Several years ago Jordon and I were invited over to Jerry and Gloria Reimer’s house just after Jordon started work at Lakeview Church. It was stifling at our apartment and they promised us cool drinks and air conditioning. It was so hot I would have gone for iced tea with anyone at that point and we had a good time sitting on their deck and talking.

While working at Lakeview, we became good friends with the Reimers and spent a lot of time in their home and them at ours. Over that time Jordon and Gloria’s arguments became legendary at Lakeview for frequency, volume, and banality. Jerry many times managed to push Jordon into walls and one time almost sent him sprawling at the Saskatoon airport.

One day Jordon came home from work, he was bothered by something and when I pressed him to what was wrong, he said that Gloria had said, “I am your mother you know!”. Marion had been dead for a couple of years and the phrase had bothered Jordon and at the same time rang true. His next sentence was, “They are the closest thing we have to family and she’s right”. Since then the Reimers have always been the first ones we call when things are going well and when they are not. Good news or bad news. Matt and Tamara have also welcomed us into their family as well. Mark worships the ground that Matt and Tamara walk on. Tamara was Mark’s first name spoken through a wrapping tube on his second Christmas.

When Jordon was in the hospital with health problems, he called Jerry and Gloria to let him know he was heading to the hospital. He told Gloria there was no need for them to be there but they came anyways and were there with me and him. When I was going through depression and couldn’t listen to anything other than the lies I was telling myself, Gloria broke through with both volume and love and her and Jerry helped me get the help I really needed. They are Mark’s godparents but are really more like grandparents to him and parents to us.

So when Gloria got ordained, it wasn’t just a co-worker, or a friend, it was watching a family member get ordained, even if as Jordon joked, it was one of the signs of the apocalypse.

Gloria was right (and Jordon cringes at Gloria being right at anything) that she and Jerry along the road became parents to us and we have been glad ever since. Congratulations on being a commissioned minister in the Free Methodist Church Gloria!