Update February 2010

Dear Friends and Family,

First of all, we want to thank each of you who sent e-mails, Christmas cards and greetings to us all the way down here in Brazil! Because of the slowness of the Brazilian mail system we didn't get most of them until the end of January--but that whole time cards were trickling in and then in one day we received over 10 cards! It made us feel so prayed for and remembered! Thank you for encouraging us so tangibly!

Todd is nearing the end of language school, testing on Cycle 26! ONLY 4 MORE TO GO! But this week there are no classes because of Carnaval (Marti Gras). The whole country shuts down and it’s dangerous to go out. Since it's not safe for Dona Edissa (Todd's teacher) to be traveling by bus during this wicked holiday, Todd will not be having classes. But we do think that, barring anything unexpected, he should be done by the middle to end of March! Please pray to that end!

Todd and Ivan (our field director) took a trip into Guaraciaba to look for a place for us to live--this was at the end of January. And while they were there, Todd was able to share something that has been on his heart increasingly lately. We keep seeing that Guaraciaba has a new church plant that is underway, and then we look at other towns in the vicinity that have no evangelical churches in them. There are other forms of churches teaching heresy, but none that teach the truth, so the people in these towns are continuing to live in darkness. It's been on his heart that we should move to one of these other unreached towns right away and do our internship from there, instead of going to live in Guaraciaba for our internship, then moving to another town after about a year. So we've been praying about that and would ask for your prayers for direction and guidance from the Lord.

We have done some research based on the 2000 census about the levels of evangelism in the towns in the listening area of the mission’s radio station. We have found a few that have very good reception and that have very little, if any, evangelical witness. So once Todd is done with school, or maybe sooner since his teacher might take a week off for personal reasons, we would like to take an exploratory trip into the area to see for ourselves if the statistics we have are correct, or if anything has changed in the last 10 years since the census. Then from there we can pray with more information about God's direction for where to start a new work.

After Todd is done with language school and we’ve discovered where the Lord wants us to live, we will have to look for housing in that area. We've come to realize that this is not an easy process. People don't move as much in the interior towns as they do in the capital city, so when Todd looked for houses in two major towns, one of 35,000 and one of 20,000, there were no houses for rent in those entire cities. I know that's hard for us to fathom. So we are praying as of now that the Lord will be putting events in motion that would make a house available for us to rent in the town that He is leading us to work in.

Another major part of the preparations is the buying of furniture for an unknown house. Due to the generosity of many of you, we have a set-up fund, for purchasing furniture, that has been largely untouched since we've lived in a furnished home for the last year. This week we heard of a missionary couple that's retiring and we've also been looking at some used furniture places that have better prices. Most furniture here is particle board--or extremely expensive if it's made out of wood. And most furniture is not available in those towns, but is imported from the capital. So please pray for the Lord to direct us to what we need, down to the kitchen cabinets and light fixtures that you take with you wherever you go (they don't come with the homes here).

Our beautiful Michaela had a birthday this past week--she turned 8!! We celebrated her birthday twice--two weekends ago with a birthday party with 3 of her friends and on the 11th with our missionary family here. Please pray for this dear girl as she becomes a little lady. We can see her change in so many ways and we ask for your prayers for wisdom in shepherding her developing heart and mind. Samuel has also been growing and changing a lot lately. At four, he's only about 5 inches shorter than Michaela. He's changing in how he acts in so many ways, and we ask for prayer as we teach and guide him to be obedient and respectful. It seems he's lost all inhibitions very suddenly. It makes him very funny, and hard to discipline at times, because we're laughing so hard, but we try to control ourselves and laugh later or in another room. Parenting is a wonderful challenge we pray daily to fulfill in a way that is pleasing to the Lord.

We want to let each of you know how much we appreciate all you do for us. We don't take lightly the sacrifice and hard work that goes into the support check you send, or the effort it takes to purposefully sit down to pray for someone in another country. You are dear friends and loved ones and we miss you very much.

As Todd said to the kids today, we are a family that is very connected to people, which means we miss our family and friends very deeply. But that shows you how important sharing the Gospel with the Lost is to the Lord, that He would ask us to sacrifice our comforts and time with family and friends. Jesus and what He did on the cross is to be the central focus of our lives--and sharing the Good News with those who have never heard should be our ever-present goal. All else must be secondary, even when it hurts. May we understand that and live our lives accordingly.

Serving Together with You,

Todd and Julie Hendry