‘Today I am going to reveal to you where your shop will be’. I did not hear these words audibly from God but I do believe that this was a promise, and we moved forward out of obedience to these very words. June 28th, 2024 we moved into our new Pure Dixie warehouse! It was exciting, a long time coming, but most of all it was a chance to be obedient and walk in faith, believing what we heard.
Back up about 18 months. It has been at least that long that we have been out of room in our current shop in town. We have stored most of our show displays and racks in various trailers, sheds, every corner of the shop, and even a garage to a rental house. For a long time we have wanted it all in one place. Last winter, we started looking very hard for a place to rent, buy or build. Commercial space in our small town hasn't always been in high demand, but it has been since the Covid aftermath. We really struggled on what the right decision was, even putting in offers on 2 places that were overpriced, made my stomach hurt, and we were turned down on both. Eventually, I decided to make a list, 9 places, that we would pray over to see where God had for us to expand. These places included commercial buildings, vacant land, and ‘unknown’ in case the place we were to build was not on this list.
We prayed over this list for several months, especially each time we walked into our current shop and it was filled to the gills and we wondered how we were going to make things work for another month. One very snowy day in the winter of ‘23, I went into our local print shop to get some printing done. I visited with the owner, Alan, and he remarked how he liked our vendor trailer that we had parked downtown over the 4th of July the previous summer. I casually responded how it was a real answer to prayer as I was leaving, headed out the door onto my next errand. That remark stopped everything. Alan and I talked for the next 15 minutes about his story of a piece of hard to find printing equipment and what an incredible answer to prayer THAT was. It was great to connect with him on that level and share the stories of praying and trusting God in those things. I mentioned to him that I had been praying for months about where we were going to find space to expand Pure Dixie. Then Alan said, “I can't wait for you to come back in here and tell me the story of how God answered that prayer”. I can quote it because I remember him saying those words distinctly. And next, I will never forget as I was heading out the door of his shop, in between the shelves of office supplies looking out the shop window toward the street, I heard the words ‘today I am going to reveal to you where your shop will be’. It was not audible, but it was distinct. I soaked these words in, hopeful that we had our answer, but reluctant to believe it since it was already almost 4:00 in the afternoon! I finished up in town and headed home still thinking how this could happen ‘today’?
When I got to the house, it was lively! The bus had dropped the neighbor kids off at our house because there was too much snow to drive them up the hill to their houses. This is something that has never happened before or since. When I came in, one of the other moms was there to pick up their kids. She was talking to Dixie and what do you think they were talking about? One of the nine places on our list that we had been praying over! At that moment, I got chills and couldn't wait to talk to Dixie. I could tell she was excited about the possibility of this property, we liked it but had been told it was not for sale (if you are wondering why we had a place on our list that was not for sale- I am actually wondering the same thing as I write this). Apparently some things had changed, and now it WAS indeed for sale! I could hardly wait, and when all the parents had come to pick up their kids, I told Dixie the story with Alan and what I believed God had told me, THIS is where we were going to BUILD our shop.
I would like to tell you everything fell into place like a dream, everything went as planned, and the process only reinforced that God was laying out this path for what he had told me. The truth is, it was hard. Things didn't go fast, things weren't obvious. Everything was more expensive than we thought, it took longer, we second guessed the whole plan a few times, and a lot of things didn't make sense logically. BUT, we held on to one thing I KNOW WHAT THE LORD TOLD ME. That is it. I truly believe that is what I heard that day in the print shop. I believe he told me that he was going to reveal it THAT DAY, later that day he revealed the very spot that our shop is standing!
Sometimes the path just seems right. It rolls along at the pace we want and things fall into place. Sometimes we are told to wait, be patient, even when WE really want to move. Other times we are told to run when it seems way too fast. This time, things did not seem to fall right into place. It is almost like we built it for something else, to be honest. But we did it out of obedience, not to boast, but to share that He has seen us through and will see us through again!
