We’re excited to bring news and updates from Marc and Hannele Secchia our mission partners. See below their autumn newsletter.
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| Dear friends and family,Autumn is not traditionally a time that people think of new beginnings but, for us, much is still shifting and remains uncertain. One thing is certain, so we wanted to lead with this: God is good! This has been a hard season of transition with many unwelcome ‘firsts’, but there are also things to celebrate where we see God’s hand so much at work that it is breathtaking. Have a read to hear more! This update is a little longer as we’d like to share with you what has been happening and our plans for the future. Journeying with you continues to be a precious gift and we value your prayers and partnership in the ministry. Ministry with Wycliffe/SILHannele will start a new role with Wycliffe Finland in the autumn. Her role will see her being involved in HR for the organisation and, very excitingly, seeking to build bridges to reach a previously unreached Sudanese people group of which there are a few refugees in Helsinki. For security reasons we are unable to name the group, but they come from Sudan, which is the worst humanitarian catastrophe currently, according to UN statements. To our best knowledge, this group have not been reached with the Gospel. It is currently impossible for development agencies or others to work in the area where they come from. For us, this is a tremendous opportunity and an answer to a long-term prayer – as we considered our move to Finland, we felt deeply that we wanted to keep honouring our roots in Africa and also felt drawn to working with refugee or diaspora communities.  Prayer RequestPray for “Mrs T” from Sudan who has already been in contact with a Wycliffe representative. Hannele will be following up with her in the next few weeks to learn more about her situation, origins and culture. Pray that God will open doors into this community. Marc will continue working with the Executive Communication team spreading the word about Bible Translation and language development work. There is a strong emphasis on including more local staff in the wider organisation, so an internal translation department is being formed to support this work. Secondly, he will take on a new role with Wycliffe Finland. This is again focused on communication to Finnish churches and supporters of Bible Translation, but will also include Projects, meaning that he’ll be involved in projects as far afield as Nepal, Indonesia and Ethiopia. For these projects, his main role will be writing, ranging from donor communications, project reports and brochures to helping to produce informational and inspirational videos. Organisation & Giving UpdateIn October we hope to move to Wycliffe Finland as our primary organisation with our secondary organisation being Wycliffe UK, who have helped us faithfully for close to 16 years now. This is a purely practical move so that we can be included in Finnish systems such as social security and benefits. In terms of giving, nothing will change – donations to us will now be routed to Wycliffe Finland rather than Wycliffe UK, which happens internally. To be honest, we do have some concerns about “making it all work” in this new country, but we’re trusting in God’s continued provision. So much is still changing that we can’t yet figure out an exact budget. We’ve been hugely thankful for your partnership over the years – if you do have questions, changing circumstances or anything else, please do get in touch! And, if you’d like to partner with us, let us know! Thank you also to everyone who prayed with us and helped us as we attended our debriefing conference at Breathe in June. It was an amazing and worthwhile experience for the whole family after serving for 15 years in Ethiopia through a medical evacuation and a civil war, the loss of a child and many other experiences both difficult and deeply rewarding. We were left with an abiding sense of God’s provision and good plans for us and we know that the ministry in Ethiopia will continue in good hands – but it has been hard to have to say goodbye to many good friends.  The Kids & Young Adults UpdateThis section has some amazing answers to prayer and some big needs, so please do read on! We have finally been able to be together as a whole family after starting to leave Ethiopia in January and finishing our “last hurrah” in Ethiopia in June.Shenani (20 years old) – on 20th September Shenani will return to Southampton University on the south coast of England to start the second year of her Creative Writing and English course. She is loving her course and is moving into student digs with a group of Christian girls. She has a super local church. Marc will travel with her to help her move. He’s looking forward to being at St Andrew’s High Wycombe on Sunday 29th September.  Eliora (18 years old) – Eliora has just started at a local art college studying a BA in Christian Thought & Practice, which includes a Fine Arts component. It just “so happens” by God-incidence that our local church in Finland founded the college a year ago and she has the opportunity to further her passion for Fine Art under the mentorship of a renowned international artist (also a church member) who does work on Unesco and other world heritage sites (find him here; his work is amazing: www.davidpopaart.com). If you’d like to follow Eliora’s journey in art, you can connect with her on Instagram here.Rinatya (15 years old) – as we’ve written before, Rinatya has several difficult health conditions, one of which is degenerative. She is receiving treatment and attending lots of appointments. She frequently needs to use a wheelchair to get around nowadays and has struggled to be well enough to attend school. She will be switching to homeschooling in the fall. She has many needs, some quite expensive and some covered by the local healthcare system, which we are learning to come to terms with as a family. It is very, very hard for a teenager to deal with the challenges that she’s facing and hold onto her dreams, and as parents we need supernatural wisdom. Please uphold us in your prayers.Amalya (12 years old) – this is one determined young lady! Transition out of Ethiopia for Amalya has been hard as she misses friends badly, but she has managed to land well and is finding her way. She had a really good start to Grade 6 at the local international school. She published her first book in April and is working diligently on the next one, already a whopping 79,000 words underway.And FinallyWell, all that remains to say is thank you for journeying with us! Please do let us know how we can pray for you, too. We’d love to hear from you. In His Service, Hannele, Marc and the girls |
