We Have Great Kids!

becky    General    

Samuel’s personality is rapidly developing and he’s learning things every minute. Some of the things he does are really cute/funny. Here are some I’m particularly fond of:

We bought some flowers and put them in long window box type boxes on our back patio.  We thought it would be nice to have something pretty out back and also to have something for Samuel to help care for.  He asks to water the flowers all the time.  The water cans are near the back door and he’ll stand at the door making the sign for drink to indicate that he wants to water the plants.  If he could actually fill the cans and get outside by himself, those poor flowers would be dead in no time from over watering.

Samuel likes music and likes to dance.  He knows I usually just turn on iTunes from the computer, so he’ll stand by the computer and start to dance to let me know he wants music.

One of Samuel’s favorite books is Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? One of the noises Mr. Brown makes is a goldfish kiss, which Samuel makes a kiss for.  I bought one of those gigantic cartons of Goldfish a couple weeks ago and to ask to eat Goldfish, Samuel makes his goldfish kiss face.

I’ve decided Samuel’s nickname should be “Turbo Toddler.”  We’re pretty sure if we could harness his energy we could probably solve California’s energy issues.

We don’t know much about “Acorn” at this point. We do know s/he is healthy, growing, and super active.  We joke that Samuel could end up being our calm child.  When I was pregnant with Samuel I heard that babies who are active in-utero will be calm after birth.  It did not hold true with Samuel.  I’ll guess it won’t hold true with “Acorn” either. “Acorn” will get a real name upon birth when we find out whether we have another boy or a girl.  We do have names picked out, but will keep those under wraps until s/he is officially named in June.  When we asked Samuel the other night if “Acorn” is a boy or girl he very distinctly said “boy,” the first time he’s used the word boy.

We absolutely love our children and feel so very blessed that God so lovingly gave them to our family.

Almost A Third!

becky    General    

We are well on our way to reaching our outgoing expenses goal. At this point we are over 42% of the way toward fulfilling that goal, which is definitely exciting. What is really exciting about that number for us is that it keeps growing each month primarily due to those who have pledged support to HCJB Global already fulfilling their pledges.  Yes, we do still receive one-time or occasional gifts from people and we are truly grateful for those gifts.  We know that it takes both to get us to our out-going expenses goal and we know through the years that one-time gifts will help when we have dips in regular support or extra ministry expenses.

Now, for our monthly support.  Our theoretical goal was to be at 50% in February and then 75% in May.  As of right now, we’re just shy of being at a third of our support.  We were talking the other night about our numbers and there’s something about 1/3 that seems like we’re getting somewhere, even if it is slowly right now.  The next pledge we see should put us up over the 1/3 mark and we hope it won’t be too long before we’re hitting that 50% mark and then 75% and then 100%.  Until then, we keep praying and working and going about the business God calls us to.

March Madness Update

becky    General    

We’ve been updating everyone over the last week about what happened with our March Madness and think it’s about time to write something for the website. It’s been an interesting couple weeks for us as we wrestle with having done what God called us to do and then not seeing the expected results.   We have added a few people to our prayer team and we have a little over 33% of our monthly pledges.  We had felt called to pray, and ask others to pray with us, for an increase from 30% to 50% in our monthly support and add 20 people to our prayer team.  Clearly, that didn’t happen.  During the entire month of March we very much felt called to pray for the increases and felt very much to be in God’s will to be praying.  For some reason, God called us to pray for those things and did not fulfill them in that timing. We just have to trust Him and continue on in this journey He has called us to.

Budget Fun!

becky    General    

As we go through this process of raising support to move overseas, one thing we know people might wonder (but probably wouldn’t feel comfortable asking about) is what our personal finances are like.  I titled this article budget fun because we actually enjoy having a budget.  We’ve always had a budget of sorts since we got married (75 months ago as of yesterday!) and started a really established budget using an Excel spreadsheet about six or eight months into our marriage.  We find a budget to be very freeing and never have to wonder at the end of the month if there will be money in our account or if all the ends will meet.  We always have money in the account in the end and our ends are always met.  We are well aware that those ends are met month after month thanks to God providing month after month, year after year.

So, overall, you should know that we have absolutely no debt of any kind-no mortgage, no student loans, no car payments, no credit card debt (in fact, we VERY rarely ever even use our one credit card), no money owed to others.  Neither one of us had debt prior to marriage, have not accrued any since marrying, and will continue to trust that God will always provide so that we need not have any debt. The only thing we can see ourselves borrowing money for is a mortgage, if God ever puts us in a location where purchasing property would be appropriate and He leads us to do so.

I won’t use any specific numbers as it’s not necessary for you to understand how we handle our money, but we are willing to share a little about how we do spend, save, and give in a month.  We tithe gross.  When we first got married we were tithing net and then we started attending the church we were members of when we lived in Nashville.  The very first service we attended at the church was about church finances and also personal finances. Some people would find that a turn off, God used it to convict us to tithe gross instead of net and we’ve never turned back. At the time Toffer was the only one working with no job in sight for me.  We only survived those months of just Toffer’s income because of God’s grace and provision (some of which was through wedding money and savings from prior to our marriage).  So, needless to say it was a big step of faith for us to start giving more to God and He blessed us for trusting Him and being obedient.  We regularly give extra to our church and support a child through Compassion (who I started supporting back in college when he was just five!) and then various things we feel God leading us to give to.  We have had more regular giving commitments in the past as God has provided funds to do so (especially when we were both working), but at this point we do not feel led to make any extra commitments as we don’t know what our budget will look like when we are living on our new income.

In addition to giving, we save.  We have general savings (including a decent amount for an emergency fund should something happen to Toffer’s job), savings for specific, current things (like Christmas, kids, vacation, transition-we get some from our outgoing expenses when we move, but know we’ll need more than that), and for long-term things (retirement, a house, college for the kids).  Our giving and saving categories account for about about 1/3 of our budget.

Our monthly, regular bills (rent, utilities, car/renter’s insurance, etc) account for about 40% of our budget.  The other 25+% is broken into food, household, automotive, health, and entertainment.  We keep track of our monthly budget as well as pages to keep track of things we’re saving for and one for extra money we receive as gifts all in Excel.

Toffer, Samuel, and I all also have personal accounts.  Obviously Samuel doesn’t spend any of his money at this point, but we wanted to make sure anything he received as a gift was set aside specifically for him and remains untouched until he can make choices about how it’s spent.  We each have small personal accounts that we call “discretionary accounts” for things we want just for us.  Toffer and I also decided use those to purchase birthday and Christmas gifts for each other.  It’s nice to have some money set aside for when we really want something for ourselves that doesn’t come from a budget category.

It may seem like we’re a little crazy, specific about where our money goes and how we keep track of it, but over time it’s become second nature for us to do it this way and we find a lot of freedom in having a set budget every month.  We also have a great record of seeing God work through our personal finances through the years and how He’s provided all our needs in some interesting ways or made our budget stretch much further than humanly seems possible.  God has definitely been Jehovah Jireh for us!

Great Prayer Resource

becky    General    

Toward the end of last year my mom gave us this great prayer devotional called Prayers for the Faithful by Mary Ann Bridgwater.  I picked it up a little after the beginning of the year and have found it to be incredible.  It’s just one page a day focused on praying for missionaries around the world. Every week there is a theme (ex. this week it’s holiness and purity) with scripture daily to pray for missionaries and yourself and also a specific place to pray for.  It’s been great for me to remember to pray for those who already serve God around the world and to remember to pray for those on our team in Asia.  God has also used it to open my eyes to things we may encounter on the field that I hadn’t even thought of.  If you’re looking for a great prayer resource or devotional book, I highly recommend this one.

P.S.
We know you are probably looking for an update about March Madness. We promise that is coming soon!