While in the mountains of North Carolina, I mentioned that it might be interesting to write a book about the people we have met in our journies. Craig said that he often thought about writing one about the people he met in coffee shops. All of the sudden, I had the thought that we should write about the people of faith that we have met. For the rest of the trip, God showered us with ideas.
As a creative person, I get ideas constantly. The reason we know that God was planting these ideas was the rate the ideas were coming to us. They didn't stop the entire time we were driving. Craig said what about Faith Across America as a name? I loved the name and we started writing down the ideas so we could research when we got home.
During the conversation, it became clear that God was preparing us to use the gifts he has given us to create this project. At first, we thought about a book, but we were moved quickly to the thought of creating an online magazine.
Are you aware of your God-given gifts? I urge you to sit down one day, pray first and ask God to reveal your gifts. After you know what gifts you have been given, you can better serve him with them.
God-given Gifts
Craig
Writing
Editing
Business Mind
Creative Mind
People Person
Research
Karen
Writing
Photography
Design
Editing
Interview Skills
Loves and is energized by people
Social Media Skills
These are a few of the gifts that God has given us and continues to work with us on improving. Once we sat down to do the research, it was confirmed that we were to produce an online magazine. After researching the title, we were gifted "Faith On Every Corner," as the name.
We had our first issue up and running within a month of this trip. 30 days! We prayed and listened, we had ideas for stories and were connected immediately with people. Here is an example.
-While driving to visit a friend in VA, Craig needed a break. He pulled into a rest stop that happened to have a photo of the Blue Ridge Mountains. I got out to take photos and a lady walked up to me. There were only two women at the stop. She said, "God sure knew what he was doing, didn't he? You can almost envision him with sand in his hand sculpting the mountains." I smiled and said may I use that for our magazine? We sat in the shade and started talking about the magazine. I told her our story and what we were looking to do. She mentioned a nephew that she had that delivers food to the homeless. She said she thought he might live near where we lived. I asked if she would contact him, she said yes. We parted ways with a hug and a prayer.
When we got back home, I did an internet search for the name of her nephew. I found him, he was less than two blocks from where we lived. I contacted him and he was one of our first stories. He had not talked to his Aunt in quite some time. His son was now in charge of the food, his son is a minister. Any question that this was a God story?
We are now on our 9th Issue of Faith On Every Corner. The people we have met have become a permanent part of our lives. The magazine has allowed us to ask other Christians to write for us, it has been a blessing for us and others.
Find a quiet place, ask God to talk to you. When He talks, listen.
May God bless you and your family.
Love,
Karen Ruhl
www.faithoneverycorner.com
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