ChezSlaughterBlog

What Happens When The Dollar Drops?

Over the past few years, the dollar has continued to decline against several currencies including the euro. Just last week, when the feds lowered the interest rates, the dollar dropped to an all-time low of 1.42 - which means each euro costs us $1.42. On a larger scale, that means that every 1000 euros now costs us $1420. Just a few short months ago, 1000 euros costs us $1250. When the euro first came on board in 2000, 1000 euros costs us only $900! In short, over the past seven years, our costs for the same amount of money have risen more than $1500 per month! That doesn't even include inflation and an increased budget due to increased needs. For a one-minute explanation on why the dollar drops when the feds lower interest rates, listen to this audio clip. Download the_dollar_drops.mp3

September 27, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

We're 11 days into 2007 and already moving ahead with plans for a great year! Here's what's up so far... ...On Tuesday, I met with Elria Ellis, a South African friend who is serving with me on a committee to redesign the church platform. Our church is 30 years old and it's time for a bit of updating to bring the platform into the 21st century. Stay tuned for "before and after" pictures. ...On Wednesday, I spent 90 minutes on the phone with Bryan Grisham, worship pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Shreveport. Bryan is bringing a 12-member team of musicians and vocalists to Brussels March 16-25. The team will conduct worship institute events in Brussels and Rotterdam, and participate in other ministry opportunities including a choir workshop and an evangelistic cafe concert. Bryan is a great worship leader and I'm so glad he and Calvary Baptist are investing in Europe with this amazing trip. ...Today, I had three great meetings with three great guys: (1) I met with Terry Hoggard, director of the Fellowship of European International Churches as we push forward with the vision of helping plant and grow international churches in Europe. Already, we have 7 new ones to add to our roster in Italy, the Canary Islands, Belgium, Holland and Austria! I'll also be writing and editing a European-wide magazine to help promote international churches in Europe. (2) Then I drove a half-hour out of Brussels to meet Fabien Creteur, director of the PromS Arts organization and my colleague with the 2006 Christmas concert tour. We talked for 90 minutes about plans for the newly-formed Belgium International Gospel Choir. We really see this as an evangelistic outreach and a way to express unity in a country divided by languages and cultures. (3) Afterwards, I drove back to the chuch and met with Albert Walsweer, a Dutch friend, who is in charge of our new audiovisual department at the church. We discussed ideas for sound and lights and other ideas dealing with the upcoming redesign of our platform at the church. These are just some of the things we have going on at the moment. We'll keep you posted! And we hope your 2007 is off to a great start! Jeff

Once a quarter we have kind of a quirky thing here in Belgium: "Grand Poubelle Day". That's a day when you can put just about anything out by the roadside and the garbage collectors will take it away for you. (We know by experience that they won't take refrigerators or television sets!) The somewhat amusing thing is that the day before Grand Poubelle a steady stream of cars and trucks crawl through the neighborhoods going through everyone's "junk". I work hard to make our "junk" pile look very nice and get perturbed when people go through our stuff and leave it a mess! So I wait until the morning of and then make my pile so fewer people go through it! Still, though, there are those last-minute pilferers who are looking for the treasure that is one man's junk!

Justin turned 16 on November 22. Born on Thanksgiving Day, 1990, Justin is our middle child. He's attending St. John's International School and doing well in his studies. He especially enjoys his guitar lessons as well as his studio art and graphic design classes. His plan is to become a graphic designer and is showing great promise with his creativity.

Justin and Nick went trick-or-treating with a group of kids from St. John's International School. Their costumes: homemade "hobo" outfits with a bit of dirt and grime painted on!

Welcome to ChezSlaughterBlog - the newest addition to our ministry communications. Over the eight years of serving as missionaries in Europe, we've evolved in our communications to our supporters, supporting churches, contributors, friends and family. We've upgraded our ministry print newsletter, "Coeur a Coeur", from black and white letter to full-color. We've expanded our electronic newsletter, "An E-Communique", to a full-fledged ministry website located at www.chezslaughter.com. And now we're going "blogwild" and joining the "blogging revolution" which means we can post our own journal entries, photographs and missionary ventures as they happen. While we will continue to send our ministry print newsletter a couple of times a year and post E-Coms in the "What's New" section on our website; our blog will be much more instant. We know your life is busy and that there is a constant barrage of electronic communication coming your way. Our hope is that you can "click in" and catch up with us anytime you want, as often as you want. Some of you like to know every detail. Others are just happy with pictures and headlines. We hope this blog connects us with you and you with us however best it works in your life. And as always, we enjoy hearing from you too! We hope to see you in the "blogosphere"! Jeff & Kathy Slaughter Brussels, Belgium

2007 Is Here!

We're 11 days into 2007 and already moving ahead with plans for a great year! Here's what's up so far... ...On Tuesday, I met with Elria Ellis, a South African friend who is serving with me on a committee to redesign the church platform. Our church is 30 years old and it's time for a bit of updating to bring the platform into the 21st century. Stay tuned for "before and after" pictures. ...On Wednesday, I spent 90 minutes on the phone with Bryan Grisham, worship pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Shreveport. Bryan is bringing a 12-member team of musicians and vocalists to Brussels March 16-25. The team will conduct worship institute events in Brussels and Rotterdam, and participate in other ministry opportunities including a choir workshop and an evangelistic cafe concert. Bryan is a great worship leader and I'm so glad he and Calvary Baptist are investing in Europe with this amazing trip. ...Today, I had three great meetings with three great guys: (1) I met with Terry Hoggard, director of the Fellowship of European International Churches as we push forward with the vision of helping plant and grow international churches in Europe. Already, we have 7 new ones to add to our roster in Italy, the Canary Islands, Belgium, Holland and Austria! I'll also be writing and editing a European-wide magazine to help promote international churches in Europe. (2) Then I drove a half-hour out of Brussels to meet Fabien Creteur, director of the PromS Arts organization and my colleague with the 2006 Christmas concert tour. We talked for 90 minutes about plans for the newly-formed Belgium International Gospel Choir. We really see this as an evangelistic outreach and a way to express unity in a country divided by languages and cultures. (3) Afterwards, I drove back to the chuch and met with Albert Walsweer, a Dutch friend, who is in charge of our new audiovisual department at the church. We discussed ideas for sound and lights and other ideas dealing with the upcoming redesign of our platform at the church. These are just some of the things we have going on at the moment. We'll keep you posted! And we hope your 2007 is off to a great start! Jeff

Grand Poubelle

Once a quarter we have kind of a quirky thing here in Belgium: "Grand Poubelle Day". That's a day when you can put just about anything out by the roadside and the garbage collectors will take it away for you. (We know by experience that they won't take refrigerators or television sets!) The somewhat amusing thing is that the day before Grand Poubelle a steady stream of cars and trucks crawl through the neighborhoods going through everyone's "junk". I work hard to make our "junk" pile look very nice and get perturbed when people go through our stuff and leave it a mess! So I wait until the morning of and then make my pile so fewer people go through it! Still, though, there are those last-minute pilferers who are looking for the treasure that is one man's junk!

Justin Turns 16!

Justin turned 16 on November 22. Born on Thanksgiving Day, 1990, Justin is our middle child. He's attending St. John's International School and doing well in his studies. He especially enjoys his guitar lessons as well as his studio art and graphic design classes. His plan is to become a graphic designer and is showing great promise with his creativity.

Raising Hobos

Justin and Nick went trick-or-treating with a group of kids from St. John's International School. Their costumes: homemade "hobo" outfits with a bit of dirt and grime painted on!

Bienvenue

Welcome to ChezSlaughterBlog - the newest addition to our ministry communications. Over the eight years of serving as missionaries in Europe, we've evolved in our communications to our supporters, supporting churches, contributors, friends and family. We've upgraded our ministry print newsletter, "Coeur a Coeur", from black and white letter to full-color. We've expanded our electronic newsletter, "An E-Communique", to a full-fledged ministry website located at www.chezslaughter.com. And now we're going "blogwild" and joining the "blogging revolution" which means we can post our own journal entries, photographs and missionary ventures as they happen. While we will continue to send our ministry print newsletter a couple of times a year and post E-Coms in the "What's New" section on our website; our blog will be much more instant. We know your life is busy and that there is a constant barrage of electronic communication coming your way. Our hope is that you can "click in" and catch up with us anytime you want, as often as you want. Some of you like to know every detail. Others are just happy with pictures and headlines. We hope this blog connects us with you and you with us however best it works in your life. And as always, we enjoy hearing from you too! We hope to see you in the "blogosphere"! Jeff & Kathy Slaughter Brussels, Belgium