Can't you see she's a nun?

So Funny... This is the "bell for service" in my honey's office. (www.slyd.us)

Economic Woes

2008 has brought a lot of fear and uncertainty to this country, my family and me. I have to consciously make a decision to not be worried about it all, every day. Over this last past week the economy has brought changes for me in a few ways.

• The Band: My honey's band is now unsigned. The label dissolved because under the new Presidential administration it would not get as many tax breaks as before. I personally think this is a lame reason to stop something that you have your heart in. My heart was not in the label, nor was the bands, but the people affiliated with the label had no idea this was coming. The people who started the label surely must have done so out of ideas birthed in their hearts. I guess money speaks loud and clear. I think it is really too bad for the people employed and affiliated. Now we need to get cracking on different promotions for the band.
• My Job: My work let go of 5 people last week. As far as I know, this was not entirely due to their numbers but direction from above to cut some people to save money. Who really knows if I will be kept because of the ratio of admin to staffing managers. God will take care of me. This week things seem to be picking up for us here though... very good.
• The Web Business: (www.slyd.us) Overall, 2008 was not a bad year when you realize that most start up businesses do not make any money in their first year (especially in a year of recession). My honey's business made money in 2008, and they have already invoiced 1/3 of their profits from last year in 2009. Some people out there have money to invest in things. Plus websites are a great way to get a companies name and product out there.

I really feel like God is doing something. In everything going on I know that he has his hands in it and he will take care of me and others. I have to remember that if he clothes the birds and flowers of the field then he surely will take care of us, and he has. Even if people are getting laid off around me, labels are dissolving, and things might look uncertain as far as new business goes, I know thinks are ultimately going to be okay. God is good!

There is a Change in the Winds Says I

These last 4 months we have not seen any sort of activity on the new business front. The amount of calls and proposals made in these last months defy all odds. Statistically for every 100 calls you make when cold calling you should generate at least one business opportunity, but this has not happened for the new business. (www.slyd.us)

However, come January 2009 several opportunities popped up. Our company had one client come back after 2 months of no contact and want more than we had originally quoted, with a check in hand and signed contract. Incredible! We also procured 2 referral partnerships that so far have generated several warm leads.

My husband and I have been praying for quite some time about what was going on, and why we were not even seeing what the statistics show. We came to this conclusion... we are exactly where God wants us to be, and we needed to stick our heels in and push through the storm. I know that when you are where God wants you to be, and doing what he wants you to be doing that is often when you come under attack from the enemy. Our finances were out of control, our marriage was getting pretty rocky, strange things happened with our friends and we were freaking out.

As of the middle of December when we realized we were where God wanted us to be things started getting better. We started spending more time in prayer, and the Word and things began to change. Our banks started working with us, our marriage began to smooth out to where it was before we took this leap of faith if not better, our relationships with friends improved, and we were given new ministry opportunities (will get into that some other time).

Things are still changing and improving and we are clinging to Gods faithfulness and promises that he will not let his holy ones be put to shame. He is our only hope, none of this is possible without Him.

I have an orchid collection and have had it for around 5 years now. They have not bloomed for over 2 years now. In some ways I feel as if these are symbolic for what is going on in my husband and my lives. For around 2 years we didn't really know what was going on and were just plugging away living up to the term "the daily grind." When we grasped that God is truly for us, He is faithful, His will not let His holy ones be put to shame, and started devoting more of ourselves to Him I noticed there were new bloom spikes popping up on my Orchids. I feel that more will start blooming as we continue to open ourselves up more to Him. The blooms arelike a little reminder from Him to me that He has not forgotten and he is working.

He Will Come Through

Starting my own business (www.slyd.us) was never something I expected to do or necessarily wanted to do (neither was moving to where we currently live).



It is not really "my own business" either, but that of my husband and his associate. But, becuase I am directly connected through my husband I am ultimately involved.



I have gone through several stages this year due to my connection and faith. Below you can see as I have clearly outlined them:

1. Belief- God called us to this and is going to provide.


2. Doubt- Did I hear God right?


3. Crazy- Am I crazy or is He really going to some through?


4. Depression- He is not coming through, we need to figure something else out.


5. Belief- God owns the cattle on a thousand hills, why wouldn't He help us, He has promised.

These stages are circular too which is a huge problem for me. I often feel as if I might be riding a roller coaster.

But here is the thing, I need to go back to the story of Jesus on the boat and Peter walking out to him. When Peter starts walking out towards Jesus on the water, he notices the waves and begins to sink and cries out to Jesus to help him. Jesus says why do you have such little faith? We often are baffled by this, and say "Peter walked on water for goodness sake, how can this be little or weak faith?". I recently listened to a message regarding this. It is not that Peter had little faith, because he had great faith. It is that Peter's faith was "short lived," and that Jesus' words are often misinterpreted.

This relates to me because as shown in my cycle above I have "short lived" faith. Often I can go through this whole cycle in a week, or a day. My "short lived" faith needs to be turned into a commited and knowing faith.

Lets get started!

Over a year ago, in June of 2007 to be exact my husband and I felt led to step down as the youth pastors of our church. We did not know what we would be doing, and in a sense stepped out blindly. It didn't take long for a new possibility to arise.
Within a couple of days of our resignation my husband started calling other youth pastors, and people he had worked with. He felt impressed to call one of our friends that his band had done business with, and ask about to how to create a professional website for the band. At that moment my husband's friend was driving to a meeting with an Internet hosting company. The company had been thinking about asking him to become their in house web designer, and said "it is strange that you are talking to me about this right now, I was not sure how i was going to handle all of this business if this works out.' We believed, this was no coincidence but a divine appointment.
In October 2007 my husband officially started at the web company (www.slyd.us) and here we are now... still in it, and believing, but struggling.