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!

We invite you to partner with us in our ministry!

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