The toughest days

Happy Sunday morning Joy-Creators. Thank you for these moments to update you and pray together.

It's 1 day into year 6 with Alegria. And we are in the toughest days of the year. Spring is close, but it is not here. We have events coming up at churches and women's conferences These events bless Alegria and they pay wages. But these are in March and April.  Easter and Mother’s Day and warmer days drive more online sales, but it’s still February. I've typed and deleted, and typed and deleted. I want to post exciting things and praises. But Joy-Creators, this is the season when it just becomes desperate.  The savings to get through the winter is gone. And wages are due tomorrow, and the Alegria account is short of paying the bills and wages right now. 

Yesterday, it was our birthday. We started a new campaign I've worked on for weeks, I went live, we've sent emails, we updated in the Joy-Creators group in facebook and we got likes and shares and new followers. But by 6pm we had $0 in sales.  I was almost physically sick. I cried. I prayed. I have sent emails, texts and even made calls to all of our accounts that haven't ordered for spring.  I've message leads, I've walked into gift shops to introduce Alegria and ask to meet the buyers. I've been ghosted by stores I thought supported our mission. Ads that were producing sales have suddenly just dried up.  We have had TWO online orders from customers in the last 2 weeks, the lowest 2 weeks of online customer sales since year 1. The enemy speaks lies to my heart that our jewelry just doesn't sell, no one wants what we're making, I can't run a business, we are going to fail...I am going to fail. I am failing these young women in Honduras that count on me to sell enough to keep their wages paid. Yep, there are the tears again. 6 women count on me to sell, and only these sales pay wages. Their jobs keep them and their children from begging on the streets. I know the consequences of my failure. I fight every single day to keep wages paid. But today, I'm failing. Today, wages will not get paid tomorrow...

As I'm writing this at 6pm on Saturday, I have prayed until my eyes can't cry anymore. I’ve poured my heart out here and it’s not the prayer blog I want to write. It’s emotional to admit where we are and let you into this painful and raw space with me. I've reread and deleted and thought about not posting from 1pm Saturday when I started it until 6:30am on Sunday when I stopped rewriting and I finally committed to let it go live. But this is really why we need you to pray.

Because today, Sarah has failed Alegria. All I can do is ask that you pray that God would please intervene and have mercy on these women who have done their part. That He would somehow move people with the ads and the emails, that stores would see something that would move them to order from us instead of saying they can buy cheaper products that they will make more money on. That customers would show up and order new jewelry and gifts from us.

I don't know how we will get through this month, well, how we will get through tomorrow...so I'm on my knees today...thank you for getting on yours with me too.  The One who started Alegria, who whispered it to me at 2am on December 3rd, 2020, He can move the needle. We need nearly 70 average online orders, or 14 average wholesale orders, or a strong combination of both...ok Lord, only you can, the seeds have been scattered. The ads are running, the emails have been sent, the posts are scheduled, the calls have been made...please God, we need you.