A Chance To Help

As many of you may know, The Lord is leading my family and I to the mission field for a year.  We are very excited about serving the Lord there!  We are trusting the Lord to raise the needed funds for this time and He is doing so!  I was just given a special opportunity.  A man has given a challenge to match any donations up to $5,000.  This is where you can help us.  I am asking you to give toward this.  Every little bit helps.  Please consider giving toward this.

You can email me at phenryj@gmail.com.  You can also private message me on Facebook.  We appreciate all of your love and support.

You can also donate by going to my website patrickjhenry.net and clicking on the PayPal donate button at the bottom of the page.
Thank you,

Patrick and Leslie

Looking For Acorns

“By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.  He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses.  Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.  For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.” Psalm 33:6-9

Several years ago, Leslie, Lily, and I went down to Calloway Gardens down in Pine Mountain, GA.  Lily not quite 2 years old.  It was the first part of December, and we went down to see the special Christmas lights.  We had a great time!

We were about to leave , and went to eat breakfast at a restaurant that overlooked a beautiful valley.  After eating, Lily and I went outside and looked over the beautiful valley and mountains below and beyond.  As I looked at this majestic view, I said out loud, “Whoa!” (not conscious that I had said it).  Seconds later, Lily, who was right next to me said “Whoa!”, I looked down and saw that she was not paying any attention to the majestic view.  She had a small acorn in her hands and was just baffled by it.

At that moment, I realized something.  God’s creation is full of majestic scenes of beautiful color and detail, but God’s creation is also full of little things, like acorns.  God tells us to “stand in awe” when considering his creation.  This word “awe” means to literally “to turn aside from the road (for  an express purpose)”.  God is telling us to stop and look at all that He has made.  But it is important to not just take notice of the amazing “big” things, but to appreciate the “acorns” of God’s creation too!

Take today, and appreciate every “acorn” you may cross!

Our Baby’s Name Is…

Ivy Ruth Henry

Ivy was born yesterday (November 06th, 2011) morning at 7:57am.  As you can see, her hair is black as pitch.  She weighed in at 8 lbs 14 oz and was measured at 21″ long.  She was born on a 25 hour day (because of the time change, “Fall-Back”), which makes her pretty special!

Leslie and I have been asked if we had picked out a name for the past few months.  The truth is that we really hadn’t.  It wasn’t something we had and just kept “secret” (we don’t do that sort of thing).  We just hadn’t come up with a name yet.  We had talked about several.  We came up with bunches of names that we didn’t like, and a few that one or the other liked.

The girls came last night to see her for the first time.  Piper did not like that she couldn’t hold her all by herself.  She wanted to be left alone with her new baby sister.

Lily did real well with her.  She was excited about her new baby sister but was very concerned over the exposed umbilical chord.  She still does not know what it is, but does not like it on her.

Leslie is doing well but very, very tired.  The overnight stay in the hospital is anything but relaxing with nurses coming in and out, in and out, in and out, all night long.  They make no effort to being quiet.  I know that they are doing their job, and their job keep all parties up through the night!

I am thankful to God that He has given us this little girl to raise for Him.  I believe strongly that the child is not really ours, but His.  Whatever He has for her is up to Him, not us.  We will raise her to love and know Jesus for as long as our Heavenly Father allows us to do so.

I am blessed beyond words with my three girls!

29 Things I Love About Leslie

Today is a very special day for me.  Leslie turns 29 years old today.  I am just crazy about her.  Instead of going through the way I feel about her, I am going to do something a little different.  Because she is turning 29, I am going to give you “29 things I love about Leslie”.  Some may need some explanation, some will not.  There is much more than 29 things that I love about her, but I will just give 29 on this post.  So, without further delay, here we go…

1. Her meek spirit – Whenever I speak of her, this is one of the first things I cover because it is such a rare thing to find in someone these days.
2. Her sweet disposition – If you know Leslie, this needs no explanation.
3. Leslie loves Jesus – This is seen in many different ways.
4. She is a great mom – My girls have a great example to pattern themselves after.
5. Her sarcasm – Outside of myself, there are very few who know about this part of Leslie.  She is so kind and quiet, but she does have a sarcastic side, that brings a smile to my face.
6. Her laugh – When she laughs, it is contagious.
7. She is beautiful – I’m not just talking about on the inside.  I think Leslie is so pretty.
8. Her work-ethic – She is always, always, always trying to accomplish something.  It seems she never sits down and rests.
9. She is a great cook – This can be a bad thing.
10. She supports me – She is my biggest fan.
11. She partners with me in ministry – So much of what is done that “I” do is actually done by her.
12. She pushes me -I her own way, she pushes me to be greater.
13. Leslie is willing – She is willing to do almost anything.
14. Her love for others – She rarely does things for herself.  Most of the time she is doing things for someone else.
15. She is capable – If anyone gives her a task, she gets it done.
16. She is intelligent – Leslie is very smart.  She reads faster than I do, does arithmetic much better than I can, and remembers things down to the smallest of details (that is sometimes not to my advantage!).
17. Her desire for having things clean – With our two girls, there is always a mess.  ALWAYS!  You cannot have things clean for longer than 20 minutes.  But she is constantly making an effort.
18. She makes me feel important – I know what I am, but she acts like I am the greatest thing in the world.
19. Leslie has great initiative – She does not want to just keep things “good enough” in any part of her life.
20. She can laugh at herself – She is not the most graceful in the world, and she knows it, and has fun with it.
21. She is crazy about our girls – I’ve already made clear that she is a great mother, but she is also just crazy about Lily and Piper!  We have another child due any day, and she will be crazy about that one too!
22. She can let loose…sometimes – Although she does not do it near enough, she can let loose at times and just have a good time.
23. Leslie will adjust to fit other things in – It does not matter what it is, a dinner with others, a meeting, work, ministry, family, anything.  She can make things happen when they need to (this is something I am not to which I struggle with).
24. Leslie loves life – She finds enjoyment in almost anything, even in things she doesn’t enjoy (which makes no logical sense, but does makes sense if you know her).
25. She cares about her personal appearance – She doesn’t go out without cleaning up first.  She also works hard to keep herself fit.
26. She hardly complains – I didn’t say she never complain, she does.  But it is certainly not the norm.  She tries to keep a good attitude.
27. The way she loves me – If you know me at all, you know I can be hard to love.  She still loves me, even though I drive her crazy half the time!
28. She follows me – She believes I follow God, and she will follow me to the ends of the world.
29. She is content – This almost aggravates me at times, but she is really 100% content.  I am always wanting more (which is a curse).  For example, Leslie would be happy with a 10″ black and white tv, a small house with very little, a rotary phone, 1 car, and very little more.  No computer, no motorcycles, no boat, etc.  I want more, I want bigger and better.  She is content.

So, there you have it.  There is much, much more I can put down, but that will have to wait for another time.  The truth is I love Leslie!

Leslie,

I want to wish you a Happy Birthday publicly.  I don’t deserve you, and I am blessed to have you!

I love you,

Patrick

Pray for the People of Bhutan

Last night, I was watching this video on the people of the Bhutan.  To my knowledge, this is not a “Christian” video.  If you were to make a video of life here in the states, it would be very, very easy to make it without any information or “video shots” of life with Jesus.  But in the Bhutan, Buddhism is the culture.  As you can see, it is impossible to make a video of the people of the Bhutan without including Buddhism!  The bottom line, these people need Jesus, and right now they have very little hope.  There are some house churches, but these (according to my research on the country) must be hidden.  There may be more freedom to worship Jesus in reality there, but I am reading that Buddhism tries to control that.  Buddhism is supposed to be a “religion of peace”, but they are using the power and force of government to keep people from faith in Jesus!

This video is almost 30 minutes long and I don’t expect you to watch the whole thing.  But if you will just watch a few minutes, I believe God will move you to prayer for these lost people.  On a side note, they do have beautiful scenic landscapes.  What are you going to do to help these lost people in Bhutan?  Will you pray for them?

How Should A Local Church Be Involved With Their Missionaries!

Over the weekend, I read this post off of AustinGardner.net, which as you will see below, he read from Missionary Travis Snode’s blog.  I found it interesting, and thought many of you might as well.  How involved are you with the missionaries you support?

 

The following was written by Travis Snode and posted on his blog here. I wanted to post this in answer to a question that I frequently get from both pastors and missionaries.

I hope that Vision does live up to all that Travis says here! If you have further questions feel free to contact me!

Our sending church, Vision Baptist Church in Alpharetta, GA, is a great model to every church especially in the area of sending out missionaries and preachers. It is such a blessing to have such a great home church. Pastor Gardner is a tremendous pastor and mentor to me, and I want to thank him and the members of Vision Baptist Church for all that they do.

Here are just a few of the ways that Vision makes such a difference in our ministry as our sending church:

• Faithful financial support. Every month they support us financially, they take up special offerings, and keep our needs before the people.
• Regular prayer support. Vision constantly makes the needs of the missionaries sent out of the church a priority in prayer. We get frequent emails and phone calls from members saying they are praying for us.
• Regular communication at all levels. From the pastor, the staff, to individual members of the church, we continually hear from our sending church.
• Consistent accountability. We are very accountable to our church through very frequent emails and updates about the ministry and the work we are doing.
• Sacrificially investment. Our pastor and church are committed to a very sacrificially level at investing in us and helping us to be effective and fruitful in our work. From ideas to designing literature, to material, advice, and family help, they are continually investing.
• Family spirit. Our church is a family. We are a part of that family. And even though we are thousands of miles away, we still feel like a family.
• Frequent visits. We get visited by our pastor and our church. They come and see the work and keep the work before the people.
• Modelling ministry. Our church is a growing, discipling, training, and Biblical church that we can model the churches we start after. We love having a church to look to see how to do the ministry. We use their tracts, their discipleship programmes, and many of their ideas in our ministry here.

We Are Leaving…

This past Sunday, we let the church know what God has been speaking to us about for a few months now.  This January, I (along with my family) will be transitioning from the Assistant Pastor to Staff Missionaries and will be leaving for a year-long missions trip.  The first 6 months will be in Arequipa, Peru and the last 6 months will be in Santiago, Chile.  We are very excited about how God is moving in our lives.

Why?

Well, in short, because we are following God.  I have been praying about this, seeking counsel, and begging God for clarity concerning His plan for my life for some time now.  I have a tremendous burden for world evangelism.  You see, we want so desperately for God to expand our world view and to extend our ability to lead in world evangelism, that we feel He wants us to experience life on the mission field. Honestly, we don’t know for sure how He will direct as 2012 draws to an end, but we are more than confident He already has it figured out!  We do know that God will use us in equipping leaders and training men to further the Gospel and planting churches.

This is a big step for us.  We will be leaving our jobs, paychecks, home, security, and everything we know behind in order to follow God.  But I believe with everything inside of me that God is leading this way!  We have a lot of money to raise, and a lot to accomplish before we leave.  We are asking friends and family to consider helping support us during this time.  I am asking you to prayerfully consider supporting us for 1 year.  You can send any checks to the Victory Baptist Church (address will be below) made out to the church and notated that it is for Patrick Henry.  You can give monthly or give one-time gifts.  Every little bit will help us as we follow God in this next chapter of our lives.

I ask that you pray for us.  Pray that we will learn much, that we will be able to assist in much, that God will use us as well as use others in our lives!  I have so much I would like to say here but I just can’t find the words.

distractions.

As believers, our purpose is to bring the most glory we can to God, to strive to do all we can for Jesus, to live our lives for Jesus, to give Jesus 100%.  Do you agree?  The problem I think we have is that we allow things in our lives to become distractions.  What is a distraction that would get in the way of your pursuit of living for Jesus?  EVERYTHING IS A DISTRACTION!  We allow all kinds of things in our lives that we then allow to distract us from our purpose.  Their are bad things that are distractions.  That is what we like to emphasize.  I know that people like to point at the TV, music, movies, etc as bad things that become distractions.  But lately, I have been thinking about other things that are distractions.  Good things, actually they are great things.  I want to address one of them in this post.

In the Bible, Paul speaks of a spouse as a distraction.  1st Corinthians 7:32-33 says, “But I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord:  But he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife.”  Do you realize what he is saying?  He is saying that you cannot give your full attention to the Lord because you must give some attention to pleasing your wife (spouse).  Your spouse can be a distraction.  Actually, your spouse is naturally a distraction, as are you to her.

But, there is a great example of a married couple, that were not distractions to each other from the Lord, but rather a team that brought more glory to God than they might have alone.  Aquila is found 6 different times in the Bible, and is not found without being joined with his wife, Priscilla.  They were a team that worked together to glorify God, and bringing others along.  Because their names are ALWAYS mentioned together, it shows that it wasn’t just Aquila as the “gospel laborer” and Priscilla being the supporting wife at home.  No, she was very much involved in the ministry with Aquila.  They were not just husband and wife, but co-laborers in the furtherance of the Gospel!  My wife and I are natural distractions, but it doesn’t have to be that way.  We must strive to be co-laborers, always working and bringing each other as well as others closer to Jesus.

Are you married?  If you are, are you a distraction to your spouse?  I am disappointed in myself to say that sometimes I am a distraction to my wife that keeps her from giving herself fully to Jesus.  I don’t want to be.  As married couples, we must strive to be like Aquila and Priscilla, co-laborers in the Gospel!

Terror

Last night (I don’t exactly know what time, but it was well into my sleep), Piper did something she does from time to time.  The Henry’s were all asleep, Leslie and in our bed, Piper and Lily in their bed.  All of a sudden, Piper lets out an almost indescribable scream.  I don’t know how to explain it to you.  It is not a “cry” or “whining”, it is a loud shriek of pure fear.  She has done this 3 or so times before.  It is unnerving as a parent to hear your child like this.  I rush in their room (already knowing what was happening), flip on the light, and grab her up.  She was shaking, and still had her eyes closed.  She was filled with terror!  I asked her what was wrong, and she told me “bad dreams” (I had figured that out when I woke up).  I asked her to tell me of the bad dream and all she would finally say is “Lion”.  It is amazing how this little 2 year old can be so filled with terror.  She was certain that the dream was real (I think we have all been there), and there was nothing she could do.

Have you ever felt terror?  Have you ever been so scared that it paralyzed you?  Terror is a real thing.  I told Piper that there was nothing to be worried about, but that is not completely true.  I am telling you that there is something that should bring you to terror, and that is eternity.  You have one life, and when that is over, you will spend eternity in a Lake of Fire!  To make matters worse, you cannot change your lifestyle and start doing good in order to “miss” this Lake of Fire.  You are doomed and damned forever!

This is not a bad dream, and yes, you and I should be shrieking in terror over this reality.  There is one way to not burn for eternity in the Lake of Fire, and that is by placing your Faith in Jesus as the Son of God, who died for your sins, paying the price of them with His blood.  Have you done this?  I have.  That makes me no better than you.  It just makes me one of God’s own.  You can do this now by praying to Jesus.

Now, for those of us who are saved, do you experience any terror?  I do.  There is not much a worse thing that I can imagine happening that waking up to see that someone had broken into my house and taken my girls.  I would be helpless, devastated, full of terror.  But there is something worse!  The thought of them spending eternity in the Lake of Fire.  Do you have loved ones who do not know Jesus as Savior?  If yes, than they will spend eternity in the Lake of Fire if they do not repent.  That ought to bring you and I both, to terror!

Make a difference for Jesus in someone’s life today!

Observations as a Visitor

As an Assistant Pastor, I rarely ever have the opportunity to visit another church.  In fact, the only time I ever do is on vacation.  Yesterday  was that one time a year where we do such.  We went to a good church here in Fort Walton Beach.  After the service was over, Leslie and I were talking about the things that we liked and didn’t like, things that are important to us as visitors.  These are things that every church, including our own must have in place (at least, that is what we think).  Here is a short list…

1. Have greeters as visitors walk inside that are friendly, excited, and knowledgeable about all activities of the church.  The man that met Leslie as she walked in (I was taking Lily to children’s church, more on that later) was very kind.  The greeter needs to be very friendly (genuine), needs to know where each child goes, and leads to that direction.
2. Have nursery workers that can talk to adults and explain the “procedure” while also relating to the toddlers/babies that are coming in (in other words, motherly/fatherly).  We went in, had no clue what to do, Leslie was told to fill out a card and pick a number.  If she saw that number, she was to go back to the nursery to attend to the child (Piper).  We have that system in our own church, but if we didn’t, we would have been lost on what the lady was saying!
3. Children’s Church workers must make parents feel comfortable about leaving their children.  I went in with Lily, no one was around.  There was a desk where someone was probably sitting (checking in children), but no one was in it.  I opened a door to find the children’s church (nothing was marked telling me so, I just guessed).  Once I found an adult (children’s church worker), she was very kind and helped me along with filling out information.
4. Have special seating for visitors.  I would have never thought about this if it hadn’t happen to us.  We came in, and the usher let us know that the bottom was pretty much filled up, that there were some open seats in the balcony.  I didn’t mind, but I would have rather had visitors on the main floor.  If a visitor is lost, and God is working in their hearts, I would want them on the main floor, where they can easily walk down to speak to an altar worker.  Again, I didn’t feel slighted, I am a believer, but they didn’t know that.  Have seats (maybe a pew or 2 in the middle-front) that are reserved for visitors (not to close, but certainly no farther back than the middle).
5. Be a warm, friendly church.  This church had that down!  Everyone was so friendly.  It seemed like they were there to worship Jesus!  When the preacher preached, the people really seemed to be supportive of all that he was saying.  It made Leslie and I feel welcome and we really enjoyed watching the people engaged in praising the Lord, and we enjoyed praising the Lord with them!
6. Have greeters/ushers that are excited, and know all about what is going on in different ministries/activities of the church.  After church, there was a visitor center the preacher had asked visitors to go to.  There was a man who was there that would talk to us.  The man had me fill out a visitor card.  I asked him about service that night.  He “him-hawed around, and did not make it sound appealing.  This church had small groups instead of an evening service.  I enquired about it and he said, “Well, we watch a little video and then talk about it…we have food too.”  What I wanted to hear is was something like, “Oh man, you will LOVE it!  We have the greatest time in our small groups.  I have the perfect group for you, it is led by Rob and Tammy Smith.  We will be talking about…  That is the group I am in, can I save you two some seats?  Your kids will be doing…, our kids love it, yours will too!  I learn so much, and really enjoy… ”  I asked him what to do with the visitor’s card and he told me he didn’t really remember, but to hand it to him.  The guy was very kind, but not excited and did not seem very knowledgeable.
7. Someone let us know where our girl is!  There is a better way to put it, but this is how we felt.  After church, we went to get Lily to find that she was not in the room we left her, in fact, there was a few adults in there, but they didn’t tell us where the kids were.  We both felt a little worried at one point, but not too bad.  Bottom line, when someone drops off their kid, workers need to let them know where they can pick him/her up.

We were really surprised by the church.  The preaching was very biblically based, but didn’t really have a central theme.  In fact, I still don’t really know what the sermon was about.  He spoke of praise, the second point confession of faith (sustaining faith, not salvation faith), but never tied the two together.  I tell you all that to get to this point, at the invitation the altars were full!  This church was a great church!

I want to be clear.  I am not trying to be critical of this church at all.  We liked it a lot and will be back this Wednesday (if the LORD allows).  The church gave visitors a very kind gift, which I appreciate.  But what I did see is where our church (every church) needs to shine.  Let me ask you about your church.  Do you have greeters that are kind, genuine, excited, and knowledgeable about different ministries and activities going on?  If someone were to come up this Sunday to one of your greeters and ask about a social your church was having, how would they answer?  These are just a few observations as a visitor.  I think we as church leaders get so used to leading, we forget how it is to be a visitor.  I know that is very true in my life.  This is “church through the eyes of a visitor”.