Christmas Letter 2023

 

May you and your loved ones have a very

Merry Christmas 2023

and a hale, hearty, and prosperous

New Year in 2024.

 

We took this picture in the Bo-Kaap area of Cape Town, South Africa on the 21st of August this year. Table Mountain is in the background. We had planned to take the cable car to the top, but by the time we got there, the cloud cover had blown in along with a bitingly cold drizzle.

Uni is in the front flashing a victory sign. Left to right around the ring are Sylvia, Andi—Wil’s niece, Julia—blue jacket, David, Wil, and Fred, who is taking the selfie.

Towards the first of the year, I shared with our kids something from my bucket list. I would love to take them to Africa and show them where we had lived when they were small. They jumped at the idea. Unfortunately, Esther and Craig were tied down. So, Esther took care of Katie and Oso, our dogs. The dogs stayed in our home, and Esther could walk over and feed and possibly walk them. Hers was a vital role in our trip.  Thank you, Esther!

We spent 17 days on our African trip. We started in the Western Cape where we stayed in a lovely Airbnb on the Strand overlooking the ocean and the beaches where our kids went swimming whenever they had a chance in those halcyon days. Being midwinter in the Cape, we didn’t try swimming. As mentioned above we, didn’t get onto Table Mountain—big disappointment. The only sunny day in the Cape, I had arranged for us to be with a plethora of old friends at Lincoln Raitt’s home. Thank you, Lincoln and Rosemary! The rest of our time we saw much of the western Cape in the rain and cold of midwinter. 

 

When we flew up to Victoria Falls, the weather felt like midsummer. We took several hours meandering along the edge of the chasm overlooking the mile-wide Falls and even got drenched by some spray. Our second Sabbath in Africa we spent in Botswana’s Chobe National Park. Lions, crocodiles, hippos, and elephants, and other game enjoyed watching us in the back of an open pickup in the morning and in a small open boat with an outboard motor in the afternoon. Then we drove down to Bulawayo along some roads that were almost worse than driving the naked veld. I was invited to preach in the church that Dad built at Solusi, a real privilege. I spoke of the history of Solusi as I remember it and of the marvelous grace of Jesus Christ who has saved us from sin and evil.

The Zimbabwe government is protecting all of the country’s known Rhinos near Bulawayo. Each Rhino has its own personal ranger to try and keep it from the poachers. They keep loaded high power rifles at hand at all times and accompany visitors like us to see the nearest ones. 

 

A major highlight of this year is that we survived! We went to buy some fabric to cover our dining room chairs. On our way home at night, in the rain, an 18-wheeler truck tried to beat us down the onramp onto the freeway. He struck us and spun us around crosswise in front of hm. I looked out my driver’s window, and there loomed this giant radiator. They don’t teach you how to handle situations like this in driver’s ed. He couldn’t see us and was accelerating rapidly, pushing us sideways. I realized that we would probably die, so I prayed, “Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit and those with me.” That’s not all I prayed! I revved the engine and could feel the wheels sliding on the wet pavement. Then suddenly we were shoved forward and onto the left shoulder, spun around and faced up the down-ramp—on the shoulder. We were eventually able to drive back home, but insurance totaled our little Ford C-Max. Thank You, Lord, for preserving us unscathed.

Our daughter Julia and her husband, David, live in Pasadena. They have been looking for a home to buy for several years, but the real-estate market had gone bananas. Finally, they found a lovely Condo with great windows looking out onto the San Gabriel Mountains to the north. We, and Elwood’s family spent several days, moving them into their new home in November. They discovered the truism that anytime you live somewhere, you gain so many belongings that you have no idea what to do with them all. David was in the old apartment for some 22 years, and Julia over half of that. We hope they have at least as many happy years in their new abode. The last day when we left them, I took pictures of the central living area filled with boxes.

Sylvia’s clan held their regular biennial reunion in Kentucky towards the end of June. We drove out to Kentucky, taking our time and stopping at a number of friends and relatives along the way. We also spent several days exploring the Rocky Mountains in central Colorado—something I have often wished to do but felt we didn’t have the time before. 

 

The nucleus of the clan are the Thomas-Salisbury siblings. Barbie was unable to attend last time and passed away earlier this year. She was always a bright light in the group. She suffered from four different cancers in her life, each one taking a further toll on her. We had visited her after attending the last reunion. We also stayed with my cousin Fred and his wife Delores, who passed away this Thanksgiving. We are now in the age group that is fast fading away. My Dad used visit us every year while we were in Massachusetts in the 1980s. He said to me one time, “You know, it’s getting so that when I go to visit my friends, I have to go to the graveyard!” It seems that we are currently in that epoch ourselves.

In February the Zero Prostate Cancer (ZPC) organization roped me in to going to Washington DC to promote the support of the research and treatment for victims of prostate cancer in both Congress and the Senate. I learned far more about our democracy than I could have learned in five classes in government.  I personally visited a number of congressmen’s and senator’s offices. We were always politely received and actually achieved some of our goals. I have since been in correspondence with a number of these people who represent you and me in our government. ZPC urged me to go again this coming year; however, I have backed out, at least temporarily. 

 

Speaking of prostate cancer, my PSA—the measure of how much cancer I have—has been in the “non-detectible” range all year. Rejoice and praise the Lord with me! Thank you for your prayers on my behalf!!! Of course, cancer has the tendency to lie low for a while and then jump into action when one least expects it. So, I don’t use the word “cure,” although I am living as though I am cured. However, I really love the respite.

The Bible has long held a deep fascination for me. My parents prided themselves, because I could repeat a whole quarter’s (three months) worth of memory verses since long before I can remember learning any of them. Twice a day, Dad read the Bible (KJV & ASV) to us for worship. When the Phillip’s translation of the New Testament first came out in 1958, Dad got a copy. By that time, I had long lived in boarding school. But I did listen to Dad talk about the good and the questionable in Phillip’s. I rejoiced when I was able to get the brand-new New English Bible and bought the first copy I laid eyes on in 1970—but not before I owned an Afrikaans Bible, two different German versions, A Swahili version, at least one Dutch Gospel.

I confess to not reading the whole Bible in any one of those versions. The great fascination was salvation by faith and not of works, lest any man should boast—and was contrary to my early training in parochial boarding schools, which lost sight of the message of the gospel. I also used the foreign language versions to teach me those languages. I also discovered how difficult it is to read the Bible in a language that is not English.

When Wycliffe Associates (WA) designed a technique to produce a translation in a new language in months instead of decades, I became very excited. Their technique is one I devised while at Ikizu in Tanzania, but was shouted down with objections by my colleagues. The WA method has been honed far better than I had done. Sylvia and I have been spending some of our savings to help produce these scriptures for people who have never had a Bible in their own heart language, but really want one. This way they don’t have the difficulty of reading God’s word in a strange language. 

 

Additionally, we have been supporting the American Bible Society starting shortly after we got married. The Bible translation groups have set a goal of having at least a portion of the Bible available in any language where there are people who desire it by the year 2025—two years from now. It seems obvious to me that this is impossible. But with the mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit we see around the world, these organizations are making a huge contribution towards meeting this goal. For the last 5 years or so, we have joined with other Christians at WA summit meetings to further this goal.

Julia and David have generously included us in a series of theatrical performances at the A Noise Within Theater in Pasadena that they support generously. This year we enjoyed amongst other productions, Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing” and his “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and look forward to the upcoming performance of a theatrical version of Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol” on Christmas Eve. Thank you, J&D, for continuing a family tradition that my mother started in 1956 by taking me to see “Macbeth” and “The Merchant of Venice” while we were in London England.

Late last year two young students, Nolan & Sarah, from Canada contacted me to find out all they could about my mother, Esther Muira (Barnhurst) Clarke. They have already published a Christian booklet. Now they proposed to write a historical novel about her life from Grampa’s Oklahoma mission Ozark Mountain School in the 1920’s to Mom’s death at Solusi Mission in 1974. We spent hours on What’s App over the period of a few months chatting about her while I tried to make Mom a flesh and blood character. They apparently have a publisher for it and expect to publish it in 2024. I’m very excited about it and ask you to pray for their endeavor.

The eight of us got together at Fred’s house to celebrate Thanksgiving. Fred cooked a delicious Turkey. As usual we had a lot more food than we needed and a great celebration. Afterwards we sat and watched a slide show about our African trip, and the six of us who were on it had a good chance to reminisce over the things that happened.

We trust that 2024 will bring you renewed happiness and health. The New Year is a blank sheet waiting for you to write on it. With God’s grace and help make it the best story yet!

 

Merry Christmas 2023 and Happy New Year 2024

Love, Wil & Sylvia