MISSIONARY PROFILE
Samuel
& Juliana
Hutchens
Missionary Information
Name:
Samuel Hutchens
Age: 35
Spouse:
Juliana Hutchens
Age: 34
Child: Emma Janette Hutchens
Age: 8
Mission Field: New Zealand
Years of Service: 8
Home Church: Lancaster Baptist Church
Lancaster, California
Missions Agency: Baptist International Missions, Inc (BIMI)
Harrison, Tennessee
Our Missionary for 8 years
Missionary Update 09/16/2019
Dear Supporting Churches & Friends, I wanted to take a moment this evening to let you know of something that has happened in our family here in New Zealand. As I reported in our last letter, we were expecting our 3rd child this coming January. To this point, Juliana has had a healthy pregnancy, which follows two other healthy pregnancies that gave us our two daughters. However, this past Sunday afternoon, Juliana told me she wasn’t feeling right and was a little concerned. Monday morning, we scheduled an emergency ultrasound, and Monday afternoon we found out that our unborn child has passed away and is in Heaven at 20 weeks. Today (Tuesday here), we went to the hospital, had one final confirmation that the baby had passed, and began the process of induction. It will be a couple of days yet before Juliana delivers the baby. Juliana and I have had some good chats about how we are feeling at this time, and I’m thankful to say that the Lord has given us peace despite our sadness. We’ve both found ourselves thankful for Heaven, and thankful for the two little girls God has already given us. Our church here in New Zealand has rallied around us to provide meals, prayer, and encouragement during this time, and we are so thankful for their ministry in our lives. We are thankful for each of you and wanted you to be aware of what is happening. We would simply ask that you pray for us over these next few days as Juliana delivers and as we deal with this loss. Thank you. Sam & Juliana Hutchens | Serving in Christchurch, New Zealand | Sent by Lancaster Baptist Church | Sent through Baptist International Missions, Inc. | +64276156162 | www.hutchens2nz.com
Missionary Update 02/12/2018
Hello everyone, It’s still Saturday in North America, but here it’s Sunday afternoon and I wanted to share what happened in our service today! NZ can be a tough place to see people saved, as they are very reserved people when it comes to religion. Today, Iopu (pronounce Yo Poo) walked into church for the first time. He said saw a sign that said, “Jesus loves you” and wanted to come to church to hear about it. As I mentioned in our recent prayer letter, I’ve been preaching through Galatians on Sunday morning. Today’s message was entitled “The Testimony of a Religious Man” from Galatians 1:13-14. During the invitation, I stated that should someone not be sure of their salvation, they should just stand where they were, and we could come to them and show them the Gospel. Iopu stood right up, and a few minutes later prayed and trusted Christ! He had tears in his eyes afterwards - what a great moment! We’re praying Iopu is the first of many saved here in NZ, but since he is the first, we’ve been able to see saved, we certainly wanted to share it with all of you right away! Thanks to your prayer and financial support, this is the fruit! Pray for Iopu’s girlfriend, Selina. We’re going to meet with her this week and witness to her as well. Praise the Lord! Sam & Juliana Hutchens | Serving in Christchurch, New Zealand | Sent by Lancaster Baptist Church | Sent through Baptist International Missions, Inc. | +64276156162 | www.hutchens2nz.com
Missionary Update 12/04/2017
Pastors and praying friends, I wanted to take a quick moment this afternoon to let you know of a big development for us — we have purchased our tickets for New Zealand! We will be departing on January 3rd at 11:20 PM out of LAX, connecting in Brisbane, Australia, and then on to Christchurch. What a big moment buying these tickets was! With that in mind, I do want to ask you to pray for a couple of things. 1. Continue to pray for Juliana and Emma’s visas to come through. We had been holding off on purchasing tickets until we had a better idea on when their visas might come through. Last week, we received a couple of messages from Immigration New Zealand that indicated that the visa process was going much more smoothly than our last attempt at a much quicker pace. I also consulted with immigration lawyers in New Zealand who stated that they would be allowed to enter on tourist visas (good for 90 days), should their visas be delayed for whatever reason. After consulting further with our field director, we felt as though we were at a good point to purchase the tickets. However, we would rather not have to jump through hoops with this — we just want those visas to be granted soon! I would estimate we will have them in hand before Christmas, but please pray! 2. Pray for me as I am working on our first few weeks of preaching right now. We are so thankful for the church that God has already assembled there, and I want to be sure to get things off on the right foot. I am really seeking the Lord about these first messages. Beyond that, we have quite a bit of work for the next few months as we work towards the re-planting effort with this church. Pray it all goes well. 3. Finally, pray for a few more supporting churches to join up with us. We are doing fine financially but would sure appreciate a few more financial partners before departure. God bless you all! Thank you for your continued prayer support. DON’T STOP! We can’t wait to see what God will do in Christchurch, New Zealand! Sam & Juliana Hutchens | Church Planters to Christchurch, New Zealand | Sent by Lancaster Baptist Church | Sent through Baptist International Missions, Inc. | 661.317.1686 | www.hutchens2nz.com
Missionary Update 09/01/2017
Hello everyone! Here’s a brief in-between-prayer-letters update! August has been a road month. We’ve done over 5,000 miles since August 1, and have had meetings in KS, OK, TX, MS, TN, KY, & OH. We have a lot of miles in front of us this week as well, as we are making our way to Texas for Wednesday, and then all the way back to Ohio for Sunday (hooray for my scheduling skills!). We have hit 83% of our needed support and plans to leave during the final week of October are starting to become more concrete. We have two major prayer requests to make that happen: 1. Pray the final 17% of our support comes in (approximately 11 more supporting churches). 2. Pray our visas get approved quickly. We’re a little behind on that process due to some unforeseen difficulties on the New Zealand side of things. Every day I think about how thankful I am to have prayer and financial partners like all of you! Thank you so much for your support! Please let us know if you need anything from us. You will see our next prayer letter on September 15th. Sam & Juliana Hutchens | Church Planters to Christchurch, New Zealand | Sent by Lancaster Baptist Church | Sent through Baptist International Missions, Inc. | 661.317.1686 | www.hutchens2nz.com