Tuesday, April 12, 2016

If We Bake It... They Will Come...

Did you see the movie "Field of Dreams"?  It was such a great movie!

Rand and I both loved it, bought it, and have watched it many times.  When we decided to paint the mural of the house through the wheat fields - we did so to remind us - that even if others couldn't see what we could see...  We KNEW this little bakery could grow and become a part of this community in a very real way.

We of course couldn't see at the time what 21 years later would look like, but we felt it in our bones, that we would still be here, and that this bakery would be a viable, living part of this amazing community.  As we look back at our journey, we believe that so much of why were able to move with such faith was the knowledge that this is an awesome community.

In the beginning, since we were the new kids in the neighborhood, we literally would load up the extra bread in the evening and we would go to different neighborhoods.  Rand would knock on the doors offering a free loaf of bread and introduce himself.

We also collected all the churches names and addresses in our neighborhoods and sent out a letter.  In the letter we explained that we would love to help and support them in any way we could.  If they had folks in their congregations that needed help with food - call us.  If they were having an event and needed bread - call us.

I'm not sure a lot of the groups believed us at first, but we continued to ask - and slowly the calls started to come in, allowing us the opportunity to serve in another way.  The schools allowed us to come in and slice bread for free - and then they sold it as a fundraiser to raise money for their play - or the track team, etc.

I started doing field trips for preschool groups, and then scouting groups, and young women and young men groups.  Then I started speaking to women's groups...  Sharing the stories, the lessons, learned, and the simple truths that baking bread teaches.

If I were to sum up that first year of Rand & Jo's Big Adventure it would be to state that, We baked it, we loved this community, and They came.

Belief is such a big part of living a courageous life... But Belief is just the beginning...  Action is required if you want to see big things happen...  If we Bake it...  They will come...

Thanks for continuing to come!

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