Coordinating Foster Care in São Paulo
April 25, 2023
Dear friends,
I’m excited to write this letter because God has done great things. We arrived in São Paulo, Brazil, a week before Christmas. Being with my parents’ family for the holidays was so special after all we went through the last 18 months in the US. Everyone was amazed by how much our kids had grown.
On January 16, I returned to my role as coordinator in a Foster Care Program, but this time, in a new location and with a new team:
- A psychologist
- A social worker
- A social worker intern
- A social worker volunteer
We have worked very hard to organize and structure the program. Our inauguration was on April 4. We met with our jurisdiction judge and her foster care team to align procedures and receive instructions. We were glad the judge was very welcoming and open to foster care; she prefers placing babies, children, and teens in families. This positive attitude towards foster care is not typical among judges in Brazil, resulting in 96% of children and teenagers who are removed from their homes being placed in institutions and only 4% being placed in families. We want to change this sad reality by educating, recruiting, training, and supporting families in our communities to step out of their comfort zone and become foster care families. Most of our presentations are done in churches, but we also present in universities, maternities, business meetings, and others. Currently, we have two families ready to receive a child and one family finishing training. Our goal is to recruit ten families by the end of the year.
The two-bedroom townhouse we rented to serve as our office, where biological families will come for supervised visits, where foster care families will meet with us, and where adoptive families will meet their children for the first time, needs many things. We need sofas, lamps, rugs, decorations, stoves, children’s books, toys, crayons, colored pencils, and many newborn supplies, like clothes, bottles, baby towels, pacifiers, and everything else babies need. We give those items to the foster care families when they receive a baby since they are volunteers and only receive 264 dollars per month to help with medications (children come with many needs, physically, mentally, and psychologically) and other urgent needs the child may have. If you can help with a one-time offer, or if you would like to support this ministry monthly, please, specify your offering to Raquel Foster Care.
I’m also training professionals and foster care families in TBRI (Trust-Based Relational Intervention), a Trauma-Informed Approach. I got licensed to train while we were in the USA. TBRI was developed at Texas Christian University by Dr. Karyn Purvis and Dr. David Cross. If you would like to learn more about it, many TBRI videos are on YouTube. God has blessed us tremendously with many opportunities to serve Him through serving others. Our family is doing well. Jud is extremely busy with our church planting and training he does with pastors and church leaders. My oldest sister Valéria married on April 22; it was a beautiful celebration.
Lastly, Through World Without Orphans Brasil, we (WWO) are bringing Jodi Tucker to São Paulo on April 27. She is the mother of 9 children, some biological and many adopted. She wrote the devotional “Second Mothers.” She will be speaking to mothers by adoption and foster mothers. I will be the master of the ceremony (MC) for the event. We hope to bless those women who dedicate their lives to give hope to those without it.
I want to thank all of you for praying for us, loving us, and helping us financially. We could never do what we do without you. Thank you so, so much! My WhatsApp number is +(5511)99416-4149, if you would like to call me to get more information about our ministry. God bless you!
Love,
Raquel Hatcher
Forum at the International Foster Care Symposium at the University of Campinas 
Foster Care Presentation 
Inauguration of second Foster Care Program Center 
Jud & Raquel at her sister’s wedding 
Lecturing at the International Foster Care Symposium at the University of Campinas, São Paulo 
Meeting with the pastor of a Baptist Church 
Meeting with district court judge and and her child welfare team 
Raquel’s sister’s wedding celebration 
Raquel’s sister’s wedding 
Second Mothers Conference 
TBRI Training 
TBRI Training 
TBRI Training 
TBRI Training 
TBRI training with professionals who work at a residential care facility
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.
Read more
The Many Hats I’ve Worn
April 24, 2023
Dear friends and family,
As I look back over the past years in Brazil, I think of the many hats I have worn. In the beginning, my hat was just helper to Aj and to Kathy with the children. Then we purchased the building where we all assumed the care of one corridor with all the children decided. At this time, my hat was that of mother and all we moms know that a mom wears MANY hats. First is the caregiver and the one who gives the love to all. There is the nurse hat when one of your ten to fifteen boys is sick and you sit up all night rocking him. Also, the nurse when the boys get into fights and you are left to give out Band-Aids to all. One of my hats was a water carrier hat. That is when you call them to get up for school and they sleep right through it, so I guess that hat is the firefighter hat because the water somehow gets on the sound sleepers.
Then there was the was the wash woman hat on wash day when you gather up dirty clothes for all of the boys and begin wash day. Some days the biggest part was washing on the scrub board their “million dirty socks”. Then the pile in the living room floor to fold and separate their clothes. Also, the confidant hat where you get to give advice and hope and pray that they will listen and obey.
For the first five years, those and many more were my hats. Then we moved to another location where we were working to begin another orphanage, but the town we chose did not want Americans taking care of their children because they did not want people to think they were not doing a good job. I was Sunday School teacher, neighborhood all-around listener and adviser. So, because we could not get permission from the politicians we were forced to move to another location.
Here I stepped right into the role of youth leader and also young children teacher. The church where we began helping had a large children’s ministry and there, I fit right in and worked with the children in the church and outside of the church. So, when we started our last church, I worked in the women’s ministry and the children’s ministry.
So, as you can see, God has used me in all kinds of areas, but what is so interesting is when I look back on my own childhood and youth, I see how He was preparing me to be the wife of a missionary and to do all the things He brought me to.
My life has been a full and fulfilling one and I have enjoyed every twist and turn. I could not think of not having done any part of it. I give thanks to God for every part of it. And I look forward to everything He will bring to me to do in the future. As Aj would say, “WHAT AN AWESOME GOD WE SERVE!!!”
Thank each and every one of you who pray for Aj and I and for the ones who financially support through Baptist Faith Missions. Without your faithful support we could not do all that you enable us to do.
THANK YOU.
In His service,
Aj and Barbara Hensley
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.
Read more
Holding Grief & Gratitude at the Same Time
April 21, 2023
Greetings to all of you from beautiful Kijabe, Kenya.
It’s interesting writing these newsletters every year. One of the neat things about it is looking back over the letter from the year before and seeing all the answered prayers. Last year I listed 10 things for you to pray for. Of those 10 things, only one has not changed in the least – adoption. All the others have been answered to one degree or another. That is so encouraging!
God has been good. Well, God is always good even when circumstances are difficult – which they still are. But God has shifted a lot of things for us. Many of them you already know about from Roger’s letters.
I will be honest with you. After going through several months where things were looking up with Chloe, this last month has been difficult and disheartening. I feel like we’ve taken several steps backwards, and that’s really discouraging. In the middle of that, it’s sometimes difficult to remember that things are still better than they were a year ago – on every level: Chloe; support from professionals; community; ministry; marriage; growing in patience, faith, strength, and perseverance…
One of the fundamental things God has been teaching me is that it’s okay to hold grief and gratitude in my hands at the same time: they are not mutually exclusive. I think this is difficult for a lot of people in Christian circles. Anytime someone expresses hard things our knee-jerk reaction is to remind them to be thankful or to minimize the pain they are trying to express. We want to fix things, correct things, and make people feel better about their situation and about God. We say things like, “But don’t forget,” or “At least it’s not as bad as…” or “But look at the important work God has called your parents/spouse/you to…” which communicates the message that the person talking to us isn’t allowed to express those difficult emotions. We shut them down and communicate to them that there is something wrong with them or that they are bad Christians…or even worse, that they are just collateral damage. We’re often not good at sitting with suffering and difficult emotions.
As a mom of three adult MKs now, I can look back and see how I did this to my own children way more than was healthy for them. It seems like experiencing trauma is considered a badge of honor for missionary families in many circles, and we lose sight of the fact that our missionaries and their wives and children need better support in processing those traumas without fear. This doesn’t negate the things we do well for our missionaries – not at all. So please, if a missionary says, “We need a little bit more emotional support right now,” don’t hear that as, “Y’all aren’t doing your job…” rather, just hear the humble admission that life is extra tough in this season and we need our far-away Christian community in extra-ordinary ways right now.
Well, this is where we are as a family: trying to remember that it’s okay to struggle, and it’s okay to ask God difficult things. It’s okay that we feel the “hard.” This “hard” isn’t unique to us. Of all the missionary families I know at RVA (and there are a LOT of them) there isn’t one that doesn’t have a LOT of trauma they are trying to process. And though there are very unique aspects of this for missionaries (especially and most devastatingly for their children), “hard” isn’t only part of missionary life – it’s just part of life, isn’t it? Only the details are different.
So, I want to encourage YOU. If you are going through a difficult period, it’s okay to process that grief. It’s okay to talk about it without feeling like you have to couch everything in “Christianese.” It’s okay to be real. It’s okay to feel overwhelmed today. It’s okay to stop, plop in a chair, look up to God (whether physically or in your spirit) and just say, “Lord, this feels too heavy for me today. I’m overwhelmed. This hurts. I don’t feel like I can keep going today. I need You.” It doesn’t make you a bad Christian or a weak Christian or an ungrateful Christian; it makes you a real, broken person in a real, broken world who is learning how to lean hard into grace.
Roger and I are still learning how to leaning hard into grace in this pro-longed season of our lives. In the middle of all the answered prayer, in the middle of all the continued struggle (because we haven’t yet entered fully into the “rest” promised us), leaning hard implies the idea that we can’t stand on our own…because we can’t. And that’s okay.
God has answered many prayers. God has given us incredible opportunities. God has done amazing things. …AND… We’re hurting. It’s hard. We need your prayers. We need your encouragement. We need to know that our peeps back home still have our backs in this difficult season.
So now, may the God of all comfort comfort us all in all our afflictions so that we may be able to comfort others with the comfort which we have received from Him.
Love,
Julie
CONTACT INFO
Roger & Julie Tate
Moffat Bible College
P.O. Box 70
Kijabe, Kenya 00220
rojuta@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.
Read more
The Influence of My Mother on My Own Mothering & Ministry
April 18, 2023
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Hope and pray that the mothers will have a wonderful day and that God will fill each one with His love and wisdom.
Every day as I pray, I always thank God for my mother and the wonderful example she was as a mother and also as a servant of the Lord. So many things in my life as a mother and missionary have been greatly influenced by her example. I remember as a young kid doing visitation and witnessing with my mom. Today, that is a great part of my ministry. Also, having worked for so many years with kids and teens with problems, the Lord has helped me to use that experience helping people here in our new ministry.
My prayer and desire is to help the young people and the parents to not give up, but to seek the Lord each day and ask for wisdom. The enemy is in the world working overtime to distract this generation. As the Lord’s return gets closer, things get worse. That what God has told us in His word. May God richly bless each one of you and that we may reach out to all those God leads us to.
In Christ,
Kathy Barros
Kathy’s parents, John & Alta Hatcher 
Kathy’s parents with her daughters: KathyLee & Amelia
Contact Info:
Odali & Kathy Barros
Iranduba, Amazonas
Brasil, SA
odali_kathy@hotmail.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.
Read more
News & Reports – May 2022
The Online Edition of the May 2022 BFM News & Reports is available at the link below. Read how God is working through the lives of our faithful missionaries and continue to pray for them.
*Remember you can click on any headline to view the post/story on our website.
Read more
“MOTHERS IN ISRAEL” Judges 5:7
During this Month – read, honor, and pray for our Missionary-Wives…
“MOTHERS IN ISRAEL” Judges 5:7
Deborah, the judge, called herself “a mother in Israel”. She was not referring to her biological children because we don’t have written record, at least, that she and Lapidoth had any biological children. But, she was ‘a mother in Israel’ because of the spiritual leadership and nurturing she demonstrated during this time of spiritual declension. She provided the leadership of conviction, moral courage, and inspiration to trust and obey God – and she influenced and strengthened many.
So have our missionary-wives who have as faithfully and valiantly served with their husbands to be mothers, not only to their own children and families, but to countless others also. So, in keeping with the Mother’s Day tradition we observe here in the States, we have asked our beloved missionary-wives to write this month’s letters from their own distinctive perspectives. This is our way of recognizing them, honoring them, and rising up with their husbands and children to bless them! Proverbs 31:10-31
Read more
‘MOTHERS IN ISRAEL’ SPECIAL EDITION!
During this Month – read, honor, and pray for our Missionary-Wives…
“MOTHERS IN ISRAEL” Judges 5.7
Deborah, the judge, called herself “a mother in Israel”. She was not referring to her biological children because we don’t have written record, at least, that she and Lapidoth had any biological children. But, she was ‘a mother in Israel’ because of the spiritual leadership and nurturing she demonstrated during this time of spiritual declension. She provided the leadership of conviction, moral courage, and inspiration to trust and obey God – and she influenced and strengthened many.
So have our missionary-wives who have as faithfully and valiantly served with their husbands to be mothers, not only to their own children and families, but to countless others also. So, in keeping with the Mother’s Day tradition we observe here in the States, we have asked our beloved missionary-wives to write this month’s letters from their own distinctive perspectives. This is our way of recognizing them, honoring them, and rising up with their husbands and children to bless them! Proverbs 31.10-31
Read more
FaithWORKS Report [May 2013]
‘MOTHERS IN ISRAEL’ SPECIAL EDITION!
During this Month – read, honor, and pray for our Missionary-Wives…
- KATHY BARROS
- BEV CREIGLOW
- ALTA HATCHER
- JUDY HATCHER
- RAQUEL HATCHER
- WANDA HATCHER
- BARB HENSLEY
- CARRIE RADFORD
- ANITA STANTON
- JULIE TATE
- CHARLENE WACASER
“MOTHERS IN ISRAEL” Judges 5.7
Deborah, the judge, called herself “a mother in Israel”. She was not referring to her biological children because we don’t have written record, at least, that she and Lapidoth had any biological children. But, she was ‘a mother in Israel’ because of the spiritual leadership and nurturing she demonstrated during this time of spiritual declension. She provided the leadership of conviction, moral courage, and inspiration to trust and obey God – and she influenced and strengthened many.
So have our missionary-wives who have as faithfully and valiantly served with their husbands to be mothers, not only to their own children and families, but to countless others also. So, in keeping with the Mother’s Day tradition we observe here in the States, we have asked our beloved missionary-wives to write this month’s letters from their own distinctive perspectives. This is our way of recognizing them, honoring them, and rising up with their husbands and children to bless them! Proverbs 31.10-31
WE COULD NOT FULFILL OUR BASELINE COMMITMENTS TO OUR MISSIONARIES AGAIN THIS MONTH – MAY. When we don’t receive sufficient General Fund offerings to cover the $46,000+ commitments we make to our missionaries each month just for salaries, expense allowances, hospitalization, and correspondence – then we have no other choice but to reduce the amounts of those commitments we disburse that month.
But, we are thankful that we didn’t have to reduce their commitments as much this month as last month. This month, we reduced their baseline commitments by only $238.84 which was equitably and proportionately distributed among them.
This month, also, we applied the $1699.00 offerings which was given during the Spring Missions Conference to their Essential Maintenance disbursements. Thanks to everyone who contributed to those offerings.
If you are not contributing to the General Fund, would you consider doing so regularly? Even if you want to help perhaps your ‘favorite’ missionary, by contributing to the General Fund, you are helping us supply the Essential Maintenance Transactions commitments we have made to them…so we won’t have to reduce them again.
‘Thank You!’ to everyone of you who does contribute to our monthly General Fund. You are not only supplying the essential needs of these servants of the Lord – but you also daily increase many thanksgivings to God for you!
SPRING MISSIONS CONFERENCE
The Lord attended with us and blessed us with His Presence and grace during our Spring Missions Conference. We want to thank all of you also who attended with us and prayed for us during this time of fellowship, preaching of the Word, and encouragement to commit ourselves to partnering together to help our missionaries fulfill their callings to ‘go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.’
Our special thanks also to the 40 pastors and preachers who attended during the course of the Conference. We hope each one will help us carry the burden and need of our missionaries back to your churches and increase our prayer and financial support to supplying their needs. These pastors-preachers represented eight U.S. states: KY, TN, OH, IL, IN, WV, MI, and FL. Two states in Brazil were also represented: Amazonas and Sao Paulo.
In addition, five nations were represented by the missionaries who have served there, either presently or formerly.
The Lord gave to every one of our 10 preachers and presenters Spirit-filled messages from His Word. The Holy Spirit ‘fleshed out’ the prayer-theme of our Conference ‘O LORD, revive Your work in the midst of the years’ from Habakkuk 3:2. He ‘fleshed out’ this theme by giving all our speakers a burning revival message from His Word; and then by sending them to us to deliver those messages; and then by convicting our hearts to receive them into our own lives and ministries. May He continue to ‘flesh out’ His Word through us all as we obey His Word and carry out His Great Commission to fulfillment in our own generation.
YOU are the ones who make our Conference services what they are. We in our host churches can plan the services and provide the accommodations to make your attendance as comfortable and enjoyable as we can, but it is your attendance and presence that makes the Conference. May God bless you as much for attending as you blessed all of us by your presence.
CONFERENCE OFFERING
We designated the $1699.00 in offerings given during the Conference services toward May’s General Fund supplies to help provide our missionaries’ Essential Maintenance Transactions. These are the essential expenses incurred each month to cover their salaries, housing and ministry allowances, hospitalization, and correspondence costs. These are their essential living and ministry needs.
CONFERENCE CDs
If you would like to receive copies of the audio CDs from the Conference messages, you may contact Doug Cornish, our media guy, at dougkyc[at]aol.com
CONFERENCE RECAPS
Also, if you haven’t done so – you may go to the “Conference Recaps” section of our FaithWorks Blog or to our Facebook to search for detailed descriptions and recaps of all the sessions and services during our Conference.
ANNUAL FOUNDER’S DAY OFFERING
Reminder: One of the reasons we were able to carry our missionaries’ Essential Maintenance Transactions through last year [2012] without reducing their standard baseline commitments [after having to make significant reductions in January and February] is because of THE 2012 FOUNDERS DAY OFFERING.
June has traditionally been the month when we remember and recognize the Founders of BFM – and also to honor the faithful missionaries who have served…and are serving…over our 70+ years of ministry!
We are asking you again for a special Founders Day Offering. We want to make our Founders Day Offering an annual event to help us continue to provide for our missionaries’ needs. Nothing we ever ask for or do is for any personal benefit to any of us – but everything is so we can continue to meet the commitments we have made to our missionaries so they can continue their daily ministries unhindered and undistracted by a lack of financial supplies.
All we are asking you to do is to give your church the opportunity to give to a specially-announced and designated Founder’s Day Offering. Or, if your church does not participate in the Offering, then please consider giving a special gift over and above your regular giving to the General Fund. All offerings received for the Founder’s Day Offering will be used to go toward meeting our missionaries’ needs for monthly General Fund supplies to help fund our standard commitments we have made to them for their essential living expenses.
Will you pray and ask the Lord what He wants you to give – and plan to participate with your church in a fellowship-wide Founders Day Offering?
MISSIONARIES’ FURLOUGH SCHEDULE
Harold Bratcher is retiring from active and faithful missionary service in Manaus, Brazil, and is relocating to live here in the States. He is selling his home in Manaus and is seeking to purchase a home here. If you wish to contact him before he establishes a permanent address, you may contact him at: 859.277.3716 / 1012 Balsam Drive, Lexington KY 40504 / or through his email address: harold_bratcher[at]yahoo.com
TATES AND RADFORDS – their plans at present are to be coming to the States in September and October respectively. You may correspond with them concerning any prospective plans you would like to make with them. Roger Tate rojuta[at]gmail.com & Nathan Radford naterad[at]yahoo.com
Read more
