Frugal Faith

Hoping for a haircut at some point today.  Can you see why?  When the flyaway wispies blend in with the telephone wires, it's time for a trim.  

I've been putting it off, even though I know that's not always the best move if you're trying keep your look tidy.  And I do want to keep things tidy.  But when the price of a hair cut goes up, and my income stays the same, it's time to think smarter about this.  

I did the math (yes, me, doing math!).  I calculated that if I stretched things out by even just two weeks, that would require three less haircuts per year.  I'm not sure what you pay for a haircut, but even at my 'discount' salon, that adds up.

Also, if I time it out right and get a hair cut today, I'll be due for another one near to the end of my time in Thailand.  And I know a young Thai businesswoman who owns her own modest little salon in her tiny little village not that far from Hot Springs.  She does a great job and it costs me the equivalent of $6 CDN.  

There's so much in the news about our economy right now.  But I don't even have to look at the news to know how much a haircut will set me back, how much things cost at the grocery store, how differently the Canadian dollar is behaving right now, and how dramatically that affects us at New Family Foundation in terms of currency exchange.

Yesterday, at Highview, we sang about being 'no longer a slave to fear' (No Longer Slaves by Jonathan David and Melissa Helser).  In those moments I asked the Spirit to show me what I'm most afraid of right now.  And without hesitation it came to me how much anxiety I'm actually carrying in terms of all these economic realities and the fact that we have 21 children to care for in Thailand.  And also the 10 seniors we support in Haiti.  We're forming New Family Foundation's 2025 budget right about now, fiscal year March to March.  We're in the midst of raising funds for Auberge des Vieillards.  These realities are very, very real.  In my role as Highview's Missionary in Residence, I feel the weight of this.  And the current state of world affairs and how that's making everyone think of ways to save money on hair cuts and otherwise tighten their belts....well that scares me.

The song gives the response to this.  So beautifully.  'I'm no longer a slave to fear.  (Instead) I am a child of God.'  And the Spirit asks me, in this wispy worship moment, 'do you trust Me?'  It's funny how needy fear can move you into spaces of breathless faith.

So hopefully today I'll have done away with the wispies, hair-wise, and will have been led into creative solutions for the other things.  Maybe I'll even get my exercise in today and walk to the salon.  Although I am watching the weather.  

Stay tuned for another selfie (if I like how it turns out).