Christmas 2014

Family Gathering

New Year’s greetings to one and all! It seems like such a short time ago that the new millennium was such a big deal and here we are 15 years into it! How did that happen? God has so graciously given us family, friends and work to do, so the time just keeps flying by!

Winslow Joy, 5 months

We had a too-quiet Christmas with no family around, but the weeks leading up to Christmas were filled with family, so we can’t complain. Tom’s siblings and assorted others came for a long weekend for the final ceremony for his dad, Don Van Wynen, who passed away two years ago. His ashes were finally interred at the regional military ceremony. Vivian, Tom’s stepmom, was proud to receive the American flag given in the brief military ceremony that honored Don’s service in World War II.

 Kate, Jordan and Winslow arrived after the ceremony but in time to hang out with the family over a long weekend and they spent a total of ten days with us. Winslow Joy, who turned five months while at our house, is a true joy! We enjoyed their time with us so much.

Heather, Aurélie and Wynnie

We are also grateful for phone calls with my parents, now happily resettled in Tennessee, and for numerous Skype calls with Josh, Heather and family. Wynnie, now three, is a champion Skyper and keeps us entertained long distance. And her baby sister, Aurélie, is now starting to give us big smiles on Skype as well. We were so happy to be able to visit everyone this past October on our mega roadtrip to Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Philadelphia, Virginia and Tennessee!

 As we look back over the past year, we reflect on God’s goodness. We are thankful for all of you who have so faithfully prayed for us and supported our ministry with Wycliffe. And we are continuously energized and encouraged as we see what God is dong around the world!

This past year I had the privilege of continuing to work with a fantastic global communication team and with the Wycliffe Global Alliance leadership team. A wide variety of meetings and consultations took me to Panama, Thailand, Kenya, Mexico, Ethiopia, Germany, Republic of Georgia, New Zealand and Turkey. Tom and I were able to travel together to Panama and Mexico.

Ephesus

 It was a great joy to end the year’s meetings with a missiological consultation on the Alliance’s recently adopted Bible Translation Philosophy. This three-and-a-half day joint meeting of Wycliffe and SIL colleagues from around the world was organized around foundational concepts of the Philosophy Statement—the mission of God (missio Dei), holistic transformation, and community as the basis for translation program standards. It would take too long to explain all the implications of our discussions and time spent in Scripture, but this gathering was a wonderful example of how we see God bringing us to a greater understanding of His mission and how Bible translation can be a part of what He is doing through His Church. Over recent years there has been a major shift in the Wycliffe organizations from focusing on “our” mission and the “task” of Bible translation. With the growth and greater participation of the worldwide Church there has been a greater recognition of the whole Church participating together in His purposes for holistic transformation of people everywhere (including ourselves!). There is a new sense of unity, of reliance on God and of the importance of relationship with Him and with each other.

Baptistry at Church of St. John

The consultation was held in December in Turkey and included a half-day outing to Ephesus. Although the trip started out in the rain, it eventually cleared and we were able to spend several hours (not enough time!) touring the city and were able to read and reflect on Acts 19 while standing in the theatre area where Paul once stood. We also visited the nearby Church of St. John. There was something about seeing the baptistry there that particularly struck me. It was awe-inspiring to think of all the believers through the many centuries who have followed Christ in baptism. Today we see and hear of reports of people coming from all backgrounds, all walks of life and willing to obey and follow Christ, though many do so knowing they are putting their lives in danger just as Paul did. But we can all take courage in knowing that their lives and ours are in God’s hands.

 May you have a special sense of God’s presence and protection in this new year.

 “He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.”
 Ephesians 1:8-10, The Message

Tom continues his never-ending work of keeping Wycliffe.net running and is making constant improvements to the website. He also found time to once again participate in our community’s two-weekend Bethlehem event. You could find him in the crowd by listening for the sound of a flute in the midst of bleating sheep, brash centurions and pronouncements of the birth of the Messiah! Good news indeed!  

September 2014

It’s been a while since we’ve written, so we need to start with family news. There are two new family members since we last wrote!

Winslow Joy Roberts.

Kate and Jordan welcomed Winslow Joy Roberts on July 15. Kate tells about Winslow’s name:

Winslow is named for Octavius Winslow, a pastor and writer who lived in the 19th Century. We appreciate his continual emphasis on the Gospel. Jordan's father has read daily to his family from Winslow's 'Morning Thoughts' and 'Evening Thoughts' for many years. Baby Winslow's name is a way of honoring her parents' Christ-centered heritage--and we also had a reading from Octavius Winslow at our wedding!

Aurélie Anne Van Wynen

 and big sister, Wynnie

Josh and Heather, and big sister Éowyn (Wynnie) welcomed Aurélie Anne Van Wynen on September 13.

Heather wrote the following when they announced Aurélie’s birth:

We are pronouncing her first name "ah-RAY-lee," though it may also be pronounced "oh-RAY-lee" or "oh-ray-LEE," which would be closer to the French pronunciation. When I was little, I loved that my middle name, Renée, had an accent mark in it. I thought it was sophisticated and special! Wynnie's given name, Éowyn, also has an acute accent mark. When I saw the name Aurélie, I thought it looked and sounded so pretty and that it would be fun for my daughters to have the accented é in common in their names. We chose Anne after the fictional character in Anne of Green Gables. 

We were in Philadelphia with Kate and Jordan before Winslow was born, but then I had to leave for meetings in Ethiopia (it was sooo hard to leave!) so missed Winslow’s birth. But Tom was there, hanging out in the waiting area with Jordan’s parents and I was able to join them briefly on Skype! I came back to the U.S. via Philadelphia so got to spend a few precious days with little Winslow.

Wynnie turned three in August

We haven’t seen Aurélie yet, but will soon! Wynnie was holding her the other day and told her “Grandma and Grandpa are going to come to our house to see you and hold you and hug you. Aren’t you excited? Yes, you are!” We’re excited, too. And every day Wynnie asks if we are on our way. She also suggests that she should come back to Texas! We had her here for a week in May and it was a major success. She is the only family member who has ever spent the 16 hour drive from Colorado to Texas (it’s that long West Texas stretch that gets to most of us) saying cheerily, “I’m so excited we’re going to Texas!”

We are doing a lengthy road trip in October going to Colorado, Michigan (for Tom’s board meetings at ASM), Philadelphia and Tennessee. Fortunately I can read and work in the car! I think Tom sometimes solves major web problems as he drives, too. The change of scenery is good…especially when it includes three granddaughters!

The reason we are also stopping in Tennessee is the other bit of major family news! My parents moved back to Tennessee from Waxahachie last month. It all happened pretty quickly and their house here sold in a day! We miss them a lot but they love being back in Tennessee and they bought a nice home there in a retirement community that can provide care when and if they need it in the future. They are in the same general area where they were before, near Crossville. We drove (well, Tom drove) the moving truck up there, hauling our car behind so we could then continue our journey to meetings in Oregon after helping with a bit of the unpacking. 

Yes, in the midst of all these family events, work continues! Tom has been making lots of improvements to www.wycliffe.net and doing all it takes to keep the site running. We have a good team to help support the site, too. Craig and Anne Combs in Oregon who handle editing, posting and manage the flow of translations, Nancy Duncan in Dallas who does special projects, Rick Harman who handles the server stuff, and Josh who is doing a redesign for us!

You may recall that in our last newsletter (May 2014) I told you about the Missiological Consultations on Funding sponsored by the Wycliffe Global Alliance during 2013-2014. They started with a global meeting in Turkey, followed by regional meetings in Thailand, Kenya, Germany and Mexico.  What an honor to spend time in Scripture and conversation with colleagues all over the world as, together, we sought to discern God’s heart and mind concerning His mission and His resources. As I mentioned before, we wanted to identify what principles need to be in place for us to be good stewards of the many resources (not just money) God provides. We have been looking at what it means for all of us to be both givers and receivers. Following our leadership team meetings in Ethiopia, a small group of us met to go through the pages and pages of input from the consultations. The goal was to articulate some of the principles that emerged from these meetings. You can read more about the consultations and the principles on Wycliffe.net. I’ll keep you posted on some of the “what next” as the Alliance organizations continue to think about how to put all this into practice!

This year’s travels continue. I’ll be participating in communication meetings in the country of Georgia, working with a colleague for a week in New Zealand and attending a missiological consultation on Bible translation in Europe. It will take another newsletter to share some of the wonderful things we are seeing God doing through the Wycliffe Global Alliance organizations and the rest of His Church worldwide. So I will try not to leave such a gap between newsletters next time!

We do appreciate your prayers and support so much. Be sure to let us know how we can be praying for you. We pray for you anyhow, but it’s great to have specifics to pray for from time to time!   And please do keep our family in your prayers—

Praise and Petitions

Josh, Heather, Wynnie and Aurélie. Rejoicing over the new baby! Josh is now working fulltime for a web design firm so no longer has the ups and downs of a freelance income. That’s good news since Heather has now quit her job to be home with the girls.

Kate, Jordan and Winslow. Also rejoicing over little Winslow! Jordan is back in seminary after a summer of manual labor as a roofer. Kate has a part-time nanny job and is looking for editing and writing work. Jordan is also looking for part-time work. Pray that their faith will continue to grow as they look to the Lord to meet their financial needs.

My parents, Jerry and Marlene Roach. We are grateful that they are getting settled in their new home, are making friends and have already found a good church home.

Vivian, Tom’s stepmom, turned 91 last month and is still doing well, gardening and entertaining dinner guests, at her apartment in Dallas.

Tom and I need wisdom and discernment as we juggle work and other projects. I’ve also started a study program, so am excited about that! Pray we will use our time wisely.  We are grateful our schedules are flexible enough to allow for the occasional road trip to visit family while still keeping up with very busy jobs!

Ethiopia

Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Addis Ababa 

Our Wycliffe Global Alliance leadership team was privileged to learn about this ancient country from our Ethiopian colleagues during the week we met in Addis Ababa. Ethiopia has a long and rich Christian history. Ethiopia (once also known as  the ‘Land of Cush’) is referred to 15 times in the Bible. The Ethiopian eunuch who was baptized by Philip became a disciple in approximately 36 AD (Acts 8:27-39) and brought the gospel back to Ethiopia.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Church has a membership of between 40 and 45 million. Ethiopian Protestant congregations include 13.7 million people. The largest Protestant group is the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus, with about 5 million members. Mekane Yesus is also one of several Ethiopian Wycliffe Organizations. 

All 87 languages of Ethiopia are ‘national languages’ and are encouraged and supported by national organizations. The Ethiopian Wycliffe organizations are facilitating Bible translation in a number of these languages. But Bible translation is not new to Ethiopia. In 450-500 AD New Testaments books were translated into  Ethiopia’s Geez language. This was 1,000 years before any Scriptures were translated into English! 

May 2014

What happens when 100+ people, from almost as many countries, take time to read, think and pray about how God provides for our needs and His mission?

Over the past eight months, the Wycliffe Global Alliance hosted a series of five missiological consultations on the topic of “Funding God’s Mission.” The first consultation was held in Turkey. It included Wycliffe leaders (and other guests) from around the world. This meeting was followed by four regional consultations, attended by leaders from each of Wycliffe’s four Areas — Asia and Pacific (held in Bangkok), Europe (Germany), Africa (Kenya), and Americas (Mexico). I had the privilege of attending each of these consultations. It was wonderful to spend time in God’s Word with colleagues from around the world and to hear stories of how God is providing in their contexts.

One colleague from Indonesia told the story of a group of children in Jakarta who started praying for a Bible translation project in a specific language community. The story isn’t finished yet, but today these children, their parents, and their parents’ church and work colleagues are not only praying for the project, but also providing the needed funds. And it all started because this Indonesian Wycliffe leader was sent to speak to Sunday school kids instead of the adults! His initial disappointment quickly turned to joy and his story is a good reminder of how God works in ways we don’t expect and through people who are often overlooked or underestimated.

From Africa, there was the story of a language community that lost their external funding because of the U.S. financial crisis. As the local translation team re-evaluated their actual needs they realized they had the needed expertise and personnel to continue translation on their own, without outside personnel or finances. What they really needed was food so they could keep working! So the people of the community began donating food and the women of the community came together to cook. Soon they were all praying together as well! The translation was completed and when it came time to celebrate, they realized they could also do that without outside financial resources. “This is how it should be!” they said, as the whole community planned and celebrated together.

Story after story, God provided…through local people, through strangers far away, through children, through pennies, through cooking pots! And we each have our own stories. What’s yours? Our family has many examples of God’s provision…and many of you are a part of those stories. We continue to be amazed at how God has provided for us all these years through you!

The truths that come through over and over, all around the world, are that all things are God’s and that all things placed back in God’s hands multiply to meet the needs and to bless beyond measure or imagination. God will fund God’s mission and He is the source of all we need. That is true and good, but how do we move beyond acknowledging it to living it? And how do we live it, not only as individuals but as a community of organizations? That’s what we are exploring together.

We are looking at what principles need to be in place for us to be good stewards of the many resources God provides. We are looking at what it means for all of us to be both givers and receivers. We are looking at what happens when money isn’t considered the only resource or even the major resource. We are looking at what it means to think about and act on these things in community. There are some great examples in both the Old and New Testament. And we are also seeing wonderful examples in the lives of our colleagues, as well. And in our own lives! This gives you just a glimpse of where some of my travels have taken me in recent months…and why.

I attended Board meetings in El Salvador last month and then Tom joined me in Mexico City for the last consultation. We even had some time to explore on the weekend before the meetings started. I made it through the three days of meetings listening to the Spanish and understanding most of it, but was basically a mute. My listening is much better than my speaking! But that’s ok as I was primarily there to listen and encourage. Tom made up for my silence and thoroughly enjoyed working in Spanish for a few days.

Here’s an update from Tom on his progress with the Wycliffe.net website. As you can tell, he’s been
busy as usual!

• better maps for small countries / islands
• improved Language data pages:
  • added Language profiles, 
  • John 3-16 sound files 
  • more online Scripture listings 
    • FCBH : new Bible.is apps and iTunes links
    • added in the 740+ youVersion.org online resources 
    • some Deaf Bibles.
• new sections:
  • Spiritual Development: we now have a new section under Resources/Orientation.
  • Magazines and Collections section of www.wycliffe.net
    for a new series:Glossa Diaries

Lots of new stories have been going up, from around the world. Be sure to check back regularly, use the RSS feed options or follow the Wycliffe Global Alliance Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/WycliffeGlobalAlliance

Praise: we have finally made major progress on the new Identity system to allow all our Alliance organizations into our backend system. It is nearly ready for live use. This will improve accessibility and participation potential for many of the Alliance organizations.

Our family is doing well. They appreciate your prayers, too. My parents and Tom’s stepmom, Vivian, are all doing fine at the moment. Our kids are doing well, too. Josh and Heather and Wynnie are eagerly awaiting their next addition, due in September. And Heather just finished a semester of school that gives her all the
prerequisites to be able to go on for teaching credentials when the time is right. Kate’s husband, Jordan, just completed his first semester at Westminster Seminary and will be working as a roofer this summer. Kate’s nanny job just came to an end. With their baby due in early July, she is hoping to find writing and editing work she can do from home, since during the school year she is the main income provider. So please continue to pray! We appreciate your continued prayers and support. We’d also like to know how to pray for you. We do pray for you regularly, but it would be great to have some specific requests. So please let us know!

Spring 2014

I'm writing this from meetings at Taal,
outside Manila. Taal has a lake in a volcano
on an  island in a lake on an island in the ocean! 

Happy  newlyweds Jordan and Kate
 in their Philadelphia apartment.

Wynnie and Heather enjoying their Colorado snow. 

We continue to experience God's goodness and grace as we continue our journey through 2014. We are happy to announce this year will be highlighted by the arrival of two new grandchildren! Kate and Jordan are expecting a baby due in July.  Josh and Heather and soon-to-be big sister Wynnie are expecting a baby due in September. So it will be a big year for all of us. Thanks for praying for all our family!

Travels geared up gradually this year with a quick trip to Arizona and Southern California in January. We were able to be a part of a missions conference at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Prescott, AZ and visited family and friends in California. I also managed to get to Philadelphia to visit Kate and Jordan.

A very small picture of a
very large ship in the Panama Canal.

February found me (Susan) in Orlando, Bangkok and Panama. Tom was able to join me for our Wycliffe Global Alliance Leadership retreat and meetings in Panama. And, yes, we saw the canal! And we had the privilege of having a dinner with the staff of PAAM, a Panamanian organization that is training and preparing Panamanians for work in Bible translation and other global ministries. It was also a good time of catching up with our widely dispersed leadership team and their spouses.

I was home most of March, which meant I got to catch up with my own spouse :-), my parents, lots of work, and even started preparing the yard for spring which was so reluctant to come this year! (I'm sure it will all be lovely now that I'm not home to see it!)  I'm currently on a trip that takes me to Germany, the Philippines and Kenya. Tom is holding things together at home, but will be traveling to Michigan for Audio Scripture Ministries' board meetings this month. Along with all his other old sports injury-related pains, he now seems to have carpal tunnel in his wrist which is making computer work difficult. Very discouraging for a webmaster who spends at least 12 hours a day at his computer! Please keep him in your prayers.

I'll share more next time about what happens at all these meetings around the globe. We are most definitely seeing God at work in us and others everywhere we go! For now I just wanted to share a bit of news, encouragement and thank you for your faithful support and prayers. Thank you! We do appreciate each one of you so much!

Great Commission, Greater Promise--We are all familiar with the "Great Commission" in Matthew 28. In the context of this passage it says the disciples were worshipping the resurrected Christ, but also doubting. We're not sure just what they were doubting, but Jesus knew! So He reminded them that He had all authority and they'd have His presence. Understanding this context sheds a different light on "the Great Commission."

It seems like most of the emphasis is usually on verse 19, where Jesus says to "go." But if you look at those verses that wrap around verse 19, you get a better picture of the whole package. Jesus says all authority in heaven and earth is given to Him and that He will be with us always...so that,  we are able to go and make disciples because of His presence and through His power and authority. It isn't a commanded task that's all up to us. It is the gift of a gracious invitation to participate with Him in His mission. It's about Him and He will see it through. That's good news!