December 5, 2005

Hello from Brazil,

How long has it been since you were unable to go to your church because the roads were impassible?  Here in Caraguatatuba, we have had an unbelievable month of rain.  This has made it impossible to get to our newest mission point for two weeks.  But when it dried up, we have had some good services.  We have had two youngsters accept Christ as their Savior and their parents reconciled with the church.  When I think about this type of situation with the roads, I think of our fathers and grandfathers and the transportation they must have had.  It is funny how in an era of high-tech modern transportation, we have problems getting to a place to preach.

We have enjoyed visitors from the States this month.  It is always a pleasure to have friends visit us from home.  We love to show them what God is doing here in Brazil and introduce them to this wonderful country.

John Greatbatch and his grandson Taylor were with us for a week.  We thoroughly enjoyed their presence and John was a great help in organizing the tools for the Vocational School's carpentry shop.  All the machines are functioning, some not at their peak, but we are getting there.  I am still looking for one more machine to complete the carpentry shop.  This made week we have made an installed our gate for the property.  Here it is necessary to have walls and gates on your property for security of the equipment.

While John was here we were able to make some of the benches needed for our different works.  These were used in the mission point at Bahanco Alto.  Hopefully this upcoming month we will be able to make two pulpits and some more needed benches.

Our project for this month for the Vocational School is to fabricate 5000 blocks for the construction of the new church building for the work in Olareia.

We began the work of fabricating these blocks last week and as of today we have made a grand total of six blocks.  No, that is not a typing error.  Due to several breakdowns and wrong material being delivered, we are behind in production.  But that is not a new thing here for us, because when you are trying to do what God has for you to do, Satan is hard at work trying to throw a cog in the wheel.  We have had two breakdowns and the motor for the block making machine burned out, but we are back up and ready to start again tomorrow.  Pray that we can get underway without more delays.  This block making machine will play an intricate part in the Vocational School and will be an asset in the building of the mission points.

Although Brazil does not celebrate Thanksgiving, Barbara and I celebrated and had an awesome meal.  She worked really hard on the meal to make it as much like the meal in the States as possible; however, here the turkeys are about the size of a chicken.  But we enjoyed the day and the food.  We had twelve people over to celebrate with us and that always makes things more enjoyable, to share it with others.

Another couple from our Church just got married this week.  It seems as though when things start they come in groups.  This is the third in about a month and a half.  We were a part of the ceremony and the wedding was lovely.  The sad part of this is that the couple will be moving to another city and they both were great workers in the church.  But when God moves His people, He always sends someone to fill the void.

We are looking forward to having our daughter Mary Katherine with us for the Holidays.  She will get to be here for Christmas and for the New Year also.  As you can well imagine, this will make a father really happy - not to mention a mother also.  While most of you are looking forward to a white Christmas, we will have a warm one.  It is a drastic change for a person from Kentucky to not have cold weather and snow for Christmas.  But when you are with family and friends, no matter what the weather, you can be happy.

We are planning on coming home in February, so it won't be long until we will be seeing you all.  Thanks for your love and concern for your missionaries on the foreign field.  Always remember us in your prayers.

In His service,

AJ and Barbara Hensley

We serve a small breakfast for the children on Sunday mornings.  For some it may be all they get that day.