“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
― Abraham Lincoln

Preparation is an important step on the way to success.  For the last few posts we have focused on preparing for the mission field.  As we continue this series of preparation we will focus in on preparing by actively serving.  I do not think it is a wise move for someone to go from Sunday morning church attender to instantly becoming a church planting missionary.  Men who surrender to the  mission field ought to already serve in active ministry in some way.  In my opinion, there is no better place for this than a Bible believing church that is involved in reaching their community and the world for Jesus.  Simply put, get involved in the ministry of your local church.  Volunteer as an assistant teacher of a class or teach a class.  Ask the pastor to go on hospital visits with him, attend any outreach visitations that the church may have.  Get involved in the teen ministry, offer to set up and clean up after special events.  Arrive early in preparation for the services and stay late to turn off lights and lock-up the church building.  Ask your pastor for any opportunity to preach and teach the Bible whether filling in for him, preaching a short five minute devotion before the offerings, or in some other venue.  Offer to keep the church up to date by highlighting supported missionaries during the midweek service.

Serving in your local church is an excellent way to get prepared for the mission field.  When a man publicly announces his call to the church, the church’s response ought to be excitement and agreement.  Common remarks should be made like “we knew God was going to do something with you” or “we knew God was going to lead you somewhere”.  Something is wrong if remarks like these are not made.  Get involved serving in your local church.

Back Home…Back On The Road

We were in 13 meetings in seven different states from Texas to our home state Georgia. We are at 60% of our needed support and increasing each month. God has blessed in every meeting! We get back home and have meetings closer to home, and then get right back on the road again.

On August 01st, we will be back out on the road for a 20 day trip that will take us to meetings in Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. We are praying for each of these meetings. Please pray for our safety as we travel and for each meeting that we are in that God would be glorified, believers encouraged, and that God will continue to increase our support. Whether in churches on the road far away or close to home our desire is to share our burden with churches that seek to win the world to Jesus!

Serving Together,

Patrick, Leslie, Lily, Piper, and Ivy Henry

Happening In Argentina

In the picture to the right there is building being constructed. One year ago in La Plata, Argentina, the building of Lighthouse Baptist Church burned down to the ground. Today they are continuing to build their church building back.  The church has rallied together in this tragedy and has overcome. Although they have gained much ground, there is still a lot to do before the building is complete. Please pray for them as they continue in this rebuild. Also remember that while this is tragic, the real tragedy is that millions of Argentines do not have any church like Lighthouse Baptist Church in their neighborhood or city. Pray with us that God would raise up many more laborers to help in reaching this mission field!

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”  ― Benjamin Franklin

We have taken two posts on the subject of preparation. We continue with this post about language learning. It is our belief that you cannot make any lasting impact on a people without being fluent in their language. Learning the language is not an option, it is a necessity!

Monday and Tuesday I took a class on this very subject. We read “Language Acquisition Made Practical” in preparation for the class. I was with two other missionaries in the class, one to Japan and the other to North Africa. Brother Gardner taught the class.  We not only discussed the importance of language learning but also the practical “how to’s” of learning the language.  Here are a few of the practical guidelines we will use in learning the language…

• Spend 60 hours per week in the language.
  • 20 hours of formal language school.
  • 40 hours practicing the language by conversing with nationals.
• Memorize two Bible verses in the national language per week.
• Read in the national language.
  • Start by reading children’s books.
  • Read the newspaper 15 minutes per day.
• Watch 30 minutes of local news on the television.
  • At first, write down any words you recognize.
  • As you learn, you will gradually transition to writing down words you don’t recognize.
• Read the Bible in the national language and write a brief description of what you read. Go over what you wrote with your language teacher.

The language in Argentina is Spanish. We took 6 months of language school in Arequipa, Peru during our internship. We will be completing our language school when we arrive in Argentina. If you cannot communicate with people, you will not reach them!

“A call to the ministry is a call to prepare.”  I remember hearing these words over and over through my years of Bible College.  It is true.  I think it applies to missions as well.  We can say that a call to the mission field is a call to prepare.  Our last post dealt with preparation in culture adaptation.  We will be focusing on an internship for this post.  When we speak of an internship we are talking about actual time on the mission field with a veteran missionary who is working hard and seeing results.  This is a time where the intern experiences culture shock, learns the language (at least for the time he is there), learns the ins and outs of church planting and man training from the veteran missionary, and gains experience by assisting in the churches on the mission field.  I believe this to be a most important part of preparation.  Let me tell you about our time as interns.

Leslie and I (with our 3 daughters) spent 6 months in Arequipa, Peru and 5 months in Santiago, Chile.  Here are some of the things I learned during our internship…

• Language:  While there we learned the language for 6 months.  We arrived knowing almost nothing.  We started learning from a teacher who did not know any English.  Each day we would put into practice the things we learned.  Over time we began to converse more and more.  We got a taste of the difficulty and the necessity of knowing the language.
• Culture:  Arriving on the mission field is exciting.  In a month, the excitement wears off and you are left with life in a culture you just don’t understand.  Little things become big.  Things like going to the pharmacy take great effort and cause confusion.  The temptation is to look at the different things that the country does as “strange” when in reality it is the norm and you are the “strange” one.  During our internship we learned to overcome many of these differences and difficulties.
• Learning:  For me, I think the greatest thing I received from my time as an intern was learning from the veteran missionary.  The two men we were with were incredible men, seeing God do great things in their ministries.  Multiple churches were being started, men were being trained.  I learned to look beyond just “planting a church” and to look far down the road at what my life invested on a mission field could yield if I gave 40 years.  How many churches would be planted?  How many men could be trained?  How many lives would be changed by the Gospel?  To do the most for Jesus, this would not be a 5-10 year portion of our lives, it will be our lives!  We also experienced ministry with people on the mission field.  We served in the churches, interacted with believers, and learned how to do ministry on the mission field.

Preparation is very important to those who will give their lives to another people.  It is much more than just “jumping on a plane and moving across the sea.”  It is learning to become one of the people you are reaching for the cause of Jesus!  A great way to prepare for such a task is to intern under a veteran missionary who is actively training men and planting churches.