Greg & Marilyn Senter's Update
News for Friends, Family, and Partners
March 5, 2009
Answered Prayers
Dear Friends and Family,
To the many of you who wondered if we would be able to leave North Carolina safely on Monday due to the snow storm, the FOUR of us made it out of the country with only minor delays!!! We can’t express how humbled and thankful we feel to have returned as a family. We were reflecting on just what we (you and us) had asked God for over the past few months.
In December, we asked you to join us in praying for the following:
- that God would reaffirm His will by providing for whatever He calls us to do. It was huge for us to see God provide all the needed support in what has seemed like an impossible economy. Indeed, this confirms in our hearts, and we hope in yours as investors in this ministry, that God has not finished the work for us (you and us) in Osorno.
- that God would “rejuvenate our hearts with an awakened love for Him and the countless people we come in contact with on a regular basis.” This too looked impossible considering the hectic travel indicative of Home Ministry Assignment. Yet God in his mercy has refreshed us through the reading and hearing of His Word, and through the love and generosity of our family and friends and a myriad of other ways day by day, even in the minutest details of life.
PRAYER FOR THE BIG PICTURE:
Now that we have finished our first four-year term in Chile and are beginning the next “season”, we wanted to state very clearly where we believe the Lord is leading us over the next term.
- It’s imperative that we work ourselves out of a job in Osorno. Ultimately we know that the church needs to be independent of missionary labor and funds. While the last four years have been about being a stabilizing force in the church, it will soon be time to begin slowly weaning the church of missionary labor and funds, as we pray that God would raise up Chileans who are growing in the faith and dedicated to His work to carry on the mission of the church: to disciple, evangelize, have fellowship, to worship and show God’s love to people in need through mercy ministry. From our human perspective, this also seems impossible. FOR REAL! WE ARE NOT KIDDING!! WE DON’T SEE THIS HAPPENING IN OUR CURRENT WEAK STATE! Yet that is what we are working toward and the Scriptures are clear that God will build His church, and we TRUST that He will carry to completion the work He started in Osorno. Please help us pray accordingly.
- meanwhile, our efforts will be increasingly directed toward the new work God is raising up in the nearby city of Puerto Montt, focusing primarily on leadership training with the two families living there and continuing to share the good news of the gospel with people who have no church home. Please pray that we would be sensitive to God’s leading in what He is doing in Puerto Montt.
We are so thankful to God for you all who participate in this ministry through your prayers and/or financial giving, and the other creative ways many of you take an active part in from time to time (like corresponding, sending teams, care packages, special gifts to the church or members of the church, etc.) We prayed for you all tonight as a family.
Grace and peace and with much love,
Marilyn and Greg Senter
Mailing address: Casilla 33-0, Osorno, Chile
Phone: (56) 64-217567
Web site: www.mtwla.org/people/gsenter.htm
Contributions should be sent to:
Mission to the World
P.O. Box 116284
Atlanta, GA 30368-6284
(include account # 16869)
March 6, 2009