in a pinch

Ok. I'm going to try to wrap my head around the past few days and let you all know what in the world is happening. I'm having trouble even keeping up in my mind.

I told you this part. Tuesday I had coffee with Randi and Gloria and told them about my foster care emergency kit idea. Gloria gets me signed up for this hatchathon thing. It's at Marion Design Co. It's hosted by this organization called Ministry Incubators. They were able to squeeze me in at the last minute, and I went with no idea what to expect.

If you've never heard of a hatchathon, its an intense 2/3 day development workshop thingy. Here is a video of their description of it. From the beginning I was in way over my head. Like instantly. Y'all I didn't say this idea out loud until Tuesday. Two days later I'm cracking this sucker wide open and making it into a plan. Um, ok. Whatever you say God.

So Thursday. We show up and get an overview of what we signed up for. I'm forced encouraged to dream big and answer questions that I hadn't even thought of yet. I did my best. I took notes. I drank a lot of coffee. I prayed. I prayed some more. They prompt with more questions, ideas, stories, questions, discussions, more questions, and then a few more questions. They limit our time on everything. We have to think quick and answer quicker. It was nuts.

Friday morning, I woke up at 4 am. I couldn't quit trying to process what I'd gotten myself in to. I used the time in the morning to work on the start of a presentation because I knew I'd need one for Saturday. We went over several work pages that helped us narrow down what we were offering, who we were offering it to, how we would get it to them, etc. We worked on financial plan stuff. That was super helpful because I hadn't put any thought into it yet. It was very nice not to have to tackle that alone! We discussed where we were stuck and got feedback from our peers and advisers. We learned about logistics and created a timeline. At the end of the day they gave us a lot of support to work on our presentation pitch for today (Saturday.) I ended up scrapping everything I had worked on that morning and going with something completely different.

Saturday morning. I was 15 minutes late because Avery couldn't deal with life this morning. I had a messy presentation. Thank the LORD we got a practice round (sort of... turns out it was an elimination round.)

I'm so glad that all of my experiences have led me up for this point in my life. Development Director for Pregnancy Help Center. Assistant Manager at Jones New York in TN. DCS in TN. Assistant Manager at Walgreens. More retail. Several of my own business ventures. So much preparation for such a time as this. 

I took the feedback that was given by the coaches in the preliminary round and used it. As they tallied the votes from our group of ministry presentations, I tweeked my presentation. I knew in my gut I needed to. The other teams were more prepared and more qualified, but God has completely thrown me into the belly of this thing, and I didn't see it stopping there.

My hunch was right. I was one of four groups chosen to present in what they called the "Festival of Dangerous Ideas." I wasn't going to share this, but here is a video of my presentation. It's hard to hear, so I went in and typed up captions, if you turn them on for the video, it will be accurate. 👍 So I gave  my presentation. The "shark tank judges" deliberated. We all got in a big circle as a group (I asked if we could hold hands and sing kumbaya. No one wanted to though.) We shared snapshots of our few days together, what we were thankful for, what we would remember. As we were sharing, the checks were handed out.

So everyone got a check. That was the deal. Some got more than others, but everyone got something. We were told to ask for between $1 and $800. I asked for $800. (If you want to know what I asked for it for, watch the video.) 😆

Y'all.... I got a check... for..... $750.

This is a thing. It's a real life tangible thing. They gave me money. This is happening. I'm starting a ministry to help foster kids. It's called In A Pinch. Guys. Pinch me.

A friend designed a logo for me. She designed "bag tags." (again, that's in the video...) and they're sent off to be ordered.

Steps are being taken. I'm being obedient. It's terrifying. And magical.




So that's where I've been the past few days mentally and physically. I'll get back to my usual routine here pretty quick... maybe tomorrow, maybe Monday. We'll see.

In the meantime, if this hits home with you, and you want to know how you can help, let me know. I will need all the help and connections I can get. THANK YOU for praying with me for the past few days. God is moving.

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