OUR TESTIMONY

In 2019, our “wilderness” began. I heard the Lord speak to my heart about a Christian shirt company in November of 2018. I had recently become a stay-at-home mom, but also really loved working. I thought this would be fun, and a great way to work for the Lord. We quickly got an LLC in December 2018, bought all the shirts on a credit card, and began to build it. By March 2019, we were ready to roll! I was so excited and full of faith, excited to see what God was going to do. But things started to fizzle out toward the end of 2019…  

I felt like maybe I didn’t hear the Lord correctly, not knowing who all this was actually impacting. What I couldn’t see then is that I was being humbled… A LOT. “He must increase and I must decrease.” I decided then to fast and consider the Lord fully; I landed on taking a break, slowing things down, and keeping it alive if anyone wanted to buy t-shirts, but not chase after the business. What it did do was give me a small platform to encourage people in the Lord daily, shining His light to others.

 

This “wilderness” was thick. We had debt up to our ears, barely making all our payments. It was in this year that we really felt isolated from everyone. God began pulling us into a hidden place, where we learned a lot. We began reading His Word, watching so many videos about the Lord, filling up with constant material and God-Conversation. He revealed so much to us. It was like a year and a half of trials, tests, listening to Him, letting Him prune us, and plant His Word in us. There were many times that people thought we were crazy, we still looked forward and stood our ground. We learned who we were, who He is – and who He will always be! – and built trust in Christ. We truly gained an understanding of: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. 

 

DEBT. At the beginning of 2020, we wrote out every single debt we had on a piece of paper, totaled it up, and asked the Lord to take care of it for us. “Where two or three agree, there I am also.” We read Mark 11:23-24 and believed we would receive. We continued to do everything we knew to do, and trusted Him along the way. Ken and I owned another house that we rented out right before we got married in 2012. In the summer of 2020, this family contacted us, saying they were ready to buy the house. After living there this whole time, now they’re talking about buying? This in and of itself was an answered prayer. It wasn’t exactly a form of income for us, since we had to pay a little each month to not increase the rent for this family. By December 2020, it was done. They bought the house and we made money! We crossed everything off that list. Everything but our current house was paid for… AND we had enough to put down on a loan for a coffee shop. Hallelujah! Praise Jesus! I could hardly believe it, even though we had submitted to the Lord and prayed without ceasing for His help. We were blown away by His goodness and faithfulness! We even wrote down that we believed it would be complete within a year, and it was!

 

In August 2020 I had a stroke, we called it an attack, because that's what it was! We believe the enemy wanted to shut me up, keep me from telling anyone about the good news of Jesus, to keep me from speaking testimonies of God's goodness; because at first I couldn't talk a lot, read, pray out loud, or describe any pictures the doctor asked me too. I knew what I wanted to say and I knew what was going on in them, I just couldn't speak it.. But God had already made provisions for this too! It ended up being an amazing, miraculous testimony for the Lord! I was completely healed and only spent two nights in the hospital. They ran tests and all came back clear. On the MRI it said I had had a stroke and that it was three days old.. but every other test was perfectly healthy. My husband and all close to me were determined, encouraged, and ready to fight! I was so excited that God made them so strong and ready for this, expecting God to move!  It was so amazing to see everyones part in all of this and to know God had prepared each one for their part in it all! I filled my time there with worship music, and was determined(because God asked me) to ask anyone that came in my room if I could pray for them! TAKE THAT devil! I was better than normal in about a week or two, meaning I could talk, pray, read aloud, and use my phone correctly. The doctors didn't understand.. I wasn't 65 or older, I didn't eat crappy, I don't do drugs, I don't drink, I don't smoke, and all tests came back perfect.. God told me on that third day it was time to go, and told my husband I wasn't to take the medicine they prescribed, so I didn't.. I took regular vitamins and baby aspirin until I felt the nudge from the Lord to stop, but that was it.. If you talked to me today you'd be shocked to learn all of this now, you would never guess! As we prayed and believed I was healed, everything that was difficult slowly came back! GOD IS SO GOOD. (If you would like to watch the full testimony you can click HERE.)

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In December 2020, God spoke and confirmed another dream to us. He said we should open a kingdom-minded coffee shop and work for Me! We started to investigate the how, the where, and the when’s… But we were all-in again! This was a common thing now: For 4 years, He says something and we go, never worried about if it won’t work or if it’s crazy. The talking and the planning began. By the beginning of 2021, we were all in. My husband was concerned about his job at the time, he wanted to make sure they were set up for success before he left. He worked to make sure every store had managers, looked for new managers for the stores that were set to open. It became a huge deal to him that they would be completely set up before he left the job. Someone prophesied a year before that this job he had was a good one, and that it was from the Lord. But when the time came for him to leave, he would know it, and God would move him. Boy, did that come to pass! In March 2021, after he had gotten all the stores he oversaw operating at a top level, producing sales that doubled from when he first started, they fired him for talking about Jesus. You can’t make this up!

 

We took this as part of the prophesy over him, “when it was time to move, God will move you.” This gave my husband the freedom to really start digging deep into all things coffee shop. We continued to apply for loans,  but didn’t know how that would work with no job and no source of income. He met with many people, all of them telling him we needed more of this, less of that, etc. Until one day, after several applications, a bank called him. The bank didn’t sound familiar to him (he didn’t think he had ever called him), but they were calling about the loan. We sent over the material, and they met with their people. They wanted to schedule a meeting in less than a week at the location we were considering. We talked to landlords and gotten the bid from a construction company, prepped and ready for the meeting. When they showed up, on a Saturday wearing plain clothes, their smiles and greetings were full of peace. The president of the bank drove an hour and a half to see the location and meet with us! The meeting was unreal. My husband left thinking that he just had a meeting with two angels. They wanted to hear all his big plans and dreams; they were all in with us. Boom! We got a loan. 

 

 

But not long after the loan was approved, something came up in the lease; something the landlords weren’t comfortable with. So we were on the hunt again for a location. Suddenly, we found a new location that was bigger and a way-better location, in our minds. In September, we were able to sign the lease and let the construction begin. With my dad, by the way! He’s our amazing contractor. 

 

We are all set to open before Christmas, with an amazing landlord, awesome location and bigger space, beautiful inside, AND room for a drive-thru! Waiting for things to get finished and seeing all the tiny pieces fall into place, we are still learning so much! There have been so many little setbacks and leaps forward, but we continued to keep one thing fresh in our minds, “It’s in His timing.” 

 

God has taught us that if you just step out in faith and do the things He has laid on your hearts, He has already made the way. If He asks you to do something, you can’t fail! He has taught us to trust Him and His timing, not our own. That one was challenging, but the more we would just do it, the more amazing the journey would get. You’d be surprised at how much people probably miss out, because they want their timing instead of the Lords. 

 

FAITH! Walking by faith, not by sight. When it looks like you’re the only one that thinks you should be doing something, or everyone is questioning what you’re doing or why you’re doing it… Simply remember that He is there, cheering you on! Jesus said, “When I come back, will I find faith?” When it doesn’t look possible, remember we serve a God that, through Him, everything is possible. God wants to give you more than you can ask for, think about, or imagine. Let Him! This is our amazing testimony of just one time that God did the impossible with us, just because we decided to say Yes to Him, step out and trust His timing.