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 10th 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.7th 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
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