Dear Friends,
2025, it hardly seems possible! We still remember 2000 being
a big deal. And it was. God saw us safely into a new millennium, a new century,
a new decade. We do not take that for granted! And now, it is already 2025. We
look forward to what God has in store.
2024 was a busy and, in some ways, transitional year,
alerting us to life changes and assuring us God was still with us and that He
would provide ongoing opportunities for service and for continuing to grow in
Him. We’ve been serving with Wycliffe Bible Translators for almost 40 years.
Some of you have been with us on the entire journey! We are so grateful.
Tom has adjusted well to retirement. House projects (ours,
and for friends and family) keep him more than busy. Plus, he has endless
interests and hobbies to fill any downtime. He had a bit of a health scare this
summer. We never got solid answers to what was going on but he recovered and
took it as a wake-up call for more physical exercise.
Our Executive Director asked me to stay on, so I've happily
agreed to serve until the end of September of this year…and remain on call, but
not officially working, past that. So, I
am still working fulltime. Tom and I were able to go to Colombia together for
the Alliance Leadership Team (ALT) in July, as spouses were invited. And I was
also in South Africa this fall for almost two weeks for our Wycliffe Global
Gathering. More on that in a moment!
2025 is shaping up to be a very full year! I have ALT
meetings in Singapore in February and will also, Lord willing, be holding three
workshops in Asia during Feb-March in Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan. Please
join me in prayer as I prepare and pray as we help Wycliffe leaders (and
possibly some church leaders) explore what it means to approach organizational
strategy from the perspective of a God-led journey. My only other travel
scheduled at this point is our ALT meeting in Kenya in July. I suppose that
will be my last ALT meeting! It has been an amazing privilege to serve in
leadership with the Wycliffe Global Alliance since it began in 2008. I’m the only
original member still on the team. The relic! 😊
Also on the schedule for 2025 is a major event in August.
Josh and Heather and the girls have announced an impending new arrival! Pray
for them as they prepare for another sweet baby! Pray for Heather and the baby to be strong
and well in these coming months.
Kate and Jordan’s family hope to move to the house near
their church sometime in the next few months. Major repairs and renovations are
underway to turn this long-time “institutional” facility back into a family
home. We hope to go to NY in early February to again help with some projects.
We are so grateful for both of our kids’ families and how we see them all
growing in the Lord…parents and children!
My parents celebrated their 72nd anniversary in
November! Both of the kids’ families and Tom and I went to Tennessee to be with
my parents for Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, Daddy had just come down with
shingles so it wasn’t quite the celebration we’d hoped for. But the cousins had
a great time together and we enjoyed family time as well. It was the first time in several years that
we were all together. Daddy is still in a lot of pain. Please keep him and my
mom in your prayers! Mother continues to lead a Bible study in their retirement
home. A number of new people have been attending. For some it is their first
time to truly hear the gospel.
I want to share a little more about the Wycliffe Global
Gathering and an update on the progress of Bible translation. We had not had a
global face-to-face meeting in eight years. We are supposed to meet every four
years, but as you recall no one did much face-to-face in 2020! I can’t even begin to describe the 2024
Gathering. I’ve participated in our international meetings since the 1990s, but
this was a breakthrough year. So much has changed regarding who is involved and
how they are involved. God is truly gathering His people for His purposes and
the worldwide Church is growing and responding like never before. This meeting
included more than 200 Wycliffe leaders from around the world and some
additional partners as well and our South African hosts made us all feel
welcome. When we first started with the Alliance almost 20 years ago, there
were about 40 organizations. Today there are more than 100. You can get a taste
of the worship, community and joy we experienced during our week together by
going here to find video, photos and articles.
https://www.wycliffe.net/what-we-do/events/global-gathering-2024/
Here are just a few of the testimonies from leaders who
attended:
• ‘I was expecting a meeting of reports, etc., but I came to experience and worship God and grow in my relationship with him and with my colleagues. Beyond expectation.’
• ‘We have so many friends across the Alliance who are ready and willing to help. We simply need to connect and discern how that might work going forward. The personal, face-to-face interactions made a huge difference in getting that collaboration moving forward.’
• ‘Before the Global Gathering, I had a vision that was more focused on the challenges and realities of my own context, but now I have a much broader perspective. Meeting people from different parts of the world, understanding their challenges, and seeing how Bible translation impacts different cultures in different ways has helped me understand the global nature of the work we do. I came away with a renewed vision of the importance of international collaboration in the translation mission.’
Some of you may remember that way back in 1999, Wycliffe and
partners adopted Vision 2025, a commitment to discern the Lord’s leading for
how to reach the remaining language communities that needed Scripture in their
language. We will share more in another letter this year, but you can find a
good visual update at https://wycliffe.org/vision-2025/
. It wasn’t so much about the date, 2025, as about the willingness to put
everything before the Lord, work differently, increase collaborative efforts,
and increase prayer. God has blessed these efforts as we have acknowledged that
it is His mission and His desire to reach the world with His Word. We have seen
more partnerships, more progress, and deeper commitments from churches,
communities, and individuals around the world than ever before in history. Stay
tuned for further updates!
And again,
thank you so much for your prayers and support!
Tom and Susan
