Opportunities to Present BGB Seminary at Brazilian Conferences
January 10, 2025
Dear friends and family,
I hope all is well with our families and friends and that a wonderful time was had by all during the Christmas season. Now, we’re looking forward to the new year of 2025. We were blessed this year to have our family all together for the first time in two years, both from Kentucky and from Brazil. God is so good and AWESOME.
So, to all: I hope your New Year’s resolutions come to the conclusion you have wished, dreamed, and prayed for this New Year!
With these celebrations and holidays behind us we can say this has been a wonderful year for the B.G.B. Seminary also. We have been in Brazil 3 or 4 times this year with Mission Conferences in São Paulo, Brazil and in Manaus, Amazonas, with the Bible Baptist Fellowship. In those two conferences we had over 300 in attendance at each conference. We were able to present the B.G.B. Seminary to those who were present. And through them, we have been able to increase the number of students interested in our seminary.
Now for January 2025, we are invited to participate with perhaps the largest convention of Baptists in all of Brazil. There will be more than 2,500 (YES, 2,500) pastors in attendance, many of whom are interested and desperate for affordable theological education. As of now, we have been invited to set up a kiosk with literature about Bluegrass Baptist Seminary. At some time during the conference, we will have a slot to speak to the group about our goals and objectives for the seminary. This will be the 104th assembly of the Brazilian Convention in Fortaleza, Brazil. The dates are January 29 to February 2. I will be traveling on the 28th of January with Dr. Derek Coleman, one of our principal professors, and we covet your prayers.
While there, we will be interviewed by 3 different Brazilian seminaries about our seminary. These seminaries are interested in our Masters Programs to help them with advanced degrees they do not have. Please pray for this trip, as with the other conferences, we have seen an increase in the numbers of students in our seminary. So with this being the largest conference we have participated with, we are in high expectations! GOD IS AWESOME!!!!
This year we have 37 students for our March semester. This is our rebuilding after COVID. Keep the seminary in your prayers. With this conference there is great potential for more students for B.G.B. Seminary. GOD IS GOOD.
Remember in our last graduations we had 9 students (pastors) who received the Masters of Arts in Pastoral Ministries and 13 others received Masters of Arts in Biblical Studies—AWESOME!!! And we have 6 students in the PhD program. Within these 6, we have one student who is two years into the program. He is a missionary to the Jews in São Paulo, Brazil, so keep him in your prayers along with myself and Barbara, our professors (there are 5 of them, all of which are volunteers), and the students. Pray also for the traveling we will be doing this year, and for our health and finances.
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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Seminary Classes Scheduled in Manaus
The Hensleys have spent nearly 20 years serving in Brazil. They have established a church in Caraguatatuba and mission points throughout the city. They have also recently started a seminary to train pastors.
August 12, 2019
Dear friends and family,
Hope your summer has been a good one. Barb and I have had an enjoyable one with just a few hiccups. Have you ever heard the saying, “Man makes plans and God laughs”? Well, He has had a belly laugh on us this past month. We have been planning a trip to Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil for about two months now. The reason for this trip was to scout out new places to take the Seminary. Places where we could help pastors of Brazil. So we had a Pastor in Manaus get in touch with us and ask us to come there. We went into planning mode. Since myself and Pastor Coleman were going on this trip and it was not a teaching trip we thought it would be good to take the wives along. So plans were made. We have a person that graciously helps with our tickets when going to Brasil so we called him and set in motion the booking of the tickets. But as Delta does not fly to Manaus anymore, we had to book the second leg of the trip with another airlines in Brasil. I am telling you all of this to get to the REST of the story. You know the quote I wrote at the first of the letter? Well, it goes into effect now. Barb, Linda and I went to Louisville on the 19th to fly to Atlanta, but the flight was delayed because of bad weather, so we continued behind a long line to the ticket counter. By the time we got to the counter there had been another delay of the flight. The agent then told us even if we got on this delayed flight, we would miss our connection to Brasil. And to top that off we would not have a chance to fly out til the 21st. All that resulted in us missing the flight in Brasil to Manaus. By that time Pastor Coleman’s wife had decided to not try again but I was persistent and decided that Barb and I would drive to Atlanta. Well, guess what. We were unable to get on the flight there either. But Pastor Coleman had gotten on his flight on Sunday and was able to make all his connections. Therefore, we had one representative to do the research in Manaus. Thanks to Pastor Paul Hatcher and Wanda and Rosevaldo who took special care of Pastor Coleman. As I was saying, God had His way for this trip to be accomplished and He did it His way without my help. Not only were we able to meet with all the Pastors, and Pr. Coleman got to speak at the conference on the scheduled dates, he was able to set the dates for the Seminary in Manaus for next year. These dates not only include Manaus, but also the State of Rondonia. Now our calendar is full for the next 18 months. We have 14 seminary classes scheduled in five different cities. Pray for travel mercies and for the professors, translators and for me. We are still jumping through hoops to get accreditation for the Seminary in Brasil. One of the things we had to do was change our name. The Brazilian law says that to be an American Seminary with Brazilian accreditation we have to have an American name. So let me introduce you to Bluegrass Baptist Seminary. We have officially changed from Caragua Baptist Seminary to Bluegrass Baptist Seminary. As those requirements have been met and we have scheduled the classes for 2020 we now have another problem. We are going to be needing some more professors. The requirements are these: pastors with PhDs and with churches that are willing to let their Pastors go to Brasil and help finance his trip. But what an AWESOME problem to have.
Also, as the Seminary is getting known, we were having more and more requests for us to come to other regions to teach. Another AWESOME problem to have. Pray with us and for us as we continue to take God’s Word to Brasil.
We do ask that everyone continue to pray and give to BFM to support this work. Without faithful givers and prayer warriors we could not do this work we are doing.
In His service,
Aj and Barbara
Aj and Barbara Hensley
ajcaragua[at]gmail.com
Like them on Facebook.
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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Missionary Update: Paul & Wanda Hatcher in Brazil [December 2012]
Paul and Wanda Hatcher have been serving the Lord together in Brazil for 36 years. Paul pastors Tabernacle Baptist Church in Manaus, Brazil. Their main ministry is church planting.
Dear friends,
We send you greetings from the north and northeast of Brazil. Brazilian school begins mid-January and ends the first of December. Seminary and Bible classes had finals and end-of-year parties the last week of November. The Christian school also finished the year. Preparation for the upcoming year and enrollment is at full throttle. This is most important for the success of the coming year. Teacher and staff recruiting and training are also underway.
Leigh Samples, our daughter, is principal of the Christian day school and Pastor Michael Samples, our son-in-law, is Dean of the Bible Institute and Leadership Training. We had a good year and are very thankful for the impact the Word of God is having on all the student body. Pray that many laborers be prepared and sent out to harvest ready fields.
The new churches are doing very well, and the Lord is adding the saved to the churches. The paper work necessary to incorporate with the government and the transfer of facilities is taking about one year to complete. The everyday business and running time seems to fly; often it’s so easy to get caught up in the details and problem solving that we forget the great things God is doing. It was refreshing to be reminded by one of the pastors that twenty-three churches were organized, incorporated to meet government requirements, and properties transferred over the last twelve months.
This caused a swelling emotion of joy and gratitude to Our Lord Jesus Christ and our Father in heaven. The Lord has done great things. It’s precious to know Him, to trust Him, and to be filled with His love for Jesus Christ and His children.
We ask that you pray for us that God will encourage and embolden us in the coming year. All the family, Wanda, the children and grandchildren are doing well.
Thanks for your prayers and faithful support,
Paul and Wanda Hatcher
Avenida J. Carlos Antony, 172
65063-150 Manaus
Amazonas, Brasil SA
hatcher[at]argo.com.br
Click here to give.
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