The Hendersons ~ On a Journey 4 Him Weblog...

Good Times!

The past week has been a series of fun days hanging out with friends and our families. B. enjoyed his birthday on Thurs. God has blessed him with another year! We've been fed many delicious meals, including steaks, roast, crawfish, and so many other yummy foods! 

This past week, we met with our pastors and discussed missions and our upcoming challenge to get on board with God and us in Peru. God hasn't just called us to the field; He's calling you, too!! We thank you for your many prayers and encouraging words.

We have been working on our prayer newsletter for July and for our PowerPoint presentation that will be used at churches which have invited us to share the challenge with you. Tomorrow, we will be speaking at our home church, Agricola Baptist, at 10:45 AM, and again, at Rocky Creek Baptist, at 6 PM.  See our newsletter for our full schedule. We hope to see you! 

Pray for our (and our families') health and for good times to be shared before we leave.

July Newsletter

Download July  

We're Home!

Thanks for all of your prayers. We have arrived safely back home. It's great to be back home, although it is A LOT hotter than it was in Virginia!

In Virginia, our commissioning service (held on Wed.) and reception was good. We said goodbye to many new friends and professors. Afterward, our many friends from our affinity group gathered in our great room for a farewell party, with pizza and cheetos. It was really sad to say goodbye to some that we may or may not get to see again. Others we will be reuniting with in C.R. when we head that way for Spanish school.

We met early Thurs. morning (6:15 AM) to wait for Groome Transportation. Deen and Elbert (our wonderful administrators/professors) saw us off, giving us hugs and prayers before leaving.  

We have spent almost every minute back home with family at some point or another. We've already had some great times. Today, we spent the day with my family for Father's Day. We had a lot of delicious BBQ ribs, chicken legs, sausage, potato salad, pork n' beans, and a lot of scrumptious desserts.  

Dad, I'd like to send a special thank you for being a wondeful father to me. Words cannot express how special you and Mom are to me! Thanks for all the special care that you have given to me since day 1. I love you!

Thanks to you and Papa for being such wonderful grandfathers to our children. We love you all (MawMaw & Granny included) VERY much!

Brian, thanks to you for being such a wonderful father to our children and a wondeful husband to me. I love you very much, too!

I would also like to lift up a praise to my heavenly Father for taking me as His own, for loving me for who I am, for His grace and forgiveness, and for choosing me (who am so unworthy) to follow Him and carry out His call.  Father, I love and praise Your holy name!

Packing Up, Getting Ready to Head Back Home

The time is drawing to a close. We are finishing up classes here at ILC. On Wed., we will have our commissioning service and reception. Pray for our last days of fellowship here to be extra sweet, and our goodbyes to be easier than expected. Pray for our transitioning back to our "home," and for good times with our families while we are there. Continue to pray for God's strength, peace, love, joy, and unity in all of our lives.

Thanks for your prayers on Friday. We only had to get one additional immunization, the third rabies shot. B. was the only exception. He had to get two, the rabies and a tetanus. It was quick and painless.

On Sat., we were able to get away with friends to Mt. Vernon to see George and Martha Washington's home. That was very interesting. We have pictures on Facebook for those of you who have an account and have added B. and me as friends.  Sat. evening was very special because were able to go to an Emeritus service for retiring individuals and couples from our company. It was amazing to see people who had served 40 years walk across the stage. Some had spouses die while they were on the field, and the other spouse continued on in God's work. Others had lost children, and they continued on in God's call. Simply amazing! The night before, we got to meet with 3 couples who took part in the service. They were very neat people, ranging from serving in Brazil, to Argentina, and the Mediterranean. 

Thanks for your prayers! We appreciate all the love and support that you keep sending our way. We will be speaking at Agricola Baptist on June 28, at 10:45. We plan to share our experiences here at ILC and ways that you can come along side of us in God's call.  We will let you know additional dates of other partnering churches soon!  

We will begin our travels back to MS at 6:15 AM Thurs. morning. We should hit AL by 1:30 PM. Keep our travels in your prayers.   

PRAYER REQUEST

Tomorrow is our last immunization day (#3)! Pray for us! Today, I handed out ice pops (I'm on the Children's team) and blew bubbles (with a machine) for the recipients to take their minds off the OUCH! I had many parents tell me the shots HURT, and today was the WORSE day.  I was hoping the last would be the easiest.

I forgot to mention our cultural worship experience this past Sunday. WOW. Childcare was required. Others volunteered to keep the kids and gave us (the children's team) a break. The experience was called "The Persecuted Church." I was a little weary after our contingency training. The details of that training experience are confidential, but I can say that it was quite stressful. Anyway, after entering the building from different doorways, only two at a time, we met all together in a darkened room, keeping our voices to a whisper, and were told to find a hidden sheet of verses and directions underneath our tables. After doing so, our group left one by one to an assigned room. We were to keep our voices in a whisper and act as persecuted individuals would having church. We locked the door, closed all blinds, and took turns reading verses, singing altogether, and praying, all done in a whisper. After several verses, I reminded the group that we needed to have another meeting place, just in case we were interrupted. We heard beating down the hall, and after quietness, a couple exited out the door, headed to our next location. We reclosed and relocked the door, and we had our door beaten on, with people hollering, and animals making noises. We decided to escape out the window. We had to get the screen out, and one by one we scooted out, running in different paths to our next location. CAN YOU IMAGINE HAVING TO DO THIS IN REAL LIFE??!!  WE ALL ARE SO BLESSED. PEOPLE DO THIS EVERY DAY WHERE THE GOSPEL IS PROHIBITED, AND WHERE PEOPLE ARE PERSECUTED BY THEIR FAMILIES, FRIENDS, COMMUNITIES, AND GOVERNMENTS!  My heart was racing. We had one of our members on lookout as the rest of us cowered down in the gazebo, and we continued to worship. Eventually, 3 suspicious looking individuals were heading our way, and we evacuated again, running in different directions, and remeeting again in a designated location. There, we finished up our service. We found out that we weren't really required to exit the building. I guess we got into our roles and took them quite seriously. Thank God for having freedoms to worship our wonderful and MIGHTY God!

Today, B. and I had our exit interview. It was quite relaxed and was over in about 10-15 minutes. Yesterday, we were taken to the Mexico restaurant by our affinity group. I enjoyed a chimachanga. YUM.

During one of our meetings this week, we had Marty Childers speak. We were quite blessed by his presentation. During the process of our application, we had contacted him and his wife with questions, and he remembered us from doing so. He is really a nice guy, and he had great things to tell us about using volunteers to help spread the Gospel.   We also enjoyed hearing everyone report on their country in our affinity group.

The kids had their last recreation night. Sy. actually went tonight, but B. had to stay with her. Since he spent several hours earlier in the week at the quilting quad this week, he gave me the night "off." We have begun weeding through all the papers and stuff that we've collected over the 8 weeks, and have started packing. We'll be going home next Thurs. I caught a little nap, though, instead of cleaning.

Earlier today, B. talked to Mark Williams' VBS class at ABC about missions.  Thanks, Bro. M., for wanting us to share with you. We are so encouraged by your excitement, and we can hardly wait to see you lead a group to Peru!

Hopefully, we will be able to share with all our churches who are partnering with us in prayer during the weeks we are home. God bless all of you back at home for your prayers.

Finishing Up!

As of today, we have 10 days left!  We finished up our safety training last week.  Wow--it was stressful and hung onto nerves most of the time, but we learned a lot from the sessions. The days were long, 8-8:40 house church, sessions (minus lunch) 9-5!!!

This weekend, we went out on the town on Sat. We took the kids to "Build A Bear" to create a memory from VA, and something they can call theirs during the future transitions. Sk.'s poor ole Floyd has seen better days. Aunt LaJune gave Floyd to Sk. as a baby. He hasn't ever been able to part with him. He's been through many washings, patches, tags, and even a new outfit. After we returned back to ILC, we were taken by friends to see "Up" and to eat at a Chinese restaurant. Sk. tried octopus this time.  It looked horrible, but he said it was good. 

On Sun., we had a wonderful outing with friends from several quads, all from our affinity group, the American Peoples. Aunt Amy, who served an earlier term to Peru, supervised the cooking of several dishes. It was delicious. It was fun to actually cook in our quads. Each quad had something cooking or going on to get our dishes ready. We all shared pots and pans and got the job done. Rice, a special sauce, potatoes, boiled eggs, olives, and cookies with caramel on top.  YUMMMMYYYYYY!!  Afterward, we played a game called Mafia. It was really entertaining.

This week, we are meeting with our affinity leaders. We have to complete a research project and report on it. We also have exit interviews on Friday, which includes turning in a typed paper from both B. and me.

Sy. threw another tantrum this evening. She is like a switch that is waiting to be turned on or off. She has never threwn tantrums like this before. We ask that you pray for God's supernatural peace, love, and understanding to transcend into both her and Sk.'s hearts. Please pray for unity in our family, so that we may be shining lights for Jesus, setting examples in our obedience, kindness, love, patience, and gentleness to each other as a family and to those around us. Pray that no weapon formed against us from the enemy will prosper, all in Jesus' sweet name!  We all are tired, but may God allow us to finish this first part of the race STRONG, totally absorbed in Him and full of His living water.

A Week of Birthdays, Trips, and Fun

Our oldest, Sk., turned 9 years old last Wed. Dad always told me time would fly after I graduated high school, and I do believe him. For Sk.'s birthday, we had doughnuts and other refreshments in our morning house church meeting. Our fellow teammates and friends, Cheyenne and Priscila bought both he and Sy. shoes for their birthdays. Say a special prayer for C. & P. because they have an important decision to make within the next few days regarding their job. Pray for them to know what God wants them to do. This decision will not only effect them, but they are expecting a child.

On Thurs., we journeyed to Washington D.C. Sk. had some stomach issues on the way and for half the day, vomitting every few minutes, or thinking he had to. We rode the Metro, ate at a Peruvian restaurant, walked all over viewing the beautiful sites, hung out at Union Station, and witnessed to several international individuals.

Friday proved to be another day with stomach issues for Sk. He and I got up, went to school, but he got sick again on the way to his classroom (thank God he made it to the restroom), so we had to miss classes. After intensive questioning, I found out he had not taken his med. for his acid reflux for 3 days. I had cleared the counter off, and B. had overlooked giving it to him. He's all straightened out on his med. and stomach now. Thanks for your prayers!

We took it easy over the weekend, hanging out here at ILC. We have been learning about culture shock, and I think that we all have a form of it here, even though we are still in the USA. Our family routines have changed, eating habits, living quarters, etc. We all are in close quarters, and we seemed to be getting a little irritated with each other over minor things. Pray for our unity and strength as a family unit. Sy. has been throwing tantrums on several evenings and in a major way that is totally unlike her. Once she flies into a rage, there is no calming her down until she gets over it. Spankings and talking her through does not work during the tantrums. Today, during one of our meetings, we found out that transition does bring on mood cycles, and we learned from many of the other parents that they have had similar issues this week with their children. Pray for God's peace to surround our children and for them to be obedient to us. Pray for B. and me to set Godly examples to our children, to have patience, love, understanding, kindness, and gentleness to our children and to others.

We have a little over 2 weeks left here at ILC. It's been a long haul, but a good stay. Lots of great information! Thanks to you as Lottie Moon monetary and prayer contributors!  Without you, we would not have the support, schooling, housing, food, and other items that are meeting our needs to be the "sent ones."  May God bless you! Start saving now for your next Christmas offering.

Thanks for your prayers. You mean the world to us!   Pray we will finish our stay here STRONG as warriors of God!  See you in a couple of weeks!  

June 2009 Prayer Newsletter

Download Journeying_for_Him_newsletter_J[1]