Welcome Scarlett! Thank you God!

From Global Lutheran Outreach missionaries Ben and Scarlett Tino (Serving in Zacapa, Guatemala):

We got married!
After several months of planning for a wedding and preparing ourselves for the married life, we both said “I do” on a hot afternoon in Puerto Barrios on February 4th. The wedding was well attended mostly by Scarletts friends and family in Puerto Barrios, and by my immediate family who were able to travel. It was a beautiful service with a joyful reception held at a nearby hotel. We are almost all settled into our home in Zacapa, Scarlett has done a good job of giving it that “home” feel compared to how it was when I was living here as a single guy. We even have a guest room, so the invitation is open for you to visit!

Scarlett at work
If you recall from the last newsletter, Scarlett will be working with the children in Zacapa, being the coordinator for Sunday School in the main church and in the villages nearby where we have smaller churches. Her years of working with children and teaching in a Lutheran School have given her the perfect training for this position. Since the pandemic started, there has been no Sunday school activities in our church. So with Scarlett taking the initiative, we are kicking things back into gear and slowly seeing the children return to their usual Sunday school activities.

Ben at work!
My music classes continue like usual, teaching 15-20 private lessons a week. I have several advanced students now, with flute and clarinet, that are getting to the point of surpassing my playing abilities! Of course, those are not my best instruments… Now into the season of Lent with Easter coming up, we are preparing a small ensemble and hopefully a small choir to sing on Easter Sunday.
A big focus for me has always been to equip them well enough to be able to prepare and play church music. God only knows how much longer I will be needed here. So in the meantime, I will prepare them as best as I can.

Supporting two
Now that we are two, life has become twice as expensive. As a single missionary, my living expenses were pretty cheap. But that quickly changed once we got married. We pray our financial support remains steady throughout this year, especially since we don’t know yet when we can visit the states to grow our support team. We recognize each donation and are so grateful for them because they allow us to survive as missionaries. Please keep us in your prayers as well, especially since Zacapa has seen a string of violence in the last month.

Click here to read the latest newsletter from Ben and Scarlett Tino