Celebrating Global Impact

Whatever it is about the turning of the calendar from one year to the next that encourages reflection and forecasting, it’s not new. People have been making (and breaking) New Year’s resolutions since ancient times.

Two thousand years before the first Christmas, the ancient Babylonians were already celebrating New Year’s with a festival called Akitu. At the start of the new planting season, which also marked the start of the Babylonian year, people would publicly renew their loyalty to the king and make vows to the gods to live rightly in the year ahead.

In Roman times, the first month of the new year was named after the god Janus, who had two faces so he could look forward and backward at the same time, just like people do when making resolutions. Julius Caesar declared January 1 as the official start of the new year, and Roman citizens took the opportunity to reflect on past behavior and pledge better conduct in the future.

In medieval Europe, New Year’s practices took on a distinctly Christian character as many churches offered special services calling for reflection and recommitment.

In the 1700s, reformer John Wesley instituted Covenant Services that were scheduled at the turning of the year and provided opportunities for Christians to recommit themselves to faithful discipleship through self-examination, confession, and prayer. Wesley’s Covenant Prayer is still in use in the Methodist Church today and reads, in part, “I am no longer my own, but yours. Put me to what you will. I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things to your pleasure and disposal.”

In the past couple of centuries, New Year’s reflections and resolutions have become more about personal aspirations and less about spiritual commitments, but the basic logic remains the same. A new year presents new opportunities. It’s a clean slate, an opportunity to start fresh.

This year, whether our resolutions are, spiritual, relational, vocational, financial, physical, educational, or nutritional, let’s be sure we’re wholeheartedly yielding all things to the God who holds not just the calendar but all of history and our very lives in his hands.

And since New Year’s is a time for looking backward as well as forward, this edition of the THF Weekly Briefing will provide a summary of what 2025 has looked like for Tyndale House Foundation and a preview of what we expect 2026 will bring.

Happy New Year!

THF Grantmaking
It’s an amazing privilege to be involved with so many organizations around the world through the grantmaking ministry of Tyndale House Foundation. Here’s what 2025 looked like for THF in grantmaking and partnership:

• Our largest grants focused on theological education, community development, publisher training, and youth discipleship.
• THF grants reached every region of the world in 2025. A sampling of countries impacted includes Azerbaijan, Burkina Faso, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Egypt, France, Ghana, Haiti, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Laos, Malawi, Netherlands, Poland, Rwanda, Sudan, Togo, Ukraine, Vietnam, and Zambia.
• Most of our grants fell within our five primary grantmaking categories. We gave 16 Compassion grants, 30 Discipleship grants, 22 Education grants, 40 Literature grants, and 40 Training grants.
• We also awarded 21 Strategic Initiative grants—flexible funds we use when unique, time-sensitive opportunities arise outside our grant cycles.
• We participated in two major collaborative initiatives with more than 10 other foundations, multiplying impact through shared learning and pooled resources focused on refugee relief in the MENA region.
• We supported more than 25 organizations working in the Chicago area or elsewhere in the United States with grants in our Local category or other special grants.
• Many of the projects we supported in 2025 served communities in some of the world’s hardest places for gospel ministry, including Afghanistan, North Korea, Venezuela, Russia, Iran, Nigeria, Sudan, and China.

Behind every one of these numbers is a relationship. Our partners are strengthening churches, training leaders, helping families, and proclaiming the gospel. We’re grateful for the privilege of serving together.

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THF Partner Impact
Nearly every grant we give requires a follow-up report so we can track how our funds were used and what God is doing through our partners. Over the course of a year, we get to read hundreds of pages of stories, outcomes, and lessons learned. These reports also contain hundreds of reasons for thanksgiving. Here are just a few examples from 2025:

• Bible translation has been accelerated in many languages including Anyii in Ghana, Bongo and Mundari in South Sudan, and Gujarati in India.
• Research into the global church-planting and discipleship movements has been advanced, helping leaders learn what is working and why.
• A ministry center in northern Poland has been significantly rehabbed.
• Pastors in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been trained to respond to some of Africa’s most urgent cultural needs.
• Social-media users in China have been reached with the gospel through a secure online platform, and many seekers have heard about Jesus for the first time.
• TV and radio programs were produced to share the gospel and equip believers in places where in-person ministry is difficult.
• Christian books were published in dozens of languages including Turkish, Khmer, Spanish, Ukrainian, and Arabic so that people all over the world increasingly have access to evangelistic and theological materials in their own languages.

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THF Weekly Briefing Year in Review
If you’ve read every issue of the THF Weekly Briefing in 2025, you’ve gotten through a grand total of more than 87,000 words. That’s like reading a decent-sized book! My goal in writing this update each week is to inform the global THF community about important things happening in the ever-expanding network of Tyndale partners, and I certainly hope the Weekly Briefing is helpful. I try to write from a broadly evangelical perspective and view events through a biblical and theological lens. The Weekly Briefing is intentionally nonpolitical, but at times the worlds of politics and philanthropy intersect. When that has happened, I’ve tried to report carefully and factually on issues like the shutdown of USAID programs, regional conflicts, and threats to religious freedom. This year we’ve walked through some challenging stories: attacks on Christians in Nigeria, conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, terrorist attacks in Syria and Mozambique, the ongoing war in Ukraine, and natural disasters in Myanmar, Sudan, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and the Caribbean. We’ve also noted more encouraging signs, such as seeds of spiritual renewal in Europe and among Gen-Z globally and positive outcomes from conferences in countries like Albania, Poland, Cyprus, Spain, and Zambia. Along the way, we’ve reviewed over 120 field reports and partner updates from around the world. My hope is that these updates have encouraged you, strengthened your prayers, and deepened your awareness of how God is at work through THF partners. As we move into 2026, please feel free to share the Weekly Briefing with others who may want to learn about and pray for international ministries connected with Tyndale House Foundation.

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Looking Ahead to 2026
As we step into a new year, we carry forward both gratitude for the past 12 months and anticipation for what God will do in the year ahead. We’ll keep doing what matters most—careful review of grant proposals, constant prayer, and clear communication—while also remaining open to new opportunities, partners, places, and ministry contexts. We’ll continue working to engage, equip, and empower local leaders in global contexts for gospel impact. And we’ll look to forge new alliances with other ministry organizations to maximize our collective reach and effectiveness. January 2 is the submission deadline for proposals to be considered in our April grant cycle. We’ve already received more than 100 applications with dozens more in the pipeline. Over the next couple of months, THF staff members will spend hundreds of hours reviewing proposals, meeting with partners, praying for applicants, and discussing recommendations. Our hope is that every grant, every conversation, and every partnership bears long-term gospel fruit. Please continue to pray for us and our partners as we turn the calendar page and continue our work of relational grantmaking. And let us know how we can serve you, including how we can be praying for you in the new year.

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That’s it for this week’s briefing. Please send any questions, comments, and unrealistic New Year’s resolutions to [email protected]. Do you enjoy reading the THF Weekly Briefing? Make sure you’re subscribed to the email distribution list to get access to this resource the same day it’s published each week, and feel free to share it with others who may be interested, inside or outside of Tyndale. Thanks for continuing to pray for and support our partners around the world.

Jeremy Taylor
President | Tyndale House Foundation

The THF Weekly Briefing provides information about significant events happening in the wide universe of Tyndale House Foundation partner organizations as well as an occasional peek behind the scenes of THF’s operations. It is available to anyone who’s interested in learning more about Tyndale’s philanthropic commitments, partners, and operations. Was this email forwarded to you? Contact [email protected] to be added to (or removed from) the distribution list.