Al & Diane Mellinger's Missionary Adventure

Prayer Needed

December 6, 2023 -

Okay prayer warriors, we need your help.  Sales this holiday season are not where they need to be for us to make it.  If they don’t pick up after the first of the year we will have to take a serious look at what we are doing and if it can be sustained.  Please pray first of all for wisdom, second for sales.  We need folks to come in and leave with product from the store.  It is nice to look and admire the unique items we have but they are there to be bought and taken home or given as a gift.

It is always fun to tell folks about the store as they come in to shop.  Almost everyone loves the concept and the fact that we are all about helping people care for their families.  Then after checking out the store and telling us that we have some really great items here, they leave without buying a thing.

I know times are tight for most people.  Inflation and income are making your spending dollars are not going as far.  But we are not getting the holidays sales we should and need the income to pay off some venders and to prepare for the lean winter months.

This is where we are at and so we are just being real.

Thanks for all you prayers and support.

A Couple of Stories!

November 25, 2023

 

The Impact of a Braided Chew Toy!

 

This fall a lady came into the shop. We greeted her as we do all customers letting them know about the shop and what we do.

 

As I was about halfway through, she interrupted me and said are you the one that goes to the shelter?

 

I said yes, we are. She then stated that she was there, and we paid her to make chew toys for the dogs. She continued I am getting married, and we are buying a home and I wanted to come by and make a purchase to help you guys out with what you are doing.

 

We thanked her for coming in and for her success, but inside I was holding back the tears.  We often do not get to hear how the folks we are helping, even in just a little bit.  Sometimes we do not know if what do is appreciated or even helping, but occasionally, we hear a success story that reenforces our drive to serve those in need that we encounter.

 

Your contribution to our development fund will help us do more projects to help folks and groups we can partner with. Click here

 

Woman’s Home

 

Every month we go to a local low-income elderly home near us.  We have 7 residents of the home that we work with each month.

 

We take in the raw materials and show them what needs to be done. The items that they made last month are picked up and paid for.  The skill set is everything from a 2-step project to sewing our Heating and Cooling pads.

 

These gals don’t have the funds to live alone and so what they do have coming in all goes to covering their living expenses.  The home does give them $60 a month for incidentals. That does not go very far so what they make from us helps them get some things they want but couldn’t otherwise.

 

What amazed me was we drove by this home for years never knowing what they do and what help they need.  As we have more donations we are now on the lookout to find more groups serving those in need and see if we can partner with them. 

 

To give to our development fund go to https://tithe.ly/give_new/www/#/tithely/give-one-time/3138219

 

Gratitude

November 20, 2023 – It is a couple of days before Thanksgiving, and we are looking forward to having our family at our house this year.  As we look over the past year, we are filled with gratitude for all that we saw God do.

We met so many people who were and are supportive of the ministry we have to the poor around the world.  Yet we also find ourselves exposed to so many more that we would like to serve and share the love of God.

One area is our local REED Workshops and Reed Workshop Center.  This is where we pay the homeless and low-income elderly to produce items that we sell in the store and online.  What we need to increase this ministry is start-up/development funds.  As we pay them when they produce the items not when they are sold.  That means we need funds upfront to start working with new groups.

This year as you think about Giving Tuesday and where you want your donations to go, would you consider a donation to REED Workshops?  Every amount helps us serve and encourage those who are in true need.  To give click here https://tithe.ly/give_new/www/#/tithely/give-one-time/3138219  all funds given this month will be used to expand the REED Workshops for 2024.

Upcycled angels out of sheet music in our Reed Workshops

Thanks again for your prayers and support!  We are truly grateful for your partnership!

Here is a Recent interview we did for our 5th Anniversary

 

 

 

5 Years and.....

November 13, 2023 – Happy anniversary to us!  It was on November 15, 2018, that the Around the World Shop opened and began selling handmade items that help the poor.  What started out as primarily knitwear now has more than 5000 items from more than 50 countries, partnering with more than 30 organizations.  When we started 5 years ago, we never thought of what it would become.

One of the major focuses we have now is working with the needy in our own back yard.  As part of the program, we now monthly work with the homeless and the low-income elderly in Jackson. 

We will go to the Interfaith Shelter (homeless) with the materials needed and teach the folks to make something that we then sell in the store.  They are paid $10 an hour for their time and it will run from 2-3 hours when we go.  We work with 4-5 folks each time.

We also go to a home for low-income elderly woman.  Again, once a month we go to their facility and give them the materials needed to make specific projects.  We pick up what they made the month before and pay them for their time. We give them new materials for this month’s project. We currently have 7 clients there.

REED Workshop

This year we have been working to create a workshop where bigger and more skilled products can be made.  We have space in the store and some equipment to create bigger and better products.  We are excited about this but also need some help.

Since we pay the folks, we are serving as they work, we need the funds up front to cover materials and their labor. We are asking that for GIVING TUESDAY this year you might consider a gift to the Development Fund for the REED Workshop.  This will give us funds to invest in people who are often down on their luck and need a hand up.  By having more funds up front we can better plan projects that are sustainable and will help us better teach more life long skills.

We project in the workshop it will cost us about $500 a month to manage the projects.  If you would like to give to this idea you can mail a check to Marketplace Manna 151 E Michigan, Jackson, Mi or give on-line by clicking here. https://tithe.ly/give_new/www/#/tithely/give-one-time/3138219

We want to share one story. This fall a lady and young daughter came into the store. We greeted her explaining what we do and why.  She asked, ‘Are you the ones who go to the shelter?”  We said yea and she told us she did the dog chew toys before but is now back on her feet, getting married and they are buying a home. She said “I wanted to come by and see the store, help by buying something and to say thanks.

When I encounter folks who’s lives, we had a small part in making a difference we are reminded why we do what we do!   Your support helps us to do what we dol.  Thank YOU, for the prayers and financial contributions you can make.

Here are some pictures of items made this year.

Summer Update 2023

September 29, 2023 - This Spring and Summer have been busy, but for us that is normal.  Highlights by the numbers We have spoken at 14 churches, attended 6 annual Conference, and our General Conference.  We have driven through 19 states (and counting) or about 15,000 miles.

All that is interesting but not the purpose of what we are doing.  We travel to share about the work that we are overseeing and about how the local church can intentionally be more engaged in serving the poor in their neighborhoods. Challenging them with a message entitled “Who are You For.”

When not on the road we are working with the local Homeless and low-income elderly in our backyard. We have found that God continues to put us in places to help us connect to serve folks in need.  Now as we travel and share it is not out of theory it is out of experience. 

The retail store also keeps us busy, but we are finding our place and connecting with the local Business leaders, including sharing our faith as a reason for what we do.

As we look to the fall, we are preparing for the busy Holiday season.  If your church or groups would like us to come or just send a table of items to sell for the Christmas season, we are always ready and up for that just let us know and we will make it happen.

We are sensing that God is about to do some exciting things with where He has us and we would appreciate prayers as we seek to follow and serve God in these nontraditional ways.

Long Over Due Update

July 17, 2023 – It has been a while since we posted to our blog. (Quite a change from when we posted every week) We have not been on vacation but rather – very busy with Store changes, Annual Conferences, Church speaking and product development.

With the closing of our Ann Arbor location, we have been repossessing all the inventory back into Jackson and looking at future business models of how to move product.

We have traveled to West Virginia, Wisconsin, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and multiple stops around Michigan. Speaking at 4 churches and attending 5 Annual Conferences since our last report.

We are also adjusting to living and being a part of the Interfaith Homeless Shelter community in Jackson.  We are renting a home from them and getting to know the folks in an informal way.  We are gaining a great deal of first-hand knowledge about what these folks are going through.

We are also getting more involved in the community beyond our church work. For more than 40 years we have always been Pastors/Missionaries.  We are getting involved with local Business groups and the Jackson Breakfast Rotary Club.  These have been helping us build great connections for future partnerships and work.

We are working with a couple of churches helping them figure out how to connect and impact the needy in their backyards.  Coming in with fresh eyes and helping them learn to ask the right questions to get to the core of their needs.

It has felt like it has been a pivot for us, and we are still in the process of figuring out what that pivot actually is.

We also celebrated our 40^th Wedding Anniversary on July 2^nd.   Time has certainly gone by quickly, but we also got to reflect on all that God has done and all that we have gotten to witness.

 We wake up most days excited about what it has in store for us.  Not to say there are not struggles – there are but we see that as normal and know that God has got this (Whatever “this” is!)

All this to say that we have no big breakthroughs to share and big problems to overcome just faithfully doing what we can each day to serve and reach the poor around us.

As far as things to pray about:

• We still have a great deal of traveling to do this year (Florida for General Conference 23, Minnesota, South Dakota, Colorado, Kansas, Iowa, and Massachusetts for presentations with family visits.)
• Wisdom as we Pivot and figure out how we do this thing with today’s economy and business Climate.
• Our Team we need so folks to come around and help us – Pray God sends who we need. (As we are not sure what we really need)

Endings and Beginnings

May 17, 2023 – It has been a while since we updated our blog – we have not been slacking just the opposite we have been busy connecting with new partners and see how we can connect with others nearby with the same heart for the poor as we have.

We are continuing to work on getting the REED Workshop space up and being used – we have had several groups come by already and are beginning to get groups in to make new products.

We have also had weekend trips to do displays in Churches.  We will be traveling all over the South, Midwest, and Mid-Atlantic over the next 2 months going to conferences and churches.

We do have some sad news to report – we are closing down our Ann Arbor location at the end of May.  Sales have dropped as the economy has become tighter.  We were not covering our expenses there anymore and could not justify staying open. We are staying in Jackson and will be looking for new ways to get the product out to people over the summer and into fall.

Pray for our travels

Pray for our closing

Pray for the new partners we are talking to.

A Brief History of our REED Workshops

April 13, 2023 – As missionaries we found ourselves working with the poor, disenfranchised, persecuted, disabled, and unemployed and they needed more than spiritual help. They had a real need for economic assistance too.  That’s how the livelihood groups were started.

Having the products they made, led us to open a store in Jackson, Mi back in 2018. Local folks came in and told us about local groups also serving the needy and we began to partner with them.  As we connected, we found many additional organizations working with the poor that could use some economic help.

REED Workshops were developed: R=repurposing items, E=environmentally beneficial, E=economically helpful, D=developing skills.  Whatever we do must meet one or more of these objectives.

We currently work with the Jackson Interfaith Shelter, the Jackson Friendly Home, and a few individuals who have been referred to us by local groups.  To keep these folks busy means, we are constantly looking for more and new items that they can create.  In our search for products, we have found many that would be great but the time and space it takes to make them, couldn’t happen with the current model – we needed a space where people could come, and we would pay them to make products that we can sell in our retail operations.

 

 

 

 

On April 14, 2023, we are opening the first (of which I hope are many) REED Workshop Center!  A place for us to bring those in need to assist them in learning some new skills, making something we can sell, and hopefully building relationships with the staff and volunteers so that they may know God’s love.

If you are ever in the Jackson, MI Area, we invite you to come by and see the place for yourself. If you would like to help by volunteering or by investing in our development fund so we can continue to expand and work with more groups let us know.

Pray for the Opening of the Center

Pray for the retail operations – sales are needed to keep things going

Pray for our travels as we enter a busy time of travel for the year.

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To learn more about our New REED Workshop program click here

To help with our personal support click here

Marketplacemanna.com – online store

To help with our development fund click here

Happy Easter and More!

April 5, 2023 – It has been about a month since we posted an update.  It is not that we were not busy, it is that we were doing much of the same ministry.

First, we want to wish everyone a blessed and Happy Easter.  May you be drawn closer to our savior and lord - Jesus Christ this Easter Season.

We did travel to an annual conference in Illinois and to 2 churches during this time.  Diane and I have also been covering during the week, shifts in both stores as we are still needing to find some part-time employees.

Fairfield, Iowa

Urbandale, Iowa

We have also been working on getting the REED Workshop Center ready to open soon.  Watch for information on that in the coming weeks.

We are having a Grand Reopening on Friday, April 14, 2023.  It is also going to be a Founder’s Weekend sale with select items that the founder likes (that’s me) on sale.  If you are in the Southern Michigan Area, come on by and see all the great things we have to offer.  We will also be offering, while supplies last, some refreshments from My Bakery a new ministry of My Place part of the Set Free Movement.

So would you pray for the following:

• Grand Re-opening and Founder Weekend and Sales at the stores
• The REED Workshop Center as we work to get it set up.
• Funds for the REED Workshop so that once it is done, we can begin to use it to hire folks who need some income and skill training.

We are scheduling church visits in the late Spring Summer and Fall so if you are interested, let us know and we can see what we can do.

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To learn more about our New REED Workshop program click here

To help with our personal support click here

Marketplacemanna.com – online store

To help with our development fund click here

Trip to Light & Life Park in Lakeland, FL

March 8, 2023 – Last weekend was the Missions Conference at Light and Life FMC at the Park in Lakeland.  Diane and I were invited to be guest missionaries with several others.  We flew down and were able to share what God is doing in and through our work.

What was a true blessing was the number of people that either live there year-round or are down during the cold months up north.  It seemed like every time we turned around, we were running to someone with a connection to either Diane or me in our past.  They are all great people who have served God well in their own lives.  We felt it might just be a little of what heaven will be like.

Side note – during our time in Florida our Ann Arbor location had a shop lifting incident.  Casey was able to catch them and report it to police.  They took over $750 of merchandise which we did get back.  This does bring up a concern about the cost and realities of doing business these days. It is getting harder and harder.  With inflation still high people aren't buying as much and our sales year over year are way down.  The needs we address and serve by selling fairtrade items as still very much there.  So please be in prayer about the retail realities we face.  Pray for our staff, pray for protection, pray for sales and donations.

We know God is in control but sometimes need some reminders.

Thanks for your prayers and support.

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To learn more about our New REED Workshop program click here

To help with our personal support click here

Marketplacemanna.com – online store

To help with our development fund click her