Developing Leaders to Equip Churches

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Jud and Raquel Hatcher are third generation missionaries serving 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.

March 23, 2023

Dear friends,

We thank you for supporting us through prayer and financial giving. THANK YOU. Please, continue reading to know how your fervent prayers and investment impact the Kingdom of God in Brazil.

A Swiss Chalet & 98 Leaders

“Rede Convivência” (Life Together Network) had its first DayCamp on March 18th with pastors and their leadership teams to equip churches and inspire leaders. There were 98 participants from three different states. It was a memorable day of leadership development and exchange of ideas. “Rede Convivência” is a network of pastors and churches I started a few years ago that seeks to 1) Promote connectedness between pastors, pastors’ wives, and leaders amongst churches and within the church to make disciples, inspire and develop new leaders and pastors for the local church ministries. 2) Recruit, train, place, and network leaders and pastors to plant new churches and expand the Kingdom of God.

Hearting it Together from Chicago to São Paulo

On April 27, 28 & 29, we are hosting the “Heart of the Matter” seminar with Pastor Hanibal Rodriguez from Wheaton Bible Church, Illinois. Pastor Hanibal ministered to my heart and our family when I underwent cancer treatment a year ago. On May 1st (a Brazilian holiday), he will also speak at a conference in Marília, São Paulo, with churches from several cities coming together.

Intentional Expansion Strategy (IES)

The Life Together Network provides monthly gatherings for pastors, leaders, and team members to nurture a healthy context for the leaders to engage in metacognition in meeting local community needs with the Gospel and disciple-making. Healthy and intentional local churches need to develop a Biblically grounded and culturally relevant vehicle for people to hear the Gospel and to mature spiritually. Scripture is foundational, and the Gospel must always remain crystal clear. Additionally, understanding the culture (local context) and using the culture to reach the culture is vital to developing effective ministry strategies to connect with people. The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 9:22, “I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.” He was intentional about the way he engaged with people in the context they were in and in a way they could understand. Five core values are: 1) Communication – precise, efficient, and frequent communication. 2) Consistency – all decisions need to be consistent with Scripture and the direction established by the church. 3) Creativity – there is a creative solution for almost everything. 4) Commitment – A commitment made is a promise kept. 5) Recruitment – recruit the right people to mobilize and work strategically. We must recruit for the Kingdom and the local church to inspire new leaders and expand the Kingdom of God.

An Evangelistic (Mexican Food) Picnic

This next Sunday, we are having an Evangelistic picnic with friends (this is an initiative through our current church plant). Over forty non-believer friends are confirmed to join us for an afternoon of Mexican food, activities, and lots of fun as we connect more closely with our friends. We have invited our next-door neighbors, the auto mechanic, the restaurant owner down the street, and friends we have met over the last few months.

International Foster Care Symposium & Center Inauguration

Raquel participated in the IV International Foster Care Symposium at the University of Campinas this week. She was one of the guest lecturers and spoke on “Trust-Based Relational Intervention.” A new foster care center for intake and foster parent training will inaugurate on April 4th. Raquel actively recruits new foster care parents and develops teams to assist orphans and at-risk children and parents.

Family Time

Overall, everyone in the family is in good health. Sarah sprained her left ankle but is recuperating quickly. Our kids are doing well academically and are heavily involved in school sports. Sarah is a starter for the varsity volleyball team. Benjamin is a starter for the jr. varsity volleyball team. Laura saved up money while working at Culver’s Restaurant in the States for horseback riding lessons in Brazil. Melissa is practicing basketball, soccer, and jiu-jitsu in the after-school program for elementary students. We love to hear our kids pray, are blessed to see how the Lord is growing them spiritually, and have a deep desire to see their unsaved friends surrender to Christ. Raquel has a constant smile in her heart – the joy of the Lord is her strength. I am progressing well in my doctoral studies and am currently in chapter three of my dissertation.

Investing

As you pray with and for us, please consider investing financially in our ministry fund – please designate for church planting, pastoral leadership training, the church network, or foster care.

Always grateful,
Judson Hatcher

Contact Info:
Jud & Raquel Hatcher
São Paulo, Brazil
judsonhatcher@gmail.com
(872) 400-6522

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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Churches Taking Steps to Expand the Kingdom

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Jud and Raquel Hatcher are third generation missionaries serving 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.

February 21, 2023

Dear friends,

Thank you for praying and supporting us. We are truly grateful.

It has been two months since we returned to São Paulo. Our kids are in school and have settled into academic life. Everyone is in good health. Raquel celebrated her birthday this month. We have many things to be grateful for, particularly God’s providence in our lives. This month also was the one-year mark since the completion of my chemotherapy. Having gone through a battle with cancer brought a new perspective to this life and a sense of urgency in pointing people to the Savior and living generously. Every moment with the family has become more precious, friends more important, and speaking of the Gospel and mobilizing for Christ’s cause more vivid.

This month was productive as the churches, part of our Life Together Network, have taken significant steps to expand the Kingdom. I am grateful to invest time with pastors who desire to become more effective in the Gospel strategies. This weekend we have our next Network meeting as we prepare for a pastoral conference in April and actively work on shaping a leadership reproduction and multiplication culture. Additionally, several churches have taken bolder steps with evangelistic strategies within their communities. Last week I had several meetings with leaders in church planting here in São Paulo to iron out details to grow our discipleship gatherings further.

Grateful always,
Jud Hatcher

Contact Info:
Jud & Raquel Hatcher
São Paulo, Brazil
judsonhatcher@gmail.com
(872) 400-6522

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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Revitalizing Churches and Reaching “Paulistanos”

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.

Dear friends,

Thank you for your faithful prayers, engagement and financial investment. Read about a pastor who travels 6 hours to preach, a Digital Magazine on YouTube channel and “don’t come in, we are too high”. Intrigued? Please, read on.

Church Revitalization
Four months ago, Pastor Fabiano from Lupercio Baptist Church (started by my grandfather – John Hatcher) contacted me asking for help. We meet at a coffee shop and spoke for 3 hours. He explained “two years ago a church (that is now 47 years old with and average attendance of 25 people) here in São Paulo asked me for assistance, they were without a pastor for 8 years and were considering closing the doors. I agreed to travel 6 hours into the city to minister to them once a month. The church really wants and needs a full-time pastor, but they don’t have enough funds to sustain one.” He went on to ask me to help them in revitalization, growth and eventually bring in candidates for a new senior pastor. I agreed. I do training there on Wednesday evenings. We’ve worked through several series “Letting the Philippian Joy become Yours”, “Taking an X-ray of this Church”, “How to Effectively Share Christ”, and now we are walking through “How to Disciple a New Believer”. The church is considering a pastoral candidate I indicated, Helder Castro. Helder accepted Christ through my father’s ministry. I served as his mentor for several years and officiated his wedding ceremony. He has pastored in Manaus for 12 years. He visited the church twice for interviews and preaching. They will vote in the end of August for him to start in January 2020. In the meantime, I will step up my role to serve them as an interim pastor until December 2019. Helder will move with his wife and two sons to serve in making disciples through “Igreja Batista em Jardim Maria Virginia.”

I am excited as this church has also agreed to participate in sending people for church planting with us and will also be a part of our “Life Together Network” of churches in São Paulo. Helder and Renatha will be a great contribution, as they are also church planters and we’ve worked together for many years. If the Lord lays on your heart to contribute in prayer and financially assisting Pastor Helder during his first year in this church revitalization, please do so by designating to “J.H. – Pastor Helder / Church Revitalization” through BFM.

Imagine, a Baptist Church
Church planting is intense, especially with multiple fronts. Over the last year, we are enjoying the most fun we’ve ever had as a family in doing what we have always loved doing. Imagine is focused on reaching out to the unsaved/unchurched urban São Paulo city dweller. “Paulistanos”, (as they are called in São Paulo city) are typically well informed, well-educated and cultured. If they are not “church going people” type, they don’t plan to go… Period. We have done a lot of strategy customizing to finally reach our target audience. “Paulistanos” are known in Brazil as “workaholics” and in their down-time they want to hangout with friends and family, not go to “some religious meeting”. So, we, the Church are going to where they are and doing what we know will gain credibility and trust in their hearts. We have our weekly evangelistic gatherings in parks, sports stores, malls, hospitals and through home dinners. As people surrender to Christ, we schedule basic discipleship in their home. We have a “Celebration Gathering” once a month. In addition to this, we are currently working on our “YouTube” Channel to produce a Digital Magazine with episodes of 5 to 8 minutes, with Biblical teaching, insights for living and music. A “Paulistano” won’t listen to a 40-minute sermon while in the subway but will listen to us for 5 to 8 minutes at a time. I have invited a spiritually solid team to help develop the content, including my father – Paul Hatcher. I’ve consulted with well-known Brazilian YouTubers on how to get it all started. Video production takes a lot of time, but the library of content with easy access for anyone and anywhere is priceless.

Hope, a Baptist Church
This church is situated in the middle of three ghettos, the families we minister to are very poor. My heart breaks every time I walk into people’s homes and see the precarious conditions they live with their children. People’s hearts are very hardened and without hope. Here we have weekly Bible teaching, evangelism and home visitation. When we first started here, I wasn’t sure how we would be received by the people, but as a rule (when the adults aren’t high or drunk) we get invited inside their homes to pray and we receive a listening ear. Adult women tend to be infantile, as most of them never had a real childhood, due to becoming mothers at a young age. Men are stern and often irresponsible with their families.  We do a lot of “Life Together” with people so they can see the light of grace. We’ve had pasta nights, pizza parties, hamburger meets. Kids attend well in the children’s ministry, adults are tougher, but we have made way in their hearts.

If you’d like to invest time in prayer for these and future church-plants, please do. Consider also in investing financially, you can do so by sending your contribution through Baptist Faith Missions, please designate “Jud Hatcher – Church planting”.

Family
Sarah and Laura started their new school year on July 30th, Benjamin and Melissa started on the 31st. They had a 6-week break between school years and were excited to start back. Stateside, the school year beak is in the Summertime and is synonymous with “Fun in the Sun”. Well, in the Southern Hemisphere, July is the coldest month of the year and homes do not have central heating systems. Electricity is so expensive that space heaters are not commonly used. Hence, our school year break is synonymous with “Eat your soup before it gets too cold.”

We are truly grateful for the school the Lord provided for them. A year ago, Melissa (7 years) had not learned to read or write at the school in which the kids were enrolled. After a year (and much hard work) at this new school, Melissa know how to read and write in English and Portuguese. We are elated with joy as our kids are inspired by their teachers to study hard.

Recently, Baptist Faith Missions (through the leadership of the directors and Bro. Dave Parks’ administrational skills) changed the health insurance provider, and all to the better. The plan gives us access to the best hospital in Brazil, located in São Paulo. As a result, we will be able to get more efficient treatment for Laura’s left ear severe hearing loss, that was caused by a punctured ear drum.

As always, thank you for loving us and praying. We love you. Want to visit us in São Paulo? We’d love you host you. Come on down (Just let us know before you arrive at our door).

Grateful always,
Jud & Raquel Hatcher

Judson & Raquel Hatcher
(859) 544-9040
judsonhatcher@gmail.com
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