BAM

This is an article that I wrote yesterday for the BAM program at MTW.  They have bene working with us on the PDE store.  For those of you who recently collected clothes for us or donated... THANK YOU!  We are still using them.  Although we have closed the store, we are still selling off the clothes on the weekends and getting to keep 100% of the profit!

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Business and Missions

I am not a business person, never have been.  That’s why when the Lord asked me to start a used clothing store for the girls in my ministry, everything in me wanted to say NO!  From my point of view all I could see in my future was paperwork, legal fees, rent, and more work.  But God had a different plan.  I work with a home for young single moms in La Ceiba, Honduras and these girls were desperately in need of job training.  They needed to learn how to be responsible workers, keep a schedule, receive a paycheck, budget their money, and get some experience.  The Lord dropped all the necessary pieces into place.  People were giving us clothes to sell, without me even asking.  We found a place where the owner dropped the rate way down and we had volunteers build our clothing racks.  I just didn’t feel like I could tell the Lord no when He was making this decision so clear.  In September of 2012 we started working with BAM through MTW and opened the store in October.  Since then our financial success has been little, some months gaining and some losing.  But I cannot be more affirmed that looking through kingdom eyes the Lord has used this store and the BAM program to show people Jesus and expand His ministry of mercy.  We hired a few outside girls to help at the store.  One of them came back to Christ when we took her to a church conference with all the store workers.  Because of that she left a bad relationship and moved into our home.  Another of our workers now has money saved in the bank and is following a monthly budget due to the direction she received while at the store.  Another one of our workers is walking with Jesus and now able to go to university because of her job at the store.  And our girls received exactly what they needed, job training, experience to put on their resume, budgeting strategies, and some lessons in responsibility.  At the time the Lord is calling us to go in another direction and we have had to shut down the store.  I am happy to let the business part go with all the number crunching that comes with it.  But I am sad to let go of this tool that the Lord used so well to meet such a prevalent need.