Karen Mains Blog

In Open Heart, Open Home (over 500,000 copies in print) award-winning Karen Mains steps far beyond how-to-entertain you hints to explore the deeper concepts of Christian hospitality-the Biblical way to use your home and an open heart to care for others like God wants us to. Countless pastors have recommended this classic resource as the meaningful example of how the Holy Spirit ministers to and through us to make other people feel truly welcome and deeply wanted. Grab your copy now! http://bit.ly/bb2z1G

Making Sunday Special will help you and your people restore the biblical “rhythm of the sacred” and then fall in love again and again with Jesus Christ, the Lord of the Sabbath. Grab your copy now! http://bit.ly/NvkQU

Truthfully, sometimes sick days are the best thing that can happen to us. Learn why, visit me @ http://bit.ly/gHcVo2

This book was extremely controversial in certain sections of ultra-conservative Christianity so I warn you, read it carefully. I stand behind every word, despite the controversy. It may even shake the ground beneath your feet. I will probably never write anything this well again. But I have certainly paid for the effort to be excellent, to be lovingly truthful, to want God. Covers age 45-52. http://bit.ly/yVejtD

Comforting One Another uses Michelangelo's Pieta as a metaphor for learning how to comfort those hurting in life. http://bit.ly/1gQ6qU

Read the best-selling book on Christian Hospitality: Open Heart, Open Home. Then Start Welcoming Others into your Home and Heart. http://bit.ly/bb2z1G

Because we had such a wonderful Christmas season with our extended family—adult offspring and grandchildren—I was sure I would be filled with wonderful memories of how God had met us during these holy days. Let me tell you why, visit me @ http://blog.karenmains.com/blog/thoughts-by-karen-mains

Advent Retreat 2011 Invitation

Advent is a time when we prepare ourselves for the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ.  As summer winds to a close and fall is upon us, the Advent Season will be here before we know it. We  want to invite you to participate once again this year.  Sibyl Towner (author, Listen to Your Life) and I will be facilitating this retreat which will be held on December 1 -2, 2011 at Bishop Lane Retreat House, Rockford, IL.

There are only few spaces left.   To  register, you can go to this link ==> http://www.breathingspaceorg.com/tiffany/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Advent-Retreat-Registration.pdf

We look forward to seeing many of you again this year!  Praying for abundant blessings from the Lord this coming Thanksgiving and Christmas 2011.

 

 

Charity Plant Sale 2011

It's almost September and a few months from now, we'll be sending goodbyes to 2011.  Today is the best time to plant a tree since we'll be having a charity plant sale this coming Sept. 9 - 10, 2011.   If you would like to buy plants at bargain prices, this is the small window in time where you can still transplant them and give them a couple of months to root before winter and freezing temperatures arrive.  Proceeds will go toward defraying some of the above costs to underwrite the Global Bag Project. For your queries, send me a mail via e-mail at info@hungrysouls.org. or leave a message on the office phone: 630-293-4500.  Any volunteer help the proceeding week or that weekend will be greatly appreciated.

Pursuit of Frugality

by Karen Mains

Our new office administrator at Mainstay Ministries, Heather Ann Martinez, is an ordained Anglican priest. This actually has nothing to do with one of her unusual capacities, but it certainly doesn’t hurt that ministerial function: Heather Ann delights in saving Mainstay money.

She came to work for us before Christmas of 2010 and has taken delight (sort of a savings game) in stretching the donor’s dollar that supports our ministry. Often, we hear Heather Ann chortling, “Hey-hey-hey. I just saved us _______ (whatever the amount).”

Heather Ann renegotiated our Internet service contract to better meet our needs; that will save $25/month. She procured a simpler Canon copier because we no longer really require the fancier machine. This lowered our monthly rental fee by $225. She discovered that paper products were cheaper at a national box store chain than those at the local office-supply store—a savings of $10 every six weeks or so. She renegotiated our Cimco phone-service contract, lowering the monthly fee some $30. Her last coup was to take the financials systems in-house, put them all on QuickBooks—a savings of $200 per month.

Heather Ann says, “It may sound silly…” when I ask her to name some of the ministry frugalities she has achieved. But, it’s not silly when you total the amounts because the savings add up. In just the items named above (there are more), Heather Ann’s careful attention will save us $5,940 per year—no small amount. No little silly thing at all.

This principle of cumulative impact cuts across many of life’s activities. The more we do something, the more effect it has. The more we exercise, for instance, the more we reap the benefit of physical discipline. The more we walk, the more we can walk.

The same is true about looking for God’s activity in the world. The more attention we give to hunting for God’s daily interventions in our common life, the more we will become facile in finding Him.

I spy God in Heather Ann’s diligent pursuit of frugality; without a doubt it is benefiting our entire ministry, helping us to do God’s work in the world better. The fact that she takes such delight in penny-pinching makes it every day a treasure hunt here in the office.