Spring 2025 Update

Dear friends and family,

Let us be totally honest with you, we were very tempted to copy and paste last Spring’s update here and see if anyone noticed… 😱! Not because we think you don’t store all our news in your quick recall memory (what else is there to think/worry about really in 2025?!), but because the start of 2025 has somewhat mirrored the beginning of 2024, at least in terms of work focus.

At the beginning of February, Matt was once again at a Faith and Farming workshop, but instead of being in northern Thailand, this year he was in Florida, delivering training for colleagues from across the Americas (and beyond). While the basis for the training was the same as that in Thailand, the teaching team, participants and focus was very different. It was fantastic to be able to extend our collaboration with ECHO from their Asia office to their North America team, and this event was based at their North America Impact Centre with a view to providing training at a new base in central america in the future. As well as a wide variety of participants from across the Americas, we also had participants from Africa (again, with a view to deliver training there again in the coming months/year) and even as far afield as Oceania! 

Being based at ECHO’s impact centre was intentional, as was holding the event in February–the ‘cool’ time of year in southwest Florida–as it gave us the unusual opportunity to host a whole training week outdoors! Given the focus of this training, it was fantastic to be able to use one of their covered but open sided workshop spaces that enabled us to be so connected to nature, seeing the ibises wander past in the morning and the red cardinal making its nest were real highlights! It also gave us the opportunity to make full use of the practical demonstration plots available around the farm, and hear first hand from the ECHO interns about how they see faith and farming connecting in their daily lives.

Here are a few of their reflections as they spent time thinking about the connections between faith, the Bible and farming in their contexts:

“There are so many connections between faith and farming that we often miss - 75% of the parables are about farming!”

“I loved experiencing nature and seeing and learning the connection with Scripture.”

“Seeing the content in action was encouraging and edifying. It gave hope and inspiration!”

“Your unity [between people presenting] was noticed and appreciated.”

If you’d like to get a bit more of a flavour about the event you can see the narrative Matt created during the event again here. And if you’re ever in the neighbourhood, the centre is open to visitors for guided tours, so do look in!

Back in Blighty, Liz continues to balance her work with church and school with her professional development studies. She’s enjoying studying again, even if finding time to write assignments isn’t easy! The kids are getting on well - read on below to hear their highlights from the last few months.

Remember, if you’re ever in the area, perhaps on a trip to see friends or family in the south west or on a holiday to the ‘English riviera’, do let us know. We’re 5mins from J11 and 11a of the M5! We’d love to see you!

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

p.s. If you missed our 2024 review in photos, take a look here now!