Hensley Family Trip Update #1

Kurt Vonnegut said, “When I write, I feel like an armless, legless man with a crayon in his mouth.”

I think I have begun many a blog post with this same sentiment. If I could just get swept up in paragraph upon paragraph of riveting information and stories in our lives paralleling a montage of an astute writer typing ferociously in films like Finding Forrester… wait. Was there a writing video montage in Finding Forrester? I can’t remember. Anyway, the point is that this whole blogging thing is shockingly hard at times. Especially when your computer’s courser likes to jump all over the place, forcing you to create accidental words like adapdarntationing. Sometimes I wish I just had a MOUSE with a MOUSEPAD like the old days.

Back to the subject at hand and perfectionism be hanged. Our little family is here in lovely and befuddlingly hot Phoenix for the next 3 weeks. We set out on our ministry/support raising trip just about a week ago, and arrived here in Scottsdale on Friday afternoon. We were fortunate enough to stay with our dear friend Danika in Loveland, CO and met a stellar group of people while there. And when I say, “stellar”, I’m talking le-git.

To even our amazement, Zack and I have never actually gone on a ministry trip together. Yeah, imagine that. Not on purpose, mind you. It likely has something to do with the fact that I’m generally either pregnant, or taking care of a little person who has not, up until this trip, taken much of a liking to travel. We’re discovering, though, that we’re a pretty good team and that Natalie is increasingly content wherever she is.

Yesterday we got to connect with some incredibly godly and fiery lovers of Jesus at Evident Life Church in Gilbert. Zack preached a fantastic message on the worthiness of Jesus, and then we got to spend some quality time with our friends the Jones family. Since then, Zack has been driving Natalie and me all over the city, showing us his old haunts (he grew up here), and getting us acquainted with the area. And yes, for those of you who were just about to ask, I did try In and Out today. Five Guys is better, and that’s all I have to say about that.

We have meetings and meals lining up for the next few weeks, and are looking forward to seeing more of our friends as well seeing what the Lord wants to do on this trip. As we shared our story with our new friends in Loveland about all that the Lord had done and is doing in our lives, I could barely contain the well of emotion that bubbled up inside of me. It was as if my heart could have exploded with gratitude as I took a quick mental inventory of what we had just shared. It occurred to me that I get to be married to my best friend, be the mother of incredible kids, minister in a context with other people who make me want to love Jesus more, and meet a whole slew of godly people living hundreds of miles away from us who are determined to walk out the first and second commandment by the grace of God. What in the world?!

The bottom line is that we are so thankful.

In keeping with the spirit of being diligent, I thought I would shoot a few prayer requests your way. We are preparing to take a trip in October to spend some much-needed time with family, friends, and financial partners, as well as to encourage and serve various churches in the Phoenix area. It has been two years since we have been back to Arizona. The vast majority of the trip will be spent doing ministry and reconnecting with the many friends we have in that area. The trip itself will be about 4 weeks long, which means we would love prayer for a few specifics:

1. TRAVELING MERCIES. We are going to take our time driving out to Arizona from Kansas City, rather than flying. Our two-year old is wonderful, but we would love prayer for our little sweetheart to be content despite the long drive. Since I will be half-way through pregnancy when we embark, I would love prayer for physical strength. My midwife has o.k.’d  the trip, but aches and pains come with the territory.  Most importantly, though, we would love prayer for our safety!
2. FINANCES. Unfortunately, to do a support-raising/ministry trip of this kind we have to… you guessed it, raise money. It’s an adventure for sure. We have yet to nail down all of the expenses we are needing to prepare for since we are still landing the last of the details, but we would greatly appreciate prayer for provision for the trip.

3. DISCERNMENT. There has been no want of opportunity for this trip, but we truly want to be obedient to where the Lord wants us to both build financial relationships, as well as to minister.

We invite you to consider giving, and would deeply appreciate your prayers.

August Update: Summer Like No Other

Sigh.

That is the current status of the Hensley household, as what could be called the busiest and craziest summer I’ve ever encountered, without exaggeration, has finally come to an end. As most of you know, I (Zack) have the privilege of ministering to a couple thousand teenagers every summer. This summer we had the same overwhelming response to the messages as most years. Most teens committing to start bible studies and prayer meetings on their High School campuses. Lots of one-on-one discipleship happened where teens left free from bondage with hearts healed and a game plan to pursue Christ at home. Though that alone would be enough with which to walk away from the summer, in conjunction with incredible testimonies of God’s power, it seemed evident that the Lord was doing more this summer. Not only was He calling them to be faithful Christians, but He was also commissioning them as messengers of His gospel.

Elijah Revolution Houston

This Spring, I woke up in the middle of the night hearing the Lord say with clarity, “I am raising up Samuels in a day when the word of the Lord is rare.”  Going into the summer that phrase kept repeating in my spirit as I prayed. The interpretation is simple enough- the Lord is raising up a young generation to testify of Jesus in a day when Jesus is becoming a scarce focus in our culture and even within the church.

Halfway through the summer I ministered at a conference in Houston, Texas. It was one of many to come called the Elijah Revolution. I had the opportunity to preach and minister with a man I’ve always considered to be a role model for my life named Lou Engle. His faith for God to change our nation through prayer stirred my heart. Whether back stage where he would begin weeping over this current generation’s need for God, or on stage where he called the teens in Houston to fast and pray and give their lives on behalf of the gospel, his love for God and faith to see God transform hearts provoked me. I saw hundreds of teens in Houston crying out for their peers in prayer long into the night.

I truly encountered God in Houston while ministering to that group. Coming home with 400 teens waiting for me in Kansas City, I felt like the Lord gave me a greater grace and anointing to call this generation to take their love for Jesus to the place of prayer and begin to transform their regions through prayer and preaching the gospel. My first night back I was supposed to preach, and had prepared a great message on Revelation 5 and our eternal destiny. I felt that phrase the Lord spoke to me months before echoing in my spirit. ”I am raising up Samuels in a day when the word of the Lord is rare.” I gathered my leadership team and the 50 counselors that faithfully serve all summer. I told them I was going to cancel the service and the special activity we had planned for that night in order to pray as a camp to see what God would do. I figured we at least would be able to get the group to pray for 2 hours or more and then maybe I’d preach still if things fizzled out.

450 teens crying out to God all night long.

We started praying and instantly I and most in the room begin to feel the presence of God. I felt an increase of faith and the delight of the Lord as if He would grant us anything that night. We cried out for the youth of America, for President Obama, our government, our parents, families and friends for 6 hours. I kept waiting for different teens to disengage and start getting tired. However all 450 teens in the room stayed engaged into the midnight hour.If you’ve ever done youth ministry, this is a miracle.

For the rest of camp you could see in the faces and in the conversations teens were having in the cafeteria that many had been awakened that night. Prayer is the most powerful tool we have, not only because things happen when we pray but prayer in itself is like a seminary. It reveals to our hearts the heart of God. It takes our perspective of  life and world and aligns it with God’s. When we partner with him in prayer it transforms our hearts to trust God for our wants and needs and gives us a vision for the people in our life and world.

Since the teens have all gone home, my inbox on Facebook has been flooded with testimonies of teens who are leading prayer meetings on their high school campuses and seeing their peers get saved, delivered, and begin giving themselves to Christ. Teens are already beginning to fill their churches with young people as they are dragging their friends to church and telling them about Jesus.

I have been so blessed to be apart of the move of God this summer. All around the nation I’m hearing testimonies of God beginning to raise up teenagers to be messengers of truth. I ask that you join me in praying for them. God is raising up young messengers  to testify of His son in a time in our nation where the word of the Lord is rare. Jesus is the reason why I’m alive. My ambition is that in all my labors of ministry the result is that the name of Jesus becomes great.

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Quick Update: For those that may be reading this update for the first time, Carrie and I serve as missionaries. We do not receive a salary for the work that we do.

Even our camps and conferences run at cost so as to be able to allow as many teens to attend as possible. This means our income is purely donations based.

I heard one of my favorite preachers John Piper say recently “There are go-ers and there are sow-ers, if you can’t go SOW!” So our ministry is based on those “Sow-ers” so that we can continue to labor on behalf of the next generation and serve the prayer movement.

Right now we have 3 prayer needs and invitations for you to give:

• We will be traveling to Phoenix, AZ for the month of October for the purpose of support raising and speaking at various churches. Please pray that this is not only a fruitful time for us in ministry but financially.
• We are in the process of wanting to adopt. We want our home to be a haven for the homeless. The cost of adoption is extremely high.

3 ways to help:

Pray- As I stated above this is a powerful way to partner with us.

Invite- As a preacher I’d love to come to any church or ministry and serve in any way I can. This both can can us grow our network of supporters but also give us an opportunity to witness what God is doing in other areas.

Invest- Partner with us through finances. We are in need of both one time gifts and monthly commitments to donate.

2 ways to invest:

To donate ONLINE click here:

If you would like a tax deduction for your donation, make the check out to: IHOP-KC and mail it to:

Support ATTN:

Zack Hensley

3535 E  Red Bridge Rd

Kansas City, MO 64137

Family News

Wow! It’s been a little too long since I’ve posted something!! A lot has happened recently, and summer (a.k.a. camp season) is in full swing. Zack has been working tirelessly hosting teenagers from all over the world for IHOP-KC‘s Awakening Teen Camps, or “ATC‘, if you prefer. Today we are happy to have him home for a few hours. New groups rotate in every couple of weeks, so there is a whole lot of activity going on all the time these days, and Natalie and I love when we can spend a little extra time with “Dada”.

To our great delight, we are expecting again!! We’re very excited. It’s been a tough year for our family, but we’re so grateful to the Lord for giving us another child. Everything appears to be normal, and we’re looking forward to our first prenatal visit to hear the baby’s heartbeat! And of course we are still in the adoption process. For us, that part will not change. We have come to a point where we cannot move forward due to finances, but our hearts are not to put anything on “pause” in terms of completing our home study. We want to do all that we can in order to position ourselves to welcome little ones into our home.

I recently posted that we have added a “Chip In” page that helps us keep track of our financial progress toward being able to adopt. Check it out and donate if your heart desires! We have a long way to go, but we believe the Lord is propelling us forward, and every little bit helps. I occasionally add updates on the page, so you’re welcome visit it whenever you want to stay in the loop with how things are going.

Natalie is going to be two in only a couple of weeks, which is about as surreal as anything I’ve ever experienced. She’s chatting up a storm, and her cuteness abounds. She actually made an older gentleman cry in the grocery store the other day. He said that she was beautiful and could barely hold back the tears (I suspect he might have been missing some grandkids of his own). Natty and I were both delighted to make his day.

I have been able to be home with Natalie quite a bit this summer. She likes to go on lots of “walkies” (walks) as often as we have the courage to brave the heat and humidity. I think I’m coming to the end of the majority of my morning sickness, which will hopefully allow more outings. I’m looking forward to the fall as I have recently decided to link back up with the International House of Prayer University to help disciple a small group of female students. It will be a stretch with a baby on the way (no pun intended!), but I’m looking forward to it.

For those of you who would be interested in partnering with us financially on a regular basis, please click on the link and scroll to the bottom for more information!

Help Us Adopt by Clicking the Link

http://widget.chipin.com/widget/id/a1c4243baacc3680

Bring it ON

Adopting as missionaries is an interesting path to take, filled with all kinds of curve balls, and we’re not even past the paperwork yet! Adventurous? Yes. No other word comes to mind when I try to describe our current situation as missionary parents who are also trying to adopt. Especially in light of the fact that we don’t plan on adopting only one. I get filled with excitement and anticipation; then dread of how to figure out where the funds are going to come from; then anger at the enemy for disrupting our lives in so many ways to get us to NOT adopt; then pain as I imagine the lives of the birth moms making such a difficult decision as putting their baby up for adoption; then tenderness when I think about the lives of the children in need of homes.

At present, the curve balls are taking the form of a siege on our finances, which makes all of this paperwork quite hilarious. I feel a strange sense of comfort knowing that many of the adoptive parents I know have the same nervous giggle when they describe what the financial statements and budgets looked like when they filled out their own adoption paperwork. (<= Not ONE comma in that sentence!) When you try to adopt as missionaries raising your own support anyway, there’s an interesting point of conflict because you wind up having to explain not only that you ARE missionaries, but also that you are adopting… ergo, you need finances for BOTH aspects of your life.

Regardless, I was recently encouraged by a friend of mine to press onward and upward in finishing the paperwork. In essence, she explained that the lack in our city is related to not having enough families for the number of children. It’s a disproportionate ratio that needs rectifying. The foster care system and adoption agencies are looking for families, not just dollars. To quote the Beatles, “you can’t buy me love”.  You could give an orphan $100,000, but that would not meet that child’s needs. $100,000, or any amount for that matter, is no substitute for a loving family. So my thinking is getting reordered because for months I couldn’t get past the dollar signs.  Though important, funds are secondary to the need for families.

And here’s where you come in! We as a family have said “yes” to accepting children in need into our lives, but  I need help coming up with some outlandishly brilliant support-raising ideas. Since there are more of you than there are of us, you are bound to have heard of some great support-raising concepts. We want to hear about them. COMMENT AND TELL US!

Side point: remember that my husband and I are missionaries who raise our own support anyway, and have done so for a long time. So we don’t need a whole pep talk or 5 point sermon on why support raising is Biblical. We bought into it years ago when we signed up to be full-time missionaries. What  I want to hear about are the “high touch”fund-raising ideas. In other words, I don’t need to hear one more person say something about an impersonal newsletter that gets chucked in the trash the second the recipient realizes it’s “just another newsletter”. High touch means personal, relational, and eye-to-eye.

I’m wanting are stories like, “My beautician friend Jane did this awesome support raising event where she had sponsors donate a certain amount of money to her for every haircut she could finish within a single day! It was awesome! We had appetizers and watched her complete 50 haircuts in record time!” or “My cousin Dave hosted a silent auction of donated goods and services, and all the proceeds went directly to their adoption!” That kind of thing.

SO let the commenting commence!

And There Was Much Rejoicing

This may not sound that huge to many people, but we are slowly making some headway with expenses that have been hanging over our heads. Thank you all SO much for praying for us, and for those who have been so generous to give! The most urgent bills have been paid, and now we’re moving forward with some others. Today I am greatly encouraged. I always want to do my best at including as many updates of breakthrough, successful steps forward and prayer needs so that it doesn’t feel like you are only getting one side of a phone conversation.

Let me tell you that there is never a dull moment living as missionaries with the intention of adopting, but I cannot imagine trying to do life any other way. Sometimes it feels like repeatedly running into an electric fence, but I think that is probably the case for the majority of the population. Some may think it reckless to live contrary to the expectation of the culture, but I submit that the most reckless way to live is to live for oneself alone. Obedience to Christ is the safest way to live. It may mean you are a CEO to a Fortune 500 company, or a gym teacher in a public school, or it may look like serving the poor in the red light district of a foreign nation. Regardless, obedience to Christ is the only path worth taking.

Baby Fever

Today while I was in the prayer room I was repeatedly distracted by babies. It’s not what you’re thinking. I know there is a whole host of people out there who can’t handle children in close proximity. They move or ask you to “please take your child somewhere else” because they have some weird unresolved issue related to the innocence of childhood. I, however, prefer the liveliness of the sound of children wherever I am. In fact, since becoming a parent, if a place isn’t appropriate for children, I get increasingly annoyed at having to linger there.

Now that we’re trying to move at a reasonably quick pace through the adoption paperwork, I keep getting distracted by moms or dads holding little ones in the prayer room. Or anywhere, for that matter. I made cookies with Natalie just the other day, and I loved every precious moment of her helping me stir and dump and squish and taste all the cookies we made. However, looking at this picture makes me excited to add a bunch more sugared up faces to this scenario. I can’t escape it. My prayers lately boil down to, “Lord, give me orphans.”

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One Step Forward

Maybe it’s the fact that I’m a feisty northern girl, but when I start getting shoved around, my first line of defense is to root myself in my cause and let the waves of adversity crash over me. Maybe the shrewd comebacks take a moment to come to mind. Maybe they never come. Regardless, I become more resolute with every obstruction to my cause. This is one of those times.

Zack and I have been alerted to a shift that is beginning to take place in terms of our hearts concerning adoption. Since the beginning of the year we have had a difficult time getting excited about filling out the paperwork. Our diligence had come to the point of a halt largely due to lack of funds. We had been plugging away confidently, and then in January the fight seemed too much to handle. With the miscarriage the following month, we naturally took our time to set our hearts before the Lord.

Then this week happened. I can’t say for sure what sparked it all, but suddenly my zeal and sense of urgency to pick up the adoption forms came rushing back. All doubt related to the finances necessary waned. I e-mailed my husband to see if he was feeling the same way, or if it was just me. He did, and now we finally have some momentum. This is what most of my spare hours look like.

I decided to rigidly organize the adoption application, and yes that is my trusty cup of coffee .

A few encouragements from some trusted women of God last week is still fueling me and my husband to work everything out so that we can move quickly through this process. I am so aware of the grace the Lord is giving us to do this that I am basically a weepy mess every time I think about it. I mentioned a while back that we have had a lot of trouble with the vast majority of our major appliances. Well, just last week someone told us they would like to give us a fridge and a dryer! We haven’t had a reliable dryer for nearly a year, nor a trouble-free fridge since January!!! More weeping. The Lord is so kind!

There are, however, a few practical needs we do have. Some of them are urgent. Inevitably there are a few of you reading this who have recently said in the deep recesses of your own heart, “I would like to help an adoptive family.” If I’m speaking to you, here are a few needs that would really serve us to be relieved of, helping us to move closer and closer to adoption.

1. I say this nearly every time I write a post, but we really do covet your prayers! It should never sound cliche, but it can at times. Specifically we need prayer for courage, protection, and finances.

2. We have an urgent need of $150 that we must have by tonight to pay a bill. It’s certainly not a large amount, but our support base has dwindled recently, so we are having a difficult time staying on top of things at the moment. An easy way to give towards this amount would be to use the “Donate” button to the right of your screen. Any amount would help!

3. As missionaries raising our own support, we are looking to grow our monthly support base to both make up for the shortages we have had this year, as well as to prepare for a new baby in our lives. If you would like to join us by partnering financially on a monthly basis, it would greatly bless us. You may do so by either donating on this blog using the “Donate” button, or by making a tax-deductible donation. If you would like a tax deduction for your donation, make the check out to: IHOP-KC and mail it to:

Support ATTN:

Zack Hensley

3535 E  Red Bridge Rd

Kansas City, MO 64137

4. One additional way you can help is to give towards the expenses of the adoption itself. We need to cover background checks, the application fee, and a simple birth certificate, which all amounts to just shy of $400.

If you want to give towards a specific point, please feel free to let us know how you would like your donation to be use, and we will be happy to follow through with your wishes.

Let Us Pray

This morning I’m all fired up. Since the first of the year we have been bracing ourselves against wave after wave of financial trouble. To be more accurate, since we first began working through the logistics of adoption, we have been taking some hard hits. In speaking with other adoptive families, this is not an isolated case. Nor is it simply evidence of our “economic crisis”. That crisis began long before we ever considered adoption. Our personal financial crisis began the second we put our pen on the paper of our adoption application. I’ll save you the stories because I would hate this post to come off as a complaint.

The desire and task before us is to open our home to orphans. Yet, everything about our journey has been halted by mind-numbing expenses. One after another after another. We have small victories that quickly turn around into more setbacks. Maybe I’m describing a lot of people’s circumstances right now, but speaking as a potential adoptive parent, my spin is different. Not more important than yours,but it galls me when I consider what’s at stake; i.e. a life. Not my own, but rather the one or more we are working to receive into our family who would otherwise have none.

We need prayer. We need a miracle. My husband and I are working diligently to build the house of the Lord, and are seeking to be faithful with all that He has given us. However, it’s more clear than ever that it is truly the Lord who will bring forth His purposes in our lives.  Our weak “we will take the orphans” is all He needs. So please pray with us for courage, patience, and finances.