“I thank God upon every remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy for your fellowship in the gospel form the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;”     Philippians 1:3-6

Dear Family and Friends-

As I write today, our two oldest children, Elizabeth (13) and T.J. (11) are in the skies somewhere between here and North Carolina.  Sarah’s parents came for a week to visit us here in Belize and this afternoon, we put them on a plane for a five-week visit back home.  It was very hard to see them off knowing that they will be too far for us to get into the car and come if they need us!  

Spring has been very busy here so far.  The tropical heat has returned (it is 87 degrees in our living room right now!) and the humidity has cranked up again.  The kids are finishing up their school year.  We administered standardized tests from the U.S. during the week that grandparents were here so that they could hand-deliver them in the States for scoring.  We are already sitting down and making plans for next year, as Elizabeth will be starting high school.

In the past two months we have seen God moving in a BIG way!  For the past eight months we had been driving 30 minutes each way to attend a small church in Cristo Rey village.  We were not totally satisfied with this arrangement because of the long time in driving back and forth and more importantly, because we feel very strongly that we should be attending church in the community where we live.  This is primarily where we are able to make relationships with people and where we have opportunity for sharing the gospel.  Although there is a PCB church here in Corozal, we had been somewhat discouraged from attending there due to some past problems between the pastor and former missionaries.  However, as we continued to seek the Lord about it, we felt like we should at least make an attempt to reach out there.  In April we attended for the first time and were received warmly and with enthusiasm.  In fact, since our first visit we have not attended anywhere else and have developed a very good relationship with the pastor and his family. 

Our job description with MTW here has been focused on developing mentoring relationships with individuals and starting small group Bible studies in the various PCB churches.  We feel strongly that any efforts at starting small groups within the churches must be embraced and promoted by the pastors.  In fact, our vision for seeing this type of ministry take hold is that the national pastors would desire it for themselves and ask for assistance, rather than us coming in, setting it up and “running the show”.  Of course, that part of the plan is entirely out of our control.  Only God can move hearts and create a passion for the things of the Spirit.  Within three weeks of our first attendance at the Corozal church, Pastor Mendez met with Scott and laid out the needs he sees for his church and for the community here.  These needs include small group Bible studies, discipleship relationships and evangelism.  The very things that God has given us a passion for!  He also expressed the need for help in outreach to English speakers, as he is a native Spanish-speaker from Guatemala with limited English skills.  After several subsequent dinners and meetings we have developed a preliminary plan for starting an ESL ministry as part of the evangelistic strategy for Corozal.  We are also looking at a small English-speaking village outside the town for a possible church-planting site, which would begin with village evangelism and outreach events.  All of this has been done with Pastor Mendez leading and us assisting!  He has taken the initiative in introducing us formally to the congregation and excitedly promoting the upcoming plans.  God has answered our prayers and has done it in a place we never would have expected!  How great is our God!

We also continue in our discipling relationship, studying the book of Galatians with a young couple in Cristo Rey.  Sarah is still mentoring a Belizean woman in leading a Bible study on the book of John for young Spanish-speaking Christian women.  Scott has been helping a young man named David who has been in and out of prison for the last 10 years.  He has been a drug addict and alcoholic.  His wife and children have been homeless and beggars.  David is trying to turn his life around, but right now he is trying to do it in his own strength.  Scott helped him construct a small hut for his family out of collected scrap and some donated materials.  Instead of handing out money, Scott has put in labor and sweat and has spent a great deal of time with David.  Last week he spent several hours sitting on the tailgate of the truck laying out the gospel message for him.  David’s response was that the gospel Scott was telling him about was not the same things he had heard from others.  Many well-intentioned people had told him he had to stop drinking, stop smoking, take out his earrings, clean up, dress nice and get a job before he could come to church.  Scott told him that Christ’s offer of salvation was available to him just like he is and that all the “cleaning up” in the world would never be enough to make him acceptable to God.  David is still not ready to accept our invitation to come along to church with us, but Scott is continuing to stop by to see him and to talk with him.  Please pray for him and ask the Holy Spirit to do the work to open his heart to accept God’s gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.  Pray also for his wife and two small daughters.  We know that if David comes to faith in Christ that God can use him to lead his wife and children to Christ as well.

(Pictures removed due to size limit on recipient's email)
Our discipleship couple, Isa and Dorita       David's house under construction
David's two daughters in their new home   Pastor Arturo Mendez at Corozal Church

STATESIDE VISIT UPDATE
Sarah will be visiting the States next month.  She will be in and around Lenoir, Huntersville and Raleigh, North Carolina from June 4th through June 19th.  She will accompany Elizabeth and T.J. for their return to Belize.  Her calendar is getting full, but if you would like her to schedule a visit with you, your church or organization, please email us and we will try to work it out!

IMPORTANT INFORMATION!
We have mentioned in some of our previous newsletters that our monthly financial support has dipped since we arrived in August.  Some of it is certainly due to the worldwide economy situation, but we have become aware that many people have experienced an interruption in their monthly communications from our sending organization, Mission to the World.  If you have pledged and never started your support or have been giving and stopped receiving statements, would you please email us and let us know?  We are working hard to track down everyone who may have been affected but certainly will not be able to sort it all out from here! 

WILL YOU PRAY?
With our support in deficit, we are in need of new support partners.  Trying to extend our circle of supporters while on the field is difficult.  If you are not currently supporting us financially, would you please prayerfully consider partnering with us now?  We have only 13 months of our two-year term left.  Would you pray about joining with us for the remainder of our term to help us finish the work that the Lord has called us to do?  You can use the form at the end of this letter to send in your support.  If you feel led to join us, send us an email to let us know.  We will make sure you get the necessary documentation for your gift.  Please pray that we will be diligent in working to make people aware of the need and that God will provide exactly what is necessary for us to be here for the remainder of our term.

Scott and Sarah Arensman

MTW Missionaries to Belize
P.O. Box 206
Corozal Town, Belize
Central America
001-501-422-0080 (h)
001-501-627-7192 (c)
ssarensman@aol.com
www.mtwla.org/people/sarensman.htm

If you would like to contribute to our support, please make checks payable to Mission to the World.  Fill out the form below and mail to:  MTW P.O. Box 116284 Atlanta, GA 30368-6284