The Glavor Family: December 2011

TRANSITION [tran-zish-uh

n] “the process of changing, or a change from one form or condition to another”

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”

CS Lewis

What a year of TRANSITION!

Let’s start with the positive, good stuff to be joyful about!

We have awesome family, friends and a church that have encouraged and supported us during this difficult year of transition from the mission field in Mexico to the States. A BIG, SPECIAL THANK YOU to Bob and Stacy Flora, Mike and Anita Alger and Tom Tomkins!
We finally made it to Portland!
Jeff hasn’t had a TIA for over 3 months!
Ineke is almost employed! (pending medical licensure and hospital credentialing) Ineke was offered a PA position (the day before Thanksgiving) at a non-profit community clinic near Portland, Oregon. This position is working in Family Practice in an ethnically diverse, impoverished area where over 50% are Hispanic patients and many homeless. This was the one of 6 other amazing job offers in Oregon.
We have interim housing. We are house-sitting near Portland through April (thank you Eric and Roxane Ericksson)
We are living near our awesome kids who are serving God
We have food on the table
Jeff and I are able to spend more time together
We were surprised with joy that our kids were able to hitch a ride to Reno while we were in Reno and spend Thanksgiving together with the Algers. We also get to celebrate the birth of Jesus, the hope of the world with our kids here in Portland.
Hannah (Tim helped too) finished her first CD!

This year is the year of “Goodwill”. As a family, this Christmas we have embraced the Advent Conspiracy movement (Started by Imago Dei Church in Portland). The mindset is to worship fully, spend less, give more and to love all. Thus, all our presents, decorations and attire were all purchased at Goodwill (or any second-hand shop), were handmade or donations were made to charities. Let’s do this every year! Check out the website: http://www.adventconspiracy.org/default.aspx?page=3684

I LOVE Christmas time! I love the music, the decorations and family time! Sometimes I think I’ve got it together… Then, ahem… through our move back to the States, Miss smarty-pants got discombobulated and made a huge Christmas faux pas. Let me give you a little history: We pain-stakingly moved all our earthly belongings across the border and have crammed them into a storage unit in Reno until we have a permanent place to live. I thought I would be sooo brilliant to bring just one, itsy-bitsy box of Christmas “stuff” with us to Portland to have a homey, traditional, family Christmas. I made Jeff nearly empty our entire storage unit (in sub-zero temperatures) to find the “prized, absolutely essential” box. OK, here is the good part… We get to Portland and I find that we brought the wrong box. *sigh* next year.

(insert Christmas pictures)

Leaving the mission field after 4 and a half years has been rough. We said our painful goodbyes to friends, colleagues at Agua Viva and heroes of the faith in Mexico. The “new normal” is kicking in, healing continues and the tears are less frequent. Reverse culture shock only comes in waves now.

This is the year of change and transition. Remember the Life Stress Test you studied in college? You know, the scale that determines how much stress you are facing. The Glavor family went off the charts this year! Let’s not repeat this year!

Jeff had a bunch of TIAs this year (we stopped counting after 15)
We decided to leave the mission field due to health, finance and insurance needs
Jeff and I became nomads, homeless and jobless for nearly 4 months.
We left a ministry and work we desperately loved
Both Hannah and Tim were laid off their jobs
Change in finances
Change in culture and country
Change in direction of our call to serve in missions
Change in residence
Change in work and work hours
Change in living conditions
Change in Church
Change in eating habits
Bla…bla…blaaa…the list goes on…

The Good News… we didn’t add “jail term, death or divorce” to our stressors! We are awestruck daily at God’s provisions through the process of transition. God has a reason for allowing things to happen. We may never understand His wisdom, but we simply have to trust His will. We still might be scratching our heads and remain befuddled for quite some time. Yet, we believe that even this chapter in our lives will eventually be viewed as a blessing in disguise.

Prayer requests:

Peace and thanksgiving during our transition back to the States
Continued health, healing and direction
Ministry for Jeff
Finances. Donations are still gladly accepted through Agua Viva Ministries during our transition period. Due to a costly, prolonged job hunt, delayed medical licensure, college tuition, tax payments, required continuing medical education classes, relocation costs, replace stolen computer, licensure fees, medication costs and a dramatic drop in donor support since August; we are asking that you would prayerfully consider a year-end gift for the Glavor Family through Agua Viva Ministries (AVM). While pursuing employment and relocating to the States, we have continued working for AVM by authoring Policy and Procedure Manuals for Mission Partnership Experience (short-term missions). Once our US paychecks kick in, please consider transferring your financial donor support from our family to Agua Viva Ministries to support seminary students in our seminary. That would be very, VERY cool!