Dear Family and Friends,

It's been unusually quiet on our end for a while now. Greg reminded me a few weeks ago that we had several e-mails in the inbox requesting a ministry update and that it would be a good time to send out an update. I didn't have any words...

We're in the second half of a long winter. We have had more than our fair share of sunny days. For some reason in this corner of the world, this seems to mean extra cold. The cold sunny days outside remind me more of our winters back home, though inside the parts of our house where we don't have our gas heaters going you can at times see your breath. The farmers here aren't prepared for such cold. I've heard that our grape and avocado crops have been damaged among other things. This will add to the continuing rise in the cost of food.

I've seen a drop in attendance/commitment in our women's meetings, which is typical for this time of year. Of the four women I had worked to prepare to help with our Romans study this year, one has been ill and is housebound until summertime; one is quite faithful when she is not out of town visiting her elderly father; another who normally arrives late to our studies because of work will soon be traveling to Tennessee with her elderly parents for several weeks to visit her brother; and the last one has been somewhat absent as she has been attending mandatory classes with her colleagues after work hours and otherwise struggling with her only son being in prison.

We had a couple of wonderful weeks in the Carolinas last month spending precious vacation time with our families and a few friends (thanks to those of you who contributed cereal box tops for frequent flyer miles in the past - we cashed in all of our miles!). Upon returning, I've struggled to get back up to speed. We've had house guest after house guest that has left me struggling to keep food in the fridge and on the table and leave enough time for family between teaching responsibilities and other commitments.

We hear of temperature extremes around the world, hurricanes, earthquakes, political battles and real wars and wonder what it all means in the context of God's eternal plans. There are joys and victories in between......Rosa has one more semester under her belt (by the skin of her teeth) as she struggles to get her degree in social work and lead her family out of poverty; and a growing group of men in the church have continued to meet weekly for prayer, Bible study and encouragement, and are now even planning for a men's retreat next month.... People come to us for encouragement. We tell them what we know. That God is God and continues to have all the circumstances of life under his sovereign control. The apostle Paul had learned the secret to being content in any and all circumstances. He could do all things through Christ who gave him strength. He kept his eyes focused on God's promises and his eternal security and didn't let circumstances stop him from writing to the churches about joy even while he was imprisoned for preaching the gospel.

As we wait for the new life and renewed energy that springtime brings with it, would you lift up our arms in a tiring battle and pray that:
- we would not take our eyes off the One who is our hope
- men in the church will continue growing and become future deacons and elders
- steps to increase ministry in Puerto Montt toward a future church plant will bear fruit - the evangelical leaders retreat that Greg and Alex will go to later this week will strengthen bonds in the greater body of Christ here in Osorno.

As always, thank you for being a great team of supporters - we treasure you.

Much love in Jesus,

Marilyn for the Senters

Mailing address: Casilla 33-0, Osorno, Chile
Phone: 011-56-64-217-567
Web sites: www.mtwla.org/people/gsenter.htm,
www.freewebs.com/senters4chile/index.htm

Contributions should be sent to:
Mission to the World
P.O. Box 116284
Atlanta, GA 30368-6284
(include account # 016869)

August 24, 2007