Voila!

Three days to bake and decorate, two birthdays, twelve cupcakes, and one 3-layer cake later, I am pleased to announce a very successful weekend. Zack took pictures, and I whipped up some creations that surprised even me! Again and again over the span of the three days it took to complete my tasks, Zack would come in the kitchen, survey the projects underway and emphatically state, “Babe, I’m SO proud of you!!! Look at this!” I’m so blessed to have a husband who believes in me as much as he does. As I worked, he diligently made ensured that Natalie was rested, entertained, changed, fed, snuggled, danced with, singed to, and generally taken care of so I had both hands free to fashion and form.

I came away with some battle wounds from this weekend’s experiment- a blister from chopping chocolate, swollen and throbbing feet from standing all weekend long, arms that felt like jell-o after kneading fondant for two hours straight, and an achy back, but it was all worth it! As fun as the projects were, what was shocking to me was that I actually entered into a unique place of prayer as I worked. As funny as it sounds, with an ice cream scoop full of batter and a mouth full of chocolate, I began to quiet my heart, and as I did I began to feel as though I was anointed to do this. I’ve never taken a class for cake decorating, and all I know is based on my own research online and in a book my husband surprised me with, but everything came together as though I’d done it dozens of times before. Now, I ask you, what could be more enjoyable than building a tower of sugar while praying and feeling alive in the presence of the living God? !

I only had one very minor hang up that worked itself out (thanks to Zack’s little late night trip to the

grocery store),

These are the cupcakes I made for one birthday party

which actually taught me some very important points about this particular type of cake decorating, and forced me to problem-solve, as well as relax when I had the option to freak out.  It was when I came to bed on Sunday night with all of my aches and pains only to inform my husband that I had had a really fun weekend, that I realized I ha

And this was the chocolate cake

d stumbled upon something special. Of course, it doesn’t take a genius to spot that, but most of the time I have to see for myself whether or not my ideas are just a whim or something more.

 

 

This time, I think I struck gold and I’m having the time of my life!

The Adventure Begins

The aroma of chocolate hangs in the air in my kitchen today. I keep glancing back at my oven, viewing my creation in disbelief. The project I have dreamed of for the last several weeks is finally officially underway as my first real cake is taking form behind me, and I am clinching my jaw with excitement for the result, typing with 54% cocao-stained fingers, and bated breath.  The “Cake Experiment” is finally becoming a reality. Who knows where it will lead, but I have to agree with Lisa that I have a good feeling about this.

Seeing as Zack always does the updates on this blog, I thought I would mix it up a bit. I’m fortunate to have this experience as a creator of cakes for however long it may last, and my husband has been my greatest cheerleader in the entire project. Though it sounds funny to say, I think this may be a divine set-up from the Lord. My creativity over the past several years has been largely laid aside since most of my time has been given to study and discipleship. However, I feel my teaching skills have suffered for the lack of “right-brainedness”. I happen to be a very artsy type, and now that I have an avenue to express it, I get the impression that the Lord is up to something, not only for a therapeutic hobby to make my heart come alive, but to regain that creative edge in my teaching abilities as well.

I’m loving this new lesson, and with every success and failure thus far in my new venture, Zack has been there to applaud. In the Hensley household when we screw up badly, we celebrate how NOT to do it!! Unless of course our screw-up is sin… obviously we don’t applaud that, but that goes without saying!

So that’s a little blurb from my side of the story. I hope you enjoyed.

Onething Phoenix at City of Grace

This last weekend I had the priviledge of traveling back to my home church City of Grace in Mesa Arizona, where we held to onething Phoenix conference. Wes Martin, Dwayne Roberts, and Myself spoke during the main sessions, and Luke Wood and Cory Asbury led worship. Having grown up sowing countless hours of fasting and prayer into that region, my heart was tender all weekend.

I preached on Saturday morning on the “Relevancy of Christ”. The primary theme of my message was that the social justice issues, and problems of this present age are only solved in the understanding and declaring the person of Jesus Christ. I declared “The wisdom of this hour is to partner with Jesus on His campaign of justice throughout the Earth, and we do that through prayer.”

When I was 14 I began fasting and praying for that church (then Word of Grace) and that region. I remember in junior high going on a week long fast in 1996. I did nothing but read the Sermon on the Mount, tell my class mates about Christ and pray for my church and school. When I was 15 I saw 10 of those class mates give their lives to Christ and many of them are in ministry now.

My prayer for this conference was that we sowed seeds into a couple of radical young people to go back to their college campuses and work places as faithful witnesses of Christ.

Conferences are funny because on one hand they feel superfluous because we have so many in the body of Christ, yet very little fruit that we can see in our nation. The goal of a conference is to be a spark and hope there is some dry wood that gets ignited.

There seemed to be a lot of hungry people at this conference, a lot of dry wood. I pray that many got ignited and the flames of revival burn throughout the Mesa/Tempe/Phoenix area. I am still praying for Mesa and City of Grace Church, and still believe the name of Jesus will glorified in that city.

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As you may know, the purpose of this blog/site is two fold:

1. To update friends, family and supporters with the current happenings in our life and ministry.
2. To raise funds to continue our ministry to the region of Kansas City and the International House of Prayer.

Three ways to support us:

Pray- Seriously helpful to us. No I mean like really HELPFUL to us!

Invite- As a preacher I’d love to come to any church or ministry that would have me and talk about night and day prayer and how to reach this present generation of teenagers.

Invest- Partner with us through finances. In this day and age I realize everybody has a new way to ask for donations to their ministry/cause/idea/campaign. I will simply say this: Sow into our lives, and we will sow into yours. Any and every type of donation is helpful for us in being able to stay a float financially while giving 70 hours a week to ministry.

To donate online click here: ZACK’S DONATION PAGE

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