Dear Friends and Family,
We hope this finds you all well, well being the key word in this season of flu and colds! As we’ve been talking with family and friends at church, it seems everyone has been touched by some form of sickness in their families—ours being no exception. We are on the tail end (we hope) of a round of flu and colds in the last week and we don’t remember a time when all of us have ever been sick like this. Todd got it the worst—completely out of commission for four days—but Michaela got it twice! Now we are in recovery mode all with bad coughs, but we are experiencing God’s healing in our family! Praise the Lord!
Thank You
We want to thank you who have been giving to us and praying for us since July 2005, when we became missionary appointees with Avant Ministries, as you have been so faithful to us during this support raising time. Thank you to each one of you who have taken up our ministry over these last two years as part of your vision and ministry for reaching “the uttermost parts of the world” in response to God’s call on your life. Your desire to partner with us is the most humbling and encouraging aspect of our ministry. We are truly blessed because of you.
Support Raising
Raising support is a time of waiting on God for His answer while we work to make contacts, to visit people and churches, to get out there and tell people about our vision to teach, disciple, train, and minister to the Brazilian believers. We want to help them and we long to be there. But the reality is that we can only go when the support comes in. We must do it in God’s timing. At this point we have been sitting at 70% since November and we are thrilled to be at that amount. We have had several encouraging contacts with churches and we have several meetings set up over the next few months. Though we have hit a dry spell we are not at a stand still—God is still working—we are just waiting to see the end results.
When we spoke with our director at Avant in November we talked about the possibility that our support could come in pretty quickly and we could even leave as soon as March. (At that point it was five months away.) We were also told that the amount from 60-80% is the hardest to raise because that reflects the time in support raising statistics when you have reached the end of your personal contacts, and your contacts’ personal contacts. So now we are truly trying to generate new contacts.
I am not writing this to sound discouraging, but to clearly explain where we are in the support raising process. Again, we must do it in God’s timing. And we are completely confident that the Lord is doing this—He already provided the 70%! And He will provide the rest! We just ask for your prayers that He would do that and that He would keep us going and direct us where to speak and who to contact. We need your prayers and any ideas of churches or individuals that you think would be interested in the work we will be doing in Brazil. Your idea could really make a difference!
You may be wondering what happens once we reach 80%. At that point, Avant will review our support record to determine whether we should proceed with our visa paperwork and buy transferable tickets with a departure date approximately 2-3 months down the road. The reason they may allow us to purchase our tickets at that point is because usually the last 20% of the support comes in rather quickly. That is not a steadfast rule, but is a norm for most missionaries.
I do wish I could be telling you that we are leaving in March or May, but at this point we don’t know when God will send us. We will still be working hard to reach the goal but we are learning that part of the goal is the “journey of faith” that we have been on as we see the Lord provide for us and as He molds Todd and I and our family into His vessels usable for His service in Brazil. We have been learning so much and we hope in sharing this with you, and then as we all see how the Lord provides, all of our faith will increase and we will shout praise to God in our hearts as we have seen Him do the work and seen God receive all the glory.
Fathers can be so wise. I asked my father once how they raised their support and he answered, “God did it, in such a way that only He could get the credit.”
Praises and Prayers:
Praises:--We had a great meeting at Overbrook Bible Church in January. Thank you guys!
--We are recovering from the sicknesses
--Julie has made some good decisions about home schooling curriculum to take to Brazil
--School has been going well with Michaela
--We know of at least four churches that are considering us at this point
--We have several meetings scheduled for the next few months
--Michaela is turning six on February 11!
Prayer Requests:
--Upcoming meeting in Branson in February
--Missions Conference at Bonhomme Presbyterian on March 2nd
--Continued recovery for our family
--Samuel is struggling with potty training
--Our housing situation will need to be revisited again this spring
--Encouragement and perseverance for Todd as he contacts churches daily
--Set up meetings with supporting churches
Thank you for your prayers! Please let us know how we can pray for you too!
Galatians 6:9
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
Serving together,
Julie Hendry for the family
