Our KY-MSC Family has once again lost a dear member.  Bro. Marc Hensley, who served as Director of Meridzo Ministries’ Calvary Campus in Blackey, KY went home to be with the Lord on April 3rd. 

Marc had only served as a KY-MSC Missionary since February 10, 2022, but he had done a tremendous work and had to jump in with both feet.  Marc had been at Calvary Campus only a few months when the historic eastern Kentucky flooding of 2022 hit.  He went right to work managing lots of resources, donations, and mission teams that came to eastern Kentucky to help, and many families were assisted as a result. 

Marc was not new to ministry, however.  Prior to becoming Director of Calvary Campus, Marc served for seventeen years as the Director of Mountain Outreach, a non-profit service organization operated by the University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, KY.  This ministry provided community service, repair projects, and home builds to help children, the elderly, and financially struggling families with critical and urgent needs throughout their service region.

Bro. Marc’s obituary shared that he “loved mission work, loved people, was a collector and hunter, loved birddogs, was an avid storyteller, loved music, loved Kentucky, and was fluent in ‘hillbilly’’, which all made him fit right in to ministry in Appalachia.  Marc was special man that impacted the lives of so many. 

Bro. Marc, thank you for committing your life to the Lord and for sharing Him with others, especially in the hills and hollers of eastern Kentucy.  What a beautiful legacy you have left and it was a joy to know you.

Please pray for Marc’s wife Wanda, his daughters, mother, and all of the family and friends during the days ahead, and pray for Calvary Campus as they seek a new leader. 

While the days may be uncertain for us, they are not uncertain for God.  As the Psalmist says, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Ps 46:1).  Because God is our very present help in trouble, “we will not fear, though the earth should change” or the shock of our present circumstances (Ps 46:2).  As always, but particularly these days, believers are called to demonstrate that their trust is in an all-wise, all-good, all-sovereign God.  Whether the earth changes or the unexpectant engulfs us, God is with us as the Psalmist promises. 

We can trust God with our very lives even when all around us is apparent chaos.  The Psalmist tells us that even if the “waters roar and foam” and if the “mountains quake,” God is with us (Ps 46:3).  As the hymn writer so eloquently reminds us, “when all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay.”  

Hudson Taylor knew of God’s great presence with us in times of trouble.  Taylor, a British missionary to China in the late 1800s, served there for 51 years.  He is the founder of the China Inland Mission.  As a young twenty-one-year-old, he first went to China with the desire to reach the nation with the gospel.  When others were saying it can’t be done, Hudson said it can and will be done by God’s grace.

After spending years toiling on the mission field, he realized that he needed to recruit others to join him in this task of the evangelization of China.  He went back to his homeland of England to find more laborers.  While there he became troubled knowing that the dangers in China were many.  He had almost concluded to not recruit help for fear of sending missionaries to China who might be killed.  However, the Lord pressed upon his heart that it is better to go to China and die as a Christian than for millions of Chinese to die without hearing of Christ.

So, Hudson recruited several to join him in China. Years later when he was older and feebler, he traveled back to England and received word of his greatest fear—many missionaries were being killed for the gospel.  His only option was to trust his life and theirs in the hands of God.  He concluded that whether as a young twenty-one-year-old just heading out to China or as a seventy-year-old nearing the end of his life, it is possible to trust God too little, but never possible to trust Him too much (Danny Akin, 10 Who Changed the World).

God is more than enough in your time of trouble.  Indeed, He is a very present help in your trouble.  You can trust Him too little, but you can never trust him too much.  In these uncertain days, let’s trust in our certain God and make sure that we point people to the only secure hope in times of trouble—Jesus.