Praises!! (and more)

Last week, we asked you to join us in praying for our Faire Wholesale market and you lifted us up as you always do. And look what God did!!

I'm going to be honest, this week was a roller coaster. I put the graph on the banner so you could see as I walk you through it. Day 1 is for Insiders only, and it is usually our biggest day. So when we ended down almost 60% on day 1, I was tempted to panic. I was walking the puppy and pouring out my heart to God. "Lord, what am I doing wrong? We have been holding our breath trying to make it through January and working intently reaching out and sending emails, and all of the carts are just abandoned on Day 1. How are we going to make it?"  And then peace just settled over me and the Spirit whispered, "just wait."

OK, honest founder's moment here...I am TERRIBLE at waiting. (my mom, who reads and prays probably just laughed out loud and whispered under her breath, "yep"). But I settled my spirit and said, OK Lord, I have done everything that I know to do, and the rest is completely up to you.

And then I woke up to a large order, and went to the office and another rolled in, and another.  We were not overwhelmed, but steady for the 3 days of market. Will it meet all the needs we have for January? No, not by a long shot. But it met this week's needs. We were up 38% in revenue over last year's January market.

So first, I wanted to testify that God heard and He answered your prayers! Let's stop and praise Him for His provisions and care for our artisans in Honduras. Thank you Father!

This week is about follow up with accounts that didn't order yet for spring during the market. We are still several thousand dollars short on January, so we will keep sharing with our Joy-Creators (retail customers) and also contacting Joy-Partners (stores that buy wholesale from us).  Please pray that I can wisely use my time for contacts and appointments. And pray that our ads, posts and emails continue to bring in customer orders. Please pray that we can end with all of our bills and wages paid this week to end the month...it is a big number, but we serve a big God.

Next week, I will be writing from Destin, FL as I'm setting up our trade show booth for the Christian Products expo. So I'll also ask for prayers as I prepare all the materials and our booth for that, and for travel safety as I drive to Destin on Saturday.

And this week in Honduras, we are shipping a box with restocks and our Joy Box. And we start designing for summer in earnest. Please pray for health and creativity and a week of joy and peace in the office for our artisans.

Joy-Creators, thank you. Thank you for joining me in prayer for Alegria! -Sarah