Anticipating Exciting Ministry Opportunities in Brazil

Bobby, Charlene, Jessie, and Brennen Wacaser have served the Lord as church planters in Curitiba, Parana, Brazil, since 1985.

January 3, 2018

Dear Friends,

We travel back to Brazil next week to “re-begin” our ministry there. To give a brief overview to you who don’t know us, Charlene and I served with Baptist Faith Missions as church-planting missionaries in Brazil since 1985. In March of 2015 my mother passed away here in Florida and we returned from Brazil to assist my family in caring for my aged and ailing father. Besides helping to care for my father, I also accepted the call to pastor a local Baptist congregation in Tampa, Florida. After my father also passed away a couple of years later, the Lord revealed to us that He wanted us back in Brazil to minister. Since August of 2017, we have been setting our affairs in order so that we might return to our field of service there. Pastor Darrell Messer and good people of Emmanuel Baptist Church of Bellbrook, Ohio have accepted us as members there and will be our sending church.

We are anticipating the very exciting ministry opportunities that await us in Brazil. Our evangelistic outreach efforts through Projeto Vida have been enhanced by the addition of a new 18 passenger van, which replaces one of the 35-year-old motor homes we were using. In fact, one week after I arrive, we will be hosting this year’s first missionary training seminar and we’ll be utilizing the van to transport missionary trainees to “on the field” ministry in the interior of the country. During this seminar, we teach the biblical principles of the great commission and then follow up with the practical application of personal evangelism and public preaching and gospel presentations.

It will be a welcome experience for me to go back to teaching and preaching God’s word in Portuguese again after nearly 3 years of preaching in English only. Charlene is also looking forward to offering English as a Second Language classes which open many doors of opportunity to get to know unchurched people and to share the gospel with them.

Along with the opportunities of ministry awaiting us will also come several challenges. One is the emotional battle of leaving our 1 month old first grandchild, Jayce Wacaser. He is so sweet and cuddly, so you can imagine our struggle. Also, we will have to replace our car and nearly all of our furniture and appliances in an expensive economy. We trust God for all these things, so we do not worry or fret, but we know we must work and pray that He’ll provide.

We are looking forward to giving our first update from Brazil next month as “re-commissioned missionaries”.

In Christ’s love,
Bobby and Charlene Wacaser

Bobby and Charlene Wacaser
Stateside 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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Missionary Update: Mike & Beverly Creiglow in Brazil [August 2015]

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.

August 6, 2015

Dear Brethren,

The recovery from the flu has been slow, but I am almost back to normal. We have a new building going up at camp and I have been able to help the crew with that. I went up a couple of days in my jeep and helped haul lumber from out of the jungle. I was even able to help carry some of the beams. The trailer was only able to get so far and we had to carry some very heavy stuff for a couple hundred yards out of the woods. So I guess I am back to the usual self.

We have had a good month at First Baptist. We have held 2 baptism services a month apart. There were 15 and 12 baptized. A good many more have been saved. Attendance has been really good for summer time. In fact one Sunday night we had an overflow crowd in which many could not get into the building. We have been needing to expand for years. God will make that happen in due time. Right now construction is a little far out there as the economy has really gone south. At least we have our new property waiting for the right moment.

One of two baptism groups from the past month at First Baptist of Cruzeiro do Sul.

One of two baptism groups from the past month at First Baptist of Cruzeiro do Sul.

This month was our annual missions conference. We had most of our missionaries in from the fields. We had three of our men who work in Peru, who managed to get all the way here. José Maia is our Brazilian missionary who works in Tipisca, Peru. Eduardo, who is a Peruvian citizen from the Caxinauá tribe, came in. Then, for the first time, Laureano, who is a Peruvian from the Ashaninka tribe came in. It was so good to have Larueano. I had not seen him for 2 or 3 years. He is one of our first converts from the days when I first started going across the border (about 15 years ago). He takes care of 4 preaching points at the mouth of the Huacapisteia River and up the same river. These are the villages we plan to visit with our medical mission team in October.

Men Present at Annual Preachers Meeting

Men Present at Annual Preachers Meeting

Our newest missionary family came in, too. Idelvaldo and family were approved last year and were sent to the city of Jordão 5 months ago. They have already had a few people saved. They started meeting in a space in a public school. Then they moved to a covered area at their rented house. Now they have spruced up a “store front” and have a nice big sign up front. They are having about 40 people in services. We already have property to build our first church building. Jordão is one of the 22 “county seats” in the state of Acre. Our goal is to have a solid church planted in every one of them. We have already gotten to seven!

The meal at the annual workers meeting.

Meal at the annual workers meeting

Last Saturday morning we held our annual preacher’s meeting. There were 84 present. The men had 3 solid hours of practical classes on 5 different topics. It went by so fast. I taught just one of these and had 2 more ready if there had been time. The wives also got together for a lecture from Dr. Suiane. Suiane is one of our medical doctors who goes along on our medical mission trips. She just concluded another missions course and followed that with a month long practical internship in Bolivia. The ladies were thrilled to hear her testimony and teaching. We closed out with a great meal. We had over 150 present for lunch.

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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Missionary Update: John & Alta Hatcher on Furlough from Brazil [May 2015]

Missionaries John and Alta Hatcher have served the Lord in Brazil since 1955, planting over 70 churches that are still in existence.

March 26, 2015

Dear Brethren and Friends:

We greet you in the Name of our gracious Lord Jesus.  We have enjoyed a great month of His blessings that He has supplied through the love of Paul and Wanda.  God has given opportunities to witness personally to persons we encountered in the stores and streets.  Please pray the seed sown will bear fruit to His glory.

The outstanding event of the month was the Memorial Service of Alice Joyce Wacaser.  She is the mother of  missionary Bobby Wacaser. The service was held in the Ahava Baptist Church, Ahava, Florida.  The service was a blessed testimony of her dedicated Christian life given by her children and friends to an audience of several hundred people.

Other than several children, she is survived by 28 grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren.  The songs sung by her children revealed the joy, happiness and spirituality of her life and the wonderful effect on the lives of her children and their families.

The life of Alice was a spiritual blessing to her children and to all who knew her. She will be missed but she awaits all her loved ones and friends in her home in glory.  It will be a joy to meet her there!

May God give us the Grace to influence others as Alice Joyce Wacaser has.

We thank you for your love and prayers in the Name of our Lord Jesus.

John A. and Alta Hatcher

John A. and Alta Hatcher
15905 Mercott Court
Clermont FL 34714
229-529-8497
jhatcher1925[at]gmail.com

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Missionary Update: John & Alta Hatcher on Furlough from Brazil [March 2015]

Missionaries John and Alta Hatcher have served the Lord in Brazil since 1955, planting over 70 churches that are still in existence.

February 9, 2015

Dear Brethren and Friends;

We thank and praise the Lord for the wonderful month He has given Alta and me.  We, also, thank Paul and Wanda for all the wonderful help they give each day to these two “oldies”.  Alta occupies much of her time writing letters of appreciation to those who send offerings and who pray for us.

I am still printing and binding the book, “Meet the Holy Spirit”.  I try to complete eight or ten books a week.

Since we are not active on the mission field in Brazil any longer, I want to say we will be eternally grateful for all who have given and prayed for us.  Since we still receive our monthly offering from the regular fund of BFM, as long as there are funds available, we would like to encourage you to send your gifts to us to the Regular BFM Fund, as that will be a continuing benefit to us as well as others.

News from Brazil tells us how the works are continuing, growing and being blessed.  Personal witnessing is the constant desire of my heart and I ask the Lord each day to open opportunities.  It is a real joy to tell the lost about the Savior.  Every sinner has to hear the Gospel before they can be saved!

The Lord willing, we plan to attend the Spring BFM Mission Conference at Thompson Road Baptist Church, April 27,28,29.  Hope we will see you there.

Please note new E-Mail address below.  God bless you.  Alta and I thank each of you for your faithful giving and praying.

John A. and Alta Hatcher
15905 Mercott Court
Clermont FL 34714
229-529-8497
jhatcher1925[at]gmail.com

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Missionary Update: John & Alta Hatcher on Furlough from Brazil [February 2015]

Missionaries John and Alta Hatcher have served the Lord in Brazil since 1955, planting over 70 churches that are still in existence.

January 23, 2015

Dear Friends and Brothers,

Greetings in the Wonderful Name of Jesus our Lord. This has been a blessed month. The special blessing of the month was the Annual BFM WINTER MISSIONS CONFERENCE. Pastor Benton Glover and his people treated royally all who attended. It was a real blessing to see many who have supported BFM for many years and whom we rarely see. Park Ridge Baptist Church deserves our most sincere “Thank You”.

The messages by all were good. The ladies did better than their best in the preparation and serving of the meals.

Bob Jones, Leroy Duncan, Myron Jackson, Dave Humphries, George Sledd, Paul Hatcher, as well as several whose names I cannot remember, preached messages that stirred our hearts.

We saw A.J. and Barbara Hensley, missionaries in Southern Brazil, whom we had not seen for a long time. God gave us traveling mercy as we traveled to and from the Conference; our son, Paul, the driver.

Thank You, Heavenly Father, for the supporters and friends that we have had for many years in Brazil and other countries. We pray You will call young men to be Your servants to take the Gospel to other countries.

Our gratitude to you dear friends and brethren who have faithfully made the job a little easier.

John A. and Alta Hatcher
15905 Mercott Court
Clermont FL 34714
229-529-8497
jhatcher1925[at]gmail.com

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Missionary Update: Harold Bratcher on Permanent Furlough from Brazil [November 2013]

Harold Bratcher served the Lord in the Amazon Valley for 52 years from July 15, 1959 through December 29, 2012. His dear wife, Marie, faithfully served with him for 51 years until her death in February 2011. The Bratchers organized over 20 Baptist churches and many other missions in Brazil. He is now on permanent furlough in Kentucky, still in the service of the Savior.

November 8, 2013

Dear Brothers of the Blessed Lord and Sisters of the Savior:

Once again we (Asa Mark and I) greet you not from the Amazon Valley of Brazil, South America, but from our permanent cool 48 degrees and cloudy Kentucky home where the sun is not shining bright right now. We thank The Lord that we were able to move to our new home in Lexington, Kentucky, in the Hamburg area, off Polo Club Blvd, close to the new Costco, on September 23rd. Notice our new address below. We praise The Lord from whom all Blessings Flow. We appreciate the 8 months we were able to live at the Mission House on 1012 Balsam. It was a blessing to us. Thank you, BFM.

This Mission Sheets month began September 10 and finishes today. During this period I heard 12 sermons, or Bible studies. Besides attending services at our home church, David Forks Baptist Church in Lexington, Bro. Mickey Hyder, pastor, we attended the 223rd anniversary service of the Historic Pleasant Green Missionary Baptist Church, also here in Lexington. We also attended the Linden Street Baptist Church in Richmond, Ky where my sister in law, Deane Cruise, is a member and Bro. Michael Barnes is pastor. We also had the privilege of visiting with Bro. Doug King, Bro. Bobby Greene, Bro. Greg Doss, and Sis. Ann Burris in our new home. We have also each Saturday been able to visit and have brunch with my brother Charlie and his family in Frankfort, Ky.

Tomorrow we will be traveling to Owensboro, Ky to have lunch with my sister in law, Jodie Bratcher, on our way to Morganfield where we will preach at the Northside Baptist Church, dear Bro. Jim Adams, pastor. Please pray for his wife, Linda, who has terminal cancer. Then Monday The Lord willing, we will drive to Paducah, to attend the Pastor’s Conference and Session of the Kentucky Baptist Convention. Then two weeks later, we are looking forward to the Thanksgiving Conference, I am scheduled to be the second speaker on Tuesday morning, the 26th of November. Looking forward to speaking and seeing many of you there.

I hope to continue to be a blessing to and see many of you during this final month of the first year of my permanent furlough. I would like to report and thank each of you who have supported us during these past 55 years. The Lord permitting, until next month, when I will write my final letter to the Missions Sheets, before January 1st, when I will be officially retired after 55 years of service in Brazil, through Baptist Faith Missions. To God be the Glory, for these glorious years, and the over 40 churches that we have started and helped during those years.

Yours in the Service of the Savior,

Harold Bratcher

1950 Falling Leaves Lane
Lexington, KY 40509
(859) 806-9827 cell
harold_bratcher[at]yahoo.com

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Missionary Update: The Wacasers in Brazil [November 2013]

Bobby, Charlene, Jessie, and Brennen Wacaser have served the Lord as church planters in Curitiba, Parana, Brazil, since 1985.

November 4, 2013

I really do want to give my ministry trainees opportunities to practice what they are taught, but I wasn’t really planning that the need would be so soon and so personally connected to me. It was only a few days after I shared how I was working to prepare some young men for leadership service when I had to have reconstructive surgery done on one of my knees that will have me off my feet for several weeks. The young man, Alek, that I mentioned in my last letter preached in my place this past Sunday and did a great job. It was his first time of teaching and administering the Lord’s Supper. Another young man, Tony, who I mentioned last month will be performing the baptism of at least 3 new converts. I am grateful to the Lord for providing me with these men, even if my being sidelined is necessary for them to be placed into these ministry opportunities. I didn’t think it would be necessary to lay me aside to provide this training experience, but I’m sure that isn’t all the Lord is up to by doing it this way. I do know that I am not irreplaceable and I actually am happy to see these men embrace these ministry opportunities. I will be more attentive, though, to seek to involve the others on a practical level if it will help me avoid hospital and recuperation time.

On December 1st we will be holding what we hope to be a very fruitful marriage workshop. The breakdown of family values in our culture runs head-on against the innate knowledge that true love needs bounds and principles. This dilemma generates an openness to our efforts to provide the tools and teaching that will help couples find the Lord’s Word as their solution. We understand that they need Christ Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior, but we believe that this marriage workshop is a tool that He has provided for us to get that message across to people who wouldn’t ordinarily set foot inside a church building. We are not tricking anyone. They may come only to improve their marriage, but we seek to lead them to the One who will give them true life, and a better marriage as a side effect. Please pray for us as we invest our time, energy and resources into a God-blessed marriage workshop.

One of our outreach teams just returned from an evangelistic trip into the interior of the state we live in. They were ministering in some public schools and parks through gospel skits, testimonies and preaching. The team was blessed by the response they saw in each place of ministry and by seeing people surrender their lives to Christ. The church they were there to aid was blessed and the group returned home rejoicing. The very morning after their return to the home base, one of the leaders went to a local grocery store to get a few things for his and his wife’s breakfast. As he was leaving the grocery, three young men pulled a knife on him and forced him to give them his wallet and they tried to take his purchases also. He was able to get away without being injured, but they robbed him of his money and most of his breakfast. He was very distraught and especially because he had to return home to his wife with no money and little to eat. He called me while he was still unnerved by the incident and I assured him that we would make sure that he got some more groceries and that we will help them get through the month because of the loss of his money. Our city is getting more and more violent, but we are grateful for the Lord’s constant care and protection. We appreciate your prayers for us as we seek to make God’s word known here.

In Christ’s love,

Bobby, Charlene and Brennen Wacaser
Rua Laudelino Ferreira Lopes, 279-1
Sobrado 1, Bairro Novo Mundo
81050-310 Curitiba, PR Brasil
(813)436-9980
bobbymichael_1@hotmail.com

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Missionary Update: AJ & Barbara Hensley in Brazil [August 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.

Friends and family,

As June wound down and July started we still had the two men from Atlantic Shores Baptist Church, Lonnie and George, and our Brazilian son Edson with us. We continued using this free labor to catch up on the work at the new Church plant (ie: completed laying the tile and grouting it, replaced old fixtures in the bathrooms and the kitchen, installed the kitchen sink, and put the donated appliances in the kitchen with the new cabinets and roll-around islands). We have also put up new fencing around the Church front and painted it. We painted the balcony and separated it to make two Sunday School classes. The children were extremely excited with their room where Pastor Jason and Ryan painted animals all around the walls.

Putting the sign out in front of the church!

Another job that got done this month was getting the sound installed in the Church. We were fortunate to be able to buy an old sound system and a sound board from another Church. But as with all things used, as soon as we got it into the Church, things began to go wrong. But from our experience here in Brasil, it is not what you know but who you know. So we thought of Edi. He was a young man in Garca that was always taking things apart, especially things to do with sound. So remembering this young man, we called him and asked if he could come and help us. It was such a rewarding feeling to see a young man that we had in our care in the Alpha and Omega Children’s Home years ago using what he had learned to help us here in Caragua in God’s work. As Edson was here in Caragua he also helped in the work. It was a double blessing to see the two of them working together here in Caraguatatuba remembering them 17 years ago. Edi is married and making a living installing alarms and Edson is in his 3rd year of vet school. Both of them involved in the Lord’s work in their prospective cities. Thank you Lord for these two young men who You set on the right path. Our Lord is so Awesome!

We have not only done physical labor this month but we have been busy with the Church work also. The ladies had a yard sale and made around 600 Reais which is around 300 dollars. Their plans are to buy the needed supplies for the kitchen. Our youth have also been busy–they did visitation in the neighborhood around the Church and distributed around 800 flyers inviting people to come to Church. We are having on average 50 kids on Sunday mornings and about the same number on Sunday nights (this being more adults). We are so excited about our ministry with the kids. We are seeing lives changed. Here is what one of the ladies here at our Church had to say about the children that come to Church from her neighborhood. She said that she has been noticing that the kids have been getting along better when they are playing. Another thing that she has noticed is that there is less and less use of bad language as they play. The other thing that she told us is that as she has been bed-ridden for two months, during that time the children, from 6 years to 11 years of age, came to pray with her every day. This is what Church and Sunday School is all about, changing lives one at a time. God is so AWESOME.

Street evangelism with some of the youth!

This month we have concentrated mostly on the Church construction but we have accomplished some things at the school property. We have taken an old rusty saw that was given by a friend in Ohio and given it new life. With lots of help from Ernesto, we now have a saw that will enable us to do many things with wood that we were not able to do before. Hopefully next month we will be able to get back to working on the dorm house, but the main thing is spreading the work of the Lord and all these other things will get done in God’s time.

We have had the blessing of Mary, Walmire and the girls being here to visit this month also. We were able to take some time to enjoy the grandkids and their parents. You know we discovered that grandkids are a lot of fun. We have made a decision–if we had known how much fun the grandkids were, we would have had them first.(lol)

I hope you can see through our letters how God is working through us here in Brasil. But if we are not painting a good enough word picture, please come on down and see for yourself. Beware—those who venture into Caraguatatuba, Brasil are never the same. Be prepared for what God will do in your life here in Brasil!!!!! So come on down, your bed is turned down and we have turned on the light on the porch.

In His service,

Aj and Barbara Hensley
ajcaragua[at]gmail.com

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