The Close of a Semester and Planning for the Next
Posted on 8Oct CATEGORIES: AJ & Barbara Hensley [Brazil], General, Letters Tags:Tags: AJ Hensley, Baptist Seminary in Brazil, Barbara Hensley, Bluegrass Baptist Seminary, Caraguatatuba, mission trip, Second Baptist Church, semester, seminary0
October 8, 2024
Dear friends and family,
As we are approaching the end of the semester (October 31st), please be in prayer for our students (pastors, church workers, and leaders) as they prepare themselves for exams. This is somewhat of a stressful time with all the other things they are involved with: economics, pastoring, working, and everyday family necessities.
We are thanking the Lord for Bluegrass Baptist Seminary and the conference we were able to participate in Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil. There was lots of interest created, so we are looking forward to more students signing up for classes. As you know, after Covid, we were hit just like the churches with lower attendance; however, thanks to the AWESOME GOD WE SERVE, every semester there has been increased student applications.
As this semester is closing, we already have next semester’s planning in motion. There will be four classes offered and they will be: 1. Systemic Theology 2. New Testament Survey 3. Old Testament Survey 4. Pastoral Ministries
These classes will begin on the fourth day of February 2025. As our planning is in process, pray for the professors, the students, and the Zoom process to reach all the students effectively. Sometimes our communications systems are somewhat of a challenge and especially for me. And please remember the interpreters as it is super important that they do their job well, and also the many who volunteer in this endeavor for Christ.
Our church here in Florida, Second Baptist, is planning a trip on the 9th of October to Brazil. As you will know, Florida has experienced hurricanes and are expecting one on that day. So, if we have made the trip with no incident, please THANK GOD for His safe keeping and ask for His continued safe keeping. We are planning to see if our church can partner with Caraguatatuba to help expand the ministry there. Barbara and I will be staying after the others return back to the U.S.A. to take care of more business with the Seminary. Sounds as though our departure date may be complicated by a category 3 hurricane making landfall around noon. So, unless it turns north, we may be delayed. Keep us in your prayers.
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
New Seminary Student from the Jungle
Posted on 9Sep CATEGORIES: AJ & Barbara Hensley [Brazil], General, Letters Tags:Tags: AJ Hensley, Barbara Hensley, Bible Baptist Church, Master of Arts in Pastoral Ministries, mission trip, new professor, new student, São Paulo, seminary student0
September 9, 2024
Dear friends and family,
With the conference and the first graduation for the Master of Arts in Pastoral Ministries behind us, we must get back to the work at hand. But just let me say what a blessed accomplishment it all was. AWESOME!!!! The end of classes for this semester and the completion of exams. The classes were Theology of Missions and Lexicon Hebrew. All passed with flying colors.
We are truly blessed because God has sent us a Brazilian to be one of our professors. He will teach for the Bluegrass Baptist Seminary in the class for Pastoral Ministries. He also is the Pastor of the Bible Baptist Church in the center of São Paulo.
This church sold their old building and are now in a construction project that hopefully will be completed in June of 2025. The plans for the grand opening is to coincide with the graduation of the first Zoom classes we were able to have after COVID. This opened a new era for us there in Brazil. These are friends of the Seminary and our friends also.
We would like to introduce you to one of our newest students. We met him in Manaus in July and he showed great interest in entering into the Seminary. We soon discovered that there would be some LARGE hurdles to jump but we always say, “There is nothing too big for God to conquer,” so the class is taught at 7 o’clock and that is 8 o’clock in Brazil. Not such a big obstacle, but this student lives and works in the jungle. And he only had solar powered energy so he could only receive the classes in the daylight hours. Not such a big deal, right? So, we are now recording the classes and he can listen during the day when the sun is shining. God will make a way, He is AWESOME!!!
Barbara and I will be returning to Brazil on October 9th with the church we are attending here in Sebring, Florida on a fact-finding trip. Our church wants to see if God is calling them to find a place where He is working and join with them to further His kingdom. We will be going to visit Caraguatatuba and see our family there and then go to Rio de Janeiro to visit an Indian tribe there.
We covet your prayers on this trip. Though we have been missionaries for many years there, we have always received the visitors, not been the people visiting. So, this will be a new journey for us.
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
Pastor from Angola Blessed with Seminary Textbooks
Posted on 6Aug CATEGORIES: AJ & Barbara Hensley [Brazil], General, Letters Tags:Tags: AJ Hensley, Barbara Hensley, BBS, Bluegrass Baptist Seminary, ETEBABI, seminary0
August 6, 2024
Dear friends and family,
What a fast month this has been! We have now completed our first graduation of the Masters of Arts in Pastoral Ministries. What an AWESOME accomplishment, congratulations to our 9 graduates! I can only imagine their accomplishments to come and the lives they will influence. To God be the glory!
This trip was a multi-functional trip, the graduation and a Pastoral Conference in Manaus Amazonas. Dr. Derek, one of our principal professors, gave the first speech at the conference and spoke on the importance of Bluegrass Baptist Seminary and the impact it can have on the Pastors and Church leaders of Brazil.
In this conference I got to meet the Brazilian Pastor/Missionary we have previously mentioned who is serving in Angola, Africa. He was a very quiet, humble person and he will be returning to Africa in November this year. The four of us with BBS decided to bless him with textbooks for the classes he will be taking for the next seven classes. He was overwhelmed with this gift and could hardly speak of his gratitude without crying. You know, sometimes it is the smallest things that bless your heart. It is just AWESOME when you can be a blessing in another’s life. This was a present from all of you who support BFM who give for missionaries’ lives. AWESOME is the God we serve!!! We will never know the influence of this gift until we get to Heaven.
Now back to the graduation in São Paulo, Brazil. The families and Pastors were excited about their accomplishment. We were glad to hear how they have overcome the many moments that Satan had thrown at them. Please pray for these Pastors as they continue in God’s service.
Some of these Pastors who just graduated are beginning a new Seminary there under the auspices of BBS. This will be called ETEBABI. An acronym for Escolar Theolagical Bablical Batista Theological. English it is Biblical Baptist Theological School. This is an offspring of our Seminary which is AWESOME!!! Continue to pray for our Seminary and this new Seminary as we both endeavor to teach the Bible to the Brazilians.
There is a photo included of the Pastor from Angola. There was also a special presentation of an Honorary Doctorate Degree to me. I was taken by surprise and so thankful for this honor.
Pray for us as we continue this ministry and for all those who make this ministry possible. Also keep praying for us as we plan our next trip in October with our church here in Florida.
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
Bluegrass Baptist Seminary Prepares for Graduation
Posted on 5Jul CATEGORIES: AJ & Barbara Hensley [Brazil], General, Letters Tags:Tags: AJ Hensley, Baptist Seminary in Brazil, Barbara Hensley, Bluegrass Baptist Seminary, graduation, Master of Arts in Pastoral Ministries, seminary graduation0
July 5, 2024
Dear friends and family,
As we here in the USA are getting ready to celebrate the 4th of July, Barbara and I are making our final plans and travel arrangements for the First Pastoral Graduation. This graduation will have 11 Pastors receiving their Master of Arts in Pastoral Ministries. This is such an accomplishment! These Pastors have been in class since before the Covid pandemic, which is the reason for the delay in this graduation. The first master’s class graduation was this past year and it was for the Master of Arts in Biblical Studies. In this graduation we had many church leaders and others who just wanted to extend their personal Bible knowledge, AWESOME!!!
These Pastors who will be graduating in July have had additional classes they were required to take for the Pastoral Ministries Degree, those being: thesis writing, Greek and Hebrew, and the completion of their chosen thesis. I send a hearty congratulations to them and thanks to all who helped sponsor, and for the many prayers sent up for this ministry. AWESOME is the God we serve!!!
I am trying to keep this letter short because the next one will be filled with pictures of this labor of love and the Pastors who have stuck to the plan. Bluegrass Baptist Seminary has many things planned for the rest of this year and the next! So as you go to your prayer closet, remember us in your prayers—the students, the professors, the translators, the volunteers, the facilitators, BFM, the many supporters of BFM, the AWESOME God and prayer warriors who make all this happen.
Barb and ask for prayers as we go. There will be many challenges on this trip. Also pray for our health as we are no longer in the spring of our youth. Pray for connections as we travel over the country of Brazil. There is one more request regarding our travel: we have just been informed that there will be a change in the cost of additional baggage. It has always been $100.00 for each additional suitcase but now they will be charging $400.00. And if you know how Barbara packs, you can just imagine that she has three we will be needing to carry and pay for—things the churches need, Seminary needs, and personal requests from Pastors and our family. This will add a great cost for this trip, but we know that God is in control.
Thank you in advance for the prayers.
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
Preparing for Seminary Graduation
Posted on 3Jun CATEGORIES: AJ & Barbara Hensley [Brazil], General, Letters Tags:Tags: AJ Hensley, Barbara Hensley, Bluegrass Baptist Seminary, growing, learning, Pastoral Ministries, pastors conference, seminary, seminary degree0
June 3, 2024
Dear friends and family,
Many Brazilian pastors and church leaders have limited theological instruction. Pastoral education has been identified as one of the most critical needs in spreading the gospel in Brazil. Bluegrass Baptist Seminary is diligently working to ensure an efficient, effective and economical resource in support of evangelical training for the evangelical churches of Brazil. Here is the testimony of one of our Brazilian students’ best friends: “These courses will provide me with knowledge of incomparable quality that l would never have access to under normal conditions.” What an opportunity! Praise God!!!
With that being said, these pastors encourage me to keep on keeping on! It is just amazing how our Lord and Savior can help equip His saints! That I can be a small part of this training—AWESOME!!!!
Our spring semester has just concluded, and I am already thinking about the next semester, classes, schedules, professors, translators and so forth. Then there is the upcoming graduation!
Our second graduation will be on July the 20th and there are nine pastors in this group. They chose to delay the graduation so some pastors could complete some courses that they had missed in the year. The degree to be completed is a Master of Arts in Pastoral Ministries, which is a degree for Pastors “Only”. The previous graduation was for a Master of Arts in Biblical Studies. Eleven received this degree which included church workers and pastors. Below is a picture of one of our classes before Covid 19. We had great success until we could not join together, but God provided a path for us to continue teaching via Zoom and we are gradually getting back to the numbers. When the devil closes the door God opens a window. What an AWESOME God we serve!!!!
One of the Pastors in this group, a lawyer, was in the make-up class and someone asked him why he was making up this class. His response was “I don’t only want a degree, but I also want all the information they are offering so I can use it for my betterment”.
Just before this graduation in São Paulo, we will be traveling to Manaus to attend a Pastors Conference. There we will encounter many new Pastors and tell them about Bluegrass Baptist Seminary. We will be there for five days getting to know many pastors and church workers. It is our prayer that God will present the opportunities for Bluegrass Baptist Seminary to be included into those seeking more knowledge of the Word and the way to make it clearer to their people. We will be available to those who want to talk to us about Bluegrass Baptist Seminary and we will have a table full of information for them to take home and also read about us. We are invited to speak in the conference also. So, there will be many opportunities to spread the word about the opportunity to study more about God. Pray that we can be a blessing to the pastors in that area as this will be the first time for us to reach that area, and pray that we can be a blessing for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in our conduct and our presentation.
We need your prayers as this trip will be a very tight travel agenda dealing with plane connections as we travel to Manaus then to São Paulo. Each location has its own agenda and each is important to various people.
Barbara will not go to Manaus because of finances but she will spend some time with Mary, Walmir, and the family. It is so necessary to stay connected with the girls as you just turn around and they are grown. The oldest will be 16 in October and the youngest turned 13 in March.
All this is made possible by your generosity and your prayers, and also by the support of all the people who donate to Baptist Faith Missions. We are we mindful of those who love God and want more people to know Him also. We are a part of those who take Him and His word to the foreign fields and you are a part of that by your prayers and generosity.
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
The Best Job
Posted on 12May CATEGORIES: AJ & Barbara Hensley [Brazil], General, Letters, Missionary Wives Tags:Tags: AJ Hensley, Alpha and Omega Home, Barbara Hensley, missionary wife, mother, mothers day, orphanage0
May 12, 2024
Dear friends and family,
In one month, we will be looking back to the month of June when we stepped off the plane in Brazil to begin the journey of a lifetime. I will be the first one to admit that I was the reluctant part of this couple. We started our service for Christ in the town of Garça and are serving out of Caraguatatuba now. There have been 28 years and they have been the most fulfilling years of my life. We started helping Odali and Kathy Barros with an orphanage and I fit in there because all my young life I always had more children around me than was normal. So, working in the orphanage made me just at home.
I think I can say I have received more Happy Mother’s Day greetings on this Mother’s Day than the normal mother. Not only from the orphanage children, but from each church where we have served. The children adopted us as mother and dad.
I have continued for these years to gather children like a piped piper. Not only caring for them like a mother but nurturing them in the Lord which has more lasting effect.
I want to thank my blood children for being willing to share me with these children around the world. I have often heard AJ say that if he were choosing people to be missionaries, he would not have chosen him. I am here to confess that I would not have chosen me either. But He has been able to use us in spite of ourselves.
As this is the month of Mother’s Day, I can say that being a mother has been my best job and I am glad that He chose me for this job, not only for my children, but for all my Brazilian children.
Here are some pictures from our time in Brazil with some of the Brazilian children.
Thank each of you all for trusting us to do the job God called us to do.
In His service,
Barbara Hensley (Missionary Wife of AJ Hensley)
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
Prepared in Advance for What God Would Have Her Do
Posted on 1May CATEGORIES: AJ & Barbara Hensley [Brazil], General, Letters, Missionary Wives Tags:Tags: Barbara Hensley, missionary wives, working with children0
[Re-printed from May 2019 issue]
This month we missionary wives have been asked to write the letters for the mission sheets, so here I go with the many memories.
This year we will be completing 22 years in Brasil. It seems as though it was just yesterday that AJ started his campaign to convince me to go with him to be missionaries to Brasil. As many of you all have heard, in the beginning I was hard to convince, but God is faithful, and He worked on my heart. So, when AJ told me that he was going before the Church on Sunday night to tell the Church he was surrendering to be a missionary, God put these words in my mouth, “I am ready”.
I have not regretted—not once—that response. Our first place of service was in Garça, Brasil, with Odali and Kathy Barros. I helped Kathy with the children and AJ worked with Odali. There I used all the various skills that I had learned in Owsley County, Kentucky, as the daughter of Pastor H. W. Baker, who was a mission pastor. We stayed in Garça for 6 years being parents to up to 21 boys. There are many stories that could be told of those years. Needless to say, we have many children who call us Mom and Dad there in Brasil. We share that honor with their biological parents and with Odali and Kathy. Of all the boys that went through our care, some have their own businesses, some are lawyers, others are in the business world, and another is finishing his studies to become a veterinarian.
Have you ever washed clothes on a wash board? I did as a teenager and again in Garça. Have you ever had to heat your water on a stove or in a big tub outside? I did as a teenager and again in Garça. Have you ever had to walk to Church? I did as a child and again in Garça. As I said before, God prepared me early for what He would be having me do later. In the words of AJ, “God is AWESOME!”
After Garça, we moved to Jacarei, Sao Paulo, where we had plans to open another orphanage. As we worked through the paperwork, we started a mission church and there I continued to work with children. We had several families in the neighborhood who did not have transportation to get to a Church. They also had children, so I worked with them on Saturday and Sunday in Bible schools and Sunday schools. But after two years we realized that we were not going to be able to get the approval from the mayor for the orphanage, so AJ began to pray for a sign to stay or move on.
Maybe you have heard this story, but God answered these prayers with a sequester. You see, we were living on a farm way out in the country and were a target for theft. This gave AJ his answer, so we moved to Caraguatatuba. There we worked with Pastors in two churches and then we opened a new work there.
My service for the Lord continued to be with children. With the help of one of the boys from the orphanage in Garça who came to help us in Caraguatuba, we had Saturday Bible school in the homes of various members.
As we began to look for a place to open a new work, one of the children from these Saturday Bible schools, who started as a babe in arms in these Bible schools, stopped us on the streets. He stopped us on the street and said, “Mrs. Barb, when are you coming back to our neighborhood to teach us?” So, guess what that sealed our decision as to where to start our new church.
Caragua Baptist Church came to life in this young man’s neighborhood. There again my job was with children. God sent many, many children to our location and we love them all.
So my time in Brasil has been an adventure where I have sat up all night rocking a sick boy, planned a wedding for one of the boys in our care, taken in people who are down on their luck, women who have been abandoned by their husbands and grandmothers whose homes are being flooded, and counseled women in their day-to-day problems…to name a few of the things that God has let me do.
I just want to say, “Thank You, God,” for working in my heart to make me willing to go on this adventure with AJ Hensley. We serve an AWESOME God. Thank you for all these memories and we look forward to many more.
In His Service,
Barbara Hensley
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
Brazilian Pastors Reaching People for Christ
Posted on 9Mar CATEGORIES: AJ & Barbara Hensley [Brazil], General, Letters Tags:Tags: AJ Hensley, Barbara Hensley, Bluegrass Baptist Seminary, training pastors0
March 9, 2024
Dear friends and family,
Who would have thought that a Seminary could have gotten started for the training of Brazilian Pastors to reach their people for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?! However, that is what is happening! We serve an AWESOME God!!! With Him all things are possible! “AMEN!”
We had one pastor who had signed to do the Doctoral Program and I prayed for the Lord to double the number of students. He did—and now—guess what! We now have four pastors signed to start the program this month—just saying, “What an AWESOME God we serve!!”
The last month we have been working on our tickets for travel to Brazil this year—boy, has it been a mess, for lack of a better word. Then “I” must remember who is in CONTROL.
This trip we will have 5 people traveling: two professors, a friend named Steve, and Barb and I. We are all from different parts of the country. We will have several different flights as we will be going to a Pastor’s Conference in Amazonas (and we can’t get there from here, so two flights to get there), then another flight to get to the graduation in São Paulo for 10 Pastors as they receive their Masters of Pastoral Studies. AWESOME!!! And these will be future professors for the Seminary. Then we will travel to different areas for the three different pastors to preach in different churches. God is at work in so many different areas. Then I remind myself, “Why not?” Oh me of little faith.
Now our prayer requests:
#1) I have completed most of my medical exams and all have come back NORMAL. I only lack the MRI, which won’t be done until April). Also pray for Barbara as she is suffering from vertigo.
#2) For the trip we will take in July as all the connections are critical with all that is planned.
#3) As with everything, the financial part is always a necessity for us and the Brazilian Pastors involved.
#4) The BFM support group on whom we depend for these different ministries and Bluegrass Baptist Seminary to go forward.
Each and every one of you are a part of our life and our work for God here in Brazil. We thank you for your love and prayers. Continue lifting us up to the Lord as we continue working in the fields for the Lord. Know that we love and appreciate you.
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