"Preach the gospel at all times; if necessary, use words." Saint Francis of Assisi

Monday, November 29, 2010

And it Begins

For the past 5-6 years my girlfriend and I have been kicking around an idea.

There really aren't good American sweets here. No good cookies, cupcakes, cakes, brownies, cinammon rolls, etc. Brasilians are now attempting those things in our city but they just aren't the same and most aren't that good.

My girlfriend is the best cook I know. I'm not biased, just honest.

Ever since we moved here, Brasilians have gone crazy when they taste all her food. They really love the sweets that she makes.

About 5 years ago we met with some friends of ours from São Paulo. We spent some time talking about opening up a cookie company together. They came to our city and we looked at locations to rent, met with the manager of a hotel in town about supplying cookies to them and their other hotels around the country and spent some time talking with another Brasilian couple about being a part of this idea.

It sounded good then but we just didn't have peace in our hearts to start something at that time. One thing God has shared with us over the years is that if we don't both have peace then it isn't from Him and we shouldn't move forward.

We didn't and we didn't move forward.

But the idea never left our minds. Our kids talked about it alot and we talked about it frequently as well.

Recently we've felt God's peace to try to start something.

My girlfriend has done a good job of sharing about this process. You can click here and then click here to read what she shared.

We literally spent all day Saturday and Sunday getting ready for this week. We are tired but excited about what God may do through this company.

Here is a picture of half of what we made this weekend:
Like I said, it was pretty tiring for everyone involved.

We are excited because we can see some possibilities with this idea.

We see so many opportunities to grow and strengthen God's kingdom through this company. From meeting lots of new people, meeting people who don't (and do) know Jesus, to maybe providing jobs to our brothers and sisters in Christ to maybe one day having a place that people can come and meet together.

We are also okay if we only earn enough money every year to fly our kids back from college when they want to come home.

We are even okay if this entire idea flops and we make no money and it doesn't last for more than 6 months.

It's God's to do what He wants with it and we are okay with that.

Benay and our sister Leni will spend the next four days (9-6:30) selling our products at the first Christmas bazaar.

I just went to visit them and took this picture.
They told me a man showed up and asked them if they had a cookie distributor? He wants to sell them to two suburb/cities just outside of our city. Benay laughed and told him it was "literally" our first day in business. Who knows where that will go but it's already been an interesting day for them.

Please pray for them to be Christ to everyone they come in contact with over these next few days.

And please pray for us and this new company. Not for us to be millionaires but for us to be faithful to everything God is asking us to do.

3 comments:

Grace said...

I'm so happy for y'all!
Those are the best cookies for sure!

Miss everybody!

Bronwyn said...

I hope you can sell a lot this week Mom! Don't get too stressed out. Love you!

Ps- Tell Kanderson that I like his bracelets.

David Elam said...

I'm excited for you guys!