March 24, 2020

Dear Friends,

A letter about our ministry may seem a bit out of place in the middle of this corona virus pandemic. We nevertheless think that it is necessary even now. 

As you know, in 2018 we transitioned from working in Ghana and living in Ghana to working for Ghana from home. We have been evaluating this “remote assignment” ever since. We originally thought it would probably last until late 2022 when we would retire. As we began to review it again a couple of months back, it became clear that we are not being as effective as we had hoped. We want to be good stewards of the resources that you, and all our supporters, generously provide. So we have decided to retire from Wycliffe at this point. 

Your financial partnership has enabled us to carry out our Wycliffe ministry and your personal encouragement and prayers have sustained us. We appreciate you so much and hope to keep you in our lives. May God richly bless you.

The letter from Wycliffe will indicate that we will be receiving Social Security and that we have modest retirement savings. Wycliffe’s policy allows retired members to receive additional “pension” income from you, our donors. If you would like to give to our pension income, the letter from Wycliffe will let you know how to do that. 

Even though we are retiring, we will not be completely withdrawing from translation. Ed plans to make occasional trips to Ghana, for example. If you are interested in being informed of those trips, just let us know. Ed plans to keep up his blog, but we won’t be sending out these prayer letters. We are also happy to speak to churches and other groups about translation and missions. 

It looks like we will be building a small retirement cottage on our son’s property in Grants Pass. He and I will be providing labor and a long time friend is donating his contracting skills. We may be organizing work days for those interested in donating their labor. In that way, we hope to stretch our budget enough to make it a reality. 

Thank you again for your friendship, love and financial partnership. We are so proud of you all. 

Ed and Dayle Lauber