It happened by accident really, meaning I wasn’t searching to do something like this on purpose. It was quite serendipitous and I am grateful now. It is my hope that others finding me would prove to be a good thing for them too, maybe even heaven-sent!
Got Questions Website defines ministry this way. "Ministry is from the Greek word diakoneo, meaning "to serve" or douleuo, meaning "to serve as a slave." In the New Testament, ministry is seen as service to God and to other people in His name. Jesus provided the pattern for Christian ministry—He came, not to receive service, but to give it.
The Christian should minister by meeting people’s needs with love and humility on Christ’s behalf. Christians are to minister to others out of their devotion to Christ and their love for others, whether the other people are believers or unbelievers. Ministry to others should be impartial and unconditional, always seeking to help others as Jesus would."
Galatians 6:10 "Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers."
It is these scriptures that led me to use my gifts and talents in service to others as opportunities arise out of devotion to Christ. So this isn't really a business, rather a ministry.
If I've piqued your interest allow me to share my history and how this came to be, how God used a series of events over many years for what He has me doing now. How several women in my life inspired me, invested in me and helped shaped me into who I am today and how even loss and grief can develop keen senses of awareness to others needs.
I was 19 years old when I began what I would consider the start to all this Do Good stuff. I say it’s the start because this is where vocation for me came in to teach me valuable skills and talents. Really, my whole life God has given me chances to learn new things and I can look back now and see how they all weave together.
I became a manager of a family owned store in Manchester, CT where I would learn management and decorating, and developed a love for making things beautiful. Munson’s Chocolates! I also honed in my skill of knowing what good chocolate is, and my waistline would soon prove that to be the case as well. It was here that I learned how to make displays for various occasions, making my store look inviting and seeing the direct correlation between a warm, appealing space to how people feel when they enter. The 5 senses were engaged and this was pretty cool! When I bought my first home, this taught skill followed me there as well. I was all about making my home an aesthetically pleasing sight, with each holiday represented at just the right times. Honestly, I think a lot of women do this, otherwise places like Hobby Lobby(yet another job I had at one point in time) and Michaels wouldn’t be in business.
When I think about the first event I planned, I’d have to say it was my own wedding. I was 26 years old and It was me, myself and I making decisions for a gorgeous day in September of 1996 that would become at that point the best day in my life. I’m not saying Luke didn't help, but really I made most decisions. Most ladies plan their weddings with their mom, but mine had gone home to be with the Lord 8 years earlier. I believe now God knew what He was doing then, even though in my mind I think He could have come to the same end by another means. Don’t we all wish we could tell God how to do things? The loss of my mom at the age of 17 really helped me to see how valuable human relationship is. You don't know what you've got till its gone. As a teenager, this was so true. So even this life event taught me things I would find helpful later on in life.
So, planning I did, I planned the heck out of my wedding! I had a year and a half to work out all the details for my fairytale wedding. I had had enough reality the prior 8 years so fairytale with my knight in shining armor it was! Finding the venue was easy ... .the curved staircase was the perfect entrance for a bride wearing a cinderella-esque dress to a room of my most precious family and friends. All the princesses would have been jealous! I saw that staircase and knew this was the place! Chez Josef, even its name being French and all was a sign for this french girl. I do believe having been a manager helped me in this wedding planning endeavor. Making decisions came easy for me. You can’t run a store without knowing how to make quick decisions without hemming and hawing over all the details. I have since experienced that this is not how all women are. In fact, quite the opposite. Women tend to hem and haw. And since most of my readers are women, don’t take that as a degrading comment, and of course it's not across the board. Women, in general, have a tough time making choices mainly because “there might be a better option”, “is this really the "BEST "?" I’m sure there is a good explanation as to why this is and if I had to speculate it is because women doubt themselves. Women want to do their best in everything, so what is the best? Which choice makes what I am doing the best? I don't know, if you find this to be true why do you suppose that is?
I have had other careers where I found this to be the case too. I, for a few years, was a Creative Memories consultant where I ran my own scrapbook business. I helped many women make choices in color paper, style, and design when they had mind roadblocks, because something else might look better…what to do, what to do? I enjoyed helping women make decisions that would help them preserve their precious memories.
1996 was my wedding, from 1999 to 2019 I was busy raising my 2 amazing kiddos. Well, I’m not sure I’m done raising them, but they are both married now and I’m pretty sure they feel done being raised! In those 20 years when I wasn’t cleaning up after them or making dinners, I was also learning more about planning events. Birthday parties for sure, and even a graduation party for my husband who went on to get his Masters, but also events for women! I share this because I believe it’s all part of God preparing me for His service to His women he loves dearly.
Somewhere between the years 2005 and 2015, I began planning events for women. I know that’s a 10 year gap but my memory works in decades now. So I can’t really remember when this all began without looking through old files and such which I don’t really want to do because I haven’t deleted anything in years so that’s a lot of stuff to wade through(can you relate?) The first event in that decade was a zip-lining trip for women. Over 25 women joined me on a trip up north for a weekend of food, fun and adventure. Hiking, Zip-lining and maybe even a hitchhike in the back of some guy’s truck back to our house we rented. Anywho, this was the first of a couple trips like that. Marge, an 80 year old woman who joined us because she had never zipped before, taught a few of the younger ladies to face their fears and age was not a reason to back down! I loved Marge. I miss her dearly.
A couple years later, I would become a Women of Faith Leader with my partner in crime Marilyn. She taught me how to bring 80 plus women to Women of Faith events. She and I earned 2 trips. One to Nashville and one to Dallas because we signed up enough women to bring us to the leadership conference they were holding. These were fun times. We spent many hours laughing over who knows what and crying over our family histories for one reason or another. Marilyn had been the women's ministry leader at my church and she was climbing up in years and she passed the baton so to speak on to me. She thought I was worthy of such a title. I hope I lived up to her expectations. If nothing else I did what God was asking me to do for Marilyn. She was not willing to give up that title unless someone would take it seriously. She too is gone now, I miss her dearly too.
I remember at this point in life thinking about how I wish my mom was around (actually that was every day since March 18, 1988 to today), she would have done these adventurous things too. She loved adventure, she once told me she had wanted to become a race car driver. She didn’t have far to go, my lead foot came from hers. She did cool stuff too. I remember she knew how to do so many things; sewing, knitting, crocheting, she was an amazing cook, she loved to dance and she knew full well how to drive my dad a little crazy…I learned that skill too. Sorry Luke. She made beautiful things to sell at church bazaars for fundraisers and she could type like no one else. I was so proud of my mom. When I was in high school, she was one of the secretaries to the dean of the school of fine arts at UCONN. She helped round me out as a person bringing me to artsy events at UCONN. I went to many plays, concerts and outdoor events there. I miss her dearly and wish she could see me now!
In 2013, (I only know this year because I asked the bride) I was asked to help a very dear friend with her wedding. An outdoor event and I was to help with the decor. I was so honored to be asked to help. Amanda(not my daughter), wanted an arch to be the backdrop and centerpieces for the tables were on the wish list. This was the first wedding besides my own I would help with and prove to not be the last. Thus far at each event I have done, I have learned things through failure too. I remember making all these beautiful hearts out of paper that I wanted to hang from the tree at the event. Like a bunch of lanterns hanging off trees I’ve seen in pictures, I thought hanging hearts during the day would be less expensive than lanterns and lights. So I spent many hours cutting paper and stapling them into heart shapes only to be ruined by the weather of humidity. UGH! That really was a bummer. Lesson learned…paper and humidity do not go together. Check!
Decorating our church for a few more weddings came to be. Ally, Sarah, Faith. All these beautiful brides seeking help for their special day. What an honor to be part of their story.
In 2021, our daughter got married and I was so excited to help realize her dreams of a boho style wedding in the backyard of a family member on Collin’s side. Doing a backyard wedding had a lot to it. Tents, food, and decorations, oh my! Tables, chairs, plates and utensils, invitations, flowers, bouquets, boutonnieres and favors. So many decisions and so many things to think of. Amanda, a planner by nature, was on top of so much and doing research herself to be as frugal as possible. It all came together so beautifully and taught me much about wedding planning too.
After her wedding, I offered to help create another focal piece for the altar of another young woman getting married. Maddy was a gorgeous bride! I again, honored.
In early 2023, a friend asked me if she could give my name to her friend who was looking for help with her own wedding. I said sure. For that wedding, my son and I were servers of the food, we helped with the hors d'oeuvres and served the main meal and then cleaned up. And that bride gave my name to her friend who contacted me about helping with her wedding. Church decor, reception table centerpieces and all the corsages and boutonnieres.
This is becoming a thing! And I haven’t even told you about how the food and grazing tables came to be yet. I have heard it several times now, “you should go into business.” Honestly that part scares me like crazy. I am not a business person. So I began to seek and pray to the Lord, what is this all about? How can I use this in a way that’s not a full on business?
A long story I know, if you're still with me thank you.
When I was in high school my parents built a house. We had in our family pretty much every trade covered in order to build a house. My uncle the excavator, my dad the foundation man, my cousins: drywallers, electricians, and plumbers. My dad knew so many people and not all of them charged for their time. I don’t really know if my dad paid them anyway, I don’t know how much if he did, but I do know it was family helping family. And that’s when it hit me. We need more family helping family. Christ gave us a gift in himself and we are to be more like Christ. Yes! This is what I can do. I can offer my time, talent and treasure to my family and hope to spread Christ’s love all while encouraging others to do the same…pay it forward if you will. I want to be clear here, I am not saying my time (or your time) isn’t valuable to be paid for it. That is precisely what I am saying. It is very valuable, which is why we can give it away! Was Christ’s life not valuable? Christ’s life was of the utmost value and He gave it away. To you and to me. The gratefulness I feel for Him doing that for me is what drives me to pay it forward to others.
Grazing Tables, how did those come to be? Let me tell you. Luke and I became the organizers for our church’s Sunday night sermon series dinners. We could cook the dinners and also solicit other volunteers to do it as well. 8 weeks in the fall and 8 in the spring. It was during one of these nights cooking with another couple that a question came my way. “Hey Pam, do you really enjoy doing these dinners, because I wonder if you would come with us to cook some meals for our full time missionaries at a conference we are doing later this year?” "Sure, I’d do that," I replied. A couple weeks later, she mentioned maybe Luke and I could do it together. "Yeah, sounds good. So where do you hold this conference," I asked. "Sweden, she replied." What? Sweden. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Did she just say Sweden? I mean come on… that sounds like an adventure. To my surprise when I mentioned that part to Luke, he was on board. So, in November of 2022 we traveled to Sweden with our friends Ron and Char. I don’t know, I had been doing meals for a couple years at this point at church and somehow Char was able to pull a love out of me that I didn’t realize was there. The thought of serving full time missionaries was so moving for me, I had met many full time missionaries by this time in my life and I was so intrigued by people who would give up their own comforts of home to go somewhere foreign, learn a new language with the soul focus to be sharing the gospel in hopes people would get to know Christ for themselves and call him King of their own lives. This trip would be special. We planned our meals in advance so they could do the shopping ahead of time and by now I knew I wanted to make one meal extra special, so I decided to do a charcuterie/grazing table. It was our last meal in Sweden and I was so excited to show God’s love back to these amazing people. It seemed to go well and gave me the interest to do more once back at home. Over the next few months, I would do a couple women’s events at church, a graduation party for my son in law and a bridal shower for my soon to be daughter in law, and a jack n jill party. They all were hits. Then the same thing happened, people were telling me to start a business. There’s those scary words again. No thanks. I am a friend helping a friend. I am not a caterer, I am not licensed. If you are seeking an insured professional caterer, I am not your person, but if you want Auntie Pam helping out with the food at your party...I got you!
How could I combine these creative things I loved to do in addition to getting confirmation from my loved ones that I had something to offer?
I had come across Galatians 6:10 and there Paul is teaching the Galatians about sharing one another's burdens with each other. About reaping what you sow . About doing good even if there are no thanks. I thought yes, Do Good. I want to do this for free. I want to share in another's burdens of this life in a way that my gifts match what they need. A recipe was born. Taking the love Christ has given me, mixing it with the gifts and talents he bestowed on me, adding in the servant heart I witnessed in my own family, sprinkled with confirming words of wisdom from my brothers and sisters in Christ, and Do Good was made. I look forward to seeing where God takes this.
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I am thankful that there are many people already doing such things. It is my great hope that you will find ways to share what God has gifted you with to go out there and spread it around in healthy portions.
If you've stayed with me to this point, I am honored and humbled. I also ask if you are a praying person would you please pray for me? That this opportunity in front of me would bless and encourage others as they experience the love of God in a very tangible way.
Blessings to you,
Pamela