Henzler, Mark & Diane
Mark and Diane Henzler (Children – Suzanna and Andrew)
Email: mhenzler@ibw.com.ni
Website: www.henzler.abwe.org
Address: 901 NW 112 Avenue, Plantation, FL 3332
Mission Agency: Association of Baptists For World Evangelism (ABWE)
Mission Field: Central America and Caribbean
Mark Henzler serves ABWE as Regional professor of Biblical studies for Central America and the Caribbean basin. The Henzlers have been involved in Church planting in Chile.
December 2009
Dear Partners in Prayer,
I love the Christmas story. My Mom and Dad would read it to us kids around a crackling fire in our little brick house on Hickory Street in Alexandria, Virginia. Almost 50 years later I still love it. Jesus left all the glory of Heaven to be born in a stinking manger and live a humble life and die on a cruel cross – all so He could take us out of this mess to His home in Glory. Incredible! Acts 1:1-2 makes it clear that that in his three years of ministry He started something He didn’t intend to finish Himself.– Christ’s birth, life, ministry, death, burial and resurrection – all of it was only what "Jesus began both to do and teach." The Acts of the Apostles show us that Jesus intended His ministry and words to continue long after Him; and so it has – for almost 2,000 years!– Starting Something We Can’t Finish– even though we are about 20% under supported, He is supplying our needs through your generous gifts.
•
Our church planters in Nicaragua, as most of them are planning special end of the year baptismal services.
•
New leaders in training in Chile – one of my students plans to be a missionary in France.
•
Mark and Diane Henzler
Regional Professor of Biblical Studies
ABWE Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean Basin
Suzanna’s plans for college and a life of service to Christ.
Luke opens his second book by talking about the first saying:
"The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, Until the day in which he was taken up…"
What catches my attention is that all that is contained in the original biography
That got me wondering. We’re always told (and teach our kids!), "Finish what you start!" Maybe sometimes we should actually start something we can’t finish, something that will live on long after us, something too big to be finished by one person alone. And so we are praying that God will take the simple seed of what we have started, and use it to build something far beyond our individual abilities.
God is doing something amazing
Nicaragua is full of churches; Catholic churches, Pentecostal churches, Charismatic churches, Mormon churches, and evangelical churches.
Nicaragua doesn’t need more "churches." But we believe that Nicaragua does need more churches that teach a clear Gospel, that proclaim sound doctrine, and that have a dynamic ministry that changes lives and communities. We’ve been led to do church planting by multiplication, instead of just addition. We call starting churches "church planting,"
and that’s a good metaphor. If you want a bigger crop, you plant more seeds. You could invest more in one seed, watering, fertilizing, pruning, weeding, etc., and you would get a great yield. But you could also plant more seeds, and your harvest would eventually be much greater. It still takes a while to grow the tree, but when they finally do mature, you will have more trees by multiple planting.
Two years ago we began our first Institute of Church Planters here in Nicaragua. This past week we had our first graduation, where we recognized the 17 young men and 7 pastors who participated in the ICP.
There are currently 13 "seedlings," in various stages of development toward an organized church, with another 4 that have started with the indirect influence of the ICP. They are in places with unfamiliar names to you, like Sábana Grande, Motastepe, Malacatoya, Las Viudas and Tipitapa. But the people in those places are all very familiar to our Lord. And in all these places people are coming to know Him, being baptized in His name, and being discipled to follow Him in a lifetime of commitment. Please pray for the continued growth and maturing of these works.
We are now meeting with the pastors of two different Nicaraguan church associations in order be able to start another Institute of Church Planters in 2010. Our prayer is that these will be the beginning of a church planting movement in Nicaragua.
"In other news…"
God gave us a wonderful trip to Santiago, Chile, where we had ministered for nine years. We loved it! What a blessing it was to go back to our church and see people we ministered to, led to the Lord, baptized, etc., now having leadership roles in the church. They have a pastoral team that includes missionaries (Rogers and Crosses) and Chileans, and are currently constructing a new building that will seat 400 people. Their center city location allows them great potential for impacting the capitol with a variety of ministries.
I taught Theology for a weekly module, and the students came up with some great final projects. I told them they could use any means they wanted to in order to teach something about the doctrine of Christ. They were to do something they would also use in their churches. Their projects were great even though they only had 4 days to work on them; some did PowerPoint presentations, one preached, two wrote magazine articles with full color graphics, two composed songs, one did a puppet show, two wrote fictional pieces that were very good. Some of them worked together and did a "TV" documentary about the cults and their view of Christ. They also had to do teamwork devotions related to some aspect of Christ, and by the last day they were really excellent. God is raising up a wonderful group of new church leaders in Chile.
Suzanna is fully enjoying her senior year of High School and plans to study in Greece next year. Andrew is a sophomore, and like Suzanna, is really developing his musical skills. God is taking good care of us
Thank you,
Mark, Diane, Suzanna and Andrew
‘For the souls of men and the Glory of God’
Please pray for: