About Us
GRANT and MIRANDA WEAVER
Outsiders would probably say that my wife and I have a cross cultural Anglo-Burmese marriage with two Eurasian (or Anglo-Burman) children (Jonathan and Rachel) but we prefer to call ourselves typical Americans who happen to be in a cross cultural marriage with two children enrolled in college. They are now living with their mother in Buckley, WA.
My relationship with Miranda was an unlikely affair that began after she bumped into me in the halls of Arizona State University. The cultural divide, the differences in upbringing and past experience, and the challenge of establishing an interracial extended family made it a long shot at best. However, 1972 was a time when I was experiencing spiritual renewal and new hope for the future in the midst of a very secular institution. We found in each other a love, a common vision for the future and a mutual commitment to the God of our fathers.
We were married in 1974 while attending Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ and we then relocated to El Paso, TX in order for me to complete graduate studies in psychology at the University of Texas. Thereafter, federal civil service employment as a psychologist took us to Roanoke, VA, Europe, San Antonio, TX and Tacoma, WA. Then a break in civil service (1987-2004) also involved several relocations that took us to New Holland, PA, Tacoma, WA and Chandler, AZ but over the last 12 years, Miranda and I founded and have been administering an alcohol and drug treatment center in Enumclaw, WA which has continued to flourish.
Although my career has taken me through challenging academic and institutional labyrinths as well as clinical minefields that challenged my faith and Christian walk, an interest in simple living and soberly in the light of the Christian Gospel has sustained me. A stable emotional disposition and oneness of purpose have perhaps been the most useful to me in my pilgrimage here on earth and taking time for diversions such as fishing, swimming, snorkeling, diving, and travel have satisfied leisurely pursuits.
My resume includes:
Miranda
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Miranda immigrated at age 13 to the United States from Burma (now known as Myammar) with her parents and siblings in 1964 during a time when military rule was being established in Burma. Her father's foresight that Burma would evolve into a socialist and isolationist regime and that the government would begin a discrimination policy against Anglo-Burmans was prophetic since both have come to pass.
Miranda is fluent in the Burmese language and several other languages and speaks perfect English. She is also musically gifted and educated in nursing and as a natural hygienist. True to her Burmese heritage, she has an unusually high work ethic and an uncanny ability to excel within a business enterprise, and strong family ties are important to her. She also commands discipline in the home, expects equal rights, and paradoxically defers to male leadership. She has retained her Burmese name of Thuza Khin.
She is a person of strong Christian faith and has a compassionate heart for ministry to the oppressed.
Grant
I was born and raised in Amish country (Lancaster County), Pennsylvania where I grew up in a Mennonite home and culture and worked in a family business. However, at age 19, my simple, rural and idyllic lifestyle gave way to the shocking exposure to a world of dark, self destructive and life controlling problems when I went to work in a large urban substance abuse rehabilitation program. Thus, a mission of working in the field of mental health and addiction treatment was born.
As for my spiritual development, my life can be separated into four distinct periods. First, there was my life before salvation (as protected as I was from the more sinister depths of sin). Second, was my life as a Christian without the power to live and walk in the Spirit (as unsuccessful as that was). Third, was my walk in the Spirit with spikes of ups and downs. Lastly, the past 10 years has been a time where a sifting and shaking has taken place to advance the cause of Christ.
Christian outreach has been an ongoing concern in my life.