Summer 2023 Update

Dear friends and family,

Thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers for us and our work since our last update. It’s been a busy few months with lots to give thanks for.

Matt has been busy making initial preparations for the next LEAD Community of Practice event in Thailand. We’ll share more on this in a future newsletter but it’s going to be focused on the topic of faith and farming 🧑‍🌾!  He’s also been working with colleagues to prepare for the Healthy Community Engagement module he’s responsible for in the autumn. Once again there will be a number of staff involved for the first time and so lots of work is needed to ensure they’re prepared. He also had a great time in Northern Ireland with colleagues in April, which was a nice change and an encouraging time for all, and a good time connecting with teaching colleagues in June at the annual Moorlands staff summit.

Levi and Anya are nearing the end of years 6 and 3 respectively. Levi will be moving to a secondary school on the other side of the city in September, meaning Anya will be the only Wisbey child at the school! Very much the end of an era. Read more about these changes and others in their updates below!

Liz is continuing to settle well into her new balance of being a teaching assistant and coordinating the children's work at our church. As well as allowing Liz to use some of her skills and experiences in new ways, this new role also helps to supplement the gift income we receive for our work with Wycliffe. With this new role we decided this was a good point for Liz to end her official membership with Wycliffe. We joined Wycliffe in 2007 as a couple, knowing this was something more than ‘just’ a job or role and wanting to commit to the cause as a unit. We continue to see our work with Wycliffe very much as a family commitment, and so appreciate your ongoing support for us all. Rebecca, our Wycliffe member coordinator, had this to say about this change:

"We are really appreciative of Liz’s dedication and significant contributions during her time as a Wycliffe member – especially in positively impacting so many lives through her work with the Mbeya-Iringa literacy department in Tanzania. Liz has been a pleasure to work with and a highly valued Wycliffe member. We pray God’s blessing on her church and school roles and are so grateful that she and the rest of the family continue to be a vital part of Wycliffe’s work as they support Matt in his assignments too. We are also deeply thankful for you as supporters and the instrumental part you play as well! Thank you."

Connected to this, as we mentioned in a previous update (here), each year Wycliffe sets an agreed monthly budget for our family and all income, gifts and earnings from other jobs, contributes towards this. We’re thankful that within Wycliffe’s financial model there is a recognition and value of the need for many UK-based staff to supplement their regular support with other income streams. And not only that, an appreciation that these different roles can and do contribute towards Wycliffe’s vision “for a world where everyone can know Jesus through the Bible”. Clearly both our roles with Gloucester Community Church are making real contributions to this vision, both here in Gloucester and further afield.

While it’s becoming increasingly common for people to have diverse work arrangements, we appreciate our situation might be difficult to understand, so we thought a couple of diagrams might come in helpful.

Firstly, one showing how we use our time. This varies from week to week, particularly in periods when Matt is travelling to teach, either in Asia or at Moorlands, but over the year it averages out to something like the following:

And then secondly, one showing how these roles contribute towards our monthly budget currently. Again this changes from month to month, depending on what gifts we receive through Wycliffe, but over the year this gives an idea of how it roughly adds up:

Looking at these charts you might notice some interesting things, or have some questions. If so, we’d love to hear from you! Here’s a couple of thoughts from us in the meantime:

1. These are simplified graphs, trying to give an overview of our situation by using percentages. This has obvious limitations, particularly when trying to make comparisons, so please do keep that in mind!

2. While we’re thankful for such a large percentage of our income coming from our church, we’d love for our Wycliffe team income to grow to reflect the continued importance of that work. Could you be part of that or do you know others who might be interested in supporting our work?

3. We want to be open to God’s leading in the future, and recognise that having complex working arrangements can mean making changes is more challenging. Please be praying for us as we look to meet our family’s changing needs and be led by the right influences.

We hope this helps to understand a bit more about our situation. As always, we love to hear your news so do hit reply now and send us a update on what's new with you.

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