Upcoming Seminary Graduation
September 4, 2022
Dear friends and family,
AWESOME is the Lord we serve. I am starting this letter a little different, because He is the One who is in charge, and He will carry us through. We will have the first graduation on schedule, and it will be on September 17th. How AWESOME is the God we serve. After so many attempts, it is really happening; however, not without some difficulty, but God is in charge. Some of the students are not able to attend this graduation because of conflicting schedules. Please pray for them as we go forward.
As for now, those who will attend stands as follows: nine (9) for the Master of Arts in Pastoral Ministries and eleven (11) for the Master of Arts in Biblical Studies. The difference between these two is that the Pastors who choose the Pastoral Ministries have an additional three (3) classes: Greek, Hebrew, and Thesis Writing. This course is only offered to Pastors. In addition, there are seventy others who will receive certificates for the classes completed until now. We are hopeful that these students will be able to complete the studies they have started. Many of them are very close to completion. Everyone seems to be excited, especially the Professors and I.
Barbara and I will be traveling on September 6th and will arrive in Brazil on September 7th. Pray for our trip. After the graduation, Pastor Derek, Pastor Marcos, and I will be visiting with the Pastors and students and future students to get them enthusiastic about the upcoming classes in 2022 and 2023. This will be lots of traveling and we will need prayers for safety.
COVID has set us back and rearranged our focus. So now we will begin to see how we can help the students with different aids. We are hopeful for the new semester and the new students. We are planning new ways the students can participate by rearranging the classes and offering more classes on Zoom. So, prayers for the students are greatly appreciated.
As we are waiting to make this next trip, we have been participating in the congregation at the First Baptist Church here in Florida. We help with their feeding the hungry program. Barbara took her haircutting equipment and cut one head of hair, and that started a line for haircuts. So, we see that no matter where we are, we serve the Lord.
Thank you for your continued prayers for our family and our seminary work.
In His Service,
Aj and Barbara
CONTACT INFO
AJ & Barbara Hensley
30524 Mimi St
Sebring, FL 33870-0530
AJ: 859-539-2302 | Barbara: 859-539-1424
ajcaragua@gmail.com
For ministry donations:
Pastor George Sledd, Treasurer of BFM
P.O. Box 471280 | Lake Monroe, FL 32747-1280
or click here to donate to BFM online.
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H. H. OVERBEY SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENT
Amy Tate is our latest recipient of the H. H. Overbey Scholarship for the upcoming 2019-20 academic year. Amy is the daughter of our missionaries, Roger and Julie Tate. She has served with her family in Kenya since her childhood and will be entering Cedarville University in August.
The HHO Scholarship awards each recipient $1000 per academic year to continue their post-secondary education in a field that will further train and develop them for Christian service.
The H. H. Overbey Scholarship is named in the memory and honor of H. H. Overbey. Brother Overbey loved the children of our missionaries and contributed personally and generously to many of them for their Christian education and training – as well as others who are still today faithfully serving Jesus Christ. This is just one more way we can carry on his legacy of generosity.
Amy Tate with her parents, Roger & Julie
Amy Tate
We encourage you to pray for Amy and also for her parents and family as they are separated from one another.
And, if you wish to contribute to the H. H. Overbey Scholarship Fund to assist Amy and others of our missionaries’ children in future academic years, designate your contributions for “H. H. Overbey Scholarship Fund.” These funds are supplied only through your designated offerings.
You may read Amy’s personal salvation and service testimony here:
In a world so full of hate, is there room for love? In a world lost in darkness, is there a place for light? In a world consumed with affliction, are there moments of peace? In a world shattered by sorrow, is there hope?
I’ve been a pastor’s kid and a missionary my entire life, and yet I’ve been asking these questions for as long as I can remember. It’s too easy to look at the world and wonder where the beauty of life is. I didn’t have an easy life growing up, and I remember looking at my life and thinking, “There is no purpose.” Why was I still living through each and every day without reason, and why was I going through all of those hardships alone?
It wasn’t until God helped me really understand the joy and the hope that comes only from Him, that I was able to understand the light and the truth and the love and the joy in this world. The most spectacular thing, however, was when I finally understood the hope that was given to me, even in the darkness that I was enduring and living through at that time. I still lose sight of it sometimes, but that hope has, time and again, been a steady assurance to me, as I remember that things will not always be as they were, or even as they still are.
After that, I realized that as a follower of God, my calling- what God asks me to do- is to reach out to the people of this world and to serve them and love them. I want to show them, as God showed me, that there is more to life than just living through it, and there is more to life than the darkness that presents itself. There is more to life than the despair and the hopelessness that we daily feel when we don’t have anything better to look to. I realized that I didn’t want to hide that and keep it to myself, but I wanted to share it. I wanted to proclaim it, show it, and be an example of it. And that is still to this day what I want.
I will be entering and attending Cedarville University in Cedarville OH this fall of 2019. It is close to my home church, Emmanuel Baptist Church of Bellbrook, OH where Darrell Messer is my pastor.
I have no idea what my future will look like. I don’t quite know yet what I will major in, what kind of career I will have, or even where I will live. But what I do know is that it doesn’t matter, because wherever I am and whatever I’m doing,
I can always trust God with my life. What I believe He asks me to do stays the same, and that is to dedicate my life to bring glory to Him and to serve His people; the people that He loves, and the people that are still lost in darkness.
I want to serve. I want His light to be seen shining through me. And in this world of hate and darkness and affliction and sorrow, I want to bring God’s hope to the people of this world, by showing them His love. ~Amy Tate
Click here to make a donation to the HHO Scholarship Fund now.
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