February Newsletter

Friends,

We are back in Brasil after a quick trip to the States for the holidays. We took the opportunity to be together in the States with our entire family for the first time in years. Mary and her husband were able to go with us so that completed the family unit. We were not on furlow just on a family holiday. Our time there was wonderful.

Barb's mom had had a fall and we came to encourage her, but to be honest the main reason was that God had blessed our son and daughter-in-law with expecting our first grand daughter. We came to be present for the birth and God was good as he let us have two days with the most beautiful grand daughter we have ever seen. Her name is Briley Alaine Hensley and she and her parents are doing well. (photo included) What an awesome experience to get to hold your first grand child---just call me Grand Pa.

There was a 3rd reason for coming back to the States this time and that was Barbara's health. There were several tests that she needed to have done and past problems that needed to be re- checked. So she spent a bit of time in Dr's offices. Her previous problem had resolved itself but the Dr's discovered another small problem. We covet your prayers as we come back to Brazil to hunt a Dr for her so that the problem can be treated here.

Coming back to Brazil was quite a shock temperature wise. Here it is in the high 80s and the day we left the States it was 10. We are getting adjusted to the change and trying to get back into the routine. The ministries are going well considering the time of year, here it is holiday and everyone is either working as much as they can or is off somewhere on vacation. Here in Caraguatatuba we always have a decrease in attendance because of people working.

Our newest endeavor, the English speaking Church, is scheduled to start on the 16th of Feb. We are targeting the people that speak English and those that are studying in the schools that teach English as a second language. We covet your prayers as some of these people would never enter a Church if it weren't for something like this. When you remember this ministry we will be having the services on Saturday nights at 6:00 o'clock.

While we were home we were given a donation to help get the dormitory going. We have been saving another donation for some time now that was designated for the footer, so now we can get to work on this project. We will be making the blocks and letting them season while we are pouring the footer. Then we will start the walls. We will keep you up on the progress of this project.

While we are doing this we will need to attend to some construction problems that happened while we were in the States. Some of the roof on the mission point is Olaria blew off and needs to be repaired. Morro do Algodão still needs to be painted, tile on the floor and some concrete walks poured around the building.

We got back just in time to get the bills for the tax and insurance on the new van and our truck, believe me when I say, in the States we have it good in these areas. Also the repairs on these vehicles sometimes gets ahead of you because of the situation of the roads. Every 5000 miles or so I need to line and balance the tires. It is getting harder to keep up with these repairs as the dollar keeps dropping in value here. I know that we are not the only missionary that is having to look around to see where we can let somethings go for a while so I am asking on behalf of all of us for your prayers concerning our finances.

Pray with us as we minister here in Brazil and pray for our families there in the States and here in Brazil.

Speaking of family did I say that Grandpa is sending a picture of the gift that He sent to us on the 19th of January 2008? Well here it is, isn't she beautiful?!!?

I wish for God to richly bless you and yours this coming year.

Also don't forget--the light is on and your bed is turned down, so come on down.

In His Service,
Aj and Barb

Here is our first video

Check out this short video about us in Brazil .

Bible School Saturdays in Perequê

In the house of Sister Jandira















The days lesson was on Jesus and His Disciples






























Bible Drills















Coloring page

Van Pics

Loading the folks from Morro de Algodão to return home after Sunday Morning Sunday School.

November Letter

Dear Friends,

This month has been a little slow due to the fact that I have been down with various illnesses. For more than two weeks I have been without energy and having difficulty breathing. But you know what God does not need us to fulfill His work He just keeps on going even when we can't.

Let me tell you about the miracles and blessings that He has worked as I watched His handy work. Last month I wrote about the house we helped to remodel for the family that had lost the father and for the extra space for the services we were having there. This family was struggling financially because of the loss of the father and the 16 year old daughter was having health issues that was costing more than they could afford.This girl, Audriele, was diagnosed with cancer and the mother was distraught trying to get the medical help that was needed.The mother, by selling fish, was able to get the basic test done but the Doctors were undecided about the diagnosis and asked for a more extensive test. Here we have socialized medicine and the daughter was put on the list for this much needed test for the Doctors to be able to agree on her diagnosis. But the waiting list was one year and her problem was not going to wait for one year. Well the First Baptist Church in Bastrop Texas was here and the Pastor took this problem back to his Church and they sent money for us to pay for the test. This week at our prayer meeting Gloria, the mother, told us THE REST OF THE STORY. The Doctors read the results of the test and were shocked that there was nothing present that was on the preliminary testing, so they ordered another test to prove whether they were reading the test right or not. When the test results came back the Doctors could only shake their heads in disbelief. There no longer was any cancer and they were shocked, But we here in Caraguatatuba were not because we know the DOCTOR who is still in the MIRACLE business. Thanks to all who prayed for this girl and this family, continue to pray for the family because the mother has been diagnosed with heart problems and we need another miracle.

The blessing of the month is that the van/bus was purchased has been put it to use. This past week our bus broke down and we were able to fill the gap with the new purchase. Also we are able to do many more ministries because of this purchase. Thanks again to those of you that helped us with this purchase.

Good news about our Church building in Morro do Algodão (the one that has tilted over 12inches out of level). This building has been out of use for about one year and we have been holding services in homes. We now have returned to the Church building this is the second week. Oh yes there is still work to be done but this is not stopping our services. The things that are still needed is tile on the floor, sidewalks and paint.Thanks to our AWESOME God for each success.

Barbara and Edson have started another Saturday bible school in Pereque. On the first Saturday they had 10 children and on Sunday one of the children accepted Christ as Savior. We are excited to start again a work in this area as we don't have an ongoing work there at the present time. As is always the needed supplies are costly so we would like to thank each and every one of you for your continued support to us here in Brazil.

The latest work has not begun as of yet because of the lack of materials for the preparation of the building. God was good to us in that He is providing the building for the first year without rent but we need to make some needed repairs. Therein lies the delay. The name of the neighborhood is Massaguaçu, remember this new work in your prayers.

We need two things(maybe three) from you there in the States, your prayers your financial support and your visits. If I were you I would be curious to see how your donations were being spent, so please come down and experience the work of God here in Caraguatatuba.

In His service,
Aj and Barbara Hensley

Hello to you all

Hello to those of you who have come across this page by accident or on purpose. We hope you take some time to read what we have posted.

My parents, Aj and Barbara Hensley surrendered to the mission field in 1996 and followed God's calling to Brazil where they are currently situated in the town of Caraguatatuba. I found my way to be here too since I met my husband while visiting my parents.

In an effort to remain connected as much as possible, we have created this blog. The monthly updates will be posted as well as random information and prayer requests. You will notice on the sidebar are some links and other information. This will be updated on a semi-regular basis. We are also posting pictures on another webpage. There is a link in the sidebar to those pictures. If you have a blog and would like to be part of our links, let us know.

We hope you enjoy the blog and we look forward to hearing how you like it (or not). hehe

Love and hugs,
mkhq

October Newsletter

Thank the Lord we have had a very busy month. We have been able to work on one of our house-churches and now in this location we have the capacity for about 50 plus people.

Let me back up a bit and explain, we have had a group of 10 from The First Baptist Church in Bastrop Texas. I have a brother that is a member and deacon in this Church and he brought this group to visit the work. They furnished the finances for us to refurbish a veranda (porch) area to accommodate more people. Two weeks ago when I preached there we had 24 people and we were in the living room and down the hall.I could not see everyone that was there so a couple of times during the sermon I tried to move around but could not because of the children that were sitting on the floor. So what an awesome blessing, This area now has more space to accommodate more people. For us here this is nothing short of a miracle. Not only did we make new friends from Texas but we gained a larger area for meetings and that equals more people hearing the gospel. How Awesome is the God we serve. In addition to the larger area there were two ladies in this group that decided that the bathroom needed some rrenovation, so they (these ladies) layed tile and redid the bathroom for her. This spurred the men on to replace the tile above the sink area in the kitchen. For Gloria, the home owner, this was a dream come true. She told the group that she had dreamed about doing these things to her home but never could have done this on her own. Gloria was widowed last year and is the sole support of a family of 6 children, she does this by selling fish. Some may ask "Why start a house Church here"? The answer is this, for people like Gloria and her neighbors who do not have the financial means to come to the main church in town. It cost 2.20 per person for one way bus ticket. So you can do the math and see the need to bring the Gospel to the people.

The other 4 ladies and Barb did a week of bible study and craft classes with the ladies in another mission point. These ladies are new Christians and are hungry for the Word. In these craft classes these ladies learned a craft that they potentially can make and sell to help with their finances in the home. In this particular area our members are 2/3 below the poverty level. The ladies also made banners to help beautify the mission point and to help with the echo problem in the concrete building. All in all the time spent with these ladies was a very good time for all.

Here is another blessing we had while the group was here, their pastor came with them and he taught in our seminary.Dr. Edge lived and studied in Israel so one of the sessions was on ancient languages. Our seminary students and our Church members received an AWESOME blessing.Dr Edge was able to not only teach in two sessions of our seminary but he was able to preach in our other locations the other nights. So we pushed him to the limit but the people were the winners in being able to hear Gods word preached and to fellowship with other believers.

We have two pressing prayer request for you to add to your daily prayer list.(1) Our Seminary, this is a training tool for those interested in Church leadership. We have 3 men expressing a desire to be pastors, so we need your prayers for them as they study and for Gods protection.We need more helpers as we try to cover the needs in 7 locations,4 permanent locations and 3 house-churches outside of the Main Church. In each of these locations we try to have 2 services per week and usually bible school on Saturdays for the children. Our need for more workers is great- pray for the Lords guidance and direction. (2) Buses, we have two ancient buses that we run on Sunday morning and night. If one is broken down(this is a regular occurrence) the other has to do double duty. The greatest need right now is tires,we have just had two blow outs from dry rot and the others don´t look much better than those that blew out. The cost is $800 per tire and we are asking that you pray about this need and if God lays on your heart to help we will thank you in advance.Thank you for your constant prayers on our behalf and for your interest in missions.

Now for a blessing that we have realized this month: We received the funds to be able to purchase the van for the use in the School and in the ministries of the Church. "THANK YOU" to all who contributed to this blessing. We have already been able to use this van in so many ways for the Lord. Again "Thanks"!!!!!!!

We are planning to come home for the Christmas holidays to spend some time with family. But there is still 2 months before this time that you could come down and see what God is doing with your mission dollars. The bed is turned down and the light is on on the front porch. So Call and come on down.

In His service,

Aj and Barbara