Lance and Caitlin Rensberger met during their time at Calvary University. Lance graduated in 2016 and Caitlin in 2015 — both majored in Advanced Biblical Studies. The Rensbergers have been married since 2016 and they have a son named Eli (18 months old) and a baby girl on the way (due in May).
They are serving at the Ethnos360 campus in Arizona. Lance is a Maintenance Specialist for Ethnos360 Aviation. Currently he works on their helicopters and airplanes in Arizona keeping them running, outfitting new aircraft with upgrades for the different fields, and training and learning about the aircraft that Ethnos360 Aviation uses.
“We’re planning to move overseas within the next couple of years to one of four options: Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Asia Pacific, or Brazil,” Caitlin said. “Once in country Lance would continue to maintain the mission’s aircraft and help to keep the program running smoothly. That might include keeping records for the in-country government, keeping track of parts and getting parts through customs, or buying supplies for the missionaries in the bush that are planting churches.”
Lance said, “Caitlin doesn’t know for sure what her role will be, but we know that the Lord has her raising our family, and that there will be plenty of opportunities to join in the effort of spreading the gospel to all nations. We’re excited to see how God will line up her talents and abilities with needs on the field.”
While Caitlin has known for most of her life that she wanted to go into missions, Lance didn’t plan on it until college. Missions was something that became more and more of a desire each year at Calvary.
“Initially he had hoped to go for a year or two and then go into engineering. But after a few years he realized he wanted to be involved with some kind of ministry and to use the gifts God had given him to further the kingdom. Maintenance and working with his hands were some of those gifts,” Caitlin said.
The couple agrees that Calvary prepared them well for the missionary life. “We both had a lot of opportunities for leadership while at Calvary,” Lance said. “We grew a ton in our walks with Christ. We grew in our relationships with people and made a lot of mistakes and learned a lot about how to disciple and grow other believers.”
Caitlin added, “Calvary didn’t give Lance aviation specific training, but just about every other aspect of ministry with the mission we were given plenty of opportunity to grow in those areas. For instance, there is a fairly high turnover rate for missionaries in overseas missions. The number one reason for this turnover is personnel conflict. I can’t tell you how many times we both went through training that covered personality differences and working together to use other people’s strengths to compliment others’ weaknesses. Also, a lot of our time there was focused on real life conflict resolution. We don’t claim to have all the answers and don’t want to pretend that we couldn’t end up leaving a field because of a personnel conflict, but we sincerely hope and pray what we learned at Calvary will be things we remember and are able to put those things into practice in what has proven to be so difficult for others.”
