Dear Friends

We are alive and well in New York City! Sorry to take so long to send out a message...we have had to reconfigure our email program to accommodate the internet connection that we have available here. So I apologize if you are receiving this email twice - we are still working on it. Besides that, we have hardly had a spare moment to breathe since we got here!

Our first week has been filled with all sorts of firsts: a 14 hour trip on Amtrak, navigating the subway and bus system, shopping in markets where the shopowner speaks another language, discovering the joys of walking everywhere, and feeling like we absolutely do NOT fit in!

Our training began hard and heavy from the very first day. So far we have recieved training in ethnography, cultural interviewing, non-English phonetics, language acquisition, street evangelism and church planting strategies. We have also been all around lower Manhattan and most of Queens. On July 4th (our only day off so far!) we went to Central Park, Times Square, The World Trade Center Site, the Financial District and finished the day by watching fireworks from Vernon Ave. along the river.

Yesterday, we put into practice our language acquisition skills and spent the morning with language helpers. Our MTW group had helpers speaking Flemish, Korean, Jeh (a Vietnamese dialect), and Arabic. Scott and I were assigned to two different Arabic speakers and spent the morning using the various techniques we had learned to acquire as much Arabic as possible. I was amazed at how well the method works and how much Arabic I could understand by the end of the morning. The program teaches that comprehension should come before speaking and that understanding will continue to outweigh speaking ability for a long time. So, although I only learned to speak 20 words or so, I can understand far more - even compund sentences and simple questions and commands. It has been a real confidence booster - if I can learn Arabic this way, then certainly I can learn Spanish!

Thanks to all of you for your prayers, messages and words of support and encouragement. This time in New York is such a wealth of preparation. We are thankful to be here and are soaking up as much as possible! We also thank you for your financial support. At this point Scott is no longer receiving ANY amount of salary from a conventional job and we are living 100% on your support. It is not cheap to live in New York City, and we are finding that everything costs more here! If you have pledged support and NOT begun your giving, we need you to start now! From here on out, we are depending solely on your faithful support to sustain us. Thanks for remembering us!! It is our intent to send several updates this month to let you know exactly what we are doing here and why it is so important for us to have this time of training and equipping before we go to Belize.

The children are all doing well. Although our schedule is very rigorous and the youngest two are having a hard time keeping up the pace. Please pray for their physical strength and our emotional fortitude to parent them well during this time. The oldest two are going through some emotional issues as well. They are facing the reality of separation from their friends, cousins, grandparents and all that is familiar. It has hit home during the past week and we are trying to help them sort through what it means to be a missionary kid and how God wants to use this time for them. So, remember them in prayer too.

Next week we are working with Ascension Church, a two year old church plant, to host a VBS for the Forest Hills community. This tiny church of only about 40 people has over 100 kids registered for VBS! Many are from immigrant families who have no church culture and little exposure to the gospel. Please pray that God would go before us and prepare hearts to hear and receive salvation. Pray also for our efforts to reach the parents of these kids. Our VBS time is Monday through Friday from 8:30am till noon each day with a big performance on Friday night.

Today a few of the kids have a mild stomach bug and Kim took a big fall down some concrete stairs this morning, so I am home taking care of them while Scott and the two oldest are working at Ascension getting ready for VBS.

Thanks again for all your love, prayers and support. We miss you all!

In His Grace,
Sarah (for all of us!)

sarensman@mtwla.org
www.mtwla.org/people/sarensman.htm

Coolin' off in the park!	Before the fireworks
In the city	In the subway
How to see Manhattan	4th of July in Times Square

- July 26, 2008