A Christmas Spectacular

I past our local concert hall to see an advertisement for 'A Christmas Spectacular'. I don't know why but description made me take notice. Not in a good way.

Spectacular. (spk-tky-lr)

adj. - of or resembling a spectacle; impressive, grand, sensational or dramatic;sensational in appearance or thrilling in effect;having a quality that thrusts itself into attention

n. - an elaborate display; a dramatic and/or lavishly produced performance 

Even in the dictionary, they used "they put on a Christmas spectacular" as an example. That's what Christmas has become, a spectacle. People producing lavish decorations, elaborate gifts, sensational parties, putting their homes on display, putting themselves on performance mode, trying to be impressive, trying to get attention.

If you want impressive, how about a teenage girl, pregnant out of wedlock and she decides to keep the baby. And her fiance, who isn't the father, decides to stick around, marry her and raise the child.


If you want sensational, that illegitimate child was the legitimate Son of God.
 If you want a thrilling party, invite a multitude of angels to appear in the sky above and declare praise to God.

If you want prominent, how about one single brilliant star placed in the sky as a beacon declaring to the world that the greatest king on earth was just born.

If you want lavish, how about baby gifts that included gold, frankincense, and myrrh, standard gifts to honor a king or deity in the ancient world.

If you want dramatic, how about a jealous king who ordered nationwide infanticide, that all baby boys under the age of 2 be murdered to eliminate that threat of a new king.

The first Christmas was indeed spectacular all on it's own. It's miraculous story has inspired songs, performances, displays, lights, gifts, celebrations, yet today somehow that stripped down story fails to get the attention.

Annual Alcorn Christmas Letter - 2012

Dearest Family & Friends,                                                          December 2012

Merry Christmas to all our loved ones!  This year has been quite the rollercoaster, some high peaks, some low valleys, and we’ve been thrown for a few loops as well! It’s almost hard to believe all that has happened in a short 12 months, so I’ll try to do it justice in this short letter summarizing our year.

Sean saw his 10^th anniversary milestone reached at Skybridge this past August, with no fanfare and no changes either. I had mentioned last December, Sean had not yet felt God’s nudge to move on, but that his heart’s desire was to be able to work at a Christian organization. We knew that would very likely include a lifestyle change, so at that time we began to scale back our expenses and made significant progress.  In July, after about 5-6 months of also committing weekly to serving in the same Recovery program I do, Sean realized he had a natural ability and desire to serve people with his insight and ability to guide towards good choices and he had an epiphany he would do well in a career as a counselor. After a lot of confirmation this was a God-guided path he signed up for his first course, Introduction to Counseling at Red River which began in September. He just received his final grade this weekend, 100%! Sean clearly has an instinctive aptitude for this profession.  We have been very excited about this shift in his path and were now financially prepared to put him through school for the next few years.

Then, suddenly, we were once again set upon a new and different path mid-August. It actually began last December when Sean had taken a tour of the new Youth For Christ building, and this is where his heart for working in a Christ-Centered organization really swelled. He found out there was a Human Resources position open (his first run at education, if you recall, was a Human Resources certificate) and applied. But then he didn’t hear anything, 8 months went by when all of a sudden he was emailed by the Director, John Courtney, for an interview. After a series of meetings through the fall, in November Sean was offered the position of Human Resources Director at YFC. Because YFC is a non-profit organization, every staff position is considered a missions position and as such they all raise 100% of their salary, Sean included. John has initiated an assertive start date goal of Jan.7^th and so we are now fully immersed in raising support for Sean, a very new territory to both of us. We have been so blessed by the people in our life who have stepped forward to join us as ministry partners, and if any of you would consider becoming our ministry partners, whether with prayer support, or investing financially (it is a tax deductible donation), all we would need is a mailing address for YFC to send documents to set things up. Any and all support is welcome.

So, after all that exciting news, my year hasn’t been nearly as eventful J I am now just past the 5.5 year mark at Golder Associates and it continues to be a blessing, challenging work that I enjoy with people I call friends.  We have been steadily growing this past year with a significant boost in our business development with 3 senior hires between September and this upcoming February. We have a conservative plan to double in size in the next 3 years and my manager has made it very clear over the last few months that he wants to grow my role alongside our office’s growth, utilizing my strengths and passions, and emphasizing the value of what I can and have yet to contribute.  I continue to feel so appreciated and affirmed in my abilities and hopefully see a long career at Golder ahead of me.

As for our ‘part-time’ work at our Church Riverwood, we continue to spend an average of 6 hours a week serving in the same Recovery ministry, which has been running for 15 months now.  Our core leadership team has now grown to include 2 other leaders, Sean being one of those leaders. I continue my role handling resources and promotions, and I now have a small team in this area that are a great help.  I also lead a women’s support group for anxiety, codependence, food issues, and more.  Sean has stepped up to share our training coach leadership and has already led some much needed training sessions for our leaders, as well as leading the Newcomers session to orient new attendees on our program.  I was privileged to be able to have my expenses paid to attend a summit at Saddleback Church in California (where Celebrate Recovery was founded) for a week in August, it was such an encouragement and so inspirational, we came away feeling renewed in our ministry.  Hopefully Sean and I will get to go together next year!

As part of being in a leadership position our roles also include teaching for our large group about every other month, which Sean is also a natural at, in fact before he announced he was taking Counseling in school several people guessed he was going to Seminary for becoming a Pastor.  I, on the other hand, have had my battles with public speaking over the years, but having spoken 6 times now I can definitely see how far God has brought me in this ability.  In fact, one of our worship team volunteers had a teaching practicum in a grade 12 health class studying disorders and asked if I would mind sharing my struggles with anxiety in front of her class.  I agreed and think I did remarkably well considering high-school students used to be a big source of anxiety in and of itself!  Every step along the way we see God working in us and through us, it continues to be such a gift for us to be His instrument of transformation.

Some of our other hours at Riverwood have been spent in two particular areas. Sean has developed a mentor relationship with one of our Pastors who leads Discipleship and Connecting ministries, so Sean has served alongside him in various capacities in those areas.  We also wanted to volunteer at the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit again, as our Church has hosted it for the last several years, so we took a week of vacation in October to serve on the registration team, and a few other areas. Once again we were both able to take in a lot of the awesome speakers in addition to getting to know fellow Riverwooders as we served alongside them, which made for a very enjoyable and exhausting few days.

The rest of our free time we have been connecting with family and friends that have been multiplying as the years go on.  We have made many friends through serving and our circle of loved ones keeps expanding. We joined a small group in the fall that has been heaven sent, we finally have a place where we can feel we’re going to as an outlet for our needs to get met, and the people we meet with could have only been the result of God’s networking.  And adding a nephew to the family this year gave us many excuses to spend extra time with my family.  We couldn’t feel more fortunate to be surrounded by the people God has planted us amongst.  Our ever growing support system has especially blessed us throughout 2012.  First we were overwhelmed with prayers and support during the very difficult time in July during my mom’s heart attack, triple bypass surgery and subsequent healing.  Then the outpouring of support continued as Sean has transitioned in his career path.  Or when my sister was hospitalized with severe abdominal pain. There are just too many times to mention when people knew just the right time to say or do just the right thing, and that kind of blessing is only possible when you open up to living in transparent community.

Well, 2 pages can’t be called a ‘nutshell’ but that’s the summary of 2012 for the Alcorns.  I am very much looking forward to a new year, I am hoping for new challenges but hopefully some less stressful ones!  I know God isn’t done stretching us yet, but I look forward to where He will continue to move us and prove Himself faithful.  Thank you for being a part of our lives and we wish you all a meaningful holiday season, full of warm memories, a reflective look at the year past, and a hopeful look towards 2013. 

                Love, Lori & Sean

                       

Christmas Questionnaire

Haven't done one of these in awhile....

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Both. I prefer the look of wrapped packages, especially glittery bows and swirls of ribbon, but I'm not that great at the 'perfect wrap', particularily on odd shaped packages, so I often default to a bag.

2. Real tree or artificial? Artificial - when I have one.

3. When do you put up the tree? When the tree goes up it goes up no sooner than the first weekend in December.

4. When do you take the tree down? Usually New Year's Day.

5. Do you like eggnog? Love.it. For my own sake I have to not allow it in my house until Dec. 1st. They keep selling it earlier and earlier each year though! So hard to not buy for most of November.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? My cabbage patch doll. I waited so long for one, I even got a fake one that just didn't do.

7. Do you have a nativity scene? Technically. This porcelain nativity tealight holder.

8. Hardest person to buy for? Believe it or not, hubby! I've mentioned we don't do gifts for our families, other than kids, and even hubby and I have agreed on a large gift together for many years. Sean just tends to have very little wants, he's a minimalist and what he does spend money on he buys as he wants through the year (like books), or on concerts as they come up - typically not around Christmas time.

9. Easiest person to buy for? My neice Brooklynn, she's pretty creative and now that she likes scrapbooking, this year's present was a cinch! ;)

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? It's a funny story actually. It was the year my sisters got married and mom had bought one of them a toaster oven for a wedding present, but they received another one as well, so mom knew we wanted one and offered it to us as a Christmas present later that year. Mom and dad also happened to move that year, for the first time in 12 years, and it took some looking before mom could find the toaster oven, but she finally did, wrapped it up and gave it to me at our gathering. I unwrapped the box and when I opened it, on top was a lovely Christmas stationary. I love stationary so it didn't register, but as I got deeper into the box (which did have a toaster oven on the side) it was a bunch of miscellaneous items thrown in, some even left over from my grandma's old belongings who had passed away 6 years earlier. A box o' crap. :) It was really quite hilarious. Mom never did find that toaster oven, can't even remember what I did end up getting instead.

11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Both, and I hand them out in person too, a combo of all 3.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Some people say it isn't a Christmas movie but I've watched it at Christmas just about every year since I was a kid....Sound of Music.  I love that movie. Wizard of Oz, second favorite (and yes, it's a Christmas movie for same reason :)

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Well, since I intentionally only shop for 5 each year, and occasionally, as the season unfolds, add another gift or two to the list, I don't feel the need to start early. Also, since those 5 gifts are for children, whose tastes can change as fast as they can, I typically don't start until December.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Not that I know of. I have given old gifts away years later but not as a gift.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? We call them papanate (?) or pfefferneuse cookies. Christmas isn't Christmas until I have at least one.

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Either, it mostly depends on the colour coordination of the ornaments.

17. Favorite Christmas song? Oh Little Town of Bethlehem by Amy Grant.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Travel. Boxing day in Steinbach every year.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? All nine ;)

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Depends how long I've had to stare at gifts under a tree. Since we haven't had a tree for years, I've been able to wait until Christmas day.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? The song Domino the Donkey, PUH-lease! If I never hear that song again it's too soon.

23. What I love most about Christmas? Family. Family. Family.

Humbug Reduction

It just so happens it took exactly one month for me to sum up enough Christmas soul (not spirit, I'm sure I already have the Christmas spirit), to decide to add a little Christmas decor to my home.

After watching Steven and Chris on a half day off I saw a few great decorating ideas that seemed cat-proof enough I was willing to try some, and a few others I could have time for next year.

Here's my spontaneous effort done yesterday.

Then, I gifted more than I said I would. I created fun little food gifts - partially to remove the temptation from my home but also because I do love giving and sharing.

Now I'm listening to Boney M's Christmas CD as I write my annual Christmas letter, get our Christmas photo card ready to mail, and contemplate my last 2 gifts to buy (out of 6). Humbug Reduction complete.

Truthful Thursday

Does this sound like the description of a Church you know, or what you figure Churches are about?

The people of the Church were inconsistent and often gave up on studying the Bible. The community was apathetic and unconnected, rarely sharing more than shallow conversation and white-washed prayer requests.  The teachers among them could not bring about healing or miracles because of the lack of belief among them. The people treated the signs God did give them with disinterest and irreverence. They found it difficult to trust and rely on Jesus Christ, which made adhering to his teachings a struggle. The people couldn’t live in harmony or unite over their similarities; they couldn’t see all that they had in common. And when those among them were in need they couldn’t find it in their hearts to share their belongings, they had no money to spare and hoarded all their possessions for themselves.  While the people found their way to Church most Sundays, they were too busy to stay after Church to fellowship, they would go their separate ways, each to their own homes, and not stay in touch throughout the week.  Their choices produced lives they could not celebrate, they felt they had no reason to praise God, and their hypocrisy lost the respect of those who knew them. The number of their Church community dwindled every day.

This is actually a translation of Acts 2:42-47, a translation called 'the Jon Courtney Jr. Reverse' translation. We were priveleged to hear this one time only reading last week at Church and boy did it make a point. Quite a few of the Churches I have known, or have heard about from jaded friends, has sounded a lot more like the opposite description of the Acts Church, the community that added thousands to it's numbers consistently.  Here is how they actually did that:

⁴²And they steadfastly persevered, devoting themselves constantly to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship. They shared everything with each other, they shared life together, the breaking of bread, and the prayers.  
⁴³ Everyone around was in awe, and were in reverential fear, at all those wonders and miraculous signs done through the apostles! And everyone felt great respect for God.
⁴⁴ And all who believed (those who adhered to and trusted in and relied on Jesus Christ) were united, living in a wonderful harmony, holding everything in common.
⁴⁵ And according as any had need they sold their possessions and their land, pooling their resources so that each person’s need was met.
⁴⁶ They followed a daily discipline of worship in the Temple followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration. They partook of their food with gladness and simplicity and generous hearts.
⁴⁷ The believers praised God and were respected by all the people. More and more people were being saved every day, and the Lord was adding them to their group.

I am so glad I found a community of believers who are closer to the second than first translation, a blessing to be sure.

this week at work

At Golder:
55 month end invoices to enter
25 carafes of coffee made
19 meals/snacks ordered/prepared/arranged for...
10-14 additional people in our office (that's double our staff) Tu-Fr
8 loads of dishes in the dishwasher
5 additional garbage bags (large) to haul out of our kitchen
4 hours of overtime (paid!)

2 evenings of napping/resting
1 huge thank you to me by our Canadian President in front of the Canadian Management Team.

Meanwhile, Sean's week was:
40/40 on his 'skilled helper' demonstration assignment at school
38 letters signed, stuffed, mailed for YFC
3 hours of overtime (unpaid)
1 day off
1 (excellent, if I may say so) essay completed and turned in at school on how he views the role of a 'skilled helper'.

What a week.

Good News!

Since the day I met my husband, Sean, I knew there was this ambition to make a difference in the world that stirred deep within him. He was taking Human Resources in school as we started dating and graduated shortly after we were married, with the goal of better relationships in work places. But even deeper than that I saw a need in him to improve people's lives. There have been a lot of challenges in moving towards that goal over these last 12 years.

Last winter Sean went to tour the new Youth For Christ building here in Winnipeg, even we had never really had a strong connection with that organization (other than our first Church together in Winnipeg was at the YFC firehall and now our current Church owns that same firehall) but grew more interested as the controversy in our city grew over the government offering the land to YFC for the goal of impacting inner city kids rather than an aboriginal or 'anything but Christian' organization. We wanted to go together but I was out in Steinbach the day of the tour so Sean went alone. At the time, this was not a Sean-like thing to do, but he went. It was a self-guided tour after the opening ceremonies, so as he wandered through he stopped to watch a skate park filled with about a 100 teens, and Sean felt a tug from God on his heart there. Another atypical Sean thing, his passion had never been kids. Regardless, because of that tug he dug in real deep with God about wanting to pursue working in any place that could make him feel that heart tug, a job where he feels challenged and like he's contributing to the world not just to our pockets. So he ended up looking at their website for job postings and there was an HR manager posting.

Now, it just so happens that the director of YFC, John Courtney, is an elder at our Church, Riverwood. A week before this tour we had a member meeting at Church and they were discussing possibly hiring an HR person at Church as well, and people interested should talk to John, so Sean did, and emailed him his resume. That got passed on to our pastor who then contacted Sean to say they were going in a different direction. So Sean sent in his resume to YFC as well, mentioning to John, 'this is the guy at Riverwood who just talked to you about HR at Riverwood'.

We didn't hear anything back.

The YFC job got long forgotten, Sean still wasn't quite sure about where to pursue new work. He asked God to show him if he should stay and suffer through, because he had a wage and hours that helped us invest so much of ourselves in our Church, which we have really dove into over the last year. Or, he asked if there was a job out there that could mean more to him, because serving in our Church community had grown a hunger in Sean to get so much more joy and growth out of work. Serving at Church in the various different capacities we have taken on in the last year have been hard work, long hours, challenging people, BUT, so rewarding. For example, we take vacation each year to volunteer at a Leadership Summit held at our Church, we work longer hours than a normal work day but it's an awesome experience. After we returned to our jobs Sean felt this gap even more so, between God's work and his job. But he didn't seem to be getting any answers.

Until August.
 
There was a situation in Sean's life in August, God was asking him to do something he didn't want to do, but he finally did it anyway. Within 15 minutes of doing this thing he got an email from John Courtney inviting him to an interview for the HR manager position still available at YFC. His wife works in the same office space at Church as our ministry director of Friday nights and she has also been our volunteer coordinator when we volunteer at the Leadership Summit, so his wife was becoming very familiar with us through serving at Church, and while John mentioned he couldn't recall meeting Sean he said that his wife spoke very highly of him. So that meeting happened in late August. John said he would pray about it and get some discernment from other decision makers around YFC and get back to Sean, encouraging Sean to do the same as all YFC positions are 100% raised support.

A little over a month later John called Sean back for another meeting. This time to tell Sean they would like to hire him, talking more with Sean about being comfortable with raising support, and then proceeding with the logistics of a formal application with reference checks. Sean and I had been preparing ourselves for what life would look like if we were on support. Interestingly enough, God had been laying it on my heart over the last 2 years to release my finances to His wisdom. I've mentioned here before how fiscally organized (ok, controlling) I can be, and as you've seen in my posts here I've been working at being a better steward of what God's given us. I've always been contentious of living well within our means, but in the past I've been very much a worry-wart about a secure future financially. God finally helped me get over that, and has been preparing my heart for what it would look like if Sean took a job with a much lower wage, and that became my goal, to find a way we could live on the lowest possible amount so Sean could pursue wherever his dreams led, no matter the income.

So, Sean decided to move forward onto the next step with YFC, he submitted those references mid-October and was just last week called back for another meeting at YFC. I am happy to say that as of Nov. 15th Sean formally accepted the position of HR Manager at YFC (on condition of support), he will likely start somewhere around Jan.7th provided he raises a certain amount of support between now and then. Sean is still pursuing his counseling certificate, in fact YFC has counseling positions as well, so who knows what will happen once he's finished school, but John is aware of Sean's school and is very supportive and thinks it's part of what makes Sean a good fit.

Anyway, we are so very happy for this God-led direction for Sean, clearly recognizing this is exactly where God has been leading us over the last few years, and we are so glad we have had the faith to follow blindly.  No matter how much faith you have in God He can always find a way to stretch it :) While this is still a step of faith for us, as we’re not sure what this adventure will yet ask of us, we know we are surrounded by people who support us in so many ways, and a lot of that support has come from you, my friends.

While I wanted to share this good news, this amazing shift in our lives, I also wanted to support Sean by sharing some of the responsibility to raise support. While the term 'supporter' is used in this situation (and many of you have already been supporters of us through the years, through prayers and encouragement) we find that term too one-sided and that's not what we are looking for. We are looking for ministry partners, people we feel can be ministered to by the work Sean will be able to do, who feel that tug of the heart Sean first felt at YFC, who maybe have a passion for helping an organization that helps keep kids off the streets - out of gangs, and who want to partner with us to make that happen. If that is not you, please don't feel any pressure or obilgation, we feel that support is something that naturally flows out of relationship and it is mutual. That is what we are pursuing. That being said, if any of you would consider becoming our ministry partners, whether with prayer support, or investing financially (it is a tax deductible donation), all we would need is a mailing address for YFC to send documents to set things up. Any and all support is welcome.

Thank you so much for stopping in to read about our good news! I hope to have many future posts about the exciting work God is doing in our lives through this opportunity.