What recession?

Last Thursday night Brannon and I attended Dave Ramsey's national "Town Hall for Hope" event that was telecasted live at Branson United Methodist Church, one of the 6,000 hosts of the nationwide event. Dave encouraged the nation to "choose hope" by refusing to be a part of the recession. Fear, he said, (like that has been instilled in our country by Washington and the media regarding the current financial times) is the antithesis of hope. We absolutely loved Dave's message. It was refreshing, inspiring and -- more than anything -- personally motivating. To see what I'm talking about, check out http://www.townhallforhope.com/.

Brannon and I have made several changes in our spending in our quest to become debt-free, as we also refuse to be victims of the so-called recession. So I thought I'd share a few of the things we've learned and principles we've instituted recently:

First of all, I jumped on the coupon bandwagon full force at the beginning of this year. My friend Hillary blogged about this a while back and referred me to http://www.thethriftymama.com/, which is constantly updated with the best deals and coupons across the country. Hillary and her fellow coupon bloggers have educated me -- from a distance -- on the art of couponing. The biggest thing I've learned is that you can pair manufacturer's coupons with store coupons, plus many grocery stores double coupons! I've been amazed at how much money we've saved, and on items we buy regularly anyways. Brannon is pretty impressed, too. At first he wasn't sure about my new obsession (just imagine me looking like Edward Scissorhands, paper flying, cats diving into mountains of paper, coupons scattered everywhere! Ok, I digress...), but several free and nearly-free meals, deals and grocery items later... he was sold!

We've also been blessed to be able to get by with only one car since we've been married. We realize that we won't always be able to share a car so easily (thanks to living on campus and being sans kids), so we're choosing to rely on one car for now. And our family recently blessed us with a new-to-us car (which, by the way, is a little red convertible Miata!), so our plan is to continue on with one car like we have since we got married -- which will keep our gas, insurance, taxes, maintenance and overall car expenses down.

Another major expense cutter for us was our decision to virtually eliminate our eating out expenses. We don't have a specific budget for eating out, so if we want to eat out -- it's gotta be cheap (Hello, coupons! Hola, Taco Bell!) and it comes out of our grocery money.

To sum it up, it's been an adventure learning how to cut back and save money. But the best part of it all is that we do have hope -- hope that freedom from debt is just around the corner. And we've found that there's joy in being able to live off of little, especially when we're learning how to do so together.

What we do

So, for our second blog post, I thought I'd share a little bit about what Brannon and I do here at Teen Challenge. It's exciting times around here, so I can't help but share!

As a sidenote, let me say that we welcomed our new executive directors, Jake and Amanda Lynch, at the beginning of January and they have been such a blessing to the ministry here already, and to Brannon and I personally. God has given Jake a big vision for this center and we're excited to be a part of it!

Brannon is continuing his work as pastoral and intake counselor, and he does an amazing job at both. Due to our staff's prayer and fasting, God's answer to our prayers and Brannon's ability to comfort hurting parents and communicate so well who we are and what we do, we've enrolled 4 new students in the last 2 months. That's amazing!

Tomorrow morning Brannon will begin teaching and leading our staff through the Under Cover curriculum by John Bevere (which, in a nutshell, is about the blessing of authority and the protection of a godly "covering"). This has been on his heart for a while, and we're both excited about it. I watched the first session on DVD with him earlier this week, and it was powerful.

Brannon is also preparing for a trip to Vero Beach, Florida later this week. He'll be going with our director, Jake, to the Teen Challenge boys center that Jake worked at before coming here, and they will be attending the center's graduation ceremony while there. They apparently have an amazing program, so Brannon is looking forward to the trip and seeing what they do. (This will be our first time apart for more than 12 hours since we've been married!)

I'm still working in the kitchen and learning more about the art of feeding hungry teenage boys. I've come to realize that my favorite meal to cook is homemade soup. Pumpkin, vegetable beef, chicken noodle, split pea and lentil, creamy potato... I've borrowed, modified, and created several recipes since I've been here, and I absolutely love soup days. Of course, a bowl of hot goodness alone wouldn't be enough for the boys, so I always have to make sandwiches or some other item on the side. Bottomless pits they are, God love 'em. ;)

I've also been taking on more PR and marketing tasks, which has been wonderful! We sent out our first newsletter in February and I will be finishing up the design of the second one this week. (If you'd like to be added to our mailing list, send me an email and give me your address!) I've also been working on press releases and forming relationships with the local media. I really enjoy the variety of both jobs -- cooking and writing/designing -- since they are two of my favorite things to do!

So that's a little about what's going on here! We both feel blessed and honored to be a part of this ministry, and to witness the transformation in our boys as they come to know Christ and grow into godly young men.

A year, already?

In a little over a month, Brannon and I will celebrate our one-year anniversary! Man, it's crazy how nearly a year flew by right before our eyes!

Before we married, Brannon and I talked about the two completely different perspectives we heard from our friends and family about the infamous "first year." We either heard, "Oh, bless your souls, get ready for the first year... it's a doozy!" Or we were told, "The first year is just one long honeymoon! Enjoy it!" (Honestly, we heard more of the first than the latter!)

Well, as we hoped, our first year has been a nice balance of both. We've enjoyed the ups, worked through the the downs, and learned to appreciate the value of both in this newlywed phase. In addition to adjusting to married life, we've also learned how to work together every day, while living on campus and a stone's throw away from the Teen Challenge center we both work for. I must say that this year has felt like one big adventure, with lots of changes, adjustments, prayer, laughter, tears, lessons and rewards. And I wouldn't trade or change one bit of it. God has truly blessed us this first year, and my heart is just so overwhelmed with gratitude.

So as I reflect back on our first year, I also look forward to sharing some occasional updates during the ones to come. Much love to our family and friends back home! Check back often!