December 26, 2022 - To all who read this, we want to wish you a Merry Christmas and pray you have a blessed new year!
This was our first full year as Missionaries for Economic Development and what a year it has been.
In our retail operation, we have seen since August a decrease in sales over last year (Month to Month) before that, sales had been increasing. We are watching our cost with inflation where it is. We closed one of the stores in January due to sales decreases and expenses going up. Pray that we can find some part-time staff as staffing has been hard to get and maintain this year. Overall we are on target to end the year in a good place for the retail operations.
We traveled sharing the work and setting up pop-up shops from Pennsylvania to Oklahoma and most states in between, including 8 Annual Conferences, more than 20 churches, 2 family camps and over a dozen one on one visits with interested parties.
Our work with organizations and groups in need has increased and we are finding more things for these folks to make that people can use. We have launched over 30 products this year. With the planned addition of our REED Workshop Center, we think this will grow greatly in 2023. We are also looking to add a few more groups to list of places we are partnering with.
We are in consultation with a couple of groups wanting to expand into serving the poor in a more practical and helpful way. Pray that these will go well and lives will be touched.
Our personal support was truly an act of faith as we do not get any funds from the retail operations but depend on donations from supporters. For several months this past year we did not get our full salary as there were no funds in our account but through it, all God met our needs and for that we are thankful – we have reduced our projections and so if our support holds we should be in better shape this year. (any support you can give would be appreciated.)
All in all it has been a good year and we are praising God for all He has done and for where He is leading us. Never a dull moment with Him.
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To help with our personal support click here
Marketplacemanna.com – online store
To help with our development fund click here