Hi, I am Amber the founder & president of BVB and I wanted to add some dimension to our organization. An organization that was built solely on faith. Faith of our goal, this community and of course God.
In our previous blog post, you learned how BVB was started, but the full story is a lesson on believing and trusting in God and all that HE has in store for us. Usually much more than we can see in that moment.
To give context, I was working full time from home, and raising my daughters during a year of craziness. Covid was still a thing and we were learning so much about it as we were going.
My oldest daughter was entering into her junior year of high school and my youngest daughter was ending her middle school career.
I took a look around at my situation, of being blessed enough to not worry about my kids having a hot meal, a bed of their own or even basic toiletries.
When I knew a food shortage was happening in my community, I knew that I had friends and family members not able to pay their bills and were worrying about the upcoming holiday season.
But my family wasn't experiencing that. We were actually looking at the housing market and determining on what our next vacation was going to be.
I actually remember speaking to my late husband, Patrick, and saying, "I'm so thankful that we don't have to worry. I am just going to continue to save. Just in case something crazy happens."
The funny thing is, I even told him that I wasn't going to announce that I was going to help a family in need. I was just going to buy some toys and just give them away.
But God knew better, I was standing in my bedroom of my duplex and I had a thought come over me. And it was like a directive given by your boss and you shake it off like "Nope, not today. I don't want to." type of thing.
Well, that feeling/directive, whatever came over me again and again before I made a post on Facebook and asked my friends and family would they support me if I did this. The post exploded with support. People were willing to send money that same day.
That post gave me the strength to step out on faith and keep going or at least get started.
I had 12 families reach out and ask for help. They created wish lists and we worked together in this community to raise enough money for each of their kids to receive toys, books, items etc. to support their Christmas holiday. This was all before Thanksgiving.
I said that I was done and was going to focus on my own family for the holidays. The stress of going through buying a home and finding myself was over powering. But families kept reaching out. And I couldn't say no, not when again I was in a different season of life.
After talking it out with my daughters and friends that were there from the start, we decided we would do one more final push.
That ended up being another 12 families, at the end of the season we were able to help about 150 kiddos that we could actually track.
Now understand, that my goal was to help like 5 kids. To see that multiply and grow is humbling more than anything.
I contribute it to just being obedient to God when he tells you to move. I will repeat it to anyone, that I didn't want to do this. I had been burned in the past and my feelings were on my sleeve because of it.
But at the end of the day, you do what you are instructed and God will open doors that you were not even aware were there for you. It's that analogy that God may not open a door, but may open a window, a crawl space or something to make room for you and your passion.
Too see BVB grow this exponentially is a feeling that I can't describe. The only emotion I honestly feel is gratitude.
So in this season of life, just remember where you start is not necessarily where you will end. It may just be the beginning of your true journey.
Trust God, be obedient and step on faith. Every time.
Best,
Amber
