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11
 Couples Find Their Encore Together

Daryl and Karen Poppen

As married couples live life together they will encounter their encore years together, so planning what that will look like as a couple is important. Whether both have careers or only one is actually retiring from employment, there are still choices that they both need to make. Each spouse’s career milestones affect the other spouse in huge ways. There must be a partnership as they figure out how they will fill their time and find meaning and purpose when one or both of them stop working.

Daryl and Karen Poppen were very intentional about planning for their encore. With the help of a conference, a recommended book, and some good advice, they made a plan ten years before they planned to retire and stuck with that plan, which resulted in a successful transition into their new lives. Now at age sixty-four, with one year of retirement under their belt, they recount the preparations they made together:

At a Finishers Project Conference in 2002, we were encouraged to read the book Halftime by Bob Buford. Bob wants people who are in the middle of their lives—their personal halftime—to think about what they want their second half to look like. Many people retire to play golf, travel, and do the things they want to do. He challenged us to look at retiring to serve others and to serve God. We had been building up treasure on earth during our first half, and he encouraged us to look at building up treasure in heaven in our second half. Since supporting missions had always been something we had done, we began to look at how the Lord might use us for missions in retirement.

We knew we had to do some things to prepare. One of the tasks Finishers recommended was to get our financial house in order, eliminate all debt, and make sure that we had the resources to carry out our plan. God has richly blessed us, and over the course of the next ten years we were able to do it. We worked and saved for a very long time and now have very good pensions so we are free to do what God calls us to do. A year ago we retired from our jobs in California and moved to Huntersville, North Carolina, because our son Doug, his wife, Jenn, and their three wonderful kids live here. We purposefully bought a house near them three years before retirement, and rented it out in preparation for our move there after we retired.

The Poppens each left meaningful careers—Karen had worked her way up through the school system, and during her last five years of employment she served as superintendent for a small rural school district in central California. It was a challenging time for the school district due to the economic crisis the state of California was going through, and she ended up having to delay her retirement a year to help with the transition to the new superintendent.

Daryl had previously held CFO positions at various schools and at Forest Home Christian Conference Center, and at the time of retirement was working the favorite job of his career as both administrator and small-group coordinator at New Life Christian Church in Turlock, California. As he looked at retirement, he knew he wanted to follow the advice he had received from Dr. Dick Hillis, the founder of Overseas Crusades, back in 1967: to do things that make a difference in the lives of others. Daryl said, “I haven’t always done that as well as I would have liked, but I am excited about the journey we are on right now.”

So what does that present journey through their encore look like? “I love to help others in many different ways,” explained Daryl. “I help down at our church by leading a team of volunteers who help the staff with various facility setups. I also work with my son as he heads up a moving ministry to help various members and friends of the church when moving their residence is needed. We have also gone on a short-term mission trip to Long Island, Bahamas, and plan to go on several more mission trips in the future. Being around my son and his family brings me great joy. I love teasing and playing with our grandkids. I also enjoy the Bible studies I am in and the new friends we are making through our church.”

Karen explained what they did to intentionally transition into new ways of spending their time in their new lives:

We arrived in North Carolina on October 1, 2012. We attended the church where our son and his family were attending and serving. We had visited there many times, so we knew that is where we wanted to attend, serve, and make friends. We sought out a home Bible study group as a couple, and we both began attending men’s and women’s studies. My husband connected with a group to play golf through someone in his men’s study and began playing with them twice a week very soon after our arrival. I started participating in a tutoring program connected to our church at a local elementary school in January. Through our first year, we continued to volunteer in various areas at our church and take advantage of volunteer opportunities with Operation Mobilization, a mission organization we had supported over the years. We went on our first mission trip with our church in August 2013, and found it so fulfilling that we plan to do multiple trips each year. By the end of our first year, we were well connected with friends and participating in meaningful activities.

We find meaning and purpose through serving others and opening our home to share hospitality. Now that I’m retired, I have time to host various groups in our home, like Bible studies and book clubs, which is something I didn’t have a lot of time for when I was working. I enjoy cooking for them and sharing our home as a peaceful oasis in the chaos of life. I have also worked to form relationships with several neighbors and had them over for lunch.

Successful encores as a couple take planning as a couple, and here are some words of advice that Daryl and Karen give: