I will admit that I have never been a fan of puzzles. I remember when I was a small child, I never understood the point of them: why would puzzle creators take a perfectly beautiful picture and then cut it all up to make it difficult for people to put back together?
I always tried to make myself find the same kind of joy in puzzles that others found: peace, relaxation, a sense of accomplishment, and stress relief; however, the more I tried, the more I realized that putting a puzzle together was not going to be something that brought me any kind of positive feelings. In fact, more often than not, I found the activity to be frustrating and way too time consuming.
This disdain toward puzzles might be the result of a personality trait that I have which drives me to solve problems and to complete tasks as quickly as I can in order to move on to the next item on my seemingly never-shrinking, always-expanding task list. After all, I have things that I need to get done, so why would I waste my time with a puzzle?
Those were my sentiments about puzzles until God placed in front of me a puzzle with many pieces: a Vine and Branches Stories Project.
After praying for direction from God in regard to where He wanted me to be, He gave me an idea to help people find a platform on which to share their Goodness-of-God stories.
At first, I thought this would be perfect because, like most people, I love stories; I love hearing stories, I love telling stories, and I love helping people to tell stories, but as I prayed more about this, I realized this puzzle had a little more to it.
God wants me to help people share their stories however they want to share them: whether it is through writing them, talking through their stories in an interview form (podcast), filming their stories (mini-documentary style), or using pictures to tell their stories. Okay, this puzzle is getting more complicated, God.
Then, one night, God woke me up in the middle of the night with the idea to help people to share these stories using an app. Are you sure, God? That’s complicating things even more. . . God, you are aware that I don’t know how to make apps, right?
I knew I had to obey God and work to put this puzzle together, but where do I start? There are two halves to this enormous puzzle: the stories half and the app half.
I started by making some calls to amazing companies such as The Reel Hope Project (check them out if you aren’t familiar: https://www.thereelhopeproject.org/) to seek advice about what they did when they first felt their call from the Lord, and the answer was to do a business plan and make the ministry a 501c3, so I began to work on that.
After I got the project established as a nonprofit business, and after I formed a business plan, I began to look at apps. I started big. I reached out to YouVersion and AngelStudios. I say this in sarcasm as tongue-in-cheek: can you believe that they did not respond to me?
So, I went with plan B; I reached out to an app developer that I found on Google. The app developer was helpful and provided me with some helpful insights and education which allowed me to envision this app; however, they presented me with the price tag, and I was not able to work with them. $13,000 was not going to fit into the budget. Then, I started to look at faith-based apps and investigated to see if I could find the name of the app developer anywhere on the app; in my doing that, I found the name of one on a popular faith-based app.
I reached out, and I set up a conference call with the second app developer. I was able to learn even more. I also got some great advice about how to continue to move forward with this project, and this developer supported me by sending me links to fundraising websites. They provided me with ideas to use to raise funds for the app.
I was really hoping to work with this second app developer because the sales representative was so supportive and kind, and she had been extremely helpful. Alas: the price tag of that app came back at an even higher cost: a whopping $60,000! Um, nope; not happening!
As a side note, I had recently picked up a part-time job teaching some English classes online, and until this puzzle was placed in my lap, I was calling the money earned from teaching my “vacation fund.” I now believe that God had and has other plans for the money earned from this job; ahem, this job will now be called the “Vines and Branches Stories app fund," but raising $60,000 or even $13,000 is going to require teaching a lot of classes.
Admittedly, I began to feel a bit defeated, and naturally, I began to doubt myself; had I really heard God telling me to build an app, or was all of this just my own insane idea? Then, the lies started to flood my mind, and I knew I needed to take it to God in prayer and to dig into His Word for some confirmation.
While I prayed and studied, I decided to table the app part of the puzzle for now and to begin to learn about how to help people to share their stories.
I began by reaching out to the co-pastors of my church, New Life Church in Princeton, MN, to set up a meeting to let them know about this project that God had placed on my heart. Not only did I want to share this with them because I wanted this resource for our church, but I felt I needed their wisdom about how to proceed.
Schedules aligned, and we were able to set up a meeting just a couple of days after I texted to request it. The response was positive and supportive, and it has continued to be encouraging as they have followed up with reassuring messages and texts since that meeting. Isn’t it amazing how God uses the people in our lives to lift us up?
With their support, the next pieces of the puzzle involved my learning more about videography and my getting some momentum by talking to people about this God-inspired dream.
I began to incessantly research and to continuously look at websites to learn about videography; I was looking for stories that had already been captured via video. I knew that my church’s media person had a full schedule, and I did not want to place anything additional on his plate, and after researching more about this field, I began to truly understand the significance of his role. I sent an email to him to explain this project that God had given to me and to let him know that I had a lot of respect for his work, especially after all of the research I had recently been doing. I also wanted to let him know that I have expectations of producing excellence to represent well: whether it is to find someone with which to partner who is skilled in videography or to learn how to do this skill myself.
Then, God tapped me on the shoulder–my son had visited his girlfriend’s church, and when I asked him the name of the church, he said Constance Free Church in Andover. We had a brief talk about the service and the message, and I did not think about it again; I mean, after all, I had an app to think about.
A week later, I had lunch with a coworker so that I could tell her about this project and could talk with her about the possibility of encouraging her to tell her story someday. She then informed me that her church places a lot of emphasis on the importance of sharing God stories. “Really?” I asked. My interest piqued: “Where do you go to church?”
Then, God tapped me on the other shoulder when my friend responded, “Constance Free Church in Andover.”
Okay, God, I got the message.
Upon looking at Constance Free’s website, I found excellence: story after story told of God’s goodness, His redeeming Grace through Jesus, and the power of God to change lives. These were stories that demonstrated the essence of what God has done and how He has shown his goodness over and over again. The stories were told beautifully, and before I knew it, I realized I had been binge-watching God stories for hours. I don't think I could ever get tired of these stories!
The next day, I decided to reach out to Constance Free’s communications person to see if I could get in touch with the video/media department to have a conversation and to ask some questions about Constance Free’s process for capturing people’s God stories. I had done so much Internet research, but I had so many questions for a real person.
I sent an email and a prayer on a Friday afternoon, and to my surprise, I received a text message from Constance Free's media person the following Tuesday offering to talk with me to answer questions (I was seriously jumping for joy when I received that text message). We connected the next day, and I was able to learn invaluable information about his craft. He also offered to have me visit and to shadow him on a story project which I anticipate with eagerness as he is gifted.
Thank you, Lord, for making the puzzle pieces fit together.
Meanwhile, after sorting through the lies, I decided to give Google another shot at finding an app developer. I searched “faith-based app developers,” and one of the first companies that popped up in my search was a company called SubSplash. Upon further investigation, SubSplash is a website/app development company that primarily works with churches, but I reached out to ask if they ever work with individuals who are working to start their own projects.
I was excited to hear the answer was yes. However, not only was the answer yes, but the answer also included a price tag that was much more affordable than the other app development companies to which I had previously spoken—coming in at $132 a month. What? Did I hear that right, just $132 a month? I can earn that teaching nine classes a month, and I am already teaching more than that now.
I spent a night in prayer about it, and I crunched some numbers. I then signed up the next day. Subsplash set up an onboarding call with me within that same week, and the past three weeks have been a whirlwind. Countless hours have been poured into creating blogs, podcasts (which are meant to be examples for others to see the various ways that they can share their stories), developing the website, and creating the app. I have spent time praying, studying, learning, researching, growing, and praying some more.
Until this point, I have been keeping the project quiet; I did not want to tell anyone about it until things were set: until the website was established and until the only thing left to do was to ask people to share their stories.
I should mention that my friend and cousin had a been a sounding board, a prayerful supporter, and someone I have talked to about this project since the beginning (and she also graciously volunteered to help with the podcasts if people want to share their stories using a podcast format).
I had recently had a conversation with her in which I asked, “When should we start telling people about this? I just don’t know when it is the right time.”
She responded, “I’m not sure. Maybe we will just know when it is time.”
God provides answers, and I am serious when I say that God gave me confirmation that the project was moving along the right path, and it was time to start sharing the very next day!
I had arrived at my connect group late one evening due to a conflict with one of my kids’ school activities, and when I walked in, the group was already in a conversation about how powerful it is to hear about people’s stories. They were talking about how we do not even know the impact we could have when we share our stories with others. Are you serious right now? I literally just typed those exact words on the Vines and Branches Stories website a few hours earlier that afternoon. My heart was beating out of my chest as I felt The Holy Spirit nudging me to share this project with my group, so out of obedience, I began to explain about this idea, this gift, that God had given to me. I encouraged my group to begin to pray about what God story they would share on the Vines and Branches Stories app which is coming soon.
That’s when it hit me: God gave me this complicated puzzle, but it had perfectly square pieces.
Since that connect group meeting, I have been busy sharing the Vine and Branches Stories website with everyone I know. People have been so supportive through positive words of affirmation, prayer, and genuine interest in the project. God is so good. I know that the Holy Spirit is working on people to share their Goodness-of-God stories.
But….what if no one wants to share their stories? You see how quickly the enemy attacks? I know this is a lie. I have seen God do too much with this project, and I know He is still putting the pieces together for this project.
Even though puzzles have never been my favorite hobby, God provided the perfect puzzle for me -- all of the pieces are square, and, actually, He is even putting it together for me. He has asked me to do some of the work (like sorting out the pieces), but when I think back to the work I have done, most of the work has involved praying. When I try to do things in my own strength, that is when I run into roadblocks. When I take a step back and pray, God has provided the way. With God’s help, puzzles aren’t so bad; in fact, they actually do provide peace and a sense of accomplishment after all.
As I write this blog, we are about two weeks away from launching the app; the Vines and Branches Stories app will be available for downloading. How? How did we get to this point? God gave me this dream in January, and it is April. How did God put all of this together in four months? I remind myself: Hello, God can do anything!
It’s all kind of a blur when I look back at it now. Throughout this process, for all of the doubts, insecurities, fears, and lies that the enemy tries to throw at me, God deflects. He has been so faithful over and over. I have seen His Goodness, and I have seen Him making a way for this to come to fruition; I am excited to see what God has in store for the Vines and Branches Stories project, and I pray that I will continue to be obedient to where God directs this project to go.
God's Goodness is walking around among us in the people He created and in the people He has placed in our lives; we just have to see them and to connect with them in order to hear their stories. The goal through all of this is that “Everyone will share the story of [God’s] wonderful goodness; they will sing the joy about [His] righteousness.” (Psalm 145:7).
