You Rock! — from the Holsclaws

as "Yes" Team Partners Update

Jan 12, 2024

Below is a letter to our “Yes” team: a group of people financially supporting Cyd and I so we can pour into the work of helping people become deeply attached to God, overflowing in love for others.

Becoming a paid subscriber (only $8 a month) would be a small way to join our “Yes” team. Or give larger, one-time or repeating gifts through our non-profit. ~Geoff

Thank you for your generous support in 2023. As one of you said, “This is the YES team, that helps the Holsclaw say “Yes” to where God is leading.”

Cyd and I want to share what we've been able to say YES to, and how God

Has worked through our work this last year
Has provided for us in surprising ways
And some opportunities ahead of us.

A Story of Attaching to God

This is one of many people who are learning to attach to God more deeply because you help Cyd and I say YES to focusing on this work (see other short testimonies at the bottom).

Anne spent much of her life devoted to others: on the mission field, as a mother of three, serving her local church, involved in her local community. But she often felt empty. Her husband struggled with addiction and no matter what she did, she continued to experience feelings of 'not enough'. They eventually separated, and Anne was feeling lost and struggled to connect with God.
Then she enrolled in our Attaching to God cohort. She began to focus on securing her attachment with God and started to hope again. She began the practices coming out of that cohort Anne continued to grow in confidence, joy, and health, and she became increasingly connected to God.
Now Anne has turned into a 'superfan' of the work God is doing through us and gave us $900 as a year-end gift telling us to "use it to help people who can't afford join the next cohort."

Several pastors and spiritual directors have commented that while they had heard about attachment before, our cohort helped them connect the details of attaching to God to the Bible and spiritual formation.

Your Support Helped People Connect with God

Almost 100 people came through our cohorts
And another 100 on our waiting list
300+ people at the conferences and retreats we led
45,000 downloads in 2023 of the Embodied Faith podcast (which is 50% of total downloads since launching in 2021)
Able to keep costs down for cohorts and coaching (even though our business advisor keeps telling us to raise prices—more on that below)

Your Continued Support Helps Us Say YES To…

Expanding into a couple of new areas, like

Start a new Scripture and Soul Care podcast that brings together pastors, biblical scholars, therapists, and theologians to connect spiritual and mental health concerns (a local studio has already committed to donating space and time (Yeah!!) And we are looking for a couple of large donations to make this happen).
Begin producing simple, animated videos explaining relational neuroscience and how these insights can strengthen spiritual formation processes.

And your support in 2024 will help us continue to say YES to

Keep costs low and offer scholarships for our cohorts and coaching
Keep writing our book, tentatively titled Deeply Attached to God
Produce the free Embodied Faith podcast

Funding Needs:

We are still seeking to fill in a $20k gap in our funds (for projects, expenses, and discounts for others). If you know others that would be interested in partnering with us to say YES with God, please contact me.
And if you would like to increase your support you can do that here.

Surprising Ways God Has Provided for Us

Alongside the small and large ways you have supported this work, God also surprised us with two huge blessings.

First, a friend offered to put us in touch with his business coach. When he connected us by email, the coach immediately replied saying that just that week he had started reading our book, Does God Really Like Me! Long story short, the coach took us on pro bono and has been a huge help with strategy and staying focused on the right things.

Second, we have been saving up (for years) because our house needs a new roof. Last May an enterprising roofer knocked on the door and asked if he could examine our roof for wind damage. My reaction was that our roof was just old, not wind-damaged and that insurance would never cover repairing an old roof. Another long story made short, but our insurance accepted the claim (which in truth we had wind damage, I just didn’t think they would cover it for such an old roof). So we basically got a new $20k+ roof for the cost of our deductible. Praise the Lord.

Thank you

All that to say, thank you for your past and continuing support as we seek to help people become deeply attached to God, and from there, to engaging lovingly with the world.