United States of America
I lived in Savannah, GA, 40 years ago, and loved it. My daughter was born there at 24 weeks old, and we lost her twin brother. She is a miracle and shouldn’t have survived (she was 1 lbs. 7 oz. at birth). She is a miracle in and of herself.
We’ve always wanted to come back, but my husband and I have both been self-employed, and it’s never easy to restart a business in a new place. Even though I’m from the north east, it’s frankly never felt like home. Over the last few years, with the changing political climate and a loss of moral compass, it felt less and less like home. Well, on a trip to the Outer Banks in May 2020, I suddenly realized that we probably had the chance if I acted fast to make a move back to Savannah. As a result of Covid a lot of my work had become remote. It was now legal for me to treat my patients on Zoom from anywhere. We put our house on the market that summer and, after a few twists and turns, sold it for quite a bit more than we paid. We knew that if we waited at all to take action, market conditions might change for the worst and they did. This was God speaking to us I know.
We came to Savannah to buy here and homes were selling right out from under us. We weren’t really considering Rincon at all as we wanted it to be somewhere in Savannah proper but anytime we made an offer on something it sold out from under us.
My husband and I were having dinner at a downtown restaurant. A text came in from our broker with a photo of a house in Rincon. We looked at it and immediately knew it was home even before seeing it. Our offer was immediately accepted. The move itself presented many challenges. But we are exactly where God wanted us to be. We love the neighborhood and the wonderful folks. We met and our next-door neighbors introduced us to Compassion. We love it and feel so blessed most importantly, my husband due to his unfortunate exposure to church as a child hadn’t been to church in about 50 years. Now he’s is the first one out the door for church and we both love it. We know it’s all God’s hand.
United States of America
I had to overcome a lot in my life. Trauma after trauma, yet the Lord rebuilt me every time. Each time I faced a new trauma, I told myself that it would be the hardest thing I would ever have to go through. I walked through things like infidelity, teen pregnancy, rape, and emotional and mental abuse. These were seriously hard situations to experience, but God always saw me through them.
July 28, 2022 was supposed to be another ordinary day but it turned out to be anything but that. 30 minutes after talking to my husband, he died in the blink of an eye. He was gone! How would I get through? I was lost. The kids no longer had a father, I no longer had a spouse, and our home no longer had him.
My God knew this would happen, and He had a plan. He reminded me of so many promises through the two women he sent. Through them, I had remained encouraged and supported. Getting squared away with finances and how to navigate the different systems became manageable.
He provided me with the strength to keep going day after day. He gave me reasons to keep smiling in the ability to laugh loudly. Because of Him I have been able to keep going.
United States of America
In 2011, I lost everything. My furniture business, which I had built into a 14-million-dollar company, crashed and burned after the 2008 financial crisis. My husband and I were in the middle of building our dream home, and we lost it. Our church family abandoned us, and although we came out with a roof over our heads, I sank into a deep depression, feeling like I had experienced a death in the family. Grief comes in many ways.
I decided to volunteer with hospice to get out of my own head, and serving others became a major key to unlocking my own healing. I eventually began dreaming of a new business, and what materialized in 2012 was a bakery called Marche de Macarons. In 2019, I opened another business, Blue Poppy Designs, and just after I signed the lease on a new workspace, COVID hit.
I remember that day so clearly – we got the word that everything was shutting down; ten of the festivals where I had paid for booths to sell my goods for the year were canceled. I came home dazed and sat down at the kitchen table with my husband, Rob, who said to me, “Amy, I don’t know what’s going to happen, but if anyone can reinvent from nothing, you can.” It was as if God was speaking through him, to remind me of the strength to overcome that He’s granted us all.
Those words became the fuel I needed to move forward through the pandemic. As I put my energies toward turning the macaron shop into a to-go business, Blue Poppy’s wholesale market took off in a way I never expected. In 14 short months, Blue Poppy went from being sold in one shop to nearly 400 in 49 states.
I learned through these experiences that failure is not final. I try not to spend a whole lot of time crying over things that don’t work, because I know what will work is right around the corner. After all, faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.
His Divine Providence will inspire the right idea with the right opportunity even when it seems impossible.
Amy Shippy, Blue Poppy Designs, Lottiebelles, Lady BizWiz
United States of America
October 31, 2019, I tripped and fell and broke my wrist at work. After having immersed myself in worship to the song, “The Goodness of God” that morning, my accident woke me up to how good God had/has been to me over the course of my life. But most especially, to how GOOD HE HAD BEEN in the 10 years before my accident. You see, summer of 2009, I left my husband, my four children, and my home. It was a marriage of about 35 years – a VERY difficult marriage, an emotionally exhausting marriage. Never able to live up to his expectations. However, it wasn’t just leaving him. It was leaving my four children behind, abandoning them. What nearly killed me for it was my children, who kept me going, and then, without them, I felt, “what was the use in living?”
Mother’s Day 2011 my sister came and rescued me from going back and brought me back home, where I grew up. Again, after a year and a half, I left and abandoned my children, yet once again. But God had not abandoned me. He brought me back and placed me in a job that I never in my life imagined I would have. He placed me at Gulfstream as an upholstery tech, where He knew that I could not easily escape back to Jacksonville. This was a job where the Lord could take care of me and have coworkers who would support me, and the healing process began. Eventually, He brought me to Compassion Christian Church, where I was accepted and loved right where I was. Over the next few years, I was able to travel back and forth to Jacksonville to restore relationships with my children.
Only God can mend what we break.
A.S.
Germany, United States of America
After 14 years of marriage, I found myself in a foreign country with a 13-year-old son. I was in a challenging mental state, and I was all alone, no family, not many friends or associates to talk to. All my sadness, thoughts, and concerns were bottled up and festered.
I started to bury myself in my jobs, neglecting “self-care” and needs of my teenage son. My family in Germany was not supportive of me marrying a black man, and for the most part, cut off all communication with me. I felt ALL ALONE in a loveless world. I had to take a look at myself and my relationship with God.
I started with simple conversational exercises, just to be able to lift all the pressure that built up inside, then went to prayers for the ones around me and started to forgive people for the things done to me, which lifted a lot of weight off me. Through spiritual guidance, I achieved inner peace and was able to concentrate on self-care and ensuring my son is taken care of. Those were the two most challenging years of my life that in the end, helped me grow to be the woman I am today.
Alexandra
