Missionary Update: The Stantons in Peru [January 2014]
Sheridan and Anita Stanton have served the Lord in Peru since 1983. Their main ministry is church planting and they have helped establish churches all over the country. Sheridan also works to train pastors and Anita works with the ladies’ ministry and developing children’s material.
January 6, 2014
Dear friends,
Well we finally got the roof poured with concrete on the first floor of the new building for the Calvary Baptist Mission. It is in the curing process now for a few weeks. We rejoice in the Lord that He has provided up to this important point. Ebenezer (you Bible scholars will understand that one!). The biggest part of a building project is the first floor because you have to dig the footers and foundation, all of which takes a lot of hand-mixed cement. I sure missed my concrete crews from the States. You all know who you are! Building permits, architectural plans, electric and water connections – all done.
Any of you men in the States know how to hang drywall? It is a new building concept here in Peru and none of our people know how to do it. I’m hoping a small crew might get together in March and come down for a week to help and teach us how to hang drywall. It would also give you an opportunity to leave all that cold weather in the States right now! Temperatures average here in Huánuco between 70 – 85 degrees all year long. Any takers?
We are trusting the Lord that continued funds will come in to help us finish this building. At present we have spent all we had for this project. Every bit helps! The building is designed for four floors because the lot is relatively small. Each roof poured on each floor cost about $6000.00 and we are sure that the Lord will continue to bless with additional funds. Thanks.
We had one young lady accept Christ as her Savior two weeks ago and it looks like she will be the first baptism of 2014. We rejoice in all of God’s blessings upon His work here in Peru.
The mission works around the country are experiencing growth, both numerically and spiritually. Anita and I have the joy of supporting eleven national Peruvian missionaries. This is possible with the funds that we receive from you dear saints of God. We know times are rough in the States right now and we are very much aware of the many sacrifices folks from our supporting churches are giving. So many of the dear saints of God here in Peru also, give and sacrifice in the work of the Lord. Please know we love you all and thank God for you. Let us rejoice knowing that we all have our part in the spreading of the Gospel message and God’s love, throughout the country of Peru, and around the world.
With the blessings come the trials and Anita and I ask you to pray for us as we are experiencing an attack of slander aimed at destroying our ministry and therefore the work here in Huánuco. Our Heavenly Father protects us and strengthens us. However, Anita and I both have our moments of anger, depression and sadness. It has, however, been very encouraging to see, hear and feel the support of our brothers and sisters in Christ all around us here in Huánuco. Please lift us up in your prayers that the trials might soon be over. Thank you and may God continue to bless you all. Until next month.
Being “In Christ” by God’s grace,
Sheridan and Anita Stanton
Apartado Postal 140
Huanuco, Peru
South America
(614) 500-8823 – Internet Number
sestantonperu[at]hotmail.com – Sheridan
arstantonperu[at]gmail.com – Anita
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Missionary Update: Paul & Wanda Hatcher in Brazil [June 2013]
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.
Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil
May 29, 2013
Dear Friends,
God gives some people the ability to move to a new city and preach the gospel, nurture the new believers in Christ, and in a short time, organize the body of believers into a new church. Many times the starter missionary does not enjoy the ongoing pastoral duties because his heart is burdened for another place that does not have the Gospel. Even with so great a burden, the missionary realizes he must stay until the Lord provides a pastor to lead the new flock. Missionary Raimundo Pinto and family are great starter missionaries in the city of Fortaleza in northeastern Brazil. They have been sent from Tabernacle Baptist Church in Manaus. The church plant was successful and a blessing, but Missionary Pinto was anxious to move on to a new state to begin a new church. He waited and prayed anxiously that the Lord would provide a pastor so he could move on. He was elated and grateful as the Lord answered their prayer and provided a man of God, Pastor Vilian and family. The new church invited him to become their new pastor and He accepted the call. They are working on the transition; and soon Missionary Pinto is planning to move to the city of Aracaju, in the state of Sergipe in northeastern Brazil. Needless to say, the two families are very excited to move and get started. We ask that you pray for them, especially the Pinto family, as many challenges will present themselves in this new church plant. We will rejoice as God continues to work out all the details.
John is a member at Tabernacle Baptist in Manaus and has a small farm in the jungle on the banks of the Amazon River. He is a joyful Christian and loves to talk about his faith in Jesus. As he talked about Jesus to the people living out on the river banks, several became interested and trusted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. So he would get together with them on the week end and read the Scriptures and talk about the Lord and pray together. About three weeks ago, John requested that one of the church pastors go and talk to them, as they wanted to be baptized. There are about 25 adults who have professed Jesus as Saviour. This is wonderful! Pray for them, their baptism and growth in the Lord, and the forming of a new church.
This month of May, Wanda and I are having some special time with our parents. My parents, John and Alta Hatcher, live in the southern part of Brazil, and Wanda’s mom, Mrs. Willa McGary, lives in the opposite direction: Mayfield, Kentucky. At the beginning of the month, we had a special treat with my parents and my two brothers and their wives – about a week of fellowship and thanksgiving.
The following weeks we are spending some time with Wanda’s mom visiting and caring for some of her needs. We would like to say a great big Thanks to churches and individuals for your meaningful prayer and support. Likewise, thanks to the wonderful men who serve on the board and the churches they pastor who also invest in missions through them. Your intercessions to God on our behalf bring us comfort and strength in the Lord Jesus. Your faithful financial support is laid to your account in heaven, as God brings salvation to many, which results in our rejoicing together and glorifying God. We thank God for each of you and pray that He will richly bless you.
In Christ,
Paul and Wanda Hatcher
Avenida J. Carlos Antony, 172
65063-150 Manaus
Amazonas, Brasil SA
hatcher[at]argo.com.br
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Missionary Update: Bobby & Charlene Wacaser [September 2012]
Bobby, Charlene, Jessie, and Brennen Wacaser have served the Lord as church planters in Curitiba, Parana, Brazil, since 1985.
September 10, 2012
Dear Friends,
“Rejoice always,” are the words that the Apostle Paul wrote to the brothers and sisters in Thessalonica. It is very evident from reading all of Paul’s letters and the book of Acts that this joy he spoke of could not be dependent upon comfortable circumstances. In fact, it would be extremely difficult to find someone whose circumstances could be worse. The rejoicing that he commands is based on facts, not circumstances.
I cannot say that I have suffered anything like the trials that Paul experienced, but I know that the principle is true no matter how severe the trial. I as write this my body is aching from some type of “bug” that I got on a mission conference trip. I do rejoice, though, because I am a child of God, an ambassador of Jesus Christ and he has promised to never leave me nor forsake me.
I also had the privilege to rejoice a few days ago when a thief broke in to our new church building. I rejoiced first of all because he didn’t take much. Secondly, I rejoice because I know that all of our true needs will be met by the power and riches of Christ.
But, I did get the privilege of rejoicing in gain too, and not only loss and ill health. We had a group of youth and their leaders come down from Tampa, Florida to work together with us in the public schools and parks. We rejoiced to see several dozens of youth surrendering their lives to the Lord. This group also spent a day of hard work digging ditches and putting in a much needed drain field. They provided all the tools, labor and material to get the job done. We rejoiced to see these young people working a lot of gusto and determination.
I believe that this trial of illness that I am experiencing right now will pass. But I also know that other trials will come. I hope to honor the Lord with my joy in all circumstances and despite them.
Rejoice with me for God’s glory!
In Christ’s love,
Bobby, Charlene and Brennen Wacaser
Rua Manoel Valdomiro de Macedo, 2281
81170-150 Curitiba, PR Brasil
(813)436-9980
robertmw[at]brturbo.com.br
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Missionary Update: John & Alta Hatcher in Brazil [July 2012]
Missionaries John and Alta Hatcher have served the Lord in Brazil since 1955, planting over 70 churches that are still in existence.
July 1, 2012
Dear Brethren and Fellow Helpers,
Praise the Lord; He has given us a wonderful month. Proverbs 17:6 speaks of the children’s children being a blessing for the old. This month our twenty-second great grandchild was born in Manaus. His name is Noah. His parents are Leigh Ann and Michael Samples. Leigh Ann is Paul and Wanda Hatcher’s daughter and Michael works with Paul in the School and Seminary. There were some complications in the birth but Mother and Baby are doing well after being born by C-Section.
Another good news is about the two younger daughters of Amanda and Philip Hatcher who live in France. The two older girls were saved and baptized last month. This month the two younger girls told their Mother and Dad they had trusted Jesus as Savior. We are thankful.
DRIVER’S LICENSE—In my last letter I mentioned the difficulty in getting my Brazilian Driver’s License. I received it after almost three months; it is good for two years.
ASSAI—Alta and I still make the trip to Assai every Sunday morning and we rejoice that we are still able to go. Please pray for this city of 20,000 people. Three different families whose children started coming have taken them out to take them to another church; they never attended any place before the children started coming to our Sunday School. Alta plans and has a great lesson for the children each week. Pray that the Lord will change the hearts of those parents.
URAI—The work is going well in Urai and the missions in Sussumo and Rancho Alegre. There are five or six young people who attend the Seminary and they are very active in the Lord’s work.
Great news from Manaus. The work where Paul pastors is going great and the Chapada Baptist Church where David and Pennie work is being greatly blessed. This month there were 360 people who trusted the Lord. All of these are followed up with special classes for new converts. Last Sunday there were over 3,000 in Sunday School. They have two services each Sunday night and they will soon have to go to two Sunday School hours in the morning.
The OLDIES—We praise the Lord we are still able to do and go. For our joy and contentment Alta and I still play for half an hour four or five times a week. She plays the organ and I play my Sax.
We thank you for your prayers and support.
Sincerely, in the Name above every name,
Caixa Postal 112
Urai, PR, Brazil 86280-000
jhatcher[at]uol.com.br
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Missionary Update: Jud & Raquel Hatcher in Brazil [May 2012]
Jud and Raquel Hatcher serve the Lord in Manaus, 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 pray partner and giving friend,
We have great news! In this issue you’ll find updates on the new church plant, a salvation testimony, the flooding in Manaus, our family and prayer requests. The Lord is blessing. Please, join us in prayer and financially investing. Visit us at www.judhatcher.com.
Church Plant
In March of this year, we began our church plant’s first service. We have a lot of home visits and follow-up by phone. On Sundays we have on average 40 people attend. First time visitors are common & returning visitors as well. Our three pre-evangelistic cookouts have given us over 100 contacts to continue connecting. This month 6 people will be baptized and we will have our first Lord’s supper. We are currently meeting at home. Join us in prayer as we search for a location to rent or purchase & build.
A salvation decision
Just recently I was talking to a 19 year old man, who had attended a Catholic church since he was a young boy. The last 7 years he dealt with severe back pain due to a genetic disorder. Consequently, his search for God grew based on his pain. Within the last two years he was working on his salvation and attending a prosperity gospel & works salvation type church. On the very first week we meet we talked for over 4 hours on a Saturday night. By the end of they evening he confessed to the Lord that his efforts to attain salvation we worthless, that he was sinner and that he wanted to surrender into God’s grace through Christ Jesus. His hunger and growing love for the Lord had lead him to bring his mother and five sisters to our services. Praise the Lord!!
MaNAUS Flooding
As I right this Manaus is on the verge of its worst flooding in recorded history. Our city his 4 inches shy of the highest level the Amazon River has ever reached. We still have 2 months of river uprising. Many of the downtown streets are already under water. As a result, we have more mosquitoes flying into our home, rats coming up the pipeline. There are also incidents of snakes in houses due to incoming water.
Our Family
Our family is doing well. Sarah, Laura and Benjamin are all doing well in school. Melissa, who is now 5 months old, is rolling over in the bed and sitting up on her own. Sarah and Laura went to the dermatologist this week due to skin irritations, but should diminish with the doctor’s recommended treatment. Raquel and I are doing fine. We love the Lord, our children and the work of the ministry.
PRAYER REQUESTS
1. Increased financial giving to the General Fund of BFM.
2. Growth of the new church plant.
3. Leadership training.
4. Search for church’s new location – rent or purchase & construction.
Grateful,
Jud & Raquel Hatcher
judsonhatcher@hotmail.com
Website | Twitter
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Missionary Update: The Wacasers in Brazil [April 2012]
Bobby, Charlene, Jessie, and Brennen Wacaser have served the Lord as church planters in Curitiba, Parana, Brazil, since 1985.
April 5, 2012
Dear Friends,
The group of 53 youth with their adult leaders from Brandon, FL did arrive and we had a wonderful week of ministry together with them. Projeto Vida partners with them by providing several resources during their week here each year. The sound system, transportation, meeting hall and additional skits and music help to provide a more complete “package” for evangelizing in the public schools and parks. The cultural exchange between the Brazilian and American youth also serves to motivate both groups. Each year we see more teens from the US deciding to get involved in missions more completely and also we see many Brazilian young people energized by the passion and dedication the American youth exhibit.
This week we plan to begin pouring the concrete floor of the auditorium. We have practically finished the classrooms and bathrooms and hope to install the doors and windows, finally. I have had to strive not to get frustrated with this part of the project. The window company keeps telling me that they’ll be there “next week,” but “next week” has turned into “next month” twice. I have been to the company and they have shown me the glass already cut and waiting to be installed. They are custom cut windows, so I believe that there is no intent to rip us off. I hope that by my next letter to you I can include pictures of the windows installed. Keep us in your prayers, please.
One of the Wacasers' first works.
You may remember that I had to reassume the pastoral role at my former church due to some legal and moral issues the man we placed there caused. Anyway, we do have a man in whom we trust to take my place there now and soon we’ll be able to work fulltime at the new church and partner with him and that church on special projects of evangelism. We are thankful to Bro. David Hatcher and the Nova Igreja Batista in Manaus for helping us fill this role.
The two churches are busy this week calling on the people who attended our public park rallies and made professions of faith. We are inviting them to attend intensive Bible studies and introduce them to a life of walking with Jesus Christ. We hope and pray that we will be baptizing many of these people in the upcoming weeks.
Thank you for your faithful prayers and support.
In Christ’s love,
Bobby, Charlene and Brennen Wacaser
Rua Manoel Valdomiro de Macedo, 2281
81170-150 Curitiba, PR Brasil
(813)436-9980
robertmw[at]brturbo.com.br
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Missionary Update: John Mark and Judy Hatcher in France [April 2012]
Missionaries John Mark and Judy Hatcher have been serving the Lord in Tournefeuille, France since 1999. They define their ministry as “disciple-making,”
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Greetings in the name of Christ from Southern France, which is north of most of you. We are approximately on the same latitude as Toronto, Canada. Yesterday we arrived back home from Manaus, Brazil which is just south of the Equator. So, we are a bit off keel time wise and climate wise. Some may think that I am always off keel.
We were in Manaus to see my parents and siblings. Though we are able to speak with dad and mom weekly by phone we wanted to be able to be with them for a face to face visit. Dad turns 87 on April 30 and mom will turn 87 in September. They continue to serve the Lord faithfully. They are still involved in a church plant about 30 minutes drive from their house. It was a great blessing to visit for about 10 days with the family, including Paul and Wanda’s children and grandchildren. We share in common not only family ties but spiritual family ties. We were also able to enjoy worshiping together with many of our Brazilian brothers and sisters in Christ and had the opportunity to speak and preach several times.
Two days before leaving France we had another meeting with youth. This time we had a progressive dinner. We had nibbles and salad at the first home, spaghetti and meatballs at the second home and dessert at the last home. Most importantly, we had spiritual food at all three homes. At each place someone gave their testimony about how they were saved and we presented the Gospel. Time in vehicles between homes was also a valuable opportunity to discuss spiritual matters and answer questions on a personal level. We have two more meetings with youth scheduled before the end of the Spring semester. This is presently an open door for reaching young people who are desperately in need of Christ in a godless society. We are a bit saddened by the fact that one of the teenage girls who has been most effective in bringing friends is leaving this week to spend the rest of the school year in Germany as a part of her learning German program.
On the next to last Sunday of March, two of our regular families communicated the news that they were being transferred elsewhere with their jobs. This will leave a sizable dent in the congregation because each of these young couples has three grade school aged children; ten people gone at once.
We have been praying for the Spring conference. May God used what took place there to help us all in the service of the Lord. Thanks for your faithful support.
Until next month,
John and Judy in France
John and Judy Hatcher
4, rue d’Aspin
31170 Tournefeuille, France
JMHatcher[at]aol.com
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Missionary Update: Bobby & Charlene Wacaser in Brazil [March 2012]
Bobby, Charlene, Jessie, and Brennen Wacaser have served the Lord as church planters in Curitiba, Parana, Brazil, since 1985.
March 8, 2012
Dear Friends,
I nearly didn’t get this letter prepared! I have a group of 53 youth and adults coming in from the Tampa, Florida area tomorrow and, with all the preparations involved, I almost forgot to share with you what the Lord has been doing around here this past month. I mentioned last month that we were going to hold a family camp during Brazil’s Carnaval holidays. That camp went really well. We had a very good turnout and we were especially happy to have some families participate with whom we have been sharing the gospel for a while. These families were very receptive to everything we taught from God’s word and have seemed increase their interest in things relating to the Lord.
We had our missions training seminar near the beginning of the month followed up by a practical missions trip to four different towns. The Lord provided us with tremendous opportunities for sharing the gospel through dramatic skits, personal testimonies and Bible preaching. There were over 3500 people present at our meetings during the extended holiday and many listeners professed faith in Jesus Christ. We have begun regular Bible studies with 69 of those and hope to see them baptized and growing in their relationship with Christ soon.
The construction at our new church work continues steadily. All the plumbing should be working by the time you read this report and we have had a steady increase in attendance at our meetings. We are very grateful to you who have contributed to this new church plant. God has used you to do several things that we are aware of, and probably many others that we aren’t. Our own team members have given graciously, but they have been further encouraged by seeing that they are not alone as they economize in their family budgets. Having the joyful news that other brothers and sisters care and also want to see God’s name glorified in spreading the gospel is very motivating as they feel the pinch of tightened resources from their giving toward the new work. Now they are praising God for using you to assist them in making Him known. Thank you very much.
Like I mentioned at the beginning of this report, tomorrow a group of 53 is arriving to work with us. We will be taking the gospel to six public schools during the course of a week and reaching out also in public parks and squares. We are especially happy that our daughter, Jessie, will be coming with the group as their translator guide. My team and I will be very, very busy during the course of this week, but we are very excited about the fact that many thousands of people will hear of our Lord Jesus Christ from folks who have made a great effort to come share His love. We pray God will be glorified and many will come to know Him personally.
In Christ’s love,
Bobby, Charlene and Brennen Wacaser
Rua Manoel Valdomiro de Macedo, 2281
81170-150 Curitiba, PR Brasil
(813)436-9980
robertmw[at]brturbo.com.br
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