Faithware Passages

I met Joseph 5 days ago.  I happened to notice a cross around his neck. (The cross is made of three horseshoe nails, one vertical and two horizontally wrapped as a cross.  Various colored wires are wrapped around the nails holding them together.  A drop of red paint is at the bottom of the vertical nail and it is worn around the neck with a leather cord.) I  immediately asked “What an interesting cross, where did you get it?”  He proceeded to tell me that he makes them and hires Karen refugees to help him, for the main purpose of helping them earn some extra income as they try to get settled into their new life in the United States.  I immediately knew our meeting was designed.  We talked a little more about what he does and I introduced him to Faithware and what we do.  I knew this was another opportunity to support another well deserved ministry and told him so.  We met again Friday and had a wonderful afternoon.  We purchased some crosses for our upcoming show on Saturday knowing that they would do well.  We ended our meeting, both of us wondering how God would use our new relationship and we agreed that with time, we would be shown the answer.

Moving on to today, we were at a craft show selling our Faithware product.  I approached a woman reading one of our brochures and she asked about the meaning of “HIO”.  I told her, expecting one of the two usual answers; “Wow, that’s exactly what I need!” or “Oh, okay” (and then they walk away).  She surprised me saying, “That’s not quite the impact I was needing.”  She went on to say that “the Philippians 4:6-7 verse worked, but it just wasn’t the impact I am looking for.”  She wondered if we had any bracelets with Faith or Hope on them.  We do have some, but being the astute salesman that I am, I knew the ones we had were not right for her.  I did take her over to our Guardian Village bracelets and showed her our “Hope, Faith and Love” bracelet.  She looked at them and said she like the mission behind the bracelets but said “She has a little hope, some faith, but no love” she proceeded to tell me she is a counselor and had been helping a young women who was in rough shape and apparently abused within an inch of her life.  She thanked me and said she would think about it, as she went to grab a bit to eat.

I walked away feeling totally dejected. I didn’t care about missing out on a sale, I just wished we would have had something that might just slightly ease this poor girls pain.  I said a short prayer as I walked to the other side of the booth.  As soon as I got there I saw our new crosses.  I grabbed one and went to look for the women in line.  I walked up to her and showed her the cross and I said, “Please tell your friend this, the leather cord represents the whip used on Jesus.  The wire wrapped around the cross represents the thorn crown wrapped around the head of Jesus.  The cross made out of nails represent the spikes used to nail Jesus to the cross and the red stain on the nails represents the blood Jesus shed for us.  Christ knows your pain and he is their to comfort and love you.”  Her eyes welled up as she asked me the cost and I told her, “You don’t understand.  This is a gift to her.”  She started to cry and said, “You don’t know what this means, especially that it was a gift from a man.  She has no faith or tolerence for men right now.”  Okay, now this messed me up.  As I walked back to our booth, I thanked God for introducing me to Joseph and having these crosses available and I then realized that God answered Jospeh’s and my question wondering how God would use our new relationship.  That answer came much quicker than expected.

Tags: Stories

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 7th, 2009 at 11:59 pm and is filed under Show Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.