Molly PavlovichFrom Zimbabwe to Kenya, Messiah Village, and across the world—Alvera’s adventures of a faithful heart lead her on a journey not yet finished.
By the time Alvera Stern turned two years old, she had been on three continents—Africa, Europe, and North America—and she had traveled by boat, train, car, bicycle, horse, and wagon.
“I grew up traveling, and I still love to,” said Alvera, who is now 79 and has seen a quarter of the world— having traveled to all 50 U.S. states and 46 countries. “These experiences in my early years built an incredibly foundational sense of curiosity in me and an empathetic interest in people’s cultures and religions; in seeing, experiencing, and trying to understand as much of God’s creation as I can. It’s deeply embedded in who I am, still to this day.”
Alvera was born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, where her parents served as Brethren in Christ (BIC) missionaries—her mother a nurse and her father a pastor and teacher. She received all of her elementary and high school education from African boarding schools. Growing up, Alvera enjoyed an array of traditional celebrations, feasts, cuisines, and music, and a life that she describes as simple, kind, and respectful of all people and customs.
“Zimbabwe will always be my home,” Alvera said. “It was there where I first learned to enjoy the beauty and value that existed in being different, both within myself and amongst others.”
A HEART FOR GOD, A HEART FOR OTHERS
She attended Messiah College (now Messiah University) in the ’60s with the help of the BIC Mission Board, but wishing to return to Africa when opportunity called, she knew her stay in the States would be short-lived. During her studies at Messiah, she was blessed to find one person who was as curious about the world as she was, Jacob, whom she married in 1964, shortly after earning her B.A. in natural science and psychology.
Settling into married-life routines, Alvera and Jacob planned to stay a few more years here before making their foreordained missionary move to Africa, but in urgent timing, openings for science teachers in Zimbabwe arose— for which they were both certified. The then-BIC bishop said to the newlyweds, “We need you now.” So they went.
“It was a soul-feeding experience,” Alvera said, reflecting on their first six years as missionaries. “When we left Zimbabwe, we were both replaced as science teachers by our students. That kind of set a pattern in my mind, that you work yourself out of a job—look for the talent, work with that talent, and then move on when the time is right.”“The work I did throughout my life was never about me,” Alvera added. “It was about serving for the greater glory.”
In 1970, Alvera returned to the U.S. from Africa to earn her doctorate in counseling and educational psychology from Penn State University.
She and Jacob then lived and worked in the Bahamas and Greece before deciding to move to the States for a while to raise their two children.
“Jacob asked me if I was willing to live in the States,” Alvera remembers. “And I said, ‘Yes, but only if I get out every year.’” That was 47 years ago. And they have managed to do so every year since, traveling for business and pleasure to Russia, Australia, Brazil, and many other countries, including one of Alvera’s favorites, Ethiopia.
“Ethiopia has a culture of the Bible, since Old Testament times,” she said. “You can visit many stone churches that were built more than one thousand years ago and are still worshiped in today.” She vividly remembers sitting on a hillside above a cave in Ethiopia that houses one of these historic stone churches. It was Tuesday morning, 10:00am, and a priest was standing outside this cave church in white garments as the people came down from the mountainside, in several directions, to worship.
“God is found in many places,” Alvera said.
FULL-CIRCLE SERVANTHOOD
Alvera worked for nearly four decades in the field of substance abuse prevention at the county, state, federal, and international levels before retiring as Senior Administrator of Media and Communications for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) at the federal level in 2007.
“We decided early on when we left the mission field that we were going to go back at the end of our careers,” Alvera said.
She and Jacob applied to work for the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), an Anabaptist global nonprofit organization that believes in living out the Sermon on the Mount—sharing God’s love and compassion for all, by responding to basic human needs and working for peace and justice. They were offered country director positions that aligned with the lengthy resumes they acquired over the years, but Alvera and Jacob had something much more interesting in mind.
“I want the job that’s working with the people, sitting under acacia trees, in an isolated rural area,” she told them, reminiscing of her younger years in Zambia and Zimbabwe.
For the first seven years of retirement, Alvera and Jacob worked in a remote, semi-arid rural area in Kenya, training staff to work with local community groups and farmers. Similar to their missionary roles as newlyweds, these trainees then replaced them as trainers.
“It was such a joy to be able to help tap into the potential of people—potential that they and others often didn’t see—and watch them not only successfully step into my role, but also advance onto more senior positions including CEOs of companies and MCC leaders,” Alvera said. “That’s what being a teacher is all about—selflessly shaping.”
“As my students became the teacher, and then in many ways better than the teacher, I thought to myself, ‘Ah, yes! Now, I can really retire,'” she joked.
A JOURNEY NOT YET FINISHED
Alvera and Jacob would have stayed in Kenya longer, but in 2014, Jacob began experiencing cognitive lapses that doctors diagnosed as frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and she knew it was time to return. At the top of Messiah Village’s waitlist, they signed for a cozy cottage that has been their home base for the last nine years.
“I tell people, do the things you love, with the people you love, in the places you love,” Alvera said. “Now, all of those things—the activities, the people, the places—change with age. But the way that I think about it, ‘Repair, and if you can’t repair, replace. And if you can’t replace, adjust.’”
An adventurous, curious spirit with a heart for hospitality has always been who Alvera is, through every stage of life. At Messiah Village, that hasn’t changed. She’s curated new friendships—many with retired missionaries who too have led spiritually-driven and well-traveled lives. She leads devotions, enjoys coffee and Bible studies in the company of others, and is always planning for her next adventures. Alvera admits she even has a notebook where she has her next three years of travels planned out.
“We’re still traveling internationally at least once or twice a year,” she said. “Typically, a short winter trip somewhere nearby, and in the fall, a trip somewhere farther away.”
Recently, Alvera and Jacob traveled to Mexico City and took a cruise through the Panama Canal, and they’re excitedly anticipating an upcoming trip to Botswana, Zimbabwe. Most familiar with traveling independently, they now are learning to enjoy travel in new ways through guided tours, cruises, and sometimes even tagging along on their grandchildren’s excursions when invited.
“Last winter, our two grandkids were eager to take a train into New York City, and they said, ‘Grandpa, Grandma, will you come with?’ Of course, we were happy to. So we took a train, and we stayed for two days,” Alvera said. “We let them tell us what they wanted to do and where they wanted to go while we were there. I was introduced to Japanese soufflé pancakes and mochi—both of which were delicious. I got to experience and see the city through their eyes, which was even more fun than Jacob and I would have had on our own.”
As Alvera thinks about the travels and adventures yet to come, she knows they may continue to look different— little by little—but she wholeheartedly embraces it, knowing that it’s all a part of life’s larger journey.
“At my age, I’m reflecting a lot on God’s blessings of love, joy, and peace, and how the spirit of God feeds the soul. Travel is a gift from God, but greater are the fruits of the Spirit,” Alvera said. “Continuing to develop self-awareness in the journey of where I am in my spiritual life is important to me, asking myself, Is my prayer life expanding in the way I see Paul in Philippians 1:22? ‘If I go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me.’”
“It’s such an interesting idea that the physical borders will naturally close in on my life as I age, but I have this life of prayer. And I always will,” she added. “Prayer takes us to heavenly places. On earth, we haven’t yet finished the journey.”
Click here to read the full digital version of Unscripted, Fall 2023.
