Autumn 2022 Update

Dear friends and family,

Ha, who said anything about the UK having a ‘milder climate’ in their last update?! Definitely wasn’t us…. ahem. :-)

Regardless, we hope this email finds you well and you’ve had a good last few months, whether that’s been your summer (northern hemisphere), your winter (southern hemisphere) or just hot and dry/wet (anywhere in between)! It’s been a good but busy few months for our family. Thank you for your continued support and prayers.

Whole Life Support

You may remember that last year a significant amount of Matt’s time was spent facilitating an online training course on grant writing (read about it here). Recently one of Matt’s colleagues caught up with a participant and shared this encouragement:

“I just had lunch with Susie*. I was encouraged to hear her stories, including how she found the Grant Writing training really helpful not just as for equipping, but also providing a space where she could shift her focus away from the fear and emotions from time to time to cope with all that was happening in her country. She said thank you!” (*name changed for security)

This short feedback captures so much about the nature of our work: on the one hand it shows how interconnected and complex it is, while at the same time it highlights why we think it’s worth doing! The skills training Matt’s team provides to colleagues around the world is clearly important, it equips them to make a positive difference in their local communities. Yet at the same time, the training and events are always about so much more than upskilling. Oftentimes, these events provide unique opportunities for people to gather with like minded people, to feel encouraged and supported in their efforts, and to know that they are not alone.

We hope this encourages you in the way it did us - your partnership with us makes support and training like this possible! It made us think about this video from Wycliffe UK. You may remember it from a few years ago but its a good reminder of some of the wide ranging impacts of our work.

Whole Life Provision

You will likely be aware that over our 15 years working with Wycliffe our financial status has been mixed - sometimes regularly receiving the money we need, other times not (but still getting by), and sometimes being surprised by one off gifts! We’ve seen people stop or reduce their monthly gifts due to changes in their circumstances, people increase their gifts, and new people join the team. Throughout it all our finances have added up, and we give thanks to God for his provision through you for this!

We’ve tried not to talk about this every time we write - we know it gets dull - but over the last year or so we’ve found ourselves consistently below Wycliffe’s agreed monthly budget, and currently we have a deficit of around £300 per month. And so it’s important we share this challenge with you. Would you be able to help us make up this difference? In particular:

1. If you are already one of our regular financial supporters - firstly, thank you! And secondly, if you haven’t reviewed your regular gift in a little while, please could you consider if you are able to increase it at this time?
   Did you know that £20 in 2007 would need to be £28 to have the same spending power in 2022?

2. If you are not yet a regular financial partner with us, might you consider starting up a monthly gift?

We appreciate that a lot of people’s finances are stretched at this time, so thank you for considering our request. And, whether or not you're in a position to act, please do join us in praying for God’s provision. One other way you could practically help is to connect us with others who might be interested in hearing more about what God is doing through minority languages around the world. Whether that’s individuals or churches, specific opportunities to speak or share about our work, or other creative avenues to grow our network, we’re all ears!

One thing we’ve tried to do to help explain our work is to update and simplify some of our background information. We hope this will make it easier for people to understand the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of our work. Please do take a look at our new ‘About Us’ page (link also in the menu above). We’d love to hear your reflections… such as: “What, you do that?!” “I always thought it was because…”! ;-) But seriously, please do share any thoughts you have about how we could improve that resource.

Whole Life Rhythms

The arrival of autumn here in the UK signals the start of a particularly busy period for us as a family. Matt is currently preparing for teaching on the module that he heads up, and will be down at Moorlands teaching over the next couple of months. Liz is busy organising the restart of children's ministry at church, and the kids are enjoying getting into their school routines. In it all, we are thankful for the peace and safety we are fortunate to enjoy - something many people around the world can’t take for granted.

We recognise that the last few weeks may have been difficult for many of us, with lots of unexpected changes, and the next few months will present some ongoing challenges. Please let us know how we can be praying for you.

Sending lots of love, Matt, Liz, Levi and Anya