name. A school mate of the oldest boy informed him that God was still alive. He came home and told his mother who decided that they needed some instruction about God. However, she told us that she did not want them to be taught lies so she came to us. The two sons have been to Sunday school that last two weeks. Their mother told me that when they arrived home the first Sunday, they said, “We want to make sure and go back next Sunday.”
The mother expressed an interest in studying the Bible with Judy and I, along with her husband. Yesterday, we had this year’s neighborhood picnic and once again made new friends to whom we can witness. We had some good conversations about spiritual matters. One of the neighbors, who lives across the street from us, announced to several of us who were sitting together what a blessing it was to listen to our services from his house. He also mentioned how much better our Sunday School was than Catholic Catechism.
So, “let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.” (Galatians 6:9)
Sowing in France with your help,
John and Judy Hatcher
4, rue d’Aspin
31170 Tournefeuille, France
JMHatcher[at]aol.com
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June 2013 Mission Sheets [PDF & Flip-Through]
Your June 2013 Mission Sheet is now available in PDF format. Follow the link below to view it!
You can also flip through the mission sheet at the link below. When flipping through, you can enlarge the pages by clicking the magnifying glass with the arrow in it. ( <–> ) Flip by clicking on the curled up page corner.
(Once you get there, click at the bottom of the page to flip through.)
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