But God

Hallo! Dag! Goedendag!

In case you couldn’t tell, David and I have started taking Dutch classes! I’ve got to tell you: there’s something about starting to learn this language that, in its own way, is making our move to the Netherlands feel real. First growing up in California, and then moving to Belize, not only was Spanish the language I learned, but it is also the only foreign language that I’ve ever even tried to learn. Dutch is very different! Even without ever becoming fluent in Spanish, I find myself trying to switch to Spanish when I don’t know the word. All that’s to say, Dutch class, notecards, Duolingo, songs, and Bluey in Dutch: it all has us fully committed to a new language and a new ministry across the pond! I also want to add, I wasn’t sure how the kids would feel about us starting to introduce some Dutch into our day-to-day, but not only are they excited about the new words and sounds, but it is helping get them excited about the move. We can already see God preparing our children for the changes ahead.

It is odd feeling like the end is in sight. We’ve been out of Belize for well over four years now, and and it feels like we’re fully settled in Toronto. God has truly blessed us with an amazing community here at Wycliffe, at our churches, and at the weekly Bible studies. While we’re not packing out yet, (there’s still so much work to be done) we are now close enough that it’s causing me to reflect on the past few years and how God has lead us to this point.

I’m the kind of person who likes to know the plan – not that I am myself an organized person, but I like to know what’s next. You might call me … a worrier. What’s next? Where’s next? How do we get there? Well, our time here in Canada has had me having regularly let go of my need for a plan – and probably the need for control – and trust that God knows. So while David took classes, wrote papers, taught classes, and worked (and is still working) on his dissertation, we have waited.

But even in the waiting, God was there. I thought this would be a weird time of limbo: not being in our home country, and not knowing where we would go next. But as I look back, this entire time has been such a blessing. God showed me how much he was taking care of our family with things I didn’t even know we needed. When we landed on Wycliffe College and the University of Toronto for David’s doctoral work, we were just looking at the academic and financial side of things, but God gave us all that and a wonderful community: one that has built up our family and truly cared for our children. We didn’t think there was any way we would be able to get part-time jobs with David’s school schedule and me home with the kids, but then God provided both of us with musical accompanist positions, and work here at the college. Being missionaries, I didn’t anticipate getting to see family that much, but God has made possible not only for family to visit us here, but even for us to see some of our family in the States over the last few years. We didn’t have any plans to take a vacation while we lived in Toronto, but God has blessed us with the opportunity to go to a Christian family camp every year. Add to these so many more things that would take too long to list here! Again and again, God has shown us that while we may not have known the plan, he was taking care of us.

And then, after all the wondering and waiting, we have been graced with more than anything we could have expected. To have God direct us so clearly to serve in the Netherlands, a place we didn’t even know to consider at the beginning of this whole discernment process; or to have this new direction fit in every way the calling God laid on our hearts five years ago in Belize – to raise up leaders in the Global Church, for the extension of God’s Kingdom, while also serving in a local community that desperately needs Jesus right there – all this is to say (in a very long, run-on sentence) that God has walked with our family through this whole process of wandering, and then has shown us the plan he had from the beginning. A call in Belize; a time of learning, refreshment, and family here in Canada; and now such a clear fulfillment of that original call at Tyndale Seminary in the Netherlands.

I’ve got to tell you, I’m really excited! We get to serve in a theological graduate school that is training leaders from all over the world to go and build God’s Kingdom. We get to live and serve in the most unchurched country in Western Europe, where people have the reputation of being incredibly happy, yet where so many are missing out on knowing the One who can actually bring them Joy. Of course, this calling is greater than anything we can actually accomplish on our own, but we serve an even bigger God who equips us for the tasks he sets before us. I realize we’re not leaving yet, but in so many ways, I’m ready to go!

So where are we now? Well, David got two long chapters of his dissertation in over the summer, and he’s now working on the last two main chapters. This is exciting in that he is finally writing the heart of his dissertation. These are the chapters that got him excited about this topic in the first place: the chapters that have been rolling around in his head since before he even started his PhD. Where I would be overwhelmed with so much writing, he has at long last reached the “fun” part. Please do be praying for him as he works on making his argument clear and meaningful in these last chapters. His goal is to be entirely done within this school year, at which point we will depart Canada and begin raising support in the States. Only once we reach full financial support will we move to the Netherlands.

For this reason our missionary society, SAMS-USA, enrolled David and me in missionary partnership coaching this fall, to give us tools (and refreshers) on how best to prepare for this next missionary placement. One of the things that became especially clear to me this time around is how connected we are to you, our partners. The fruit of the work we do on the mission field isn’t our fruit: it’s yours because we aren’t serving alone – we are serving as team with you. And there’s something exciting in that, don’t you think? Knowing that this calling isn’t just ours, or something we have to do alone, but that there is a whole team of people with us; praying, supporting, and working to spread God’s Kingdom, in the Netherlands, and throughout the whole world.

So, please be praying for our financial partnership in ministry as we start raising support even now, and please consider committing to supporting us on a monthly basis, or even with a one-time gift to go to our Launch Fund. We would want to head to the Netherlands as soon as David finishes his dissertation, but we also know we cannot leave until we have reached full financial support. The Netherlands is more expensive than Belize, and our family has nearly doubled since we were last on the mission field, all of which means that our monthly missionary budget is much higher. There have been bad days when I find it a bit overwhelming thinking of the work to be done just to get there, but then I remember not only that God is in control (as the last five years has so clearly shown me), but he is the one who called us to Tyndale Seminary Europe in the first place … so he will get us there. It is daunting, yes, but impossible? Absolutely not. It’s just another opportunity for me to watch God work!

Ok, so while I’m excited for the changes coming in the next year, I do have a few prayer requests for the here and now.

  • Please pray for David as he writes the last main chapters. Pray for clarity and wisdom as he works on bringing together everything he’s been working on over the last five years.

  • Please pray for me and the kids as I continue homeschooling First Grade and Kindergarten. I’m having loads of fun teaching them (and learning myself!), but it is a lot of very time consuming work that we are still adjusting to as a household.

  • Please pray for these beginning steps of finding more financial partners. David is pushing to finish his dissertation, while I’m working with the kids, and we are both learning Dutch: so we’re being stretched in so many different directions, but we are excited to be moving forward. Please pray that we are able to make new connections, with individuals and churches, so that we can raise new partners in this ministry. And please prayerfully consider being one of those individuals who partners with us financially in this global ministry for the global church.

  • Finally, please pray for Tyndale Seminary Europe. Pray for the students and faculty as they study and serve together, both in Europe and when they return home to continue spreading God’s Word to the ends of the earth.

Blessings in this Thanksgiving season!

The Alenskis Family

To Europe and the World

It’s nearly summer here in Toronto, and after so much time has passed since posting our last update, it is high time that we share our biggest news and needs with you all – and this time, there is a lot! Make sure to read until the very end.

A New Missionary Placement:
The Netherlands

Most importantly for us, and for you who have partnered with us: we are thrilled to report that God is calling our family to go as missionaries to Europe, serving at a theological institution with a decades-long mission to train future leaders for the global church of Jesus Christ. Tyndale Theological Seminary is an interdenominational college located in Badhoevedorp (a suburb of Amsterdam) that offers English-language graduate degrees in Christian ministry and practical theology, with a special focus on training students coming from the Majority World, particularly Africa and Asia. Because all of its core faculty members are missionaries who raise their own support, the school is able to offer students from developing countries a full scholarship – tuition, room, board, and a stipend – while they pursue an MDiv (Master of Divinity) or MET (Master of Evangelical Theology) at Tyndale. This means that roughly 75% of the school’s 60 full-time students are not only from places like Cameroon, Pakistan, or Hong Kong, but that they are also living in community and practicing mutual ministry on-site at the seminary.

Our Discernment Process with Tyndale

My appointment to teach Systematic and Historical Theology at Tyndale is the end of a lengthy process of prayerful discernment that has involved multiple stakeholders invested in this ministry. It was two years ago now, in June 2022, that our mission director with SAMS-USA mentioned that Tyndale might be a good fit for us as a missionary family. Despite our long-time interest in serving in Latin America and the Caribbean, she was aware of what the school was doing because two missionary families connected with SAMS through IATW, our companion Canadian mission society, were already serving at Tyndale. What’s more, two other SAMS missionary couples were also serving Anglican chaplaincies nearby in Amsterdam and Heiloo, and they were able to vouch for the spiritual needs on the ground in the Netherlands. At the time however there were no faculty openings at Tyndale, and so we mostly put it out of our minds as we looked into other ministry possibilities elsewhere.

A map of the countries that Tyndale students come from.

However, in April of the following year our friends in Heiloo alerted me that Tyndale was advertising for a faculty opening in precisely my area of theology, looking for someone with a background in philosophy and experience in pastoral and missionary service. After talking with Mary Beth, I decided to send in my CV and see where God might take things. My interest in the position led to a Zoom interview with the seminary’s Academic Dean, and then in June a visit to the school’s campus in Badhoevedorp while on my way to Germany, along with a friendly chat with another professor on the hiring committee. This process continued throughout last fall, as I submitted essays on my teaching philosophy and personal goals and mission and met again with faculty over Zoom.

Finally last March both Mary Beth and I flew to Tyndale for a week of meeting students and spending time with the other missionary families teaching there. I was asked to preach in chapel and give a lecture as part of the course on Christology, and at the week’s end the faculty took a vote on whether or not to recommend me for the open spot on their team of theological educators. Throughout that week, we were impressed by the academic caliber, unity of vision, and sense of community that the faculty demonstrated, and we were even more struck by the spiritual maturity, passion, and talent of the students we met during our brief time there.  Needless to say, as overwhelming as it all ways, I was grateful for their affirmative vote on our last Friday there, and we left the Netherlands with the sense that, if Tyndale’s board were to appoint me, we would take this as God’s leading our family in this direction.

There is so much more that played a part in this discernment process as well: discussions with our leadership at SAMS and IATW, with the faculty here at Wycliffe College, with friends here in Toronto who have spent years living in Amsterdam, with members of our extended family who remain so vitally and integrally a part of our life. All this is to say, there has been a collective sense that this is where God is leading our family next, and we are so excited to follow that lead.

Our Purpose in Heading to the Netherlands

Mary Beth and I have been praying for years that God would lead us to the place where our family’s gifts and callings would bring greatest glory to Jesus Christ and most effectively build up his church, and our conviction has been that this would occur through training new leaders – that is, through theological education and ministry development. Our passion has been to equip and prepare lay and ordained believers for ministry to the entire church, especially for ministry in those areas of the “Global South” where theological education remains difficult to access. However, we have also as a couple become increasingly aware of the real need for faithful Christian witness in the historic “West” of Europe, North America, and Australasia, places and cultures wrestling with fundamental questions in the wake of the atrophying scourge of secularism – nations and cities moreover to which the world is now increasingly immigrating. North Holland, one of the least religious areas in Western Europe with one of the highest population densities and immigration rates in the world, is precisely one of those areas that desperately needs the faithful Christian witness of families willing to integrate fully into and contribute socially within its communities.

In moving our family to the Netherlands to teach at Tyndale, our purpose is therefore twofold: 1) as before when we were serving in Belize and elsewhere in Latin America, we still seek to train and equip leaders for ministry in the church around the world, particularly for churches in marginalized regions; and 2) we now also seek to be a family that makes faithful, compelling Christian witness in Western Europe an essential part of our life and ministry. We believe that serving with Tyndale affords us an opportunity to do both, and we could not be happier that God has led us on this path.

Our Timeline for Relocating to the Netherlands

I wish we could tell you specifically when we expect to move our family to the Netherlands, but I can’t: there are several questions that will need to be answered first. For many practical reasons, I will however essentially need to finish my thesis before we relocate (more on my progress below). I am hoping to finish writing and start defending within the next calendar year (by the end of 2024), but I am not quite far enough along to be able to say one way or another if this will occur. After that, we will need time to raise the rest of the financial support needed for our family’s ministry and life in the Netherlands before we can leave (again, more on this support below). If we can raise support locally in Ontario, and virtually around North America while I am still finishing my dissertation, we will be able to shorten our time raising support after I am finished and arrive at Tyndale sooner, rather than later.

What We Need to Serve in the Netherlands

Our needs as a family are quickly going to change as we head in this new ministry direction as a missionary family. For example, we soon expect to have a revised missionary budget that will include the cost of living in the Netherlands – including housing and taxes – together with the cost of relocating from Canada there. While we have not yet sat down with our supervisors at SAMS-USA to work out the details, we are in no doubt about the obvious need to raise a lot more support before being able to leave North America and begin teaching. In this regard, we need to ask you for several things:

  1. Please pray that the Lord will supply our financial needs very quickly, so that we will not have to go through a long period of raising support in North America after I have finished my dissertation.

  2. Please consider sharing our family’s vision and financial need with others! We only know so many people, but you may know someone who would be interested in partnering with a missionary family like ours: please consider passing along our information to them, or being the link between us in some other way. We would be so grateful to arrange a Zoom meeting, or meet in person, in the weeks and months ahead.

  3. The same goes for you: we would love to meet with you in person or on Zoom to discuss this new direction more with you, and to explore ways that you could partner with us. Message us, and let us know if there is a best way for us to link up soon!

  4. Finally, please prayerfully consider partnering with us financially in our family’s mission, whether on a regular, long-term basis, or even as a one-time gift. Despite a drop in giving, over the last four years the Lord has provided for our family – through COVID-19, through a relocation, and through these doctoral studies, and we are now asking you to consider joining with us again, or for the first time, in giving to our ministry.

Finally, we would ask for your encouragement and advice. If you have any kind words to send our way, or suggestions for us as we prepare to make this move in the next couple of years, please let us know! We would be grateful to hear from you, and we would love to hear more about how you are doing as well.

How Our Family Has Been Doing

The short answer is that we have been doing well, and the Lord has really been blessing us in so many ways! The longer answer is a little more complicated, but is going to echo the shorter as well.

First off, the children are doing wonderfully! Austin and Lily have now celebrated their fifth and second birthdays, respectively, and all three are growing up so quickly. The personality of each our three kids is burgeoning by the day, and we are so excited to see the people that they are turning into. Austin and James have been progressing in reading books, writing their letters, and counting on their numbers. Austin’s main challenge with reading is that his own imagination is so vivid, it is difficult to find books on his level that can capture his attention long enough to go through the process of sounding out words. But his intelligence is coming through, and we are amazed to see how he is learning and developing as a boy, and no longer a toddler. James is sensitive, compassionate, intelligent, and observant, and while being very much his own person, he is eager to catch up to his brother in almost every way. Lily on the other hand is charming, imposing, and very content to “do her own thing” in adorable ways, and we are constantly wondering where in the world this self-proclaimed ballerina-princess came from, and how God has placed her in our lives. They are amazing, our pride and joy, and we are so blessed to be their parents.

Mary Beth and I are also doing well, although we are coming off of a number of illnesses and medical procedures. In April I underwent surgery to repair a hernia, and while the recovery was longer and more painful than I was hoping (still, exactly like I had been warned), I am doing really well and gradually getting back into all the activities I was taking on before. Mary Beth has needed her own time for recovery as well, following her second lithotripsy procedure in eight months. But we are so happy to have one another, to be able to take the time to look after one another, and to do so occasionally with the help of relatives like our parents who have been close enough to visit.

Finally, we are both continuing in our various forms of ministry at school, church, and elsewhere here in Toronto. I am continuing to teach, preach, and lead services when asked at Christ the King, and Mary Beth has agreed to become a co-leader with the Community Bible Study group that she has been a part of for the last year. Our accompanying jobs at other churches continue as well, and they have been a blessing especially to our children who, although divvied up between the parents, are being well taught in Sunday School in the morning, as well as in the evening.

All that’s to say: thank you for your prayers! These have been busy, and sometimes trying months, but we are doing well, and we bless God for all that he is doing in our lives.

How My Research and Schoolwork Is Coming

My doctoral thesis is coming well … not quite where I was hoping it would be by now, but given the health issues and the missionary placement trips and interviews, not at a bad place either. This past weekend I sent in another chapter to my supervisor, and I should be able to get another chapter in within the next few weeks. (The chapter I have been working on for much of the past year was both too large and also too important, so it’s been divided into two – hence the quick turn around.) If I can get drafts of the remaining core chapters done by the end of the summer, I stand a chance at defending my dissertation early in the spring of 2025. Please pray that I am able to make that progress!

In the meantime, I have also been able to get a few papers I’ve written headed toward publication, most recently an article in the Scottish Journal of Theology on Milton’s theodicy and Protestant theology that should come out in print soon. It’s “Open Access,” so feel free to check it out! I hope to have a positive update or two on other publications that I currently have in peer review, so stay tuned to see if any become available in the coming months.

Finally, it looks like I will also officially be an adjunct faculty member at Wycliffe College in the fall, co-teaching the course on preaching for which I was a Teaching Assistant last fall. I am really looking forward to receiving more experience in the classroom at this early stage of my new calling as an educator, and to learning from my students in the process.

A Huge Thank You

This update has gone on long, but let me conclude by thanking all of you not only for reading up until this point, but for supporting us in our lives and ministry through your encouragement, prayer, and giving. We ask you please to continue and expand your support, let us know if you have any questions, and help us connect with others whom God might be calling to join us as partners and senders in this new season of missionary life and overseas ministry. Again, thank you, and may God richly bless you!

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I know everyone always says that the older you get the faster the years go by, but wow, time really does fly! 

We have had a very lovely Christmas here in Toronto. While it wasn’t the classic “White Christmas,” we also weren’t complaining about the warmer weather since there were three separate churches, each with their Christmas Eve/Day services, for us to serve at. As you know, I play organ at a church in east Toronto and we worship as a family at an Anglican (ANiC) church that meets here at Wycliffe. Well, back in October David took a position as the accompanist at third church on the east side of Toronto as well. This has been a real blessing for our family, although it has made Sunday mornings a bit more complicated now – bringing all the kids – but it does mean that they get to attend multiple Sunday schools and are making many new friends. This also meant two separate Christmas pageants, together with an extra children’s service on Christmas Eve (the highlight of which was at the end of the service when Austin said, “Glory to God!”). As a whole, Christmas has been full of worship: celebrating our Savior’s birth, and spending time together as a family. Christmas has definitely gotten more fun as our kids have grown!

A couple more highlights as the Fall 2023 term came to an end:

David not only was able to serve as a teaching assistant for Wycliffe’s preaching course – gaining further valuable teaching experience – but he was also able to travel to a conference in Baltimore to present research related to his dissertation, and he has also been submitting papers for publication in major theological journals (fingers crossed!). Most importantly, he is continuing to progress in his thesis writing and is still hoping to submit his dissertation by the end of next year.

For me, the highlight was being asked again to assemble and direct a choir for Wycliffe’s Advent Lessons and Carols service. This was my third year doing it, and it was absolutely amazing! I loved getting to work with such talented people, using my musical training to bring glory to God, and offering worship as part of such a beautiful service. While all of the choral pieces sounded their best that night (not a bad time to peak!), I was brought to tears when the whole congregation, along with the choir, sang “Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending” at the end of the service. It was as if together we were singing with a whole multitude of heavenly hosts. What a way to start to have started Advent!

As we now come to the end of the year, it really does feel like the end is in sight: we’re in the home stretch of our time here at Wycliffe. In fact, this coming March, David and I are scheduled to undertake a SAMS placement trip, looking into one possible place where we might next be headed on the mission field. We are very excited about this, and other possibilities, and we ask for your prayers as we discern God’s will for our family. We will definitely update you all as we learn more!

We want to thank you all for your support for our family during this time of home ministry assignment! Your prayers and financial gifts have made possible our time here in Toronto, and our return to the mission field. We now ask, as we come into the New Year, that you stick with us, and continue partnering with us as we finish out this lap of our family’s journey. We so appreciate your prayers and financial support. One of the main things that I love about being missionaries with SAMS is that the society puts so much emphasis on the importance of “senders.” We couldn’t “go” if God didn’t also give us those who “send”. So thank you!

Along those lines, as we come to the start of 2024 I’d like to ask that you consider connecting us with any others you might know who might consider supporting our family in this time time of training and transition back on the mission field. As you know, Toronto is very expensive, especially for a family of five, and financial support from senders like you has slowly atrophied during this period of preparation. We have absolutely seen God’s hand of provision during this time of scarcity, but we also want both to be able to finish up our time here well, as well as to return to the mission field as quickly as possible. Your gift of prayer, donations, or connections will help us achieve these goals, and as we approach the end of 2023, we invite you to join with us in moving toward the new ministry that lies just ahead.

Again, thank you so much for your support and Merry Christmas!

Summer Travels and Fall Labors

Warm greetings from our family in Toronto! Our summer this year has been a productive time of “getting things done” outside of the rigidity of the school term, and I’m eager to give you all a little window into how things have been going throughout this season of study, ministry, travel, and rest.

As our last missionary update suggested, we were expecting life to get a bit hectic over these last few months: and this has been even more true than anticipated! Mary Beth and our three children headed south in mid-June, to spend a significant chunk of time with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. With the help of my parents in Indiana and hers in Georgia, they arrived at the latter’s home in the Smoky Mountains safe and sound, where I also joined them a few days later. Although I was only able to spend a week with them, it was a rejuvenating time of relaxing in a beautiful part of the world with people that we love.

While I had to continue my journey en route to Europe, the rest of our family was able to continue spending ongoing quality time with an extended family that had come from places as far away as California. During that month in Georgia, Lily learned to walk, Austin and James re-learned how to go creek-ing, and despite the very full house everyone had a fantastic time with each other in ways that – given our family’s missionary calling – we don’t usually get to have.

While all this was happening, I had made my way to Europe for nearly three weeks. I first visited fellow SAMS-USA missionaries who are serving in the Netherlands, around a half hour north of Amsterdam. Despite the jet lag, I was incredibly blessed to spend an amazing time with Louise and Johann van der Bijl, who in addition to his ministry as an author with Langham Publishing is pastoring an Anglican congregation in Heiloo. I then took the train to Germany, where I spent two weeks in Wittenberg studying Reformation-era paleography: that is, the kinds of cursive and other scripts that were used by Latin-, German- and English-writers in the sixteenth century. Honestly, it was much harder than I expected, but also much more important for my specialization than I had previously realized.

In addition to reading letters written by Martin Luther, Thomas Cranmer, or Queen Elizabeth I in their own hand, I was also fortunate to rub shoulders and learn from some of the top scholars in Reformation scholarship: people like Robert Kolb, Ashley Null, Andreas Stegmann or Dorothea Wendebourg (my encounter with whom was – alas! – all too brief). As our small cohort of graduate students travelled around east Germany, visiting manuscript archives and encountering other historical artifacts, we also formed bonds with one another that, moving forward, will continue in the years ahead. I am deeply grateful to the Wittenberg Center for Reformation Studies for accepting me into the program, and for covering the travel, living, and studying expenses necessary to make it happen!

By the middle of July, both my family and I found ourselves back in Toronto: exhausted, but happy to have made our ways through the world as we did. Less than two weeks after returning, we borrowed a vehicle, packed everyone up and headed to Camp Koinonia, where I served as the speaker and pastor for Family Camp, Week 2. In addition to guiding worship at the beginning and end of the week, each day I led the adults in discussions that centered on allowing the Lord’s Prayer,  combined with excerpts from the Gospel according to John, to inform our understanding of prayer in general. Due to the insightful collaboration of the many campers who joined with us, these discussions were challenging and fruitful, and I myself will be ruminating on our sessions together for months to come. In the meantime, Mary Beth and I enjoyed watching all three of our children flourish in the wild: making crafts, swimming in the lake, going on hikes, jumping on the trampoline, and making friends with a good half dozen other kids around the same age. As usual, when we reached the end of the week at camp, they did not want to go back to the city!

One thing however that we brought back from camp has been colds: since early August, it has been one cold or flu after the other, both for the kids, as well as for me and Mary Beth. While I have been getting back into the swing of reading and writing for school, as well as preparing to TA for Wycliffe’s class on preaching, illness has put something of a crimp in my productivity. Please pray that both I and the rest of the family are able to get back on both feet soon!

In this regard, let me give you an update on how things are going with writing my dissertation. In June I turned in a chapter of my thesis (treating Richard Hooker’s understanding of participation in Christ and the sacraments) that was favorably received by my doctoral supervisor, and I’m now onto the next chapter (on Hooker’s ecclesiology and political theology), a part of which I am scheduled to present next month at a conference in Baltimore. My hope is to get this next chapter, and hopefully another finished by the end of the calendar year. Doing so will take a considerable effort, but the result will be that the bulk of my argumentation will be completed, setting me up (potentially) to submit my thesis for defense some time in 2024.

At the same time that I am chipping away at my academic research, we have also been steadily following up on leads for future mission placements. So far, we have had serious conversations with representatives of three theological institutions – on multiple continents! – that are accepting missionaries to teach, and we are prayerfully continuing in dialogue with them and others that have begun entering our field of vision. It is still far too early to tell where the Lord will be sending us, but we are even now beginning to get excited by the sense that he has a place and a set of ministries for us beyond the horizon of our life studying and serving in Toronto. And we can’t wait to tell you more, even as we find out more ourselves. Stay tuned!

Along these lines, I am aware of how difficult it is to continue supporting missionaries who are back in North America on Educational Ministry Assignment, especially given the financial pressures that so many are finding themselves under. I want to thank you for your prayers and for your gifts, and for continuing to partner with us long-term in this ministry to which the Lord has called us. Indeed, as monthly giving from supporters to our ministry continues to drop, and we would ask you prayerfully to consider giving to our family’s ministry – in Canada, and wherever God next calls us to go. 

To sum all this up with our requests, please pray especially for:

  • Bodily health and financial provision

  • Fruitful study and writing

  • Effective ministry in Toronto

  • Good routines with the children

  • Discernment for next steps as missionaries

On this Labor Day, our family wishes you and yours a wonderful beginning to the Fall months, and we do ask you to keep us and our needs in your prayers. We look forward to sharing more about our life – and more about my progress in writing – in these months ahead!

Busy Summer

Hi everyone! The weather is finally shifting here in the “frigid north,” and we are quickly taking advantage of every sunny day by finding our way outside and soaking up the warmth (“warmth” definitely has developed a new meaning in the past two years … hehe). One of the kids’ favorite movies follows a mama bear and her babies during their first year of life in Alaska. The movie starts with the bears finally emerging from hibernation and they can’t help but immediately start running, tripping over their feet in haste. I’m not saying my kids are the grizzly cubs, but as we run out of the house, tripping and yelling, they do quickly call to mind the little bears finally emerging from their cave (and the mama bear might even outrun them from time to time). David on the other hand is hard at work writing his thesis (moving from one basement study room to another). Occasionally we coax him outside with picnic lunches – but then he’s back to work again. I’ve got to say, I’m constantly impressed by his ability to work and still find time throughout the day to spend time with the rest of us (even if that means working until 11pm after the kids are in bed).

Spring term has officially ended here at Wycliffe, and David and I had the privilege of playing music for the Convocation Chapel service. This had the double benefit of letting us see friends who had returned for convocation from far away, but it was also nice to get a preview of what it will look like for David when he graduates. The end of term has also meant that we no longer have daily chapel services: it’s a wonderful way to start and end our days, but this does mean we can look forward to the Fall term with the boys’ slow but sure transformation into honorary sacristans. At the end of every service they are quick to help with candles, lights, and battery packs for the mics. We’ll see if we can get them fully trained before we leave!

As for me, I’m still working as the organist at a cross-city church on Sunday mornings, and I love it! While it is nice to be an accompanist every week again (I did miss it), it’s the people that make me excited to go to this church each week. The boys spend the morning with David for some Daddy-Son time, while I take Lily with me. This church is solidly community based, with many people walking to church each morning. Honestly, it reminds me of St. Hilda’s  in Belize: a small, tightly knit group of people working together to worship God and reach out to their community. In the afternoons we all still attend our main church’s meeting here at Wycliffe, Christ the King. David still serves in an honorary (unpaid) capacity on the pastoral team, and I’ve taken taken over the position as music director, a job which mostly involves scheduling musicians and planning music. My vision is to grow the music team from a handful of soloists alternating each Sunday to a team of musicians (multiple singers and multiple instrumentalists) leading the congregation in worship. I loved being on the worship team in church growing up, but I also never wanted to have any solos. Having more people up front encourages more people to be up front; and that has already started to be true! The music team has more than doubled in the past two weeks, with many people saying they would join as long as they never had to solo. While I’m still adjusting to “managing” people (I’m not the most organized person), it is wonderful seeing how God is building up the music ministry in our church.

Heading into summer means we’re getting close some travel time. David’s parents visited us last month, and we’re heading down to Georgia to see my parents before David leaves for Europe for a short course on Reformation-era paleography. We are so excited to see family! I’m actually going to get to see both sets of siblings during our visit: they’ll both be driving to Georgia. We rarely get to see one another – I haven’t seen my brother and his family in 3 years – so this trip is going to be pretty special. It’s also nice to know we’re going to get out of the city for a little bit. While I love where we live here at Wycliffe, without a car we are always surrounded by buildings and cars. Even with the difficulty of driving for two days with three young kids in the car, it will be nice just to get to see some country.

When we get home we will officially be gearing up to start homeschooling Austin (and to a degree James). I’m actually pretty excited to start more intentional while teaching our kids. They are always asking us to read them books (we check out about thirty books at a time from the library), and they are constantly wanting to learn more. Having been homeschooled myself (and loving it!) I’m excited along with David to build the kids’ curriculum – with God at the center. Sometimes I feel like our active ministry is on pause while David is studying. Yes, we are preparing for next steps – where on the mission field God will call us – and yes we are very involved in our church: but it still looks far different from when we served in Belize.

But then, I look at my kids. God has blessed us with three beautiful children who are learning everyday who He is. We are living in a theological school, we’re attending chapel everyday and Bible studies every week, and we are surrounded by a community of believers who love our kids. This is a season when we can live in one place and spend a lot of time discipling our kids. I’ve got to tell you: it is really fun to see little kids learn about Jesus. David is systematically going through the Bible with kids at bedtime. Sometimes the kids fall asleep during the story, but usually they are fully engaged. There was one night that James interrupted David just to say, “God is Lord! Jesus is God! Jesus is big and strong as Pooh Bear!” And lately the boys have been spending much of their bedtime prayers asking God to heal their scabs from when they fall down. It was really cute to hear them go on and on asking God to heal them, and then wonder why He’s not – since the scab was still there the next day – to then be told that God is healing them because there is a scab – at which point they get really excited and thankful! I love seeing how they are coming to know and relate to God. While having three kids so close together can definitely have its challenges, I’m incredibly thankful for the family God has given us!

As I wrap up, I’d like to ask that you pray for a few things.

Please pray for David as he continues to write his dissertation.

  • Please pray for wisdom in what to write and clarity to do it efficiently.

Please pray for us as we travel this Summer.

  • Please pray for safety and that it will be a refreshing time away from the city.

Please pray for wisdom as we begin the process of homeschooling.

  • Please pray that we will raise up our children in the way they should go.

  • Please pray that we make the best decisions regarding curriculum and how best to engage with each child individually.

Please pray for wisdom and discernment as we continue to look into where God is calling us to serve next.

  • Please pray that as we get closer to the school finish line, clarity will be given in which direction to pursue next.

Please continue to pray for more financial support. Living in Toronto as a family of five (5!) is increasingly harder to do financially.

  • Please pray that we will receive more financial partners as we continue in our Home Educational Assignment.

  • We continue to praise God that we keep getting offered odd jobs around Wycliffe and church to help supplement our financial needs!

Thank you all for your continued prayers and financial support of our family! And thank you for keeping up with what God is doing here with us in Toronto. As always, we’d love to talk to you more individually if you would like to here more. Please feel free to email us to set up a time for a call!

Blessings,

The Alenskis Family

Growing Together

We’re on the cusp of spring here in Toronto, and before the snow disappears and the buds turn into flowers, I want to take a moment and update all of you on how our family is doing, what we’re doing, and what our hopes are for this year that is already passing us by so quickly!

So, as to how we are doing, things are going well, despite the frigid weather, flu and colds, and everything that the winter winds have brought. I say “frigid weather,” but it’s actually been uncharacteristically warm, a fact which by itself has made a big difference for us compared to last year. Not only this, but whereas the “Omicron” wave that hit last winter led to the closure of nearly every child-friendly establishment – restaurants, museums, community centres … even our church, for a bit – this time around, we have been able to take fuller advantage of the opportunities to get the kids out of the confines of the college and explore. We are especially frequent visitors to the Royal Ontario Museum and to an EarlyON programme, as well local libraries and malls, a taste of which the kids’ grandparents ended up getting when they visited us during the Christmas and New Year holidays. We are of course still feeling a little cooped up and squirrelly, the boys more than any of us, although they have become quite mobile as they zip around the city on their red and blue scooters, and that can sometimes get the wiggles out of them. But spring will be a very welcome arrival for our family, and we look forward to getting out and about much more.

The winter has not affected our daughter Lily that much, as she’s still been somewhat confined to laps, floors, and the occasional stroller. But these constraints won’t hold her back much longer: as she nears her first birthday she has been bracing herself on objects (and people) to stand up, cruise around furniture, and ascend a staircase step or two, and it won’t be long before she is walking around like a big girl. Even before having mastered bipedal motion, her strong personality is coming out: she will not be bullied by her brothers or neglected by her parents – she is here and she will be attended! I say this somewhat in gest, since at the same time her strong will is also balanced out by the fact that she is still the chillest baby that I’ve ever run across: she is ordinarily quite happy to play by herself, to be passed back and forth between adults, or simply to sit calmly with us as we go about our business. She’s a happy, squeaky, hilarious joy, and we are so blessed to have her in the mix. Please pray for Lily and her brothers as they continue to grow up into the mature persons that God intends them to be.

Mary Beth is doing well and starting to keep very busy. She is now not only playing the organ for the Sunday morning service at a church on the other side of Toronto, but she has accepted a position on the Church Council for the small Anglican mission we have been attending as a family (and where she also accompanies worship about once a month). In addition to attending a small Bible study on Friday for spouses of Wycliffe students, she was also invited to participate in another, much larger Bible study at a nearby church. What’s more, Mary Beth is looking into taking organ lessons for the remainder of our time here in Toronto – after all, we’re living at a college that has its own organ available for practicing: now would be the time to take advantage of it! Please pray for Mary Beth as she continues to nurture her passions and talents and service in tangible ministries here in Toronto.

Alongside all of this, as Austin approaches preschool age Mary Beth and I have begun thinking through how we’re going to handle schooling for the boys. While we have nothing at all against traditional schools, we also recognize that, as missionaries with feet in multiple cultures, there is a high likelihood that we will be homeschooling our children when we return to the mission field. Mary Beth is excited to lead the charge here – she and her siblings were homeschooled through high school – and together we are trying first to work out our family’s philosophy of education and then to adopt and adapt a curriculum that will work for our needs. Please pray for Mary Beth and me as we make these momentous decisions regarding our children’s education. (Suggestions in this regard are welcome, although we’re also aware that opinions – and judgments – tend to be strong, so please be kind!) Even so, both Austin and James are counting, identifying letters, making up songs, and learning the days of the week, the colors of the rainbow, and more things than I can keep track of. All three are such very intelligent people, and I am already so proud of them.

For me on the academic side, I have been plugging away constantly at my dissertation (what they here call a thesis): working hard, but not as quickly as I might have hoped. I am still following the research plan that I proposed to my committee back in October, but as usual new things come to light and I have to see where they lead! For example, in the chapter I am currently working on, my study of Richard Hooker’s understanding of human participation in the life of God has led me not only to compare his work with that of the Lutheran theologian Martin Chemnitz (something I was expecting) but also with the writings of the Strasburg reformer Martin Bucer (definitely a big surprise to me!). I am happy with where the Lord is leading my research, although I wish it were leading me to write more quickly. I am still hoping (perhaps “wishing” would be a better word) to submit my dissertation by the end of the year, but I’m content with whatever plan God has in store for this project. Please pray for God’s grace for me as I write my dissertation.

In the meantime, the Lord in his good providence has given me other small projects to clear my head when I need a break. I was able to write a review of Brian Douglas’s new book, Sacramental Poetics in Richard Hooker and George Herbert, a review that I hope to be published sometime this year. I continue accompanying Wycliffe weekday Morning Prayer services on piano and weekly Eucharist services on guitar, as well as leading Evensong here about once a month. I’ve also continued assisting the Anglican mission our family is attending by attending weekly pastoral meetings and occasionally leading services, teaching, and preaching (most recently on Ash Wednesday). I’ve even become the resident church baker of (gluten-free) communion bread, a kind of regular pattern of preparation that is (in its own way) a kind of askēsis. Please pray for my ongoing priestly ministry, even though it is part-time and unpaid.

These rhythms of life, mine and those of my family’s, are set to continue here for the foreseeable future, and we are content with them, even as we look beyond the foreseeable to the future that God has for us after this time of school and preparation. Speaking for myself, I have been more focused on researching and writing my dissertation at this point than exploring missionary opportunities for the years to come; indeed, this has come from the global leaders with whom I have spoken that have counseled me: “First, make sure to get your thesis written!” I have to remind myself that, in a strange way, the primary ministry that God has given me right now is to complete this stage of my academic work, and while there are other prongs of ministry available to me now – and there will be more to come – bending my attention to the project at hand is an act of spiritual obedience, worship, and service. Please pray for my present ministry of academic scholarship, and for good discernment regarding our future ministry as part of God’s global mission.

With that said, our family is looking forward to some breaks in the summer. Not only are we planning on returning to camp in August, during which I will serve as camp speaker for the week, but it also appears that I have the opportunity to participate in an all-expenses-paid, two-week course learning how to read handwritten documents from the sixteenth century in Latin, German, and English. The program is run through the Wittenberg Center for Reformation Studies in Germany, and I am looking forward not only to mastering more of the craft of parsing old manuscripts, but also to rubbing shoulders with some of the great scholars of the period I myself am studying. While Mary Beth and the children will not be able to join me, they are planning on taking the time to visit with family in the United States – and really looking forward to it! 

Finally, I also want to mention how grateful we are for those of you who continue to support us financially in our ministry, and to emphasize again how much we are in need of further support. We are being hit right now with a kind of double-whammy: at the same time that inflation has been driving up the prices around us here in downtown Toronto, our monthly pledged support has continued to drop precipitously. I am concerned that if trends continue our family may soon need to take another substantial pay cut (we took a $2,000/month pay cut in March 2021) at precisely the time when our growing family is desperately in need of a pay increase! Please, prayerfully consider making a pledge, or increasing your gift, at this critical moment in our Home Educational Assignment with SAMS (USA) or IATW (Canada)!

But as the snow begins to fall again here at Wycliffe College, I do want to end with thanks: thank you for praying, thank you for giving, thank you for supporting our family as we seek to follow the path that God has put in front of us. It is a privilege to have you on as partners in this ministry … to be riding (as it were) with Team Alenskis. May God richly bless you. We’ll be in touch again soon!

Looking Forward

Well, I’m way overdue for giving you all an update on our family here in Toronto and for that I apologize. I knew having three kids three and under would be challenging, but I don’t think I fully anticipated how much time it would take every day just to care for little humans. Some days feel packed from beginning to end (and I feel like I accomplished a lot when I go to bed exhausted), and others days feel incredibly slow (but I still go to bed exhausted wondering where the time went!). Being a mom is both rewarding and incredibly fun, and also frustrating and at times a little boring. It is a weird mix of emotions. Thankfully though on good days and bad, God has given us a love for our kids that is stronger than I ever really understood as possible before having my own. My gosh, do I love my kiddos! All that’s to say, a lot has happened since we last “talked”, so let’s jump in!

Over the summer David wrote his thesis proposal and in October it was approved. Thanks be to God, he got it done, defended, and is officially in the “candidacy” stage of his PhD. That means he is now writing his thesis! So a long with many other things, he is spending the majority of his days researching and writing. While he still has a ways to go, at this point he is basically on track with his prospective timeline. His advisor has pointed out that the goal of getting his thesis submitted by the start of next Fall would be very fast, but he still thinks it is doable (even with a house full of kids!). Over the summer David purchased a laptop and is now able to work in the study rooms or library. It has actually taken a lot of stress off to know that David can have a quiet space to work without so many distractions. Please pray that we are able to find a sustainable schedule for our family so that David can have plenty of time to write. On top of working on his thesis, David is also co-teaching a Wycliffe course on “Anglican Theology” this semester and leading music for the daily morning prayer services. Please also pray that stress levels stay down as he really has a lot on his plate! 

For me and the kids, the highlight for the end of Summer was getting to visit family for just over a week. We are fortunate to have both sets of parents almost directly south of us, so before the New Wineskins conference the kids and I were able to see David’s parents for a couple days in Indiana and then spend some time with mine in Georgia. This was my parent’s first time to meet Lily (extra special visit), and my sister even drove all the way from California just to see us (we hadn’t seen each other in three years!). It was an absolutely lovely visit. We feel very blessed that we are within driving distance of family durning this time of Educational Home Assignment. We figure our next placement will probably require plane tickets for five people if we want to visit, so we’re enjoying these chances while we can.

After our time in Georgia we headed up to North Carolina for the New Wineskins Conference. David was not able to join us in Georgia as he had to stay in Toronto to teach, but he met us in Asheville for the conference. New Wineskins happens every three years and is a chance for missionaries from all over the world to come together to worship, network, and learn. One of our main goals in attending this year was so that we could get a better idea of where we feel God may be calling us to go at the end of David’s studies. While we have to remember that David is not planning on graduating until Spring 2024 at the earliest (meaning we can’t actually have a placement yet), we were able to connect with people in almost every continent. Now I realize that that doesn’t seem like we narrowed it down much, but we now have specific countries and people we’re talking with to see if we might be a good fit in the future. At this point we’re mostly looking at places that have seminaries for David to teach in where he can train up more leaders in the Faith, but also places where our whole family can thrive and minister to those we are called to serve along side. It is strange, on one hand, to imagine going back on the mission field. When we left Belize we had one kid who was less than year old, and now we have three kids (the youngest of whom will be at least two years old when we move again). I’m both nervous and excited to see how our kids will learn to both know and serve God, but also share Him with others. SAMS is unique in that both spouses our called, vetted, and commissioned as missionaries. And while our kids won’t be “interviewed” as missionaries, they will, in their own way, be serving on the mission field. God is going to have to give us wisdom and courage as we get closer to returning. One of the talks I went to at New Wineskins was all about TCKs (Third Culture Kids) and the issues they can face. I knew life would be a little more complicated, but I didn’t know how hard it could be if we’re not paying attention. And I think our kids get the triple whammy by being TCKs, PKs, and MKs. Whew. Besides the fact that I’m going to have to really read up on this to make sure we’re adequately prepared, I have also come to truly appreciate the value of community. Here at Wycliffe we are surrounded by people who love and support us and our kids. When we go back on the mission field, community is going to be something that we actively search out to help support our family in our own faith. Even with all my nerves about the future, I’m getting excited that we are closer to knowing where we’re headed next! We truly believe there is a need for more Christian leaders who are able to train up others in the Faith and we are looking forward to seeing how God uses us to meet that need.

As far as other things going on here in Toronto, I’ve taken job as an organist at another church! This is pretty exciting for me as I’ve not regularly played the piano (and definitely not the organ!) since having Lily. Now I only ever took one semester of organ in university, so I’m kind of learning as I go, but it is pretty cool to go to a 200 year old church every week and play their pipe organ. The church our family regularly attends here at the college still meets in the evenings; making my morning job a perfect fit. In general I have been surprised at how much we have been able to continue leading music to some degree since moving to Canada. David leads music every morning in our chapel services (and on some evening services as well), and I’ve been asked to put together the Advent Lessons and Carols service again this year. It amazes me even now that God always finds a way to use the gifts He’s given us wherever we are called to be.

So here we are, at the start of Advent, anticipating Christmas. Our kids are at the wonderful age where everything is exciting. And a birthday party for Jesus is absolutely necessary! Even with so many things filling up this season, you are still always very much on our minds and in our prayers. Thank you so much for supporting our family! We have grown since the last time we saw many of you in person (the fact that we’re a family of 5 still amazes me!), but we are so very grateful. Please do continue to keep us in your prayers. And thank you, as always, for your continued financial support! Our time here in Toronto looks very different from our time in Belize, but we are confident that God is not only preparing us to return to the mission field with the necessary tools to further His kingdom, but He is also showing us that even now we are on a mission field. We are in a huge city, surrounded by people who don’t know our Lord. Whether reaching out to those visiting our church here at Wycliffe, meeting new people in “mommy groups”, or even interacting with those on public transit (we take it everywhere!), God is showing us His harvest. If you know anyone who would like to partner with us in our ministry, both while we’re here in Toronto, and as we prepare for our next placement, please share our info. We would love to talk more directly (on the phone or email), to connect with you!

Happy Advent from the Alenskis Family! Come quickly, Lord Jesus!

All about Lily and Life

There is so much to share with you – and I’ve waited so long to write it all down – that I’m not entirely sure where to start. These last few months have been incredibly intense, full of so many things related to life and school and ministry, so let me start with the news that you have most wanted to hear about: our new daughter Lily Grace.

Our Easter Lily

Mary Beth’s third trimester was blessedly uneventful: unlike her pregnancies with Austin and with James, the doctors never even asked her to go on bed rest. In fact, we had a difficult time preparing mentally for the fact that a fifth member of our family was rapidly on her way! Of course, living in a new country in a small space with two very busy toddlers, we were looking ahead to how delivery was all going to go. We were very thankful to work out an arrangement with the College by which my parents could come and spend around two weeks with us in the Residences, beginning just before Mary Beth’s due date. This proved to be critical for what followed next: at around 6am on the morning following their arrival – on Austin’s third birthday, no less – we sent my parents a blunt message letting them know that Mary Beth’s water had broken and that she was going into labor. So they stayed with the still-sleeping boys while we checked her into the hospital.

Labor and delivery this time proved to be even faster than the previous two births. Mary Beth was almost entirely dilated when she first arrived at triage, and we had a close call getting her epidural in time. If I remember correctly, she ended up pushing for less than two minutes before we were graced with our daughter Lily: a healthy, beautiful baby with a decent set of lungs and a mind of her own. The two ladies were fortunate to get their own private room immediately following delivery, and this also proved important in what came next.

Shortly after delivering Lily, the anesthesiologist approached us and let us know that when receiving the epidural she had suffered a “dural puncture,” and that she might soon begin experiencing a splitting headache. This was an understatement. Within a few hours Mary Beth was in terrible pain any time she would sit up, let alone try to stand, and as the first night wore on she found the pain increasingly debilitating. The following day the anesthesiology team performed a “blood patch” to fix the puncture, and she spent another night in the hospital recovering. During all this time I was able to go home and see the boys, but they were missing her tremendously. Finally, the doctors allowed Mary Beth and Lily to go home, and we held the birthday party that we had been planning for Austin before his sister’s surprise arrival: Peruvian lomo saltado, (we even tracked down real ají amarillo!) a chocolate cake, presents and, of course, balloons (!!!).

Unfortunately, the blood patch did not hold much longer. After experiencing a coughing fit later that day, Mary Beth’s headaches returned, and she found it necessary to stay in bed for the rest of the week. Throughout this entire time it was critical that my parents were here with us: their help managing the house and taking care of the boys allowed me to give her the care that she needed, and she was able to take care of Lily. Although our digital forays “doom scrolling” about post-dural puncture headaches warned us that the condition could potentially last up to a few months, we were thankful that God answered our prayers, and Mary Beth’s began to go away after about one week following Lily’s birth.

Since then, Lily has been progressing really well! Now over two months old, she is smiling and cooing, and doing all the things that babies need to do to grow up big and strong. Her brothers are obsessed with her, especially Austin, and they love to spend their downtime with their faces close to hers (whether she likes it or not!). James especially, I think, has been missing the degree of attention he used to receive as the youngest (and most snuggliest) of our children, but we’re grateful that he has not associated these changes with Lily herself.

Although some bureaucratic hoops remain for us to jump through on Lily’s behalf – right now she has her American passport, but not yet her Canadian – we are expecting that she will be all set to travel to the United States in September when we are scheduled to be at the New Wineskins Conference on global mission. Not only will she get to meet her other grandparents, but we hope she might meet some of you as well! All this is to say, thank you for your prayers for Mary Beth, for Lily, and for our family in this exciting new stage of life! 

Progress in Doctoral Studies

Mary Beth mentioned in her last update that the Winter and Summer terms at Wycliffe College was going to be an intense one … and things absolutely lived up to these expectations. I spent the vast majority of my time over the last few months – whether snowed in at the College or looking longingly at the late-spring lilacs outside our apartment – preparing for the “comprehensive examinations” that were to determine whether I could proceed in the PhD program here or not.

According to the Toronto School of Theology’s handbook, these two written exams – together with an oral defense of the written exams – must be completed within a single 30-day period, and can only be undertaken after all other coursework, languages, and a thesis prospectus have been completed. Their purpose is not only to put to the test my mastery of the fields related to my research topic, but also to evaluate the student’s ability to design and teach courses in these fields. As a result, I was asked to come up with reading lists for two hypothetical graduate seminars of between 2,000 and 3,000 pages each, then to suggest examination questions that I might assign to a hypothetical class, and finally to answer those questions myself during the actual written exam. The oral exam follows the written exams, and is designed to show how I might field questions from future students in an actual class setting.

As of this past week, I am now finished with all of this! My “specialist” reading list was geared toward an (expansive) imaginary course, English Theology from 1500–1600. The exam, which was open-book and take-home, began the morning of May 17 and ended twenty-four exhausted hours later. My “cognate” reading list focused on Sacramental Theology from 1350–1600, and I took this exam two weeks after the first. Having successfully passed both written exams, I gave my oral defense this past Tuesday, which means I can move on to writing my dissertation!

I know this is a lot of detail, but I hope it explains why we have been slow to post updates on our family’s life and ministry right now. Because Lily’s due date was in mid-April, mere weeks before my first exam was scheduled to start, and because both Austin and James were born early, I knew I had to knuckle down and do the reading for my “comps” before her arrival. This necessitated a demanding schedule to finish going through the readings before April, as well as a dedicated time of collating and organizing my notes and thoughts in the weeks following Lily’s birth. I haven’t had time to think about much outside of family and exams since the beginning of the year.

That said, I also share all this because the purpose of these exams – to think through how to work out the details of a college course – is genuinely important for my future ministry. Wherever the Lord places us after we have concluded this season of education and preparation, I suspect I will be designing courses, choosing content, weighing progress, and evaluating performance. Even though these exams aren’t exactly a replacement for actual teaching experience, they are an important way to certify to the university that I can put together the academic heft of the kind of high-level course in theology I hope to be teaching soon.

The only remaining requirement for my PhD program will be to write an 80,000-word dissertation on the theology of Richard Hooker … not exactly a small task! The first step is to put together a formal “thesis proposal” that will outline the dissertation’s context, methodology, structure, and relevance. My intention is to have this proposal defended and accepted, and to move on to actual thesis-writing by this upcoming September. My soon-to-be-fully-retired doctoral supervisor’s goal is for me to submit the thesis for examination just one year later – by September 2023 (!!!) – which means that this will be another intense year of study, writing, and editing. Please be praying regularly for me in the months ahead as I knuckle down and (basically) write my first scholarly book.

All this is to say, thank you so much for your prayers for me, and for your support for our family. I would not be moving along if not for your partnership in our ministry – past, present, and future.

Ministry: Present and Future

Speaking of ministry, let me share a little about how God has enabled us to be serving over the last few months, and what we are looking forward to in the months ahead.

As Mary Beth mentioned in our last mission update, I was licensed to serve at our local Anglican parish, and since February I have been attending weekly pastoral meetings, as well as preaching and leading services when invited. It has been wonderful to have the opportunity again to open God’s word for his people – it sometimes feels like “old times” in Belize! – and to administer his sacraments.

For me, the high point of ministry this year so far took place in March: it was my privilege to baptize five adult Iranians who had converted to Christ before emigrating in order to find refuge abroad – first in Europe and now in Canada. For security concerns, I can’t post any pictures of that day, but the testimonies they shared before going into the (frigid) water blew me away: I found it incredibly humbling to baptize those who had already suffered reproach and loss for the name of Jesus. What I can share with you is the picture (above) of Lily’s baptism this past Pentecost Sunday: it was held in the beautiful chapel at Wycliffe College, and we were so blessed by all the people who came to welcome her into the people of God and support her in her new life in Christ.

We are also looking forward to an intriguing ministry opportunity next month. I have volunteered to take a week and help the deacon of our church to lead a “family camp” some two hours north of Toronto. Our whole family is planning on coming: while the boys will be with the other children doing fun outdoorsy things, Mary Beth and I will be with the adults, where in addition to celebrating a communion service I’ll be serving as a kind of “M.C.” for the week, and where together we’ll be assisting with music. We’re really looking forward to making an impact on these families’ lives, as well as to getting out of the city for a few days.

Our church is between rectors (senior pastors) at the moment, and although things have been going well during the interim, we invite you to pray with us that God will send us just the right person to lead this urban church plant focused on ministry to international students.

Further out on the horizon, our family is at that point in our present “Educational Ministry Assignment” when we probably need to be discerning actively where the Lord is calling our family next. We are only just beginning this process, but we are hoping to make significant progress in the next couple of months leading up to the New Wineskins Conference in September. Because dozens of Anglican leaders involved in theological education and ministry development around the world will be there, we are hoping to schedule as many fruitful meetings with them in advance of New Wineskins as possible. Please be praying for the Lord’s perfect leading in his perfect timing.

Canadian Donations

Before I close out this update I should also give you an update about our application to join the ranks of Into All the World (IATW) a Canadian missionary society that has partnered with SAMS-USA to receive and process tax-deductible Canadian donations to our ministry. We’re pleased to report that our application was accepted, and IATW has already begun receiving Canadian gifts on our behalf. If you are Canadian (or living in Canada) and are interested in partnering with us in ministry through giving, please make sure to check out IATW’s giving page (in “Step 1” make sure to look for and select “David and Mary Beth Alenskis - SAMS”) and make a gift today!

And, I should add, we are certainly in serious need of financial support for our present and future ministry – including the rising cost of life and tuition – and we would be deeply grateful for any one-time, ongoing, or increased gifts to our missionary accounts. As prices go up around us, we would ask you to prayerfully consider partnering financially with our family in ministry. Please let us know if you have any questions about how to make that happen!

There is probably more to tell, but that’s going to have to be it for this month’s update. Thank you again for your ongoing support for our little family, and please keep us in your prayers in the months ahead as we continue on the missionary path that God has set before us!

Sharing Vision, Finding Purpose

Happy New Year from the Alenskis Family!

Wow, can you believe we’re already in 2022?! We certainly had a lot of changes last year, but we’re even more excited to see what this new year has in store.

First off, David has officially finished his required coursework for his PhD program – with highest marks! – and his “thesis prospectus” has been formally accepted by the committee supervising his research and approved by the Graduate Centre for Theological Studies at the University of Toronto. Does that mean he’s done? Not by a long shot, but it does mean he’s staying on track to graduate on our preferred timeline. As you may know our current goal is for David to get his degree within just four years (which is about as fast as you can get it done) … receiving his diploma by May 2024. He just finished his third semester, so we’re almost halfway there! Don’t get me wrong, we are actually really enjoying our time here in Toronto. The community life here at Wycliffe has been so healthy for our family, especially because of times like daily chapel services, and weekly dinners with other residents. Yet we do have practical and hopeful reasons for David to finish up within four years:

  1. Practically speaking, David’s advisor is retiring and can only guarantee being able to oversee his work through Spring 2024 (when David is hoping to defend his dissertation and graduate).

  2. The simple fact that this program will be considerably less expensive if he can finish in four years is also a pretty good incentive for moving along quickly.

  3. But the reason closest to our heart – and that we are most focused on – is that we want to be back on the mission field. Our whole purpose for being here in Toronto is so that our family can be properly equipped for supporting Anglican churches around the world through theological education and ministry development.

This third reason is driven by a need that we were already experiencing acutely in Belize, the need for locally available, high quality ways to train new lay and ordained leaders. What’s more, in speaking to other Anglican leaders from around the world we have also discovered that this need exists in so many other places. While David has been involved directly in pastoral ministry for well over a decade, we believe that we are now called to expand our family’s ministry in this new direction. Whether that means he will take a position as a full-time missionary-pastor and teach theology part time (say in a seminary or other form of theological development), or whether it will be the other way around, we feel confident that when our time in Canada has come to an end God will send us somewhere he can put to use the new skills he is giving us: to build his kingdom and bring him glory.

So what does that mean for our life right now? It means that, as SAMS missionaries on “Educational Ministry Assignment,” we are currently focused on David’s school work, all in the context of raising our growing family. For me in particular, this means that while I loved the work I was doing in Belize (music and youth ministry) – something that I’m hoping to continue in our next placement – I’m now also a mommy of two (soon to be three!) little children. As a result, as we envision that future ministry, I am mindful at the same time of my calling to raise and educate them. (So many changes are coming our way!)

Although it’s a little too early in David’s doctoral program to have a clear idea of where we will be going next, we are hoping to have a better understanding by the end of this year. We are looking forward to the New Wineskins 2022 conference this Fall in North Carolina, where we plan on making fresh connections with leaders from around the world involved in theological education. At the last conference we met incredible people from Asia, Africa, Europe, and South America who all shared the same need!

It’s a little strange knowing that we will be returning to the mission field at the end of our time here in Canada, while also not knowing where that will be. My controlling side wants God to just spit it out so I can start planning for our future! But this is one of those many moments in my life where I have to let go and trust that God has a plan, even if I can’t quite see what it is yet. 

(On a side note, our children are going to be quite the world travelers in their lifetime! Austin was born in Belize, James was born in the U.S., and our daughter will be born in Canada! I pray that we can raise our kids to know what it means to follow Jesus wherever we are living.)

At this point the boys are doing very well here in Toronto. They love the snow, the community of theological students (they know most of the Wycliffe residents by name), and they consider the college campus to belong to them (they love running up and down the halls!). Christmas was delightful. The college itself was all decked out with Christmas trees, lights, and nativity sets. And, as a highlight for my family, we got to decorate our apartment with our personal Christmas ornaments that were brought back from Belize. We hadn’t opened that box in over two years! We experienced two different services of Lessons and Carols, one from the school and one from our church. While I’ve participated in many Lessons and Carols services growing up, these services were unique for me in that every lesson was read in the native language of a student or congregant and then again in English. There was something special about hearing God’s word from languages all over the world. We then spent Christmas Day at home celebrating with the boys before having some other residents over for dinner (we made SO MUCH FOOD!). As a whole, it was a wonderful first Christmas here in Canada. 

As for me, I’m doing pretty well: officially in my third trimester (and definitely looking pregnant these days!). I can’t believe we’re getting so close to meeting our daughter (yes, we’re having a girl!). Each of my pregnancies have been so different, and this one feels like it’s progressing the fastest. We’re trying to start prepping the boys about their coming sister. I think Austin is excited; James is probably going to take it pretty hard (he’s our possessive “snugglebug”). Soon I’ll start unpacking the baby gear again and begin actually prepping our house. Until then, we’re enjoying spending quality time with just the boys … before our numbers go up!

In other exciting missions news, on SAMS’s recommendation our family applied to join and has been accepted by a second, Canadian missionary society, Into All the World (IATW). This organization has a formal relationship with SAMS that allows them to assist American missionaries who are raising financial support in Canada, and our being accepted as part of their society means that there is a way for us to receive gifts more easily from Canadian donors.  Does this mean we are no longer SAMS missionaries? Not at all! We’re now both! By being accepted into ITAW we are hoping to connect more with Canadians who would like to support our mission work – both while we are here in Canada and then when we transition back to the mission field.

IATW’s own particular focus is on enabling missionaries to serve wherever and however they are called, and for decades they have helped make connections and find resources to help missionaries around the world serve those in need. For instance, if there is a missionary that wants to put wells in a village, ITAW is able to help connect them with the resources to make that specific project happen. Above all, for us this also means we will have more prayer support (and you can never have too much prayer!).

So now for prayer requests!

These next six months are going to fly by and be rather stressful. David is planning on undergoing his qualifying examinations in May and June. Over the period of a month he will take both written and oral exams in two different subjects covering a ton of information (he has nearly 5,000 pages to read by then!). Once he has (Lord willing) passed his exams and then defended his thesis proposal (still to be written), he will then officially be a PhD “candidate” and can start his dissertation. He’s hoping that he achieves candidacy by the end of the summer, or early fall at the latest.

1. Please pray for David as he preps and studies for his general exams.  

To add to the stress, our baby is due about a month before David’s exams start. While he can push the exam dates if needed, our goal is to keep them where they’re at so as to stay on track.

2. Please pray for the baby and me in these last 3 months.

  • Good health

  • No complications

  • And no bedrest (I’ve been put on bedrest for my last two pregnancies and would love to skip that step for this one!)  

While we still have about 2½ years left of David’s program, we are praying and discerning where God is calling us next even now. We know the places we would love to serve, but we also know God already has a plan for our lives and we are willing to go wherever that may be.

3. Please pray that God would make it very clear where He is calling our family next.

And finally,

4. Please pray for continued prayer and financial support.

Toronto is incredibly expensive. While we are very blessed to get to live on campus (it’s about half the price of any apartment we could otherwise get here in the city), we are still on a very tight budget (we’re eating so much rice and beans!). And on top of all that, the car that we took with us to Toronto has given up the ghost … we’re walking and taking public transportation everywhere we go now until we find a new set of wheels. So there are some real needs. But at the same time, we are beyond appreciative of the continued prayers and financial support from all of you! We truly feel that God has called us on this path of training for bigger things on the mission field than we even know right now, and it’s your commitment to our family and to this vision for ministry that is helping us continue toward that calling. Thank you! If you want more detailed/personal prayer requests, or if you would like to start financially supporting us please send us a message so we can give you more information!

Baby On Board

This is quite the meaty update from all of us at Team Alenskis … honestly, we’ve got a lot to share with you. So, let me start out with some great news from our family, before tackling a number of other really important matters having to do with life and ministry here in Toronto.

Baby Announcement

First things first, Lord willing our family of four will soon be expanding to five. That’s right, Mary Beth is pregnant with our third child, expected next April! We are very excited, even with all our apprehensions and questions about the future. Things have been going very well so far: the first trimester had been tiring, but there have been no complications and the second trimester is starting off a bit better. Mary Beth is very happy with her OBGYN and the hospital here, and the health insurance we have in Canada will cover the entirety of the pregnancy and delivery. We’re not sure how exactly people manage three children at a time – isn’t being outnumbered a thing??? – but we figure others have pulled it off successfully, and we’re determined to do the same.

Speaking of the other children, we are not sure how soon the boys will understand what will be happening to their band of brothers. Mary Beth isn’t showing yet, but we have begun to pray for the baby in mommy’s belly, and I suspect that Austin will begin intuiting more about his youngest sibling before long. We’re expecting a terrible shock for James when he is ousted as the baby of the family, but he’s a resilient soul and with a little help from his brother (and his mommy and daddy) we suspect he’ll be just fine soon after his newest companion is born.

In short, please keep Mary Beth and the baby, and our whole family in your prayers as we approach this new horizon in life!

Life and Ministry in Toronto

The weather in Toronto is cooling off significantly these days, and we are enjoying taking walks around the city as the leaves fall and a crisp bite settles into the air. Mary Beth and the boys have explored a good chunk of the playgrounds within a mile or so of the college, and we are trying to take advantage of all the days when they can play outside without their mama worrying too much about how cold they’re getting. We’ve discovered a few gluten-free joints at which to get some treats – a bakery, a chicken ’n’ waffles fryer, and a gelateria, to name a few – and very occasionally we will indulge one of our cravings. There are of course so many more places to explore … but then again, we have a few more years to discover them all!

One of the best parts about our move to Toronto has been the relationships we have already been able to form since arriving. Wycliffe College truly has an amazing community of faculty, staff, and students, and we consider ourselves blessed to be meeting so many new people so quickly. Many of our first friendships have been formed among the other residents at the college who come from all over the world, and beyond getting together for meals or casual conversations, most of us gather each day in the chapel for Morning Prayer (and I was honored to lead the service this past Friday!). It’s the kind of thing you don’t miss until you experience it all over again, and you realize it was missing all along. Additionally, Mary Beth has been meeting other spouses of students and moms with toddlers who are connected to the college, going to Bible studies, play dates, and other informal get-togethers. Although the ongoing weight of the pandemic still can mute these times of fellowship – inside encounters are masked, and other precautions still have to be taken – we are still able to be more social than we have been for years, and it has been nourishing for our spirits.

We have also continued to integrate ourselves more and more within our new church family, Christ the King, and we hope to be able to serve more and more as time goes on. We are slowly meeting people and connecting faces with names, and Mary Beth is a part of the rotation of accompanists for Sunday worship. Some big changes however are in store for the congregation. The church’s curate – ordained to the diaconate just a few months ago – has been reassigned to a church in Windsor (across the border from Detroit). On top of this, the rector recently announced that he will be leaving in December to begin a PhD program in New Testament at the University of Durham: while we are very excited for him and his family (we like them a lot!), they have been with the church now for six years, and it will be difficult for everyone to say goodbye. As the parish searches for a new rector, the interim period will be led by a retired Wycliffe professor, assisted by the church’s remaining deacon. As you can imagine, I also am hoping to chip in at Christ the King in any way I can, and to this end I sat down with the local archdeacon this past week to see about being licensed by the bishop to preach and administer the sacraments in the greater Toronto area. I’ll keep you posted on how that goes, and please keep our church’s transitions in your prayers!

Finances

As I was hinting at above, our baby news is not without its anxieties for our family’s future, particularly with respect to finances. To be honest, we are feeling quite squeezed from two different directions.

On the one hand, life for a family in downtown Toronto is unavoidably expensive, both in relation to the U.S., as well as to suburban and rural Canada. We thank God for student housing (what a gift!), but our regular household expenses (food and other essentials) are still trending measurably higher than what we had been hoping for. There are still discount grocery stores to explore nearby, and this past month has required that we make fewer large purchases, but we are nevertheless coming to grips with the reality that – even apart from tuition – our basic necessities may end up exceeding our family’s income on our current (decreased) SAMS salary.

On the other hand, though, gifts by pledged donors to our missionary account with SAMS continue to trend lower and lower, reducing the likelihood that we will be able to recover part of the salary that we gave up in March. Much of this is inevitable given everything that is happening in the world: for example, churches have closed during the pandemic, and others that have remained open are experiencing budget crunches themselves – and in many cases individual donors have hard go of it as well. Although in other circumstance this might mean taking time to raise support, given our present commitment to my doctoral studies we are unable to travel at this time. However, we are so grateful for those who have made a recent commitment to give sacrificially to our ministry, or to increase their regular gift.

And we are doing other things to make ends meet. Beginning this month, our family is no longer on SAMS’s health insurance: Ontario’s international student health care program is not only cheaper than U.S. insurance, but it’s also mandatory for us – so that will help our missionary account somewhat. And we are praying that God will bring opportunities for service as we gradually become more accustomed to life in this big city environment.

But the bottom line is this: we are in desperate need for new partners for our ministry as SAMS missionaries, a ministry that is still ongoing during this time of Educational Ministry Assignment. We urge you to pray and ask the Lord if he is calling you to go beyond simply praying for us, to take the step of making a financial commitment to the mission he has given our family: making disciples who will make more disciples, and training leaders who will train future leaders. Will you partner with us today?

Doctoral Studies

Finally, I should let you know how my studies are going, shouldn’t I? The short answer is that I think they are going well. The longer answer is … well, a little longer. I am currently taking two courses for credit this term, one centered on how to teach (pedagogy) and the other on how to think theologically (methodology). They have both been interesting and stretching, each in its own way. The more unusual, and more engaging aspects of this Fall term have had to do with what has been happening academically outside of these courses.

In early September, my advisor invited me to serve as a part-time Teaching Assistant for his Introduction to Anglican Theology course, with a section being run online for clergy in the Anglican Diocese of Singapore, as well as the customary section for Wycliffe students proper. Not only has this given me an opportunity to get an early window into the world of a university instructor, with a little experience in managing online content delivery, but it has allowed me to meet amazing Anglican leaders on the front line of mission in Southeast Asia. Additionally, a couple of weeks ago the professor had to be out of town at the last minute, and I was given the opportunity a to teach one of the class sessions for the section being taught at Wycliffe, a chance few second-year doctoral students get around here (also, I think it went really well!).

On top of all this, I am continuing the work needed to outline a dissertation topic. At this stage, this means putting together a short “prospectus” by the end of 2021 that will sketch out the broad contours of what my doctoral thesis will involve. This in turn informs the various general and comprehensive exams that I will be taking in the first half of 2022 – the last task before submitting a formal dissertation proposal. There is so much to do, so much to read, so much to write: all to be finished while I am focused on my other courses and obligations at the college. It is a lot, and I ask you to please keep me and my academic work in your prayers.

Well, that’s all I have for now. Thank you for keeping us with us, for holding us up in prayer, and for supporting us in so many ways. May the Lord richly bless you all!

We invite you to partner with us in our ministry!

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