Missionary Update: AJ & Barbara Hensley in Brazil [July 2012]
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,
Well, let me tell you about my grandchildren….. You know it is a little bit heartbreaking when you only get to see your grandchildren once every year or two. But God gave us two down here in Brasil so we could see them with more frequency. Then He moved them 9 hours away too. But this past week Barbara went to spend some time with our daughter in Sales Olivera. The reason for this trip was that Mary’s oldest was having surgery. She had her tonsils and adenoids removed. Well, during that time Papaw had to stay home and house keep and keep our work going. Saying this for you men because you know that house keeping skills—what is that??? Well Miss Chelsea is doing well in recovery and Barb is back at home and rescuing the house.
We have had the Blessing of helping a new missionary to Brasil get established in their new home and their new surroundings. They sold out in the States and moved here with 18 bags and started setting up their new home. They have 3 young children ages 4 years, 2 years and 3 months. How BRAVE they are. Their home was in Georgia. So to get them “Broke in” to Brasil we met them at the air port with our van and our truck. Did I mention 18 bags? Well those were not ordinary bags they were “body bags” in other words “BIG” So the road back to our city is being made bigger and they are blasting so it is closed from 10 to 4. This means that we only have a small window of time to get them at the airport and get back past the closed road. Well needless to say we did not get everything done on time so we had to take a LONG short cut. On this long short cut our van broke down so our 3 hour trip turned into an all day journey. This was their welcome to Brasil greeting. We spent the biggest part of the day in a van on an unknown part of the country with a baby crying, hungry children, tired passengers, no water—and the list goes on.
Along with this couple and their family we have 2 young men from Georgia that is going to spend 6 weeks with us here helping with the work. What an honor it is to be a part of these young men’s lives. Ross is from First Baptist Church in Centerville, Georgia and is going to Seminary and Luke is from Second Baptist Church in Warner Robbins Georgia and has a love for missions.
As we minister here we always have our eyes open for the opportunities God has for us. We have discovered an Indian tribe within 2 hours drive from our home and are looking into the possibilities of doing some Bible Schools there. We have learned that there are many needs in this tribe so we are excited to see what we can do for them. Hopefully we can tell you more in the next newsletter.
Speaking of ministry our church has had many visitors this past 2 weeks. I think it is because of the vacation from school. So we are having a problem here at Church—we are running out of chairs. But I should not be complaining, What a great problem to have!!!How AWESOME is the God we serve.
So as I am looking around at our problem it registers; we are renting this building and we are at 80 to 90% capacity, no more space for Sunday School, no parking and no money– what are we to do—simple, PRAY more.
So with this list of problems we are asking you to pray with us for us and we know that our God is an AWESOME God and He will supply.
The work at the Vocational School is progressing slowly. We are working on laying tile on the floors, the walls and getting the electrical work finished and looking at the color selection for the walls. If you think you heard these same things last month it is because things go a bit slower here than in the States. We have learned to go with the flow.
Thanks to everyone for your prayers, financial support, and encouragement.
Well, you did not let us know if you wanted to come down so the rooms are full and the mints are gone off of the pillows, but there is always next month. So let us hear from you. Come on down!!!
In His service,
Aj and Barb
ajcaragua[at]gmail.com
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Missionary Update: AJ & Barbara Hensley in Brazil [May 2012]
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.
Hello to friends and family,
Sometimes you are so busy that you look back and say “What did I do or accomplish?” This month has been one of those. I will start with the van…we had to put it in the body shop because of its roof. It started rusting and the rust became holes and the rain came into the inside. So much for the ceiling upholstery! Oh well, that is what you get when you live at the beach. So when we repaired the roof we also had to put new seals around all of the doors. Now we are just about to put it back into use but there is still some mechanical work to do. While we are without our van we are borrowing or renting others to fulfill our church transporting. Pray with us that we could receive the financing for a bus to fulfill these transportation needs.
Lots of physical work is going on around the Church building. We have been painting, doing masonry work and various repairs. But the biggest of the projects is the pouring the sidewalk in front of the Church. We could have put off some of these projects but we are going to organize our Church and we would love for it to look good. The organization will be the 13th of May at 7:00 in the evening service. Pray that all goes as planned and that the Church continues to grow spiritually. We will have 81 members at this organization. Praise be to God for the growth in these 2 years.
We are having to do some construction around our home. Several years ago, we finished the area around the house but this year the city put in trunk lines for the sewer system. When we connected to these lines, we found out that all our lines had been put in wrong. So this week we are tearing up all the tile (because we bought the close out line to save money and there is none of that tile left at the construction stores) and the plumbing to redo everything.
We are starting to start work at the vocational school next week. The next step that has to be done is the electrical work. We have the conduit in the walls and next week we start installing the wire and the electrical panel. The next step is to tile the floors. There is a lot of paperwork to be done so we are starting to plot the buildings and the lots. For this we need an engineer. So today we began the measurements. The completed paperwork could take months to process. So pray with us about this also.
We have gotten back into our family discipleship and it is going very well. We are working with one family with 2 girls. They are 5 and 8 years old. These 2 young girls are memorizing verses and learning how to be children that God will be proud of. The government here does not cooperate with raising Godly children. As a matter of fact they promote anti-biblical things in the raising of children. So we are trying to help these parents to use the Bible in the raising of their children. In this process the parents are also growing spiritually. So our days and some nights are being dedicated to the helping of parents and children.
We had another baptism this month. There were 5 baptized and we (like good Baptists) had a cookout afterwards. We also have 4 more awaiting baptism so they will be our first candidates for baptism into our newly organized Church. God is AWESOME!!!!!!
I have given you an idea of what we will be doing for the next 2 or 3 months so read it over and decide which you would love to participate in and then go and buy your ticket and COME ON DOWN. We will treat you so many different ways that you will have to like one of them. Come see what God is doing with your mission dollars!!!!!
In His service,
Aj and Barbara
ajcaragua[at]gmail.com
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