Ministry
After ten years of serving as church planters in Tegucigalpa, Honduras and then several years in Peru, the Lord has sent Juan and Maria Marentes on a new adventure in San Ignacio, Belize. Juan has been installed as a priest and the Marentes are serving at two churches, St. Andrew's and St. Hilda's. Both Juan and Maria are also chaplains at 3 local schools. They are looking for people who feel called to help them, either short-term or long-term, in the area of youth ministry. They also help the Diocese of Belize with their Hispanic ministry by training Hispanics in theology and discipleship. Juan and Marķa have three sons: Bernardo, Sebastian and Tomás.

Information on short-term mission projects in Belize - Open as Word Document

For more information, please visit their website: http://www.lornecoyle.org/Missionary_Marentes.html

Call
Juan describes their call to missionary service in this way, "God used for his glory and for our good the contact we had with the Rev. Tom Prichard (former Executive Director of SAMS) while he was a SAMS missionary in Colombia in the late 1980s. We heard God's call while striving to be faithful to the Episcopal ministry in difficult circumstances first in Colombia and then in Ecuador. Marķa Isabel and I heard the call to become missionaries as a couple. It took us almost three years before we could take the first steps to join SAMS. This call and our response has been the most exciting event in our lives. Praise HIM!"

"And now we can say that the call of our lives is Jesus, who has called us to continue to be faithful and to join our children in that call too. Our intent is to stay in missions wherever the Lord wants us."