by Chris Horst

as originally posted at Christianity Today

Mica May, founder and CEO of May Designs, took in what she just heard. The stern instructions came to her from Tory Johnson, a regular contributor on ABC’s Good Morning America. She needed samples of May’s notebooks for a feature she was hosting on gift ideas.

At the time, May was a staff-of-one, a scrappy entrepreneur working from her home. Thrilled about this opportunity for increased publicity, she shipped off a few of her classic notebook designs.

But then the show aired.

When millions of viewers saw the May Designs notebooks on that Tuesday morning four years ago, her business exploded. In less than ten hours, more than 33,000 new customers ordered May Designs notebooks.

“I thought I was going to die,” May reflected about that crazy day. “I had no idea how I was going to do it. But I knew the customers were counting on me. I had their money and their trust, and I knew I could not let them down.”

May started recruiting staff, kept rolling out new products, and continued to answer phone calls. Over the next few years, May Designs showed up on The Today Show and inElle, People, Glamour, and“Oprah’s Favorite Things” in O Magazine.

Today, her growing company employs 11 people at their sleek headquarters in downtown Austin, Texas. Last year May Designs grossed $4 million and today is on the brink of expanding their product line from notebooks and stationery into fashion and homewares.

“I feel called by God to be an entrepreneur,” May said.

Waging War (on Ugly Stuff)

For May, the idea of creating just another lifestyle brand is uninspiring. For her company, the vision is nothing less than bringing joy to their customers, staff, and community.

“I want to delight our customers with incredible products they really believe in,” May said, “down to even the envelopes, emails, and packaging.”

May started her company because she was frustrated with the dearth of beauty in the notebook aisle. Her frustration extends beyond bland journals, though. She’s tired of the “throwaway shopping culture” in which consumers buy cheap stuff devoid of any enduring meaning or beauty.

“One of the most powerful sources of cultural fragmentation has grown out of the great successes of the Industrial Revolution,” wrote artist Mako Fujimura in his book Culture Care: Reconnecting Beauty to Common Life. “Modern people began to equate progress with efficiency. Despite valiant and ongoing resistance from many quarters—including industry—success for a large part of our culture is now judged by efficient production and mass consumption.”

Even the word consumer is provocative. Consumers are not investors in the items they own. No, for modern Americans, we just consume what we buy. Buy, (ab)use, trash, repeat. It’s amid this voracious shopping landscape that entrepreneurs like May aim to not just sell trendy products, but actually challenge the way men and women think about what they buy and own.

“Mica’s is a typology of entrepreneur that is underappreciated in our Silicon Valley world,” reflected Dave Blanchard, co-founder of Praxis. May Designs is a fellow in the Praxis business accelerator. “Instead of starting with millions in venture capital and plans to take over the world, she started simply with a product she loved that the market around her asked her to make more of.”

May and her team create enduring products that are well-made, priced for the masses, and fun to look at and use. And May infuses her values into her products, offering gratitude journals and meal journals to help drive her customers to imbue meaning in their daily routines.

“I created May Designs because I believe everyday moments should be more lovely,” May said. “Our culture says, ‘Have more, be more, do more.’ It’s a crazy consumption world. That’s what we’re battling as a company.”

May’s view of beauty comes not from a desire to grow a bigger business, but from her convictions about her Creator.

“Isn’t God the most ultimate creator?” May asked. “He wants to delight us. The sunsets, water, movement; I believe all of it has come from God. And God has equipped us to be artists. We’re co-creators with him.”

Paper in a Digital Age

In some ways, a company creating paper notepads is a bit of a modern conundrum. As the world increasingly gravitates digitally, May Designs stands athwart popular culture by encouraging their customers to work offline.

“I’m on my screens all day long,” May said. “But I process, learn, and remember more deeply when I write things down. It’s not as efficient, but in the digital world, we’ve lost something as we’ve moved away from pen and paper.”

While some technologists believe everything everywhere will move digital, there are reasons to believe pen-and-paper isn’t going away quickly.

In the book industry, for example, the number of brick-and-mortar bookstores has increased 21 percent in the United States over the last five years. While e-books are certainly not a fad, printed book sales have remained very resilient.

Similarly, in schools, many teachers and professors are now banning laptops from their classrooms, requiring students take notes by hand. These educators cite a number of recent studies illustrating how students writing their notes by hand learned more deeply and tested better than their digital note-taking peers.

“Like so many others in today’s overly wired society, [students] are perpetually distracted, never fully present,” wrote Stuart Green, a law professor at Rutgers University who recently outlawed laptops in his classroom.

As the world’s interactions increasingly move digital, a wave of educators and entrepreneurs challenge us to not miss the power of working offline. Christians understand the importance of the tactile. In the bread and wine of communion, the mud used in healing, the oil for anointing, and the waters of baptism, Jesus created extraordinary moments with ordinary elements. It’s this same conviction undergirding the work of May Designs.

“When you’re interacting with something physical, it’s just a different experience,” she said.

Entrepreneur from Birth

The entrepreneurial itch started early for May. When she was six, she filled notebooks with drawings of dresses and other fashion concepts. At seven, she had launched her own handcrafted perfume business. By middle school, she was running an afterschool childcare center for kids in her apartment complex.

Over the last four years, May Designs has grown well beyond her home office. Today, May takes joy in creating opportunities for the 11 members of her team to use their gifts and abilities in her company.

“I feel like a mother hen,” May said. “These are my people, and I feel really protective of our environment, our finances, and our culture. It’s a huge responsibility.”

She loves the generosity her business success has enabled. Already, her company has given over $80,000 to schools and organizations committed to early childhood intervention for children with special needs like Rise School of Austin, where May’s son, Jackson, is a student.

Stepping into her calling as an entrepreneur and a Christian has not been without its challenges, though.

“It’s challenging,” May said. “When I became a Christian, I felt an internal struggle, because I felt like I should be an overseas missionary, but I didn’t feel at peace about it.”

May felt an often unspoken pressure from the Christian culture around her to pursue a different type of work—to join a nonprofit or go serve overseas. But over time, she began to understand the unique way she was wired was not an accident. She began to feel burdened to serve her neighbors through doing what God designed her to do—create beautiful things and delight her staff, customers, and community.

“This is my calling,” May said. “I can’t believe I’ve been given the opportunity to steward this business and the opportunity to create joy in people’s lives.”

Editor’s Note:  I first met Mica when she was a fellow at Praxis.  If you don’t know Praxis, it’s an organization very much worth checking out as an accelerator and home for redemptive entrepreneurship.  Check out this week’s podcast for an interview with it’s founder Dave Blanchard. HK

by Jordan Raynor

The following post was first published on YouVersion by our friend Jordan Raynor, author of the national bestselling book for faith driven entrepreneurs, Called to Create: A Biblical Invitation to Create, Innovate, and Risk

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matthew 28:16-20)

I grew up dreading sermons on the topic of missions. It’s not because I don’t love missions; in fact, I can think of nothing more exhilarating than sharing the name of Jesus with a lost world. I love as 1 Peter 2:9 says to “declare the excellencies” of our God, telling others about the miraculous work Jesus has done on my behalf. But for years, any time I heard that my pastor would be preaching on missions or that we were entering into another “missions week,” I cringed because I knew the sermon was going to fill me with nothing but guilt that I wasn’t “going” to “all nations” to make disciples of Jesus Christ.

I’ve never lived outside of the U.S. and I have never been in a vocational role that would traditionally be considered “full-time ministry.” I’ve spent my career as a tech entrepreneur and an author. I build companies and write books for a living. And through that work—work many in the Church might call “secular”—I have seen the Lord do incredible things to reach hurting people with the gospel.

It’s unfortunate that when most churches talk about missions today, they speak of it almost exclusively in terms of Christians leaving the jobs and geographies God has called them to to move overseas as “full-time, donor-supported missionaries.” I hate the way many in the Church talk about missions, because I love the gospel of Jesus Christ, and I am tired of being told—subtly and not so subtly—that because you and I spend 40+ hours a week building businesses, going to school, crunching numbers, creating art, and carpooling kids, we are not “full-time missionaries” committed to making disciples of Jesus Christ wherever we go.

Calling a Christian a full-time missionary is redundant. It need not be said. Whether you’re a student, a businessperson, a barista, a doctor, a janitor, a lawyer, a mother, or a teacher, you are a full-time missionary called to make disciples as you go throughout life! God’s Word makes clear that you and I can be obedient to the Great Commission without changing our vocation or location. You can view your work as full-time missions starting today.

If this idea sounds new or fresh, it’s because the Church has bought into three unbiblical myths of missions that we will look to Scripture to refute.

Myth #1

The first myth that the Church has subscribed to for some time now is that work is largely meaningless unless you work as a “full-time missionary.”

Have you ever felt like your work is less important or eternally meaningful than that of a pastor or “full-time missionary”? This feeling is so prevalent today, but the good news is that it is totally unbiblical.

Genesis 1:26-31 reminds us that work was a part of God’s original, perfect design for the world. In this passage, we see God commanding humankind to co-create with Him—to “be fruitful”—to “fill the earth and subdue it.” This is a call to more than just procreation. This is a call to civilization. It’s a call to cultural creation, to follow God’s lead in working to bring about things that were not there before.

If you flip over to Genesis 2:15, you will see that God put Adam in the Garden of Eden and called him to “work it and take care of it.” In verse 2:19, He invites Adam to give names to every living creature. God is calling Adam to be a ruler, a gardener, a branding agent—jobs that today we might be tempted to call “secular” or at least view as less meaningful than the jobs of a pastor or missionary overseas.

But here’s the truth: God called human beings to work prior to the Fall. Thus, all work is inherently meaningful and is a primary means by which we reveal the character of our Creator God and serve others.

Myth #2

In order to embrace the idea that every Christian is a full-time missionary, there’s a second myth of missions that we need to look to Scripture to refute. Here it is: The calling of pastors and “full-time missionaries” is somehow “higher” than the call to other vocations.

As we saw previously, God called human beings to work, giving all work inherent meaning; thus, there should be no sense that one person’s vocational calling is higher, more meaningful, or more eternally significant than another.

But the fact is, there is an unspoken hierarchy of callings in the Church today that says that if you are really sold out for Jesus, you will abandon your current work and spiritually “level-up” to the role of a pastor or donor-supported missionary.

This idea isn’t new. It’s a myth the Church has been fighting for centuries. Martin Luther, John Calvin, and other leaders of the Protestant Reformation fought vehemently against this man-made hierarchy of callings, arguing that all work is as much a calling from God as the work of a pastor or priest.

What’s particularly laughable about this myth is the fact that we worship a God who spent the majority of his time on earth working as a carpenter! The Bible gives us very little detail of Jesus’ life between the ages of twelve and thirty, when He began his public ministry. One of the only things Scripture notes about this significant period of time is that He was known in His community for His work as a carpenter (see Mark 6:3)!

Think about this for a moment: From the very beginning of time, God knew that He would have to send Jesus to earth to ransom humankind. Knowing this—and knowing the ultimate purpose of Jesus’ life on earth—the fact that God chose for Jesus to grow-up in the home of a carpenter named Joseph should stop us in our tracks.

God could have placed Jesus in a priestly household, like the prophet Samuel or John the Baptist. He could have grown-up in the household of a Pharisee like the Apostle Paul. But no, God placed Jesus in the household of a carpenter where He would spend more than half of his life ministering to others by making what we have to imagine would have been some really exceptional tables.

To act as if the calling of the clergy is higher than any other calling is nothing less than a slight at Jesus Christ. It is an unbiblical myth that there is some sort of hierarchy of callings. The truth is that we worship a God who works and that gives dignity and meaning to all vocations.

Myth #3

The third and final myth of missions that we will unpack is that in order to fulfill the Great Commission, you must “go” away from your current vocation and location.

A few years ago, I heard one of the most life-changing sermons preached on the Great Commission by Dr. Kennon Vaughan. Focusing on the word “Go” in Jesus’s command in Matthew 28:19, Dr. Vaughan said, “The word ‘go’ will “unlock the meaning for us as to when we are to carry out the Great Commission. The word ‘Go’ literally means ‘having gone.’ ‘Go’ is not a command, [Jesus] is not commanding them to go, as much as He’s saying, ‘Having gone…turn men into disciples!’ The going is assumed. In other words, Jesus is saying, ‘Having gone from here, as we go, as you go, turn men into disciples.’ Jesus didn’t go more than 200 miles away from His own hometown, and yet He is saying go make disciples of all nations, and I would venture to say Jesus is the greatest disciple maker in the history of the world. It wasn’t about how far He went. It was about what He did while He was going. The same is true for you and me.”

I don’t know about you, but until a few years ago, I had never heard the Great Commission preached like this. “As you are going…make disciples.” That changes everything.

While God may indeed be calling you to change your vocation or your location, that is certainly not a requirement for fulfilling the Great Commission. The truth is that Jesus has called each and every one of us to be a full-time missionary, making disciples as we go throughout our work and our lives.

When we understand that work is inherently good and meaningful, that the calling of the clergy is no higher than the calling of the congregation, and that Jesus has commanded us to make disciples as we are going throughout life…that changes everything.

Now it doesn’t matter what your job title is—you are commanded to make disciples.

It doesn’t matter if you live in New York or New Delhi—you are commanded to make disciples.

It doesn’t matter if you are a pastor, a student, a businessperson, a stay-at-home-mom, an accountant, a barista, or an artist—you are commanded to make disciples.

Not at some point in the distant future. Not when you retire from your current vocation. Not just on the next short-term missions trip. Today. You are a full-time missionary. What an awesome privilege. What an incredible responsibility.

Photo by Kira auf der Heide on Unsplash

by Henry Kaestner

The beauty of the Gospel is that it can be understood by a child at the same time that the wisest of people can spend their entire lives plumbing the depths of God’s wisdom and knowledge and get nowhere close.

https://castbox.fm/episode/Deconstruction-%7C-You%E2%80%99ll-Be-Amazed-%7C-John-Ortberg-id133284-id75391928?country=us

I love the way that great pastors can help satisfy my intellectual cravings to understand the amazing beauty of God’s wisdom. Tim Keller does that for me, so does Chip Ingram and John Piper.  This is not that type of sermon.  But it’s no less beautiful, and to make this message come across so simply, my bet is that it’s author, John Ortberg, spent a ton of time, wisdom and intellectual effort to make this 25 minute message so accessible.

As Iistened to this sermon, it occurred to me that it’s a very, very good sermon to share with those in our companies that are trying to understand what makes us tick…what our Christian faith is all about.  

John calls this sermon “Deconstruction – “You’ll be Amazed.” I call it a Scriptural Mashup because he blends together God’s word seamlessly to make the point about God’s love message to us without pausing to name chapter/verse references.  I can’t listen to all of my sermons like this, but I’m glad that I listened to this one, and I bet you will too.  I hope you’ll then share it, and maybe check out the rest of his sermon series as well.  The last one in the series is especially good, bringing it all home with an invitation to make a decision to be a disciple of Christ that’s as good as any I’ve heard.

Subscribe on ITunes or Other

by Johnny Shiu

In this week’s episode, one of our listeners, Marty, asked “how do you discern your calling”.  This is an incredibly light and easy to answer question that barely impacts an entrepreneur’s journey, so this will be short.  Of course I’m kidding, this is something we have all asked ourselves, and is something that is incredibly difficult to navigate alone … so we had to phone a friend.  We are super super lucky to have Dave Blanchard from Praxis join us on the podcast to help our listeners think through this issue.

Dave and cofounder Josh Kwan started Praxis, which is a business accelerator with an aim to advance redemptive entrepreneurship.  Currently in its seventh year, Praxis is designed to help entrepreneurs build a community, create mentorship, and provide discernment for building ventures.   And wow, they are GOOD at it!  Dave and Josh have been an incredibly blessing to us personally and to the broader faith and work movement.

The accelerator has helped 150 entrepreneurs from 150 different countries (both for-profit and non-profit).  Talk about reach and impact.  They also developed the Praxis Course, an incredible resource for entrepreneurs.  You can go through it alone or even better with a group of like-minded folks.  Additionally, through the Praxis academy a couple hundred college entrepreneurs (from 80 different schools) spend their summer working with Praxis to start learning about redemptive entrepreneurship.

All this to say that Dave has had to think about calling a LOT both personally by choosing to start Praxis and professionally as he aides countless entrepreneurs on the journey.  On this podcast he will explain his own journey and speak about others he has mentored. 

Lastly, on a more practical note, Dave gives several resources for budding entrepreneurs.  Sit down and draw a simple Venn diagram with three circles where all three overlap in the center.  One circle is “ Love to do”; the other “Good at doing it”; and the last one name it “Could be paid to do.”  In the intersection, you will begin to detect what your calling may be.  Indeed, sometimes God may call us to be multi-vocational.   Other resources are Dave Evans’ book “Designing  your Life” and “Visions of Vocation” by Steven Garber.

Please join us to hear his wisdom!

Subscribe on ITunes or Other

In this week’s episode, one of our listeners, Marty, asked “how do you discern your calling”.  This is an incredibly light and easy to answer question that barely impacts an entrepreneur’s journey, so this will be short.  Of course I’m kidding, this is something we have all asked ourselves, and is something that is incredibly difficult to navigate alone … so we had to phone a friend.  We are super super lucky to have Dave Blanchard from Praxis join us on the podcast to help our listeners think through this issue.

Show Notes for Episode 19

by Dr. Hubert Morken

I have had the great honor of being welcomed in to the Morken family with open arms since David and I became partners in 2000.  I’ll never forget the bear hug that Dr. Morken greeted me with in the airport back in 1999.  One of the greatest gifts we can give to our employees is the opportunity to create, lead and love great families.  The Morkens are an incredible example of that.  When I received the following from Dr. Morken, I knew that I had to share it.    I know that it’ll impact the way that I lead my family, and encourage the leaders of families that work with us.  I hope it’ll do the same for you (HK)

Hubert Morken, Notes for Reunion Comments, July 2018

                                       Great Families

                                “I belong to the God of the mountains,

                                  I belong to the God of the seas,

                                  I belong to the God of the universe,

                                  and He belongs to me.”

The Promise to Abraham, Genesis: 12:2,3.  “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing…in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” 

God creates families.  The human race comes from one family, Adam and Eve.  Biology —genetic study — tends to confirm this idea.  Israel descends from two people, Abraham and Sarah.  History tends to confirm this story.  Looking ahead we see another family forming. The hymn “God and Man at Table are Sat Down”, written by Bob Stamps, a friend, celebrates the wedding feast of the Lamb, a marriage celebration for the family of God.  The Bible affirms this.  And then there is the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God.  So God Himself is the source of families and He is part of a family.

The children of Adam and Eve, i.e. all human beings, create or enter a family in three ways, marriage, birth, or adoption.  My family, Mary and I, constitute a family with 200,000 relatives, discovered, named, and documented, deceased and alive, with more coming, each of you counted among them, like grains of sand or stars in the sky.  I have met and talked to 6 generations of my family from grandparents to great grandchildren, with lots of siblings, uncles and aunts, cousins, nieces and nephews and so on.  Mary has talked with 7 of her generations.  To put this in perspective, Jesus lived in Israel a mere 80 or so generations ago.

We relatives of David and Helen live in a great family not just a large family.  There are many families but few great families, something in all confidence and humility to consider.  Before we fight about what I just said, let’s ask two questions, one, “What is a great family?; and two, How are great families formed?” 

What is a great family?  A great family inherits the future and contributes to the well being of others.  That’s my definition, rooted Biblically in Genesis 12 and 22 and in secular history.  

Inheriting the Future:  Often families last for two, three, or four generations and then fade away.  This is considered normal.  Great families persist longer, some much longer, and in the case of Israel are 4000 years old and counting.  Each generation in a great family pushes itself forward into the future treasuring itself, and its heritage.  A great family is forward looking, fundamentally optimistic.  Our mother Helen used to say that the Christian faith is always one generation away from extinction, one breath from death.  She reminds us to run the relay race i.e. to pass the baton forward, not to drop it.  She was conscious of generational power and vulnerability during the hand-off.

Keep in mind, the greatest families embrace the distant future.  Abraham and Sarah were told their children would be as the stars in the heavens and the grains of sand on the seashores.  All great families have the long view—they sacrifice for the future.  In fact, they are built on sacrifice, each generation preparing for the future.  (Note: Jordan B. Peterson’s Genesis lectures). 

The second characteristic of family greatness is positive world-wide influence.  Grandpa Andrew Mitchell made a plaque with one word “Bless”, a word which means “to give something of value, respectfully”.  From God’s point of view all families are meant to bless others, to give, but to be great a family’s “bless” horizon extends past what you can see to reach the nations of the earth.    These families travel, or their influence travels, through time and space, encompassing history and geography, leaping language and ethnic barriers.

Families survive, thrive, and give out of their greatness.  That is their blueprint, their action plan.

The second question is “How are such families formed?”  The best explanation is in plain sight, under our nose.  It is “obedience”.  Genesis 22:18 says “because you have obeyed my voice.”  Because what?  The text reads, the nations will be blessed because “you have obeyed my voice”.  I can say confidently, observing our family for seven plus decades, obedience is the not-so-secret sauce of Helen Michell and David Morken, who together merged two great families, the Morken’s and the Mitchell’s.  

But, I ask, which commandments produced this greatness, this power to survive, this imperative to bless?  Obedience as some abstract idea produces nothing or worse it can destroy everything, in fact I will comment on this truth later.

It is said, “The devil is in the details”.  I say “Greatness is in the details”.  The details are in five commandments given by God to our families.  When followed — year by year — common clay is transformed into something else.    

1. The First Commandment, Genesis 1 & 2:  Men and women are to marry, leave their parents, make babies, and work creatively to produce in this earth a garden, a home.  Each part of this creation mandate is tough.  Which of the four elements of the first commandment is most difficult for you to do today, to marry, leave parents, make babies, work creatively?  All four are essential to form a healthy new generation.  Note:  Those who do not marry are always part of the family, for all time, never alone, intensely needed, honored, and appreciated, fully integrated into the nuclear and extended family — called to be fruitful and mission driven, they help to drive us forward.

2. The Greatest Commandment, Deuteronomy 6: 5:  “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”  There is nothing boring or stultifying about those words.  Centering your whole being on the one God requires exercise, commitment, imagination — for us, more like becoming a professional soccer player than a spectator; on the field, in the World Cup, not merely in the grandstands.

3. The Second Greatest Commandment, Mark 12: 31.  ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  Greatness must be grounded.  You cannot despise yourself and bless others or ignore others and hope to influence the world.

4. The New Commandment, John 13: 34.  “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”  Reciprocal love, giving it and receiving it, modeled on Christ, is the nuclear power of the New Testament Church that out-lasted the Roman Empire and expanded its borders.  

5. The Last Commandment, Matthew 28:19-20.  “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  Evangelism, missions, instruction, are all anchored here by Jesus in consistent obedience to commandments, a pattern of living.  

Greatness starts with obedience, obedience begins with hearing the voice of God and all three combine to bless — to give something of value, respectfully, to all families and nations.

These five commandments produce staying power and profound influence.  The interplay between them is amazing…..a subject for another time.

In ending, here are two cautionary notes:  First, one great person, a genius, an apostle, a musician, a legend can come from an ordinary family or barely any family at all.  Abraham Lincoln qualifies.  God delights in surprising us, creating something out of nothing, launching greatness out of Nazareth, out of a Kentucky log cabin with dirt floors.  Nevertheless, great families are special too.  They are productive, fruitful, accomplished, and sprinkled among them will be extraordinary heroes, rare people of faith that we remember and celebrate.  See Hebrews 11.  

Second:  Obedience can crush individuality, destroy uniqueness, obliterate creativity.  This is true, especially true, if your god is tradition, if your god is family, if your god is success, or pleasure, or security, or self — all false gods.  But if your Lord is the creator, the covenant maker, the savior, the restorer of  everything, He sets you free by grace and obedience because He wants you to carve a personal destiny, where your mark in history, is yours, and no one else’s to make.  No two people the same, we are stunningly different, each made in His likeness, each valuable, each loaded for impact.  One Rebecca, one Miriam, one Hannah, one Mary

     “Obey.  Be great.  Bless.  Bless.  Be great.  Obey.  Hear the voice of God.”

The Promise to Abraham, Genesis: 12:2,3.  “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing…in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” 

                                 “I belong to the God of the mountains,

                                   I belong to the God of the seas,

                                   I belong to the God of the universe,

                                   and He belongs to me.”

                                                      Family Song