Most people have a seat-of-the-pants understanding about leverage from playground equipment. Some people understand the physics behind the lever and have put it to great use. In the financial world, leverage has more of a theoretical application than a physical one. Someone who might only have enough cash to buy enough bread for a week’s […]
Foreign eXchange
For those of you interested in hearing more about “Foreign eXchange,” read on for details. Then comment or email if you have questions or would like to get involved. For those of you who have already signed up, keep in mind that we need your letters a.s.a.p., and we’d like to have your gifts by […]
So the Boys Know We’re Crazy about Them (Rachael)
Remember when we said we wanted to let the boys in Guatemala know that there was someone out there who was absolutely crazy about them? Well guess what? It’s happening! A few weeks ago we launched Foreign eXchange, which is kind of like a sponsorship program with a few uniquely-eXchange twists. For one, the […]
Investing in the Kingdom–Nate
Monday, the market’s up. Tuesday, back down. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Repeat. I’ve heard it said the best time to invest is when everyone else is running away screaming in panic that the sky is falling. The keen investor calmly wades through the crowd toward the remaining value and ends up with a great deal. Why […]
Our Top Ten Ways to Save Money (Rachael)
Given the state of our economy, now probably isn’t the best time to be increasing our expenses, but, wouldn’t you know it, that’s exactly what we’re doing. One of our goals is to go to Guatemala four times over the course of 2009 (compared to the two times we went in 2008). Our first trip […]
Bailout for the Bankrupt Christmas (Nate)
I recently received an issue of an e-zine (it’s like a magazine that comes through email–great for not cluttering up your coffee table) that gave special attention to the decline in charitable giving. Overall giving is down. A confidence indicator that tracks people’s willingness to give is at a new low. Some organizations that exist […]
Way Better than Lunch
This past September, our church considered what Jesus meant when he said, “when you fast,” (Matthew 6:17) and came to the conclusion that fasting isn’t an optional discipline (Jesus said “when you fast,” not “if you fast”). As is typically the case with our church, the point wasn’t just to understand this intellectually, but […]
Abundance (Nate)
A while back, our friend Emily Wiggins recommended a podcast about adoption and orphans (check it out here: Crown on Orphans). A couple of things stuck out to me that I’d like to reproduce here, and then I’d like to share some of my thoughts and reactions. In the podcast, Crown Ministries mention that “It […]
Perspective
I know we said we were going to take turns blogging, but Nate’s priority this week is to work on the upstairs apartment. (Yes, we have apartments–more on that some other time.) So, to take some of the pressure off him, I (Rachael) am going to be blogging again this week. Our trip two weeks […]
Guat Wrap Up
As I was looking over our blog last night, I realized that a lot of the content of my blog posts has centered on our time with the babies. Interestingly, this wasn’t the original plan. We had hoped to spend equal time at the babies’ home, Eliza Martinez, and San Gabriel. However, due to circumstances […]