Summer Mission Trip to Haiti

Dear Family and Friends,

Happy New Year! Angie and I have had a wonderful 2010 and are about to celebrate our first anniversary! While we were talking about the past year, our future also came up and we began to share how God is calling us to short-term international missions. We have been exploring some different options for the past few months and have been invited to be a part of a mission trip this summer.

We have the opportunity to go to Haiti from July 9-16. As you are aware, Haiti suffered a massive earthquake on January 12, 2010. The earthquake killed over 200,000 people, in addition to injuring approximately 300,000 and leaving over 1 million homeless. It will take years of effort to restore even the most basic services and support for the people of Haiti.

While in Haiti, we will be participating in many activities that will allow us to minister to the local people:
• We will be spending time in an orphanage playing games with children and teaching them the Bible.
• We will be actively involved in a construction project.
• We will support and encourage local churches in Haiti by helping them to rebuild.
• We will be preparing and serving meals to those affected by the earthquake.

All of our ministry efforts will be coordinated through Mission of Hope Haiti (mohhaiti.org).

We are seeking your prayers and financial support. Please pray that God would use us to share Jesus and the good news of the Gospel with those who have never heard. Since this trip is self-funded, Angie and I are asking you for your help. The cost to be a part of this mission trip is $1500 per person and both of us will be going. This brings our total to $3000. We have already started making changes to our budget so that we are not asking you to do anything that we aren’t already doing. Please know that any support will help - no amount is too small!

Please mail donations to:

Josh and Angie Holder
5628 88th Street
Lubbock, TX 79424

Or you can click on the "Donate" button on the right side of the blog.

Thank you in advance for your prayers and support!

In Christ,

Josh & Angie

New York & Company Deal - Today ONLY!

Today only you can get on New York & Companys facebook and click "like us" and you will receive $50 off a purchase of $100 or more. Don't miss this opportunity.
If for some reason you have trouble doing this on facebook, leave me a comment on this post and I will send you the link. Also, if you are like me and don't have a facebook - I used my friends account and it still worked. Good luck!

-A

Livingsocial Deal of the Day!

If you haven't already heard, Livingsocial.com is having a great deal today! You can get a $20 Amazon gift card for only $10. Plus, if you send the link to 3 friends and they buy it, you can get yours for FREE! Click here for the link. Enjoy

Surprised By Grace

Last week I finished Tullian Tchividjian's newest book, Surprised By Grace: God's Relentless Pursuit Of Rebels. I thought it would help me to understand the book better if I attempted to put some of my thoughts into a coherent whole :)

The entire book revolves around the Old Testament prophet Jonah. Though most of us are familiar with Jonah's being swallowed by the fish, I actually thought the less known chapters in his story were the most compelling. I think most of us know about Jonah: He was a prophet that ran from God and was swallowed by a fish, only to be coughed up, change his mind about God's proposed mission, and preach to the Ninevites. One of my favorite things about Tchividjian's book is that he doesn't seem to focus on Jonah becoming fish bait, but actually helps us see as complete a picture of Jonah as possible - thankfully without "reading between the lines" and minimizing the overall point of the prophet's story.

Tchividjian is unapologetically Reformed in his theology and this drives what he sees as the most important aspect of Jonah's experience: God is pursuing us. He thoughtfully balances God's pursuit of us with God's discipline of us. He is also careful to remind us that because God gave Jonah a second chance after his rejection of God's call to preach in Nineveh, this does not guarantee us a second chance when we reject God's call. As I read this, I couldn't help but think of R.C. Sproul's The Holiness of God where the author states that God's grace is the ultimate explanation for our very existence. Each moment after each sin is proof that God extends his grace to us, despite each sin being a violation of God's perfect law.

If this is true, do you think your idea of God's grace is big enough?

Josh

Check It Out!

Yesterday was my first CVS shopping trip of 2011. I know in my last post I said this year my goal was to only buy things that were on sale and that I had a coupon for. Well after thinking about it I can't fully stick to that commitment because a lot of times they have really good sales on Coke products and Coke hardly ever has coupons. Plus my husband drinks far too many cokes not to get them on sale. Other than that, I think I can manage to stick my guns this year.

Yesterday I had a pretty good trip - here are my purchases:

Purchase #1

Retail value of products: $31.03

Total out of pocket: $24.16

Amount saved: $6.87
Extra bucks received: $10.00 (free money)

Purchase #2

Retail value of products: $23.82

Total out of pocket: $-0-

Amount saved: $23.82 (%100)

Because of coupons the total actually came to $14.50 but because of all the extra bucks I received from purchase #1 and the extra bucks I had been saving I got it all for FREE!

This week CVS is having pretty great deals. You should check them out! :)

-A

Check It Out!

I thought I would update you on my lastest purchase at CVS. I haven't been going as often as I was because it has been busy with the holidays, but I plan to pick things up after the new year begins and to start fresh. By that I mean, I thought it would be neat to start my totals over at the beginning of 2011 and to track my savings throughout the year. By doing this it will give me a good idea of what I would have spent, what I saved and how much out of pocket spending I'm doing.

I only made one purchase this week because there weren't any items that I needed that would give me extra bucks so I didn't think it was worth the time to split it up.

Purchase:

Retail value of products: $103.76

Total out of pocket: $59.29

Amount saved: $44.47

This may seem like a lot of out of pocket, but in reality it's not! This gave me a great chance to stock up on items that I will need for the future that will more than likely not be on sale when I need them. I might also add that I went to CVS with NO extra bucks so I did have to spend more out of pocket this time than usual.

For the new year I plan to really focus on only buying the items that I have coupons for and that are currently on sale and to also begin fresh with collecting Extra bucks. By doing this it will help cut down on my out of pocket spending. :)

CVS Deal

This week only CVS is offering a deal. IF you buy an itunes gift card worth $15 or more you will receive a coupon for $10 off the new release of Despicable Me. The movie is originally $19.99.