Justin Henderson

Ministry Focus

The Henderson family lives in northern Wyoming in the town of Lovell, serving in two local churches and a start-up vocational welding school for Native Americans called “Shiloh Technical Institute”. The resident program is 9 months long, free for students, and exclusively for young Native American men living on the reservation. Justin Henderson spends most of his time recruiting and working with welding students from nearby Crow and Northern Cheyenne reservations.  Students spend five days a week in the welding shop, and attend Lovell Bible Church on Sundays. The school day begins with 2 hours of Bible Study each morning, and 4-5 hours of welding during the day. The dorm housing where students live is the former First Baptist Church of Lovell building, which the church donated to the welding school. On weekends Justin and Christa also assist the man who brought them to Wyoming, Pastor Kurt McNabb of Fort Shiloh Ministries, preaching and providing leadership to both the Lovell Bible Church and Bennett Creek Church. Every Tuesday night Justin Henderson leads chapel services at the Big Horn County Jail as chaplain.  The Big Horn County Jail is a federal holding facility for Native American inmates from Crow, Northern Cheyenne and Wind River reservations.  The welding school was founded out of this jail ministry (the very first Shiloh Tech student was an inmate who attended Tuesday night chapel).  The Henderson family moved to Wyoming in 2019, believing the Lord was using Pastor Kurt McNabb to call them out of a real estate career in Virginia to Native American ministry in Wyoming.

Faith Story

Christa grew up in Edina, MN and Eden Prairie, MN, where her father was the mission’s pastor of Grace Church. Christa prayed to receive Christ as a child and was blessed to travel with her dad and accumulate many overseas missions experiences growing up.  Likewise, Justin was raised as a pastors kid in Sacramento, CA, where his father Daniel Henderson pastored Arcade Church.  Like Christa, Justin prayed to receive Christ at a young age, but he did not walk with the Lord until he recommitted his life at 19 years old.  Within months of this decision, Justin decided to move from Sacramento to Eden Prairie, where his father was now the Sr. Pastor at Grace Church Eden Prairie—the same church where Christa grew up. With their dads now working together, Justin and Christa became close friends. They really grew close as a couple while attending bible classes together at Northwestern College (St. Paul, MN), eventually graduating at the same time with the same degrees in Biblical Studies/Intercultural Studies. After graduation in 2007, Justin and Christa both left Minnesota for Virginia, and began working for World Help, a Christian mission organization in Forest, VA.  They traveled all around the world, sometimes together, and these experiences developed an even stronger burden for missions.

Education

• Justin - MBA from Liberty University (Lynchburg, VA)