Christmas 2017

Last year, during meetings in Italy, we had the privilege of seeing the very “full” traditional Italian nativities. Each is a village scene with everyone from bakers (some with pizza ovens) to washerwomen, to children and dogs joining the shepherds and wisemen. The whole community celebrates the birth of the King!

T

hankful and Grateful—We are grateful for all that God has done and for who He is. And we rejoice in expressing our thanks to Him and to you.   So many undeserved blessings!

Dictionary.com defines the suffix “ful” as:  meaning “full of” or “characterized by”. So I write on this Thanksgiving weekend, looking toward Christmas and I wonder…am I thankful again at this holiday season? Or am I filled with the same gratitude I was filled with last Christmas? Is this a repeat performance or a static state of being? I’m thinking it shouldn’t be either! 

I’m thinking I should be increasing in capacity. I should be “fuller” this year than last, because as the years pass I have more knowledge and experience of God’s goodness. I can count and recount more of His blessings. But I should also be fuller of thanks and gratitude because there is a little less of myself to get in the way. I should be more full of Him and less full of myself. That means I should be less concerned for my own well-being and happiness. It means grace replaces greed, worship replaces worry, and His peace replaces my fears.  So this coming year, I truly want to increase capacity for His fullness in my life.

I hope this letter finds you experiencing His fullness and enjoying the holiday season.  We do want to express our thanks to you for your ongoing commitment to God’s mission and the ministry of Bible translation. Neither you, nor we, work directly in Scripture translation…but the ministry is so much bigger than even that very critical component! There is a great need for the Church to have a growing understanding of what God is doing and how they can participate. Together, as the body, we serve so God’s people can take part in seeing individuals and communities around the world have God’s Word in a language and format they understand so they, too, can experience His fullness. 

Statistics are only a part of the picture of Bible translation progress, but they offer an encouraging and challenging glimpse. New stats are now available at http://www.wycliffe.net/en/statistics. We’ve also included some of them with this letter. As you celebrate this Christmas, celebrate with those who may be reading or hearing of Christ’s birth for the very first time! And continue praying with us for the approximately 1600 language communities that may still need Scripture translation to begin. 

God is at work! You can explore more of wycliffe.net to get a glimpse of good news around the world. Tom is still hard at work on the day-to-day maintenance and ever changing needs of this website. Working in a global context means some long hours and strange hours as he connects with colleagues around the world.

My role has changed, again! As you may remember, last January, I moved out of Communication and into a Strategy role with the Wycliffe Global Alliance Leadership Team. Well, I’m still focusing on strategy and am still part of the team, but I’ve been given permission by our Executive Director and have been accepted by the University of Pretoria to pursue a PhD on behalf of the Alliance. I’ll be focusing on the concept of journey as a potentially more missiological and theological approach to strategic thinking. It’s what we’ve already been working on in the Alliance and now I’ll be able to do some substantial research and writing that, I hope, will serve Wycliffe and others well. It’s a privilege to be able to do this. This idea has been in the works for about three years, so it’s not a sudden decision, but it does seem to be the Lord’s timing to pursue this now. Because it is a research degree, it actually means I’ll be doing less travel for a bit and doing most of my reading and writing at home. Please pray with me! I’ll be sharing more about just what it entails in the near future.

Other changes may be coming. My parents are hoping to move out here and are in the process of trying to sell their house in Tennessee.  We’d appreciate your prayers for them and for us as we look at the options for the future. We will keep you posted!   In the meantime, they are in good health, particularly considering Mother just turned 86 and Daddy is 85!  

Our children and their families are doing well, too. Kate’s husband, Jordan, is finishing up his four years at seminary. He just has a two-unit independent study to do and will graduate next summer. They hope to move back to the Bronx after the first of the year. They will be ministering at the Bronx Household of Faith, the church they were both involved in prior to marriage, seminary and three children! We are in much prayer for their housing and financial situation and look forward to seeing how God provides. Josh and Heather and the girls will be with us for Christmas, so we are excited about that. And we are scrambling to get some of our house projects done in time!    

Life is full! And we are truly thankful and grateful…but ever wanting to continue to expand our capacity. As God brings more changes our way, we pray that we will meet them with grace and peace. And again, we thank you for your part in our lives and ministry. May you, too, find great capacity for enjoying and trusting in Christ and all the fullness He brings. Our hope is in Him.


Susan and Tom Van Wynen

We put our hope in the Lord. He is our help and our shield. In Him our hearts rejoice, for we trust His Holy name. Let your unfailing love surround us, Lord, for our hope is in you alone… Psalm 33:20-22 (NLT) 

September 2017

Dear Friends, Family, Teammates, Encouragers, Supporters in prayer and finance and in so many other ways,

I’m writing this from the airport in Mexico City. I spend a lot of time in airports and try to make it productive when possible! Tom is keeping things going at home, the never-ending Web work, plus his vegetable garden and house projects as time allows. 

Mapping the Americas Bible Translation Movement Journey was the theme of our small, informal meeting these past few days. It was a privilege to sit with some of our Americas leaders, past and present, and review how God has led over these past years. So much has changed since the time we served in Brazil in the 1990s. And it is nothing anyone could have planned. Only God can orchestrate in such amazing ways, on such a large scale and in such detail! At the time we were serving in the Americas, there was only one national Bible translation organization, ALEM, the Brazilian organization that served alongside SIL. Today there is an entire network of organizations in Brazil that serve as a part of the Wycliffe Global Alliance.

Celebrating with UNTI,
the Mexican Bible translation organization
of indigenous translators

And it’s not just Brazil by any means (did you know Brazil is the second largest missionary-sending country in the world?). There are now more than 40 organizations, networks and denominations in the Americas that are part of the Wycliffe Global Alliance.  That represents many thousands of people who are leading in Bible translation programs, training, sending, praying, providing funds and other resources. Many of these organizations are indigenous movements. That means the people we were once trying to “reach” are now the primary players in translation and other facets of the Bible translation movement. Translation used to feel rather like producing a product, even though there were many good outcomes and God used His Word to transform lives. But today we are seeing more people involved, relationships built, ongoing discipleship, church growth and changed lives and communities that are beyond what we could have imagined.

Another key shift is the role of the church. In times past there were often no local churches, or where there were churches, mission efforts were left to mission agencies. Today the church leads much of the Bible translation effort. And, together, we are the worldwide Church!

My part in the meetings we had this past week was to walk the team through their journey.   The goal was to document it in a way that would help them discern goals for the future and help other areas of the world as they seek to move forward on their journeys as well. We are taking a different approach from the standard strategic planning model and so far it seems to be helpful. Do keep praying as we continue to explore and discover together as we seek to follow God in His mission and as I find my way in this new role of facilitating strategy in the Alliance.

As we heard the stories of how God has been at work in the Americas, Psalm 40:5 kept coming to my mind. We read it several times during the meetings and it is oh, so true!

“Many, LORD my God,
are the wonders you have done,  
the things you planned for us.
None can compare with you;   
were I to speak and tell of your deeds,  
 they would be too many to declare.”

We have a busy fall coming up with guests, meetings at our house, three more overseas trips for me (UK/South Africa, Singapore, Germany), and trips for both Tom and me to Michigan and Texas. And then there is all the work to be done inbetween! No wonder our house projects are behind schedule. A number of Tom’s tools were stolen from our shed a few weeks ago, so that was sad and a set-back, too.

Our family is doing well. My parents have settled into yet another house. They are still in Tennessee, renting near where they’d been living and trying to sell the other house. So please pray! Kate’s husband, Jordan, has started his last semester of seminary. Kate’s been blessed to have a number of editing and proofreading jobs. Their children continue to grow and are a great challenge and a great blessing! Winslow is now three, Jude almost two and Noah is almost seven months. They will be moving back to the Bronx when Jordan finishes school and would appreciate your prayers regarding the transition, housing, new ministry, etc.

Josh and Heather and the girls are also doing well. Éowyn (Wynnie) at six, is becoming quite the young lady.  I love hearing her practice her reading when we talk on Skype and, a few weeks ago, I watched this very determined child work at threading a needle for more than 15 minutes. She did it! Wynnie goes to classes one day a week and they are home schooling the rest of the week. Aurélie turns three this month and is a bounce-off-the-walls, very bright, self-proclaimed goofball. She often changes her clothes four or five times during the course of my Skype calls with Wynnie. Aurélie rarely settles down for conversation or our book reading but will dash, dance and spin through the room in her tutu, princess dress, bathing suit, etc. combos. Great fun. We were able to see all the family in their respective homes this summer, and Kate and crew also spent a few days at our house in August.

We can’t even begin to thank you for your prayers and support. I hope you find some of the news we share as encouraging as we do. You are a part of the team, a great blessing to us and we want you to know how much that means. Thank you! Let us know how we can be praying for you.

Susan and Tom Van Wynen

P.S.  from Tom.

I wanted to share with you all a recent experience that reminded me that God is working in many ways in our lives and ministries, not just in the ways we are focused on.

In Bolivia, where I grew up from infancy until leaving for college, my parents were part of a Bible translation team focused on the various indigenous language groups of Bolivia. To operate the center where they lived and enable all the translation teams to focus on their work instead of survival, they hired many local people to do maintenance jobs.  Those people became partners in the work, even though many were not believers when they came.  Over the many years of living and working together, deep relationships developed.  Many of the expatriate people provided ongoing technical training and Bible studies to these friends and co-workers. Many of these colleagues became believers. 

When the translation and linguistic work was finished and the expats moved on to new projects in other countries, our local friends moved into new cycles of life as well. I had the privilege of seeing two of them, Ricardo and Anna, this past week, as they came to visit their daughter who lives in Washington, DC.  It had been many years since we’d been together!  It was very humbling to listen to their stories of how God has walked with them over the years.  They were married the year I left Bolivia for college; now, 44 years later, they have 10 children, 30 grandchildren and have been heavily involved in the evangelical church movement in Bolivia.  For many years, Ricardo was pastor of the church in the community that formed on the old translation center. Anna has worked closely with the women’s groups in various churches in the area.  Ricardo is now part of the Obra Evangelica Nacional – a nation-wide evangelical organization.  Some of their children are pastors in the local city and beyond. This couple is just one example of how God has continued to bless relationships begun many years ago. And He has done far beyond what anyone imagined. 

May 2017

Dear Friends, Family, Teammates, Encouragers, Supporters in prayer and finance and in so many other ways,
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

December 2016

Dear Friends, Family, Teammates, Encouragers, Supporters in prayer and finance and in so many other ways,

I just finished a conversation with our granddaughter, Wynnie. She’s five now. We were talking about possible names for her new cousin (Kate and Jordan are expecting a boy in February!). Wynnie had many creative suggestions ranging from “Zig Zag” to “Puppy.” Something tells me Kate and Jordan are not going to relinquish their right to choose their new son’s name! At least not to Wynnie! But it reminded me of something I read in Timothy Keller’s new book, Hidden Christmas. It’s a part of the Christmas story we don’t usually pay a lot of attention to.

The angel tells Joseph what he is to name his boy. In that patriarchal culture it was the father’s absolute right to name his child. He had complete rights over his children, and naming was a sign of control over the family. The angel, however, takes that away. By refusing to let him name Jesus, the angel is saying, “If Jesus is in your life, you are not his manager. This child who is about to be born is your manager.” p 58

Aurélie and Éowyn

Keller goes on to talk about how, to be a disciple of Christ, you need to commit to denying yourself. He says it takes courage. He also says it will lead to our true identity and “a lifetime of adventure.” I like that! And we have certainly found it to be true so many times, and I’m sure you have as well! 

Today I was also reading through some comments from Wycliffe leaders around the world. One of them said, “When the Wycliffe Global Alliance changed, so that all organizations became equal partners involved in the life of the Alliance, we felt respected and valued.” This leader was referring to the decision made last year by the 29 historical voting organizations of the Alliance. They chose, unanimously, to end their exclusivity in decision making. This meant that all Alliance Organizations (approx. 100 organizations) would now have equal voice. We talk a lot about leadership by example. This was a true example of leaders demonstrating self-denial. And as Keller says, it took courage. But what a worthwhile outcome…people in Wycliffe Organizations all around the world feeling respected and valued. And now we begin to see our true identity as we hear the voices of colleagues from everywhere! Next month we will share a bit more about where this adventure has taken us with a big picture of the Bible translation movements around the world.

Whatever courage it might take for us to deny ourselves, when we are not our own to begin with, is small in comparison to what God sacrificed for us. And yet we struggle. It’s a good time of year to remind ourselves of God’s gift and God’s love and this amazing lifetime of adventure to which He has called us.

Part of our personal adventure this year was moving from Texas to Virginia! Thank you for praying us through this transition. We still have several years of house projects, some unpacked boxes (awaiting refurbished rooms), and some missing pieces. But we are finding much joy in our new location and new home! We have made some progress on projects. We are grateful that the lower cost of this house meant it was possible to get a new roof and new boiler (yes, radiator heat!) it desperately needed. We have also painted, planted iris, and are working on some kitchen remodeling (electrical and plumbing, plus sacrificing and shuffling cupboards) that will enable us to fit in a microwave and a dishwasher. One of the great things about this house is that it is in an ideal location for people in search of a holiday and eventually we will have plenty of bedroom space. So do consider a visit!

before

after

More changes are ahead. As of January 1, my role in the Wycliffe Global Alliance is changing. I’ll be moving from Director for Strategy and Communication to Director of Strategy. To be honest, I was not able to give much attention to strategy while serving in Communication. But we finally have a very capable person to take on Communication! You may recall me asking you to pray for Phil Prior and his family. Keep praying for them as he is the person taking on my Communication role. I will continue to serve on the Alliance leadership team and am looking forward to this major new challenge of helping the Wycliffe Global Alliance in its strategic journey. We’ve been taking a very new and different approach and I’ll be sharing more about that with you in the future! It has already been so rewarding to see how God is directing. I had come to the decision a month or so ago that Phil was ready to take on Communication. But just before talking about this with Kirk, our Executive Director and my supervisor, Kirk said he had something to ask me. What he wanted to know was when I would be ready to move into strategy fulltime!  

Tom continues in his role as webmaster for Wycliffe.net. Phil is his supervisor now and we are looking forward to new things happening with the website and, we hope, some eventual help for Tom!   His workload is way too heavy for one person and has been for a very long time. But he, too, is loving living here in Virginia and dreams of getting a small boat once the house projects slow down.

Winslow

Jude

We hope you are enjoying a wonderful Christmas season with friends and family and pray for God’s rich blessing on you in the coming year. We also want to take this opportunity to thank you for your part in this ministry with us. We could not do what we do without your support and encouragement. Thank you! We appreciate you so much!

Susan and Tom Van Wynen

July 2016

Dear Friends, Family, Teammates, Encouragers, Supporters in prayer and finance and in so many other ways,

We haven’t written in a while so you may have thought we fell off the face of the earth! We did not, but we have moved a little closer to the edge…

We have officially moved to Hampton, Virginia, just a few blocks from the edge of the Chesapeake Bay. Keeping in mind that we did this while also working our regular jobs, plus three overseas trips for me (Germany, South Africa and UK & Germany again), we hope you will forgive us for not updating you sooner. If you follow us on Facebook you at least know what our former and current house look like, but although I wrote two newsletters in recent months I never got them ready to the point of sending them out. And they are so quickly outdated! I will post one on our blog in case you are interested in some thoughts from our Global Gathering in Thailand in May. In the meantime, I’m determined to get this one out before it, too, reaches its shelf life expiration date.

First, we want to thank you for your prayers during this time of transition! It has been a busy and often challenging move, but we’ve seen God’s hand of protection and guidance all along the way. And we are grateful for your prayers!

To keep this as brief as possible, here’s a bit of timeline to bring you up to date:    

Leading up to April: Lots of house projects in Texas! Painting, a whole new bathroom, finished laundry room, etc... It was the culmination of 11 years of labor and love put into the house in Waxahachie.

April 19 and onward: We listed the house for sale. By evening we had one good offer and another the next day! We took the second offer and I packed fifty boxes that weekend then headed for Thailand for 2 ½ weeks of meetings while Tom kept packing and finishing house projects (small, but time consuming things that showed up in the inspection report). He also loaded up a small moving truck and his truck and hauled most of his tools and bamboo, etc. to his cousin’s in North Carolina (not too far from where we now live).

Saturday, May 22:  I got back home to Texas and we packed the truck and portable storage cubes while our street was being paved. After 8 months of on and off street work, we seemingly synchronized our calendars to be moving the day they were paving! But the neighborhood now looks lovely with a new street and street lights, etc. for the new occupants. We were grateful for the help of several neighbors and the De Dios crew who helped get some of the heavier stuff loaded!

Monday, May 24: Closed on the house in Texas. We had expected this bit to go smoothly but Tom lost the keys to our moving truck (we found them later in the day at Starbucks where we’d gone several times for coffee and Wi-Fi access) and the buyers had several very last minute requests we had to take care of (long story!). We’d planned to drive through to my parents’ in Tennessee that day but with the late start ended up at a motel with our moving truck and trailer (we towed the car)  and then went on to my parents’ the next day.

Into June: We stayed at my parents’ a few days then went on to Hampton. Put our truckload in a storage unit. Stayed with Schutts, a lovely, hospitable couple we met a year and half ago when we first checked out Hampton. Had the holiday weekend to try to catch up on work, then spent an afternoon house hunting with our great realtor, Zach. Made an offer on a house, but our offer was too low. The house was really nice and move-in ready. (But oddly enough, even while hoping to get this sparkling house with a brand new kitchen, in my mind I was redoing the house we actually ended up getting!)   Looked at houses another day the next week and made an offer on 141 Chancellor Road.

June 6: Our offer on the little brown house on Chancellor was accepted! Apparently the Lord was encouraging us to take on another project house! I headed off for meetings in Germany.

June 10 and following: Official house inspection. We also spent some time with Kate and Jordan and their family in Pennsylvania. Tom finally met Jude and we had great fun with both him and Winslow. Then I was off to meetings in South Africa. By now we were staying with Lynn, another friend, in Virginia Beach. She left for several weeks so Tom stayed on in her house and did a few house repairs for her to help earn our keep! We are thankful for generous friends and for God working out all the timing.

Wed, June 29: (I’m back home) We closed on the house. 141 Chancellor is ours! So grateful to the Lord for His provision!

June 30 and beyond: Started painting and floor refinishing on June 30. We worked over 4^th July weekend. Then set a pattern for the next few weeks of working on our Wycliffe stuff mornings and nights at our friend’s in Virginia Beach and working on the house from late morning until evening.

July 8: move into our house! Just a mattress on the floor but we’re in! And we have internet so can work as well!

Floor refinishing and interior painting of living room, dining room, downstairs bedrooms and hall took way more time than planned. Finally…

July 20, we unloaded the cubes and they were taken away July 22. We started unpacking…but I left for meetings in Germany on the 23^rd. I’m writing from Germany but headed home tomorrow, the 31^st. In the meantime Tom has been working, putting up shades, dealing with paperwork, putting bookcases together, etc.

My parents arrive for 10 days next weekend. We hope to find the missing bed parts before then!

We are grateful to God for providing this new home. It’s closer to my parents and to Kate and family. And with a little time and effort we will have space for everyone! Come visit! (well, maybe not all at once!) This house is actually smaller than our last one but has two bedrooms downstairs and two upstairs so is a better plan for guests. And we are just a few blocks from the Chesapeake Bay!  We look forward to making memories with family and friends that will make this house feel like home.

We will get back to telling you more about how God is at work around the world in our next newsletter, but wanted to let you know how He’s been at work in our relocation. We’ve been meeting neighbors and visiting a good church nearby. Pray we will know how to build relationships and good community. And thank you again for your prayers during this time of transition!

Susan and Tom Van Wynen

new address:
141 Chancellor Rd.
Hampton, VA  23661

May 2016

A Sense of Wonder

As usual, I hesitate to speak of meetings, for fear you will skip this section, or, worse yet, fall asleep. But I will continue, nonetheless, in trying to describe to you just how unlike meetings our meetings really are. It seems a worthwhile endeavor because we have seen God at work in ways I have not seen before…and because these “meetings” are really fun!

Wonderful, is an adjective so overused it has nearly lost its very essence. But think again and consider what it is to be full of wonder. We were a wonder-full assembly this past week. I heard one colleague, a Wycliffe  missionary kid like Tom, talk about his "sense of wonder" as he arrived at the Wycliffe Global Gathering. Waiting in the registration line, he realized he was standing next to a man from the Terena people group his parents had gone to work with many years before. The Terena man pulled out his mobile phone and showed him the Terena Scriptures online. God had fulfilled the vision of God's Word in the hands and hearts of the Terena people of Brazil. And provided a way for all to have access!

Another facet of this story is that this Terena man is now one of many indigenous leaders in the global Bible translation movements. That was just one of the wonderful ways God showed how He is bringing the nations to himself. He revealed Himself in many ways in that Thailand hotel this past week. Leaders from more than 80 Wycliffe Global Alliance Organizations gathered. The vast majority are from the global south and east. We are no longer an organization of primarily Westerners. About 10% of the organizations are Indonesian. Quite the statistic considering Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world.  People tend to forget there are also millions of Indonesian Christians! Almost a dozen church denominations were also represented. They, too, are now Wycliffe Global Alliance organizations. This is a very different Wycliffe than the one we knew just a few years ago! We used to have voting organizations (mostly western), non-voting orgs, partner orgs, and guest orgs. Today there are fewer categories but even greater diversity of representation.

Back to the wonder! Worship time included music in many languages. The board chair from Slovakia prayed an ancient Christian Slavic chant and shared how the gospel came to his region many centuries ago. We had an event called the Third Table where participants from each major region of the world gave and received gifts from each cultural region. Gifts like “friendship, relationship,” “servant leadership,” and “hospitality/generosity” were described and embraced by the whole group. The rich discussions of these gifts led to greater understanding and greater intercultural potential for the Alliance. The greater the understanding--the deeper the friendships. The deeper the friendships--the greater the opportunity to display the unity and diversity of the body of Christ. 

Worship time was also spent exploring and reflecting on community. Just as we are blessed to be part of the Alliance community, we are also blessed to be in community with you! It is a privilege to encourage and support one another in prayer and friendship and we are also so grateful for your financial support of this ministry in which we serve.

As my plane prepares to land in Dallas, I'm preparing myself to hit the ground running and rejoin Tom in our packing and moving efforts! Yes, we are moving! After all the house projects and talk of moving, it's now coming together very quickly. We close on our house on Friday, so by next week will be looking for a new home in the Hampton, Virginia area. Hard to believe! We have so many good memories from this house and look forward to making new memories with family and friends in the new house. Thanks for your prayers! We look forward to being closer to Kate and family, to my parents and closer to water...and further from allergies...we hope! We can continue our work from anywhere with Internet and an airport, so are grateful for this opportunity. We will send you our new address when we have one!

Thank you again for your part in ministry with us and with Him,

Susan and Tom Van Wynen

February 2016

“…to those who are called, wrapped in the love of God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ. May mercy, peace, and love be lavished on you!” JUDE 1:1B-2

Jude Raphael Roberts

We’re introducing this letter with words of encouragement from the book of Jude, and we also want to introduce you to our new grandson, Jude Rafael Roberts, born November 13, 2015! God has lavished love on Kate’s family as she and Jordan and newly proclaimed big sister, Winslow (now a year-and-a-half) have joyfully welcomed Jude. They are doing well, making all the usual adjustments and cherishing their darling family and whatever sleep is available in their very busy life as Jordan has begun his third year of seminary in Philadelphia and Kate continues to admirably juggle motherhood and writing and editing work from home.

Josh and Heather, Wynnie and Aurélie are doing well, too. Wynnie, four, is taking ballet again and is full of creative ideas and energy. Aurélie, almost one-and-a-half, is full of smiles and has a twinkle of mischief in her eyes as she trails after her big sister. We are grateful for Skype for staying in touch with both families as we don’t get to visit them as often as we’d like!

Here on the homefront, we are in high gear to get moving…literally. After more than 10 years in Waxahachie, Texas, we are ready to relocate. Our work with the Wycliffe Global Alliance allows us to work from anywhere with internet and an airport, so now that we no longer have family in the area, we are ready to move! Over the past ten years we’ve had Josh and Heather living with us (mostly while we were away, traveling for two years), Kate lived with us while she finished college and made her various forays to Brazil and New York. Tom’s dad and Vivian lived near us in Duncanville during most of our Texas years. And my parents lived with us for three months and then in their own Waxahachie home for four years before moving back to Tennessee in 2014. We’ve had good years here, lots of great times with family and guests and we’ve loved our house, but we never envisioned staying in Texas! We’d like to be closer to at least part of the family, closer to water and further from allergies.

At this point we are pushing hard to get our house ready to sell. That, plus work is keeping us super busy! We hope to have the house up for sale by April and are seeking the Lord’s will and wisdom for where to next! Our primary region of focus is the Hampton/Newport News area in Virginia. Totally new territory for us, but a decent day’s drive to both Kate and family and to my parents, not tooo cold for too long in the winter, near water and, we hope, affordable! It’s further from Josh and Heather in Colorado and from the California family members, but we hope to have a large enough home for stay-awhile company! Please pray with us as we contemplate and work towards this major change!

Tom has been working on various web tools and fixes on wycliffe.net Major items: we are doing an update to the topic categories, He found a new partner to work with to collect better data on online Scripture to list and this week he just learned that Google is making major changes to the PicasaWeb service that we use for all our image handling. We are grateful for more colleagues getting involved with the content of the Wycliffe.net site and are also encouraged when we hear how the resources and stories on the site are being used by Wycliffe organizations, churches and others all around the world! Please continue to pray that we can find someone to work alongside Tom on the technical aspects of the site.

You may recall we asked for prayer for Phil Prior and his family as they were raising their support and planning to join our communication team. Thanks for praying! Phil is officially joining the team in April. This is a huge answer to prayer! He will be taking the leadership of the “public face” of Wycliffe Global Alliance communication. That means oversight of all the online resources, branding and lots of other facets of the work that I’ve been handling or that just weren’t being handled at all! Do continue to pray for the Priors.

In January I traveled to Amsterdam and Manila for meetings with some of our leadership team, with a newly forming video team, and with communication colleagues from Asia.  There is tremendous potential for sharing so many more stories of what God is through His Word and His people and to encourage all of His Church to participate with Him.

Paul Machira’s story is an example of what we are seeing all around the world. Check out http://www.wycliffe.net/articles?id=6233 to read the full story of how God spared Paul’s life and gave him a new vision and a new mission. Here’s just an excerpt to whet your appetite—

Paul is convinced that the Church in Kenya is now completely able to support Bible translation and other aspects of God’s mission, but they have not yet fully responded. He and his colleagues have taken this as a challenge, passionately sharing this vision with universities, primary and secondary schools, churches and corporations.

“[We] go out there and say, ‘Hey, wait a minute. Christianity, when it came to Africa, came to Kenya through missionaries from Europe. Why are we still depending on their great, great, great grandchildren to fund missionary activities in Africa, in Kenya, at a time such as this? Isn’t it time that we rose up and took charge of mission work?’”

They build awareness about Scripture translation needs and seek support for *BTL’s Bible translation efforts. What really excites them is that they are seeing Kenyan believers and churches become increasingly inspired to participate in God’s mission.

*BTL is a Wycliffe Alliance organization in Kenya

Financial Update

As we are getting into 2016, we thought it would be good to share our financial update with you. Over the past five years we’ve been blessed with installments of a legacy gift from Tom’s Aunt Martha. These extra funds helped us with everything from Kate’s wedding to our car to day-to-day grocery bills and life. We felt especially blessed to be able to give some help to our kids during this time. But this bonus blessing has come to an end…and our regular support doesn’t even quite get us to the quota level Wycliffe recommends for our day-to-day life. We have wonderful, faithful partners in prayer, giving and encouragement. We are grateful for each one of you! Some of our ministry partners have joined us in recent years, but most have been with us for many years… and a number have gone to be with the Lord. Will you pray with us about finding some additional prayer and financial supporters? As we participate in God’s mission together we are trusting Him to provide!

Thank you for your faithful prayers and support!