McGlinchy Family Blog

Christmas Letter 2011

Dear friends & family,

We hope this holiday season has been full of joy and lots of love as you linger in the moments that Christmas brings.  I so love this time of year, where we find intentional time devoted to family & friends…and the remembering of all that God has done for us through sending Jesus into our world!   In the midst of all our society has made the season into, we pray you’ll find moments with those you love to ponder this wonder of all wonders-come to us- in the greatest of humility, fully man yet fully GOD, a King born in a stable filled with animals (that still smelled), coming to serve and not be served, giving us the greatest gift we could ever be given…  life for death.  And that changed everything.

As for McGlinchy family news…  well, 2011 may go down in history as one of our most historic years ever!  Many things we’d like to forget, although knowing the character of our faithful God, He’s going to use those things for our good and already has.  All of us can look at our life and have distinct moments of confronting Isaiah 55, “His ways are not our ways…”  and for us, 2011 was a year full of those moments.  But His ways are higher than ours.  And His faithfulness and goodness is our sure, steady hope.

I will not go into much detail here, for this is our joyful Christmas letter!  But to make months of a long story short…  We experienced the potential reality of church _______ (trying to think of a word here…and well….just not sure what you call this stuff).  For Nate & I, neither of us had personally walked through church “upset”.  Upset – I’ll call it that for this letter.  What was this “upset?”  Well, of course it was lots of stuff on paper.  But as I summarize it, it came down to – a church founder who’s identity was tied tightly into his position, power, recognition, finances – who had lost ‘control’ as he turned the church over to a new lead pastor.  But according to the church by-laws – he hadn’t lost control legally.  He was president with total power.  The church board consisted of him, his wife, and his daughter’s father-in-law.  And there was no denominational headship or network.  So what began over changing paint colors & an acoustic drum set, turned into a much bigger “upset”…..and the rest is history.  Throughout the journey, our deepest prayer was that we would not end up a statistic of hurt, wounded, embittered followers of Christ.  And we prayed He would be the Keeper of our hearts and the hearts of our girls as well.  He is faithful and we can truly say we have come out of this with more longing then ever to see His Bride arise into what He intended.  This is not a church with a man in charge, it’s a church with Jesus in charge.  Although He chooses us, in our humanity and faults, to be apart of helping work this out.   And as we have discovered, sadly enough, our story is not unusual.

Where does this leave us…   Church planting in New Jersey!  Surely never something we would have foreseen…at least not the Jersey part of the picture.  We find ourselves working with a church body of about 100 people, meeting in a public high school, and trusting God more than ever!  It has been a big faith stretcher with about 1/3 of our financial needs literally left up to our Provider each month!  I say literally because He’s always our Provider, but its just sometimes more obvious than other times!  What we see for this season is a call to work alongside our friends, John & Jen Megaw, to help plant this (elder-led) church.  We love pioneering and creating new things.  Sometimes as I observe Nate at work, I’m amazed at how he can imagine & create.  I’ve seen it in the past through song writing and websites, but now get to see it through new things like writing children’s curriculum.   To check out more on this baby church plant you can visit Church Without Borders.

What About the Girls:  The girls turned 8 and 6 this year!  They are growing up so fast!  They both conquered riding their bikes this spring and also got their first pets — two rabbits (Clover & Esther).  We are still homeschooling & continue to take it one year at a time.  Allayah is in 3rd grade and her favorite subjects continue to be Language Arts, Reading, and anything that requires creativity!  She’s quite the little artist and recently wrote her first song.  Her dream is to be able to play the violin ~ and we gave her one for her birthday.  We are now praying for a good & affordable teacher!  Ellianna is in 1st grade and is focusing most of her time on learning to read & write.  She also loves art and anything that gets her hands messy.  She’s my kitchen helper and loves babies!

Celebrating 10 Years:  We celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary this June!!   Our hearts were overwhelmed with the gift God so sweetly placed right into our hands, in a 5 day trip northeast to Maine.  And it was topped off with far better than a cherry on top when Grandma came to stay with the girls while we were gone!  We find in each other more love than we’ve ever known on this earth… that just keeps growing.  And we are so thankful for His faithfulness to us this past 10 years and for the coming years ahead.

MM&D:  Nate continues to manage McGlinchy Media & Design on the side as well, along with his partner in Indiana.  When we moved, we had felt we were not to let this business fold up, but to scale it down.  And now we see why.   Although not generating a lot of  income, it has helped provide this past year.

Again, blessed by God’s provision, we were given the opportunity to enjoy two trips to see family this year (including 4 new nieces and nephews).  One was to the west coast, where we spent time in Washington with Nate’s family and also Oregon with my family.  And the second was a trip to Indiana where all of my family gathered to celebrate my parent’s 40th wedding anniversary!  We had not been all together for over 4 years.  So it was a very special time together.

2011 has been full of His goodness and faithfulness upon our lives, and we pray it has been the same for you and your family!  And if you’d like to experience a bit of Philly and the Jersey coast we’re always excited to have guests!

Much Love,

Becky (for Nate, Allayah & Elli too)

So, the yearly update is mostly written, which is slightly unwritten.  But for any who come to the blog before we get the update finished and posted, here is a little christmas cheer for you… Elli singing “All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth.” (Or rather a picture of her in the middle of it)

Here are some random photos from 2010.

Hi friends & family,

It appears we haven’t written at this family blog since last holiday season… At least it saves a few trees and seems to be a good place to post pictures and recap some of the year’s events once a year.

In looking back over 2010…we have experienced some amazing and rewarding moments.  One of the highlights, that forever impacted our hearts, was taking 12 teenagers to Haiti in July.  We spent most of our time in Port-Au-Prince and worked in tent cities, spent time at an orphanage loving on children, visited and prayed with people in an outdoor hospital, got to experience the incredible work of Hope Alive clinics, and simply fell in love with a breathtakingly beautiful people in desperate need. We felt the prayers of many, as things went so smoothly and without much event (the biggest being a girl bitten by a brown recluse spider).  And one of the greatest privileges we could be given was watching young kids be forever impacted towards a heart for missions!

Another highlight has been watching the girls grow, change, learn, & show us more of who they are becoming.  Of course as any parent reading this will understand, sometimes there are pains amidst the growing!  But we love living life with them! Allayah is in 2^nd grade this year and is just about to begin cursive handwriting, which she’s been so itching to learn.  She continues to show a love for anything artsy or dramatic.  Elli is in Kindergarten this year, and is just beginning to read her first little readers.  She’s certainly our compassionate, snuggly and full of life 5 year old.  The girls both played soccer this fall and they both were first time actors in a Jr. Shakespearean drama also this fall.  We’re still homeschooling, and although there are moments I feel the sacrifice, I consider it a great privilege and gift.

We are still in New Jersey, working with the church here.  Nate is the worship and youth ministries pastor (along with a catch-all of media help).  It has been good.  Good does not always mean easy.  And our deepest prayer is that Jesus would be the keeper of our hearts, and that we would be faithful to His calling.  We are blessed with some amazing friends (from our girls’ friends to youth to grandparents) who have touched our lives forever.  And I think Jersey may be growing on us…    just a little!  Nate also continues to keep up with McGlinchy Media & Design on the side, which helps make it possible for us to live in a single-family home (for which we are so grateful)!

During the first week of December, we took a quickly planned trip to Florida, to visit my Grandpa, who at 86 years old found out in November, that he’s in stage 4 of pancreatic cancer.  It is so special to me that the girls got to meet him.  We also were delighted to have my mom join us for the week and surprise the girls, while we were in Sarasota.  At the end of our time in Florida, we spent two days at Disney World.  It was our first time (for all of us), and we had a blast.  We were randomly selected on the streets to have a Disney manager and his photographer join us for part of the day, getting promotional shots for future publications.  So if you see us on their website, flyers, billboards or commercials…please let us know!

In this Christmas season, we hope you are finding time to feel the awe and wonder of the most incredible gift we could be given…God Himself, taking on humanity, to carry out the greatest rescue plan our hearts will ever know.  Emmanuel…God WITH us.  Perfect.  Holy.  Beautiful.  Humble King.  Our Hope.  May your holiday provide you moments of sweet reflection upon ALL that He is to us.  Everything.

We are thankful for the amazing family and friends we have been blessed with!  You mean so much to us!

Lots of love,

the McGlinchy’s

Dear friends and family,

Remembering:As I sit here (Becky) and write our annual Christmas update, I find myself pondering more on the meaning of Christmas than usual. Maybe because we’ve begun a new family tradition of walking through advent together, dwelling upon the hope, love, joy and peace that Jesus’ coming has brought to us. And not just his coming as a baby, but the incredible hope, love, joy and peace that fills us in knowing He’s coming again! Or maybe it’s because this has been an emotion-filled year for us. But I find myself completely overwhelmed with the sweetness of the manger that God Himself, came so humbly-seeking nothing this world could lavish, and chose to serve, give, love, showing us the better way to live and enduring it all just so we (with nothing good in just ourselves) might be free.  Free from our sin, free from sickness, sorrow and pain.  Not that they won’t be present in our lives, but we are free from its gripping effect, knowing one day we will leave it all behind.  And that even death, is only temporary, for those that believe in Him.There is nothing more wonderful and no gift greater, that we could ever behold!

12 Hours East:  New Year’s Eve (2008) found us driving across country, 12 hours east from Indiana, arriving in Medford, New Jersey, in a big yellow truck, with all of our belongings.  Many people have asked what in the world would bring us here, knowing no one (but one family).  We’ve asked ourselves the same question, especially when Nate has been trying to get back to the west coast ever since we’ve been married!And yes, we have reminded God that it was west we were hoping for.But God has led us here, and there is no better place to be than where He leads. And it is amazing how this little state, with the highest population density, is working it’s way into our hearts, this, not because we love the traffic, terrain, or humidity but because of beautiful people that have touched our lives!

The Church: The reason we’re in New Jersey, is because Nate has taken a pastoring position at Come Alive Church. His responsibilities include: worship, youth, children’s, college and all tech/media needs.  Yes, we are busy.  I guess it’s the joy of being an associate pastor at a small church.  It has been difficult to overcome moments of complete overwhelment (I know that’s not an official word, but I’m taking creative liberty to create it).  For me, I have pretty much backed out of all, except leading worship with Nate (which most of you know, is something we cherish deeply) and teaching the kids with Nate on Sunday morning.  I had burnt myself out within 9 months of attempting to manage our home life and what I was doing for the church.  And I am truly grateful for a protective and caring husband, who reminded me that I wasn’t on the salary list, and volunteering just what I could handle, was quite ok.  The church is full of wonderful people and we have already been so touched by their lives and the way they’ve welcomed us in. We are truly blessed and honored to be here!

Travels: Besides our traveling to South Jersey at the first of the year, we also in June got to travel to Pennsylvania’s beautiful rolling mountainside (I have to say that for Nate’s sake) and experience the Creation East Music Festival. It was a sight to behold! Over 50,000 young kids (and older ones too) gathered together, camping for 4 days, worshiping their Creator through amazing music and powerful speakers.  Highlights for us included: watching 50,000 candles light up across the hill, witnessing hundreds of baptisms in one pond at the same time, and the very humbling experience of leading all those people in communion after Chris Tomlin (in fact he was standing right behind us) with just the acoustic guitar, cello and two voices!  It is a great memory for us.  From there, we drove back to Indiana, to our waiting sweeties, and had a wonderful time being with my parents for a week.  Then in October, we flew to Seattle.  It had been 2 years since we had been back there.  Nate’s sister got married, and it was wonderful to be able to be there for that.  They graciously bought our tickets instead of having a bigger wedding reception, so that we could be there.

Bits and Pieces: We continue to home school Allayah, who is in 1^st grade this year.  It has been a sacrifice in many ways, but a rewarding one for sure!It’s been an amazing experience to be the one teaching her how to read and watch as she learns and grows.  Elli is tagging along for much of our school time. It has also allowed Allayah to see a lot more of her Dad, with so much of Nate’s time away being during evenings.  We are taking it year by year and have no expectations of what the next educating season may hold for us.But for now, we are loving it.  We are so thankful for the two beautiful girls God has given to us.

Nate continues to use his spare time, to keep up with McGlinchy Media & Design-the web design company he started 4 years ago.  He also brought on a partner for much of the programming work. The company has been a true God-send for us!  It is not cheap to live in New Jersey, and God has used this extra income to help meet our needs. God is faithful!

Loss:  This year also brought our family two very painful losses. We lost two tiny babies, very early in pregnancies, back to back in August and October.  The first miscarriage happened suddenly and quickly, while the second has been a very long process.  Thankfully through it, we’ve found a wonderful doctor, which is such a blessing.  It has been a long journey.And we have prayed, cried, grieved, asked questions, and cried some more.  But the hope that we hold on to; lifts our heads and our hearts.  For soon, yes, I’ve done the math, and if I live to be even 100 years old, its less than 70 years of waiting; I will see my sweet Noah and two more little surprise treasures and I will have forever with them!I know if I could but catch a small glimpse of where they are, I would never wish them here on earth!I never imagined I’d have more kids in heaven than on earth!  But He is good.He never changes and His strong arms have never stopped holding us- very close!And you can bet, when that day comes next to meeting my Father, I will be awaiting my three little one’s to leap into my arms and I plan to hug them for a very, very long time.

—–

We are so thankful for the amazing family and friends He has placed into our lives.  And we hope this holiday season finds you doing well, and even if circumstances haven’t been too great, that your head is up and you’re full of hope this Christmas with the beauty of His coming filling your hearts (our rescue).

May your coming year be blessed.We wish we could see each one of you over the holidays!We’re sending lots of holiday love from Jersey.

From our family to yours,

Nate, Becky, Allayah and Ellianna McGlinchy

(find us on facebook, if you haven’t already)

Hey…  just wanted to let everyone know that we made it!  We still don’t have internet hooked up at our new house, so we haven’t been able to check email or get the blog updated.  Currently we’re a few houses down, spending the night at our friends house (the lead pastor of the church) because we weren’t able to get the gas and electric transfered before it was shut off.  Hopefully tomorrow we will have electricity and heat!

Although there’s still quite a few boxes waiting to be unpacked, we are proud of the fact that we can both park our vehicles in the garage already.

A BIG thank you to those of you in Indiana who helped us pack the moving truck up!  And another big thank you to all those on the Jersey end (there were around 35 people helping with unloading).  I think a record was set on unloading a 26 foot Penske truck in less than one hour!  We have been overwhelmed by the reception we have had here.

Will blog more and add pictures once we have our phone and internet hooked up…

This was our first year, of not just going to the Christmas tree farm to buy a tree, but of taking the wagon out to the forest of trees, choosing our perfect tree, and cutting it down ourselves.  It was lots of fun!  The girls are at a fun stage of being able to engage in more activities and not just watch.  Here’s a few pictures:

Amazing to think that Allayah is taking her first school pictures!  I just love the missing tooth smile!  =)   With homeschooling, I still wanted her to have the “normal” school picture so here it is:

Here’s more thumbnails you can click on if you’d like to see more from her Penny’s photo shoot.  They don’t get very big because of copyright laws.

We would appreiate any and all prayers that you’d send on our behalf concerning our house selling!  This is quite obviously a terrible time in the natural, to be attempting to sell your house.  But we know that the same God who can move a mountain, can certainly manage helping our house to sell in a poor housing market.  We are saddened by the much lower than expected dollar amount we may get for it….especially with the hard work, blood, sweat and tears we poured into it in remodeling almost all of it.  But again, we know that God knew this is when He’d call us to move and we trust Him over any type of financial gains we thought we’d profit.  The housing market is down in NJ as well, so it may compensate for any loss here.  We’re asking God to sell this place by the first of December, unless He knows of another plan that is better.

Here’s a link to a simple website Nate created for the house:   www.66097SR15.com

Wow, I don’t know if anyone really reads this blog…..   I personally get overwhelmed with how much time I can spend on myspace/facebook/and other blogs, that I realize they are a time-guzzler.  Which is why I know people may not be actually reading this thing.  But needless to say, that’s no excuse for the fact that its the middle of November and I haven’t written a blog since our last day in Mexico (IN AUGUST!).  So I will attempt to play a little catch-up, and there’s quite a bit to catch-up on, as we have had some big life changes occur for us in the last couple of months.

Ok, so we arrived home from Mexico (which was a great 3 weeks for us as a family) and within a week were jumping in to Allayah’s first year of school.  Yes she’s in Kindergarten already!!!!    We decided to homeschool her.  It wasn’t an easy decision for us, and we went back and forth.  But we both felt it was the right choice for this year anyway.  With the combination of her being a young 5 year old (summer birthday) and the school system we live in only offering all day/every day Kindergarten, we just weren’t so sure we were ready to place our little girl in that environment, but knew Allayah was more than ready for the challenge of learning more.  So we invested in a wonderful curriculum, which bases much of its learning around literature (which we both love), called Sonlight (I’ll create the link in case any of you out there are entertaining the possibility of homeschooling).  We’re on week 13 and she is doing great!  She’s reading little books.  Here are the words she read in her first book:  Pam, Bat, Pam Bats, Bam!  AHHH, those were the days, when that was reading a book.  It has been really cool to be the one to be there with her for those great moments!  And Elli also loves sitting in with us, until its gets boring for her and she runs off to play.

Now for the bigger news…  While we were in Mexico, actually considering a move there, we got an email from some friends, who Nate had worked with at YWAM Seattle, and they asked us to consider coming on full-time staff at a church they had just become the head pastor of.  We thought they were still in the Seattle area, but no, they’re in NEW JERSEY!  After digesting the whole East Coast, not West Coast, part (Nate checked out the humidity level of New Jersey in the summer before even checking out the church’s website!), we felt a stirring in our hearts to pursue it.  So the church flew us out for a long weekend in September, and we both had a strong sense this was the next step for our lives. I will blog more about New Jersey later.

It was pretty overwhelming for me to imagine leaving Indiana…  not so much for the fact that Indiana is so amazing, but much for the fact that I’m the only child out of four to live by my parents.  I know its not like they’re so old they need caretaking or anything, but it just seems so sad that they could have four kids and now 10 grandkids, but none of them live nearby.  Michael is in Oregon, Christa’s in Colorado and Eric is in southern Indiana.  The girls have only ever known life with my parents around.  And I like knowing that my parents play such an important role in their lives.  I know that its true, we’ll probably have more “quality” time together once we move, because now we’ll visit for extended times.  But I will miss just living life together.  Its things like canning garden produce each summer and fall, having my mom swing by on her way into town, lazy Sunday afternoons by their stove in the winter, etc.   I can’t imagine how much my parents must miss us kids living nearby and yet how rewarding it is as parents to see all of your kids following God and His calling on their lives.  As my Dad puts it, “We have all of eternity to be together.”

November 16th was our final Sunday at Pleasant Hill (the church in Michigan we’ve been helping out).  It was pretty sad to leave.  They had a box set out for people to write letters to us and stick them in.  The whole way home (over an hour) I read them to Nate and we both shed quite a few tears.  We felt so appreciated and loved.  And we know that God took us there to “break up ground” and we feel confident we did just that.  Now we wait with anticipation to see what God does next in their lives.  We know it will be good!

Ok, so I think that is a quick catch-up on what has taken place for us over the past few months.  Oh, one last important detail….  our firstborn is growing up–  Allayah lost her first tooth last week (just in time for school pictures=).  It seems like yesterday that we were celebrating her first tooth’s arrival!  Here’s a picture of her cute missing tooth smile, and that’s green supposedly “washable” marker on her nose.