Hello Blogger Friends!
I am sorry that I have been away for a bit but of course I have come back!!! Here is an update on various things:
Work: STILL loving it! It is challenging, exhausting, never the same and VERY rewarding. We feel blessed to be where we are AND I have wonderful news...Some of you may have heard me share about our Thrift Store. When we first arrived and looked over the budget we learned that over the years our store had incurred over $50,000 worth of debt which the employees did not not about. NOT good considering TSA owns the building and everything is donated. So right off the bat when we arrived we were faced with the possibility of having to close our doors. This is something we really felt we could not do so we gave it some time. I am glad we did! I am VERY pleased to report that by the end of this year we should have the store out of debt and actually MAKING money! :D GOD is GREAT! We have to give Him all the credit because he has given us the wisdom to know what to do. Here is a simple example of a change we made (there have been many): I was looking over one of the Thrift Store's phone bills and I noticed that there was a $9.00 charge for extra services so I went to the store to ask our staff about it and no one knew the reason. So the next step was to go to the company. The company explained that we are paying to use their phones!!! So I asked "Are we able to use our own phones?" "Of course you can." was the reply. It took all of 10 mins. to ask our staff to pick some phones from the store to use and to please pack up the money eaters! I returned the phones and on this last bill we saved $17.80!! Here is some perspective: $9.00/month may not seem much to many people BUT $9.00/month x 12 months ends up to be $108.00 and one of our employees who has worked with us for 10 years said that they have had those phones since she has been there soooo essentially $108.00 (for one year) x 10= is $1080.00 NOT including the taxes that could have been saved. Maybe there was a reason the store started with the phones but I see no reason now. Also we have had many new customers who love to shop in our store so that is great! I am sure you are sick of hearing about this so lets move on!
Personally: I am gearing up and getting so excited for this busy month! I am off to Women's camp this weekend and I am looking forward to fellowshipping with some great gals! Then on the 16th Mike and I are heading to Newfoundland for Congress!!! I am super excited about that! THEN we are heading to Whitehorse in July to hopefully meet the newest member to the Howard Family...MY new Nephew Matty. Please pray that the adoption process goes well and that funds will be raised for the Howards to bring Anesu (Matty) over from Zimbabwe. I am excited for all our adventures coming up. I trust you have many things on the go yourself and I hope and pray that you continue to walk with the Lord as you go! Until next time...
