Moved Forward, an Invitation.
Last summer in the middle of covid I wrote about how I felt like God was asking me to pursue building a restaurant while all the restaurants were closing like He asked Noah to build an ark when there was no rain.
So, we did. The team at Stories Foundation collectively kept moving forward on the vision given to build something for those in our communities who lack, well, community.
It isn’t lost on me that I am sitting here writing this on Father’s Day. A day where there is much nuance in people as they think about the place their own Fathers fill, or don’t fill, in their lives. Even as I honor my own dad and husband I am acutely aware of those near to my heart who don’t have relationships with their dads that are marked by servanthood, love and joy - quite the opposite. For whatever reasons (and there are many) it is part of the human condition to want to choose self over serving and we see that played out in our relationships with people all the time.
We learned at the end of May, right around the date we were first supposed to close on our land in Ramsey, that the price for our build had gone up; a consequence of covid. Since then, I have had multiple people look at our already seemingly impossible situation made even more seemingly impossible and ask if I think we are meant to wait. “Wait for what?” you may ask. Wait for the price of lumber to go down? Wait for the millionaire who wants to help women who are sold for sex to drop out of the sky? Maybe just wait for the circumstances to be better.
Here’s the thing, if I were building a restaurant, boutique, event center and airbnb apartments for my own personal and financial gain I may consider waiting, because my goal would be solely financial and personal success. Don’t get me wrong, we are planning to be very financially profitable with Storyteller Cafe however, profit for the sake of personal wealth is not the goal. The goal of Storyteller Cafe is to create community that provides jobs, housing, and hope. We are not building a business to only make income for our own family (although there is nothing wrong with that) we are a nonprofit because we are building a business for the sole purpose of making income for those who don’t have family.
I wonder if your son, daughter, grandson, granddaughter needed a loan for school, or help with a down payment for a first apartment or home, or a co-sign on a vehicle and if they were responsible and you had the ability if you wouldn’t do what you could to help the person you love. I think you would, in fact I know you would because I see it all the time and I have been on the receiving end of this kind of care, love and community.
Here is the truth we who have more equity in our stories have a hard time recognizing. People are being exploited, sold for sex, taken advantage of night after night, year after year, because they don’t have people who can be for them. They don’t have people who will share their equity; their money, experiences, homes, name on the bank loan or apartment lease.
In the past 12 months at Stories Foundation we have been moving forward, or maybe even moved forward. The right people with the right skill sets have come into our lives, budgets have been set, projections tweaked, relationships formed, blueprints worked on, plans for PR are in the works. Everything is set. The only way I can describe it is we are in a current of God’s plan riding his vision towards Storyteller Cafe in Ramsey, MN.
About a month ago I wrote on Instagram: we built the boat, the animals are here two by two, the doors are closed and the only thing left is for it to rain.
In my case, I need it to rain money. You know, money is the last resource we part with. We will give our advice, our time, our homes, our encouragement, our prayers, but finances? That is the most difficult resource for us to let go of. The need for the rest of the money for the down payment to build is the last thing standing in our way.
I want you to understand, it isn’t that people aren’t giving, they are. We have raised a lot of money towards a giveback cafe. Over $150,000. But for what we know God has asked us to build, it isn’t enough yet, we still need more hearts touched to give, to give again and to keep giving.
When I talk to people about our need for money the conversation always ends at, God can do anything. Yes, I believe he can. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t believe it. And then, will you pray, pray for God to touch hearts. And so many have been praying God will touch hearts and I believe he is moving hearts. I see it in people’s eyes when I share. So many people are touched.
So I have a new prayer and I wonder if you are a person who prays if you wouldn’t join me in praying this. When hearts are touched, they respond by giving. Here is the part about following Jesus us Christ Followers don’t like to talk about.
God can do anything and he chooses to use us to do it.
Our obedience is an integral ingredient to the recipe of God working in our world. If we are the body of Christ, we are meant to work together, and God gives me a vision maybe as an eye for how we can be Jesus in our communities but if hands and feet don’t join me we will go nowhere.
In order for us to break ground on Storyteller Cafe, you are going to have to be touched. And more than that after you are touched, you then are going to have to act; to sacrifice.
My dad would do anything for me, truly. But you know what is even more beautiful? When my dad sacrifices for someone who isn’t his daughter. When he decides to create belonging and community through sharing his resources with someone who isn’t his to care for.
This is love. This is being like Jesus. On a day when we celebrate fathers, this is showing the Father’s heart.
I don’t know how these words I have typed with tears at the back of my throat, burning my eyes threatening to blur the screen as I type leave you feeling. I guess if you chose to come to my home on the internet you might have wanted to really know how I am, and what is happening with the anti human trafficking work I do, so here I am being honest and I hope that is ok.
And I hope you don’t feel shame. Or guilt. Because all I have is love for you, my friend, and I don’t shame or guilt those I love. But I do hope you feel challenged. I hope you are asking yourself if in fact you can do more for others like you would do for your own.
I will end with this, there are survivors of human trafficking right now who need a place to go, a community to be a part of, hope to hold on to, an example of God the Father who is for them so they can believe again or maybe for the first time. So is it time to wait? I don’t think so. We have been riding the current of God’s plan and he has led us here. Everything is ready, in my very flawed obedience I have done the work. Spoken the message. Set up the structure. I am ready, I have been praying for hearts to be touched and I see that prayer being answered and now I am praying that you could join me in the kind of flawed obedience that reveals faith. Even more than that, if one of your own needed help, would the current financial climate cause you to wait or would you just help them if you were able? If those in my life who I love had a need and I was able to meet it, I would do so. I wouldn’t wait. People shouldn’t have to wait to be shown love and given community.
I am praying that out of being touched and moved you will give. Because there are men and women, boys and girls in an emergency right now, and we have the ability to create long term solutions to change the issue of human trafficking. We have the opportunity to invest in something that will last beyond ourselves and even more than that we have an opportunity to show someone who has been horrifically abused that God is real and he cares.
The time is now.
The Father’s heart; clear.
The answer is His Spirit in us to share the resources He has given, big or small.
The need; overwhelmingly great.
The prep work; done.
Will you join me to work together as the body to accomplish God’s will?
story sharing
