I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:16-19
We are already a third of the way through 2017. It’s a challenge to make the most of our time when it goes so quickly! We are blessed to have full and busy lives, but also want to take opportunities to reflect, be grateful, and notice what God is doing along the way.
As I mentioned in our last newsletter, I began a new job in the new year. Having turned the Communication Director role over to the capable hands of Phil Prior, I’ve begun my new role as Director for Strategy for the Wycliffe Global Alliance. I’m still part of the same leadership team, so there are many things that haven’t changed. But I’m needing to look at and think about things with a fresh perspective. It’s a great joy and humbling experience to take on this new role. Tom continues as Webmaster for the Alliance site, www.wycliffe.net. Phil is his new supervisor and together they are making plans for some major website changes. Pray for Tom as he tackles yet another site overhaul! He’s also in dialogue with the team at the Digital Bible Society to partner on some data sharing regarding Bible translation progress and needs.
As usual, travels are a major part of our story. Our story is really all about people and relationships, but the travels are what allow us to connect (along with email, Skype, etc.!) Here’s a brief overview of the year so far:
Johannesburg, South Africa—In-depth dialogue with our Alliance Missiologist, Stephen Coertze, was a good start for my new role. It’s important that our Alliance strategies have a strong missiological and theological foundation. I spent a week at the Coertze’s in January. Stephen’s wife, Lezelle and their two young adult kids were still on school break, so I had a fun time with the family and a profitable time workwise.
Bangkok, Tokyo, Singapore—Tom and I traveled together for three weeks in February. The Alliance Communication team met in Bangkok. It was a long-wished-for and long-awaited gathering of the whole globally dispersed team (20+ people from at least 10 countries) and a good chance for lots of creative thinking, Phil’s “coronation” as I jokingly referred to the handoff, and my farewells. I’ll see some, but probably not all, of the team again. So many blessings, seeing the team God put together and allowed me to oversee during the past eight years. It was also the end of serving in a Communication-related role with Wycliffe for more than 30 years!
One of the highlights of our time in Bangkok was when another hotel guest approached Florence, a colleague from Kenya and asked if we were a “church group.” She explained who we were and asked why he thought we were a “church group.” He responded, “Only a church group could have this sort of diversity all working together.” This is just a small example of the testimony we can have as believers, God’s people living and serving in community, in diversity and unity.
Tom and I also had the privilege of spending almost a week with Fukudasan and Aiko, colleagues in Japan. Fukudasan is our Alliance “Spiritual Ambassador” and also very active in ministry in Japan. He is the former Wycliffe Asia Pacific Director. He has a loose reporting relationship to me, but it is all very collegial. I have great respect for Fukudasan and was glad to spend some time with him and Aiko. Among other things, Fukudasan had been doing a bit of research on my behalf to learn more about how different cultures perceive the idea of “journey.” This is going to be important to our Alliance strategy as we are basing it on a journey model or concept rather than strictly following a traditional strategic planning model. While in Tokyo we also visited the Wycliffe Japan office and interacted with the small team there. In addition, we attended the Fukuda’s church and spoke and participated in a prayer meeting. Tom also had the opportunity of sharing flutes with their musically talented pastor.
From Tokyo we backtracked to Singapore for our Alliance Leadership Community retreat. It was a good time of catching up with the other Directors, Consultants and spouses. We particularly value the time we spend sharing and praying for each regarding personal and work-related concerns and blessings. These times help us stay connected as we work as a virtual team scattered worldwide most of the year.
Philadelphia—Welcome Noah Keith Roberts! Born February 13, while we were in Japan. Kate, Jordan, Winslow and Jude welcomed their new little one in our absence, but we arrived back in Philadelphia not quite two weeks later. Tom stayed a few days and then headed home. I stayed about a week and half to help out and to help unpack. God blessed the family with a wonderful big, old house to rent this year while Jordan finishes seminary! Noah is thriving and Kate and Jordan could still use a couple months backlog of sleep. But all are doing well! Germany—In March, I had the privilege of attending the Wycliffe Global Alliance consultation on Global Leadership in Community. There were 42 Participants from 27 countries! Discussions included understanding the mission of God, making space for the next generation to flourish, humility, serving as community, serving in unity, friendship as an attribute of God and example to us, vulnerability, ambiguity and messiness, intentionality…There is an almost indescribable richness when you get such a wide range of God’s people sharing their hearts and experiences and contexts, being open to hearing and understanding each other, and together seeking God’s best.
Israel—We never imagined being able to visit Israel, but in April, Tom and I attended the annual meetings of the Forum of Bible Agencies, International. This year they were held in Jerusalem! We enjoyed three days of fellowship and meeting with leaders of the other Forum organizations and particularly appreciated the tours included in our meetings. We stayed a few additional days, over the weekend, along with our Executive Director, Kirk Franklin and his wife Christine, and another colleague, Bryan Harmelink. All of our time was in Jerusalem, so it was just a taste of Israel. But although we didn’t wander widely, we wandered deep! We explored several levels of the ancient city, including Hezekiah’s tunnels. It would take an additional newsletter to even begin to share our thoughts and experiences. But one of our major reflections was on just how very human Jesus had to become to live and die for us. The dust, the crowds, the chaos and complexity of cultures and politics. We saw enough to imagine more. We were there the week before Easter, so also found ourselves all the more grateful that our faith is based on a relationship with a living Savior, not a place or a ritual, but a Person. He is risen! Indeed!
The day after we returned from Israel we had the joy of hosting Kate and Jordan and family, Josh and Heather and family, and my parents! Our little house was very full! Josh and crew stayed for the week, the others for about four days. It was great fun to have all the little cousins together. Not everyone had met Jude (now almost one-and-a-half and no one had met Noah (born in February). We also got to introduce Josh’s girls to their first ocean experience! They loved it. That made them and their beach born and bred Grandma very happy. One of these days I want them to see and experience the “proper” ocean (the Pacific ;-)), but our Chesapeake Bay setting is ideal for little ones. Small waves and shallow waters a good way out from shore. We also fit in a Williamsburg outing.
Now we are catching up on work and hoping to somehow get some yard and house projects underway again, as well. Tom is at ASM Board meetings in Michigan as I write this. I leave next Saturday for Alliance Board meetings in Puerto Rico and then on to Germany for Europe Area meetings.
Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement!
Susan and Tom Van Wynen
