As Christmas comes we take time to reflect on the birth of Christ. Some of us celebrate advent to guide us in remembering that Jesus represents hope, love, joy, and peace. If ever there was a year that we needed those four things in our life, this is the year. 

There was some normalcy though. One of the highlights that helped work feel normal this year was the opportunity that my team had to get together in person, in October. This was the first time we were able to do so since 2019. Many of our teammates had never met in person. It was funny to see who thought who would be taller, who would be shorter, and so on. We gathered in Alberta for five days to meet and talk. While we have certainly been meeting online using zoom a couple times every month, being in person is just different. Also, we can accomplish a lot! This is the Wycliffe Canada member care team. 

Our vision is to:

"proactively support the wellness of our staff
 through relationships and processes
so they can thrive in their roles."

Something else to celebrate this year is my 20th anniversary with Wycliffe. It's almost hard to imagine that so much time has passed. But taking a bit of time to reflect, a lot has certainly happened in those twenty years to help the time go by. The hope, love, joy and peace of Christ is needed wherever we live, Asia or Canada, by all people, those who know him and those who don't. Thank you for walking with me along the way, praying for and financially supporting the ministry that I am involved in.

As 2021 winds down, I want to Wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

 Marching Onward 

Is 2021 shaping up the way you anticipated? 

Or is this meme more your thinking? 

We had so much hope going from 2020 to 2021. Everything would be open again, kids would all be back in school, family gatherings, birthday parties, church, purchasing clothes/shoes and trying them on first or at least being able to return them.

Commuting, forcing introverts to be with other people, packing lunches, over packed airplanes, more money on gasoline, increased prices at the store to make up for (rightly) increased staff pay. 

Some time ago, when we had first returned to Canada, I wrote about the word paradox. How we could be sad and happy at the same time about that big change and how we had to be able to experience both. Covid, and just about everything about it, is one huge lesson in paradox. We no doubt each have our lists (or would if asked about it) of the positives/celebrations and negatives/difficulties. How where we choose to focus can greatly influence how we are doing at any given moment, day, week, maybe even year! How are you doing? Where is your focus? 

For Wycliffe Bible Translators, and our bigger family that includes SIL, one of the anticipated negatives/difficulties of Covid was the very work itself that we focus on: bible translation, literacy, scripture engagement, and capacity building. Certainly it meant some people needed to return to Canada, some do not know when or if they will be able to return overseas. It meant upheaval and uncertainty. For those I work with, it meant a lot of extra work. And can anyone else identify with Zoom fatigue? It’s a real thing! 

However, there have been many positives and things to celebrate. We celebrated the retirement of a couple near the end of 2020 and because of Covid we could not meet in person. Because of Covid we realized we could invite their former coworkers located in several different countries, as well as their family. Our president was able to join in. In some ways we were better able to honour this couple and their time with Wycliffe, in a more meaningful and deep way than if we had just done their celebration in our usual way. 

More than that, I have read of literacy classes and teacher training classes being offered over WhatsApp; meetings that generally cost several thousands of dollars to fly in people from all around the world have happened in a modified format over zoom, and translation in many situations has been able to continue to some extent if not almost as planned. In fact, there is so much good news to share I couldn’t do it justice. So I would like to share a video with you. Grab your favourite drink and put your feet up for about 45 minutes to see and hear many things we have had to celebrate this past year. 

Praise

• Our member care team has added some new team members over the past few months! We are so grateful that as we grow we are better able to support our staff

• That our work can continue no matter where we are

• That Eli, Ana, & Sophia continue to do well at school

Prayer

• For those who have been waiting to return to their work abroad

• For those who are planning to return home and the restrictions are very different here than what they have been used to

• For financial supporters, since returning to Canada my financial support has dropped quite low. If you know of friends who have a heart for seeing the bible translated in multiple languages, would you consider introducing us?