David and Mary Beth Alenskis
David and Mary Beth Alenskis
SAMS Role: Missionaries
Home Church: Diocese of Western Anglicans
Starting Year with SAMS: 2007
Calling to Ministry: David first sensed in his teenage years that the Lord was calling him to pastoral ministry, but without a clear direction with regards to where or how. So, before beginning his theological studies, he took a year to volunteer at a Christian orphanage on the northern coast of Peru, an experience that gave him a lasting passion for cross-cultural ministry. Afterwards he then linked up with SAMS to explore new ways of returning to the mission field following his ordination to the priesthood. He went as a full-time missionary first to Argentina and then to Belize where he has served as pastor of two rural churches and three primary schools.
Mary Beth on the other hand had never expected to be an overseas missionary, but as she and David began dating and then looked toward marriage, she was confident that the Lord would guide her toward the kind of ministry right for her. Since joining David in Belize in 2016, she has been amazed to witness all the ways that God has used her gifts to reach others through music, outreach and youth ministries.
Their experience serving in Belize as long-term missionaries in pastoral ministry revealed the widespread need for better and more accessible ways to educate and equip emerging leaders for the church in the Global South. Following David’s completion of a PhD program in theology through Wycliffe College and the University of Toronto, the Lord is now calling them to serve on the faculty of Tyndale Theological Seminary in the Netherlands.
Tyndale is a missionary-led theological graduate school with a passion for training emerging leaders for a growing global church. David has been called to teach systematic and historical theology, core disciplines in any ministry formation that help students broaden their understanding not only of the Bible and of their faith, but of their calling to serve as part of a church spanning continents and millennia.
Mission and Vision for Ministry:
Mission: To be and to equip faithful ministers of Jesus Christ by making disciples who will likewise make new disciples, and by forming leaders who will also form new leaders.
Vision: To see every congregation and Christian community throughout the global church – and particularly Anglican dioceses in the developing world – led by faithful servants of Jesus Christ who have been thoroughly equipped for effectual ministry, and when possible, through a rigorous program of theological discipleship rooted in the Word of God and the rich history of our shared Christian inheritance.
Personal Points of Interest: David and Mary Beth both enjoy hiking, music, reading and preparing gluten-free cuisine, although their three children now take up so much more of their time than they could have imagined just a few short years ago. Mary Beth graduated summa cum laude from CSU Fullerton with a degree in Keyboard Performance and is particularly passionate about classical music. In addition to his postgraduate work in theology, David’s undergraduate studies at Cedarville University led to degrees both in Mechanical Engineering and Philosophy—and he has been catching up on sleep ever since.
