NOTE: This June letter is out of order with our July letter (below)
Dear Friends and Family,
As I write this we are back in Wentzville, MO at the wonderful camp house we had been living in this past year. It’s been a month since we left, and the way we have things set up in the closets, all it took was getting out the linens, making beds, pulling out some foods from the pantry and freezer, and reattaching the phone line and we are set up! It is nice being reunited with our things and feeling settled back “home” for a couple weeks. The kids were happy to find their toys all where we left them, and run around in the field behind the house. It’s been nice being here tonight.
We had a wonderful time in Kansas City. We met with 9 churches this month. Each meeting was enjoyable—what is there to not enjoy about meeting with your fellow brothers and sisters and sharing a passion for the lost. We met two retired missionary couples that both worked in Brazil and they both committed to become prayer partners with us! What an amazing blessing! And there were many more couples and young people that we enjoyed encouraging and sharing with them about their lives. We met with three of the four churches that support us and met with 6 other churches who are either considering partnering with us or wanted to give us an opportunity to share our ministry with the congregation to uplift them and perhaps partner with individuals. We so enjoyed meeting with our supporting churches, getting to meet individuals and fellowshipping with them afterwards. We believe so strongly that those relationships are what motivate individuals within the churches to pray, to desire to come visit the ministry and to feel they are an integral part of what the Lord is doing in Brazil. With the new churches we attended we found that each is unique, the congregations have their own personalities, and we would find ourselves leaving the church meeting saying how much we loved the people and would love to be in a partnership with that group of people. It’s too soon to know the outcome financially of our trip, but we had many people sign up to be prayer partners and we were truly blessed. We pray that we ministered to the hearts of the people that we visited.
The children have become quite accustomed to the traveling—we found that the best thing to do at the church was find the nursery right away so they could play while we met the pastor and prepared for the presentation. We’ve had some funny things happen—like Samuel sneezing in the middle of the service, while we’re speaking, and yelling “I’ve got boogers, I’ve got boogers” until we got him a Kleenex. And just last night while I was talking with some of the ladies, Michaela and Samuel were in the nursery. I looked in the window and saw that they were pretending farm and Samuel was the cow with Michaela being the farmer. She had him tied up around the waist with a jump rope leading him around the room and he was mooing as loud as he could. We’ve found the people at the churches to be so understanding of our children and welcoming of them. Traveling does take a toll, though, and we’ve had a few more disciplinary issues to take care of than normal, but the kids have done wonderful on the whole—and they’ve learned to play together so much more!
Besides the meetings, this was an eventful month with my surgery for melanoma from which I am healing nicely. We did find out that it was all taken out and the next step is for me to visit an oncologist for follow-up. Samuel was in the emergency room once for allergy related problems—the whites of his eye swelled up higher than his iris and we were so scared. But they gave us eye drops for him and he hasn’t had an incidence since. We were in Joplin during the terrible tornadoes that killed at least 17 and we arrived at the hotel just as the sirens were going off. The storms missed us to the north and south. Then on the way home from Joplin we hit a deer carcass in the middle of the highway which did major damage to the car. At the very next exit our car was steaming terribly from an antifreeze leak. But despite all our pictures, receipts for antifreeze at that exit, etc., our insurance company refuses to pay for the repairs that totaled $1500. The belt is now squeaking like crazy, there are still some loud popping sounds with the struts when we turn, and it tore a bracket off the muffler, but we can’t address those things until we get the insurance company to acknowledge their responsibility to us. They just say the leak was a coincidence that it happened at the same time we hit the deer. So—could you pray for us? We’ve spent a lot of time on this, and money, and AAA has not been helpful to us at all—not returning calls or communicating with us properly. And—as you know—our car is very important during this time of deputation with all the trips we have planned.
A passage that speaks to everything we are facing is Philippians 4:4-7: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
With all the activity of this past month we have seen God provide and protect us day-by-day, step-by-step. We’ve been amazed and humbled by His thoughtfulness and kindness toward us and His provision through His people. It was a blessing to be at Avant for three weeks. And then we thoroughly enjoyed our time with Ron and Jen Basel for our last week in Kansas City. We weren’t able to see everyone we wanted, so we’ll plan on that next trip :), but we did spend time almost daily with different people—supporters, prayers partners, members of our supporting churches, and even meeting new friends through Avant.
Concerning our timetable and support—we are praying that the Lord would have us in Brazil by end of summer or beginning of fall. We submit to the Lord’s timing and His will and yet ask of Him for this, believing that He can do it if it is part of His sovereign plan for us. We are going to gather all our documents for our visas this month and see when would be the best time for us to submit our paperwork. Would you pray with us, diligently, purposefully, for His will, timing and provision?
So what’s coming up next?
This week Todd meets with the gentleman from church who is leading the construction of our shed. That may happen on June 21st, we are not certain yet.
We take a quick trip back to Kansas City this weekend to meet with our other supporting church there, Ward Parkway Presbyterian.
Todd’s parents are taking the whole family on a vacation for the week of the 14th to the 21st a couple hours away.
We meet with the pastor at the church that has a mission house available for us and perhaps move in by the 23rd.
Todd will be speaking at our church here, Dardenne Presbyterian, on the 22nd and 25th.
We are planning a trip to Maine to visit several churches during July and we are still scheduling meetings for that trip.
Thank you for all the love and care you have shown to us these past months, years, as long as you’ve been part with us in our desire to minister in Brazil. Thank you! It means more than we can express.
Serving the Lord Together,
Todd and Julie Hendry
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