"In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ” Acts 20:35

*Transcription Below*

Questions We Discuss:

Will you share your story of life being flipped upside down in the best kind of way?
Will you share how God redeemed parts of your past to prepare you for exciting new endeavors with Him?
What fruit has been produced from focusing on generosity in your family?

Kristen Welch is an author, podcaster, and founder of Mercy House and Fair Trade Friday. In 2010, a very unexpected yes changed her life, her family and their future forever.

At The Savvy Sauce, we will only recommend resources we believe in! We also want you to be aware: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Raising Grateful Kids in an Entitled World

Raising World Changers in a Changing World

Made to Move Mountains

Kristen's Website

Thank You to Our Sponsor: Justin Maust

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Gospel Scripture: (all NIV)

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

Romans 3:24 “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

Romans 3:25 (a) “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.”

Hebrews 9:22 (b) “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”

Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Romans 5:11 “Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Luke 15:10 says “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”

Ephesians 1:13–14 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession- to the praise of his glory.”

Ephesians 1:15–23 “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”

Ephesians 2:8–10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God‘s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.“

Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.“

Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

*Transcription*

[00:00:00] <music>

Laura Dugger: Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, where we have practical chats for intentional living. I'm your host Laura Dugger, and I'm so glad you're here.

[00:00:18] <music>

Laura Dugger: I'm excited to introduce you to an old friend and today's sponsor, Justin Maust. He's an expert EOS implementer, a certified speaker for the John Maxwell team, and a passionate coach committed to glorifying God by helping business owners get everything they want from their business.

There's a challenge from Theodore Roosevelt that says, Do what you can, with what you've got, where you are. My guest today is Kristen Welch, and she's going to share what that has looked like in her own life as God lovingly and unexpectedly turned her world upside down.

Here's our chat.

Welcome to the Savvy Sauce, Kristen.

Kristen Welch: Hi, thank you. I'm so glad to be here.

Laura Dugger: Well, will you just start us off by giving us a snapshot of your current phase of life? [00:01:18]

Kristen Welch: I think I'm not quite middle-aged anymore. I might be more middle than aged. I am a wife and mom. I have three kids. Two are young adults in college. One's a senior in college, one's a sophomore, and then I have a freshman in high school. Been married 26 years, and I work full-time at Mercy House Global.

Laura Dugger: Wonderful. Thank you for that picture. We know that stories communicate powerful truths. So will you share your story of your life being flipped upside down in the best kind of way?

Kristen Welch: I would love to. I guess I have to go back a ways. I started writing really as a blogger in about 2007 and fell in love with that community. That was a long time ago when mom blogs were kind of a new thing. [00:02:18]

That blog led me to Nairobi, Kenya in 2010 with Compassion International, where I traveled to write about poverty in an effort to tell stories. What really happened on that trip was the beginning of having my life turned upside down. So in some ways it was an ending of the American dream because I woke up in a slum in Kenya, and I woke up physically but also spiritually and really saw myself in a new light because for the first time in my life I was aware of the world's normal, not so much my own normal. And those two collided, and it changed everything. So when I say I woke up, I literally saw God in a new light and myself, and I haven't been the same since.

Laura Dugger: And even to contrast the two, when you say you haven't been the same since, I remember you sharing a little bit of what trajectory your life was on prior to that trip. [00:03:26] So could you share a little bit more about that phase of life you were in and even the wrestling that took place before you surrendered to the Lord and said yes to going on this trip?

Kristen Welch: Yes. Actually, at the time, I had a lot of, I guess, ambition, personal ambition, and I wanted to be invited on a trip like this, I think more for the invitation. I'm an introvert, so sometimes I like to be invited just so I can say no. Not that that's a positive thing, but it's at least honest.

I think I had a list of things that would make me feel like I was a success. So when I did get invited to go to Kenya with Compassion International, I was honored, but I told them no. That night at dinner, I told my husband about the invitation, and he was shocked. He was like, "Why in the world would you say no to this trip?" Not only because it was a free trip to Africa, but because of the opportunity to do something good with the platform that I'd been given. [00:04:29]

I came up with a list of excuses of why it wasn't a good time. Well, the kids were too little at the time. I had a two-year-old. He just sort of looked past those excuses, and just as someone who really knew me, he said, "I want you to answer me honestly. Why did you say no to this trip?" And so I thought about it for a second, and I was honest, and I said, "Because I'm afraid it will change my life." And he pressed a little harder and said, "Would that be a bad thing? Maybe it should change your life."

He had seen a woman who loved her family and loved the Lord, but I was really struggling with feeling empty. I had a lack of purpose that I tried to fill with a lot of things of this world. So the next day, I called back, and I changed my answer and said, I think I want to say yes to this trip. [00:05:29]

I don't think you have to travel overseas for your life to be turned upside down. My husband didn't. But I think for me, I needed to be out of my normal and my comfort zone and I needed to just witness God in a new way and experience Him in a new way. And that trip certainly did it for me.

Laura Dugger: Well, that sounds amazing that you did say yes. Just in case any of us haven't been overseas before, can you give us a little bit more of a picture of how different it was from your American life at the time?

Kristen Welch: Yes. Everything was different. One day in particular, I actually wrote a blog post, and that was our job as writers. Every night after we experienced beautiful and heartbreaking things, we would go back to our hotel and write about what we had seen. We were basically eyewitnesses. [00:06:26]

I wrote a blog post that day, and it was titled, Today I Went to Hell. I don't think I'm a good enough writer to describe what I witnessed. It was every sense was on fire. What I smelled, what I saw, what I touched. We were led into the heart of the slum by armed bodyguards, and it felt dangerous. It felt like a cruel life.

I learned a lot of vocabulary words that day, like survival prostitution, which is a term used to define girls or women who are prostituting for food, not money. I learned that a lot of mothers were actually putting their daughters into survival prostitution to provide for the rest of their families.

Another term I learned was an orphan-led home. As we followed our tour guide into the heart of the slum, she stopped at a home of a boy named Vincent. He was an orphan who led his home, which basically meant that his parents had died, and he was in charge of his siblings.[00:07:53]

Vincent was about 14 years old, and he invited us inside of his house, which was the size of my master bathroom at home. It was a tin shanty with a dirt floor, no furniture, no bed or table. He gave us a tour of his home and showed us how he took one candle, and that was his light for the house.

He lit it, dripped the wax on kind of like a stool, and set the candle inside the hot wax so that it would stand up straight on that stool. He got out his blanket and rolled it out on the hard-packed dirt floor to show us where he and his brother slept. [00:08:49]

The entire time he was answering questions and explaining his life, water was dripping through the slits because it was raining outside, and we were getting wet inside of his house. It was dark and dank, and I was overwhelmed with sadness for this boy. The one thing that was so surprising to me, I'll never forget, the entire time he spoke, he had a huge grin on his face. So beautiful. His smile just lit up the room.

After he was done explaining how he would get up before school and pick up vegetables, bring them back, and sell them to people on their way to work, which is how he provided food for his brothers, and then he would walk to school. As he was explaining those things to us, he stopped and he asked if we had any questions. I'll never forget that moment. It is a defining moment in my life because I raised my hand. I don't think I thought through what I was about to ask, I just had to ask. [00:10:04]

And I said, "Vincent, how can you be so happy? You have nothing, but you're so happy." He looked at me, and the look on his face described his pity for me. I remember thinking, he feels sorry for me. He said, "Ma'am, I have Jesus. He's enough."

That was the moment that changed my life because I had Jesus, too. I realized, though, that Jesus was the center of this little shanty in the middle of the world's largest slum in Nairobi, and he wasn't the center of my life. I added in salt and pepper to a meal to season it, but he wasn't the center. I met a kid in Kenya who had more than I had, and I realized that after that day, I would never be the same. [00:11:11]

So I came home from that trip, and since that day, more than 11 years ago, I've tried to make Jesus the center of my life and to walk in obedience. I would say those are my goals now.

Laura Dugger: I love beginning here because your story shows how God transformed you from the inside out. As you continue to reflect back, what lessons did God continue to teach you about His economy, specifically as it relates to giving, stewardship, and generosity?

Kristen Welch: I feel like I've lived a lifetime in the last 11 years just from the lessons that God's taught me. I think we feel like in our culture that the more we have, the more we have. But in the kingdom of God, which is really an upside-down world, it seems like the less we have, but we actually have more. So the more we give, the more we have. [00:12:17]

I am living proof of that, that when the Bible says you can't out-give God, I think this is what He's referring to, that we're basically like a conduit, where we open our hand to heaven, and He gives us gifts, and He places things in our hand. If we keep the other hand closed, we just get uncomfortable and full of what we call blessings, but there's no release of that. The conduit doesn't work.

But when we open our hand and we're just in the middle, whatever God gives us, whether it's resources, gifts, time, money, when we are freely opening both hands, we allow those things to run through us. We're invited into this. I don't think God needs us. He has everything, but He invites us so that we can receive the joy and in return the purpose of generosity. [00:13:20]

So, for me, generosity has taught me that's where joy comes from. I traveled to Kenya really as a woman without purpose, and God used those circumstances and what I witnessed, and the obedience afterwards to give me so much purpose that it's hard to contain. So I think there's this misconception in North America that— I kind of cringe when I hear the word blessing, because we hashtag it and we put it on our wall in cute decor. We sign our emails with it, but we're really not blessed if we're keeping what we've been given. And I think it just means we're selfish.

And so God has really shown me that every gift from above, which we know comes from God, if we keep it for ourselves, we're really suffering from selfishness. But if we open our hand and we become that conduit, that is when we are truly blessed. [00:14:24]

And of course, it is more blessed to give than receive. I guess I've just been able to put into practice some of those gospel truths, and I've tested them, and they're true.

Laura Dugger: I love how you've previously spoken on this topic, and I heard you say that God's formula for giving is not the same of ours, because two minus one does not equal one in God's economy. Two minus one is instead multiplied, just like the little boy and his lunch. That's what comes to mind when you say you're applying these gospel truths.

Kristen Welch: Yeah, absolutely. My favorite Bible story is the loaves and fishes. I mean, I draw so much inspiration and motivation from that simple children's story, because it reminds me... I struggle with not feeling like I am enough or I have enough to do what God has asked me to do. [00:15:31] And I know I'm not alone in that feeling.

I honestly feel like it's what kept me idle for so long, feeling inadequate. Like, what could I do with what I have? It's not enough. I think that is a lie that the enemy uses to keep us paralyzed from obedience. I think about that little kid who not only was his lunch not enough, he wasn't enough. He wasn't old enough. He wasn't big enough. He didn't have a title. He didn't have experience. He simply had a lunch. It was small and inadequate, but it wasn't the lunch that changed the day, it was the giving of the lunch.

I think about what's in my hands. And on any given day, my little lunch looks like a pathetic fish stick dinner. You know, it's just not enough. It's not smart enough. It's not good enough. There's not enough money. There's not enough time. [00:16:40] All the things that we struggle with. But God doesn't ask me to present a five-course meal to get it good enough to become something I'm not. He simply says, I want what's in your hands.

I think what's so miraculous about that story and about what I've seen God do is everyone knows it's not enough. And even when the little boy offered his lunch, I'm sure it wasn't like, oh, he's saving the day, right? Because it wasn't enough, but Jesus blessed it. And then it became more than enough. I'm living proof of that. I get to be on the sidelines of something so holy and so miraculous. No one in my world or in my life gives me credit for what God has done, because they know that I'm not able to do this on my own. [00:17:42]

So I think that space between what we want God to do and where we are today, it keeps us from doing anything because it just seems like too big of a jump. But it's the perfect size of Jesus. And He becomes more than enough. And that's why He receives the glory. I go back to that lesson a lot. It's just such a good reminder that He takes what we have and He does the impossible with it.

Laura Dugger: And now a brief message from our sponsor.

[00:18:18] <music>

Sponsor: Thank you to my friend and sponsor, Justin Maust, for making this episode possible. As an expert EOS implementer, Justin has provided over 500 full-day sessions helping business owners implement EOS into their business.

EOS is the Entrepreneurial Operating System, which is a complete set of simple and practical tools to help entrepreneurs get what they want from their businesses. Justin helps business owners and leadership teams achieve three things, vision, traction, and health.

For vision, that's simply helping you get everyone in the organization 100% on the same page with where they're going and how they plan to get there. For traction, that's helping to instill focus, discipline, and accountability throughout the company so that everyone executes on that vision every day.

When we think of healthy organizations, let's be honest, there's often a fair amount of dysfunction with teams. But Justin loves helping leaders create a more cohesive, functional, and healthy leadership team. And once the leaders are healthy, they help the whole team become healthy.

Mark and I have been friends with Justin and his wife Jenny for years. We've witnessed them apply these practices to their own life and their family and their business, and the results are transformational.

With Justin's love for Jesus and passion to serve business owners to be better stewards of their businesses, I highly recommend you learn more about his services at his website, justinmaust.com. That's justinmaust.com. Thanks for your sponsorship.

[00:20:01] <music>

Laura Dugger: As you've applied these gospel truths, it's so helpful to hear specific examples. So even in your own life and in your marriage, what have some of those conversations looked like for you?

Kristen Welch: Well, I think when I said yes to God, to that trip to Kenya, I didn't really know what I was saying yes to. And I think that's the wild ride of obedience. It's like this great big domino game that's been set up.

And when that first yes sets into motion, dominoes that move us into difficult places and hard yeses. So if I had known back then what I was saying yesterday, I might have run the other way. But God is faithful, and he's taken me and my family on this wild, wild ride. [00:21:00] But it's been hard.

I think there have been seasons when I wanted an easy week, month, day. God revealed this to me in a difficult season, but I think I had been waiting for an easy season. Like if we just get past this mountain, if we get over this next obstacle, it's going to be easy.

After a particularly difficult month, I couldn't sleep one night. And that's all I could think about. It was sort of this heartbeat of, God, I just need an easy day, easy week. And I woke up my husband in the middle of the night — at that point, I was crying — and I said, "We've been obedient. We're more than a decade into this journey, and it's been hard."

And from raising millions of dollars a year to walking with our Kenyan staff and rescuing girls out of trafficking, and all of the horrors and redemption that comes from that, I just was in this place where I was asking God for an easy season.

So I shared that with my husband, fully expecting him to say, "You're right, honey. We deserve an easier time. It's coming." [00:22:24] But he did the exact opposite. He propped himself up on his elbows and wiped the tears from my cheeks and said, "You need to let go of this idea of an easy life or an easy season. We have intentionally made our lives difficult in order to make others' lives easier."

I knew that those words spoken in the dark were from God, using my husband to speak this beautiful truth that we could have an easier life, but we have chosen intentionally to live a difficult life so that we could somehow ease the lives of others.

I rolled over. I was kind of mad, honestly. I was just like, fine. He went back to sleep, and I don't even know if he remembered it the next day, but God used those words to really just release that burden of expectation that there was going to be an easy time up ahead. [00:23:36] And that's not to say there's not. There's a lot of joy and a lot of purpose, but everything kind of comes the hard way.

But when I think about what the Bible says about denying ourselves, taking up our cross and following Jesus, the word "easy" isn't mentioned.

Laura Dugger: It's counterintuitive, but when you share that, it makes me think that that sounds like a much more freeing state of mind.

Kristen Welch: Definitely. I mean, literally, things changed for me after that night. I think expectations are something that the enemy uses. Not that in and of itself it's a bad thing to expect, but when we put expectations on others or on ourself or on God, I think it just revealed my heart that day, and it freed me. [00:24:31] You never hear me say, I'm waiting on an easy season now. I expect it to be hard.

So there was this shift that happened that night. So I guess I expect difficulties, and then when something is easy, I'm delighted. So I don't know if that works in all areas of life, but it has definitely helped me walk more in freedom, knowing that good things that are gospel-driven, that glorify God, they aren't easy. And I don't expect them to be anymore.

Laura Dugger: What are some recommended questions to get us thinking about stewarding our lives in a God-honoring way?

Kristen Welch: I think there are several. I think a formative question that's so important is asking ourselves why I was born where I was born. It's definitely eye-opening and life-changing when we start there. [00:25:35]

In God's sovereignty, He placed us where we are. There isn't something we've done, something we've earned. We didn't get to choose to be born in North America, where we live among the world's wealthiest, where we have the most resources.

I think when we ask ourselves that first question, we have to follow it up with, what am I supposed to do with what I've been given? Those are two questions that guide me in perspective and gratitude, because it's easy to get caught up in the American dream and the mentality of bigger is better. But it all depends on who we're comparing ourselves to. Am I comparing myself to my neighbor on my street, who's part of the wealthiest nation in the world, or am I comparing myself to my neighbor who lives in a slum in Kenya? [00:26:35]

Neither neighbor chose to live where they live, but God is sovereign, and so how can we use what we've been given? How can we use our advantage at the gate? I think of Esther, who was inside the gate, who was appointed to live inside the kingdom so that she could help people outside. I think when we ask those questions, it recenters us.

Then another more recent question that I ask myself, any unexpected blessing that comes my way, whether it's a check in the mail, a tax return, a raise at work, or not even a financial blessing. Maybe it's extra time that I wasn't expecting to have or a bountiful harvest in a way that isn't money or time. Maybe it's just a gift or a resource. [00:27:34]

In the past, I've always assumed those were blessings for me to keep, like God looking down and saying, this unexpected check, this money, whatever it's for you to keep. But I've really discovered that it's a test. Not every blessing that comes my way is meant for me to keep.

Some of those blessings are meant for me to share. That has been transformative in my life, not assuming that it's all meant for me to keep because I've discovered deeper, bigger, richer blessings when some of those tests I've realized that God gave this to me so I can share it with someone else. It could be as simple as I have an extra seat at my dining room table. I have an extra room in my house. I have an extra chair in my vehicle. Who could fill it? Who needs a seat? So I think looking at life through that lens gives us more than we could ever imagine. [00:28:38]

Laura Dugger: I love how you acknowledge the Lord in that. And that's helpful to apply in our own lives, just asking God, is this a blessing to keep for ourselves, or is this a test and we're supposed to share it? But let's also pick up your story with another theme God was teaching you, which is redemption. So will you share how God redeemed parts of your past to prepare you for exciting new endeavors with Him?

Kristen Welch: Yeah. I mean, I look back at the first 34 years of my life, and I don't think God wastes anything. And I love that about Jesus. I think we get off track sometimes, and I can definitely look back on my life and see that I was focused on myself for a long time. But there are no wastelands. He uses everything. [00:29:34]

So during those first years of my life when I really probably had a shopping addiction and just consumed a lot and had a lot, I have been able to take that love of stuff and allow Him to redeem that consumerism in me. And so one of the things we do at Mercy House is we provide dignified jobs for women in poverty.

And we do that to support our maternity homes in Kenya. We also do it to educate shoppers. I think that something really beautiful happens when we buy something that is made with another person's empowerment at stake.

So now I get to be a part of this beautiful fair trade movement that allows me to educate shoppers to buy things that change other people's lives, and I get to participate in that. It's this really beautiful exchange for me. [00:30:33]

I remember my pre-Kenya life, I loved to make things, do-it-yourself things, crafts. I love art. I get to use that to help create product now that means jobs for women around the world. And so for everything that I felt was wasted or was for me, I can now see a parallel to that, how God is using that for His glory and to bless others.

We have these subscription boxes called Fair Trade Friday that provide thousands of jobs for women around the world. And it's incredible to look back and I can see the pieces of my life and how God was readying me for what I'm doing today. I draw sometimes from those past experiences, what I've learned, what I lived, and it's just a good reminder that that redemptive thread is really sewn into every piece of our life. [00:31:36]

Laura Dugger: Absolutely. Because that's helpful to see things that we may battle with, like a shopping addiction. But then even some of the positive things like your writing, I know you've said that you've always experienced pleasure while writing, but he even redeemed that to more so be others-focused.

It reminds me in Episode 161, Hettie Brittz said something about God not changing our temperament, but He sanctifies it. So it's helpful to see even our sin or good desires from Him, that he can use all of those and he will waste none of it. But with your redemption story, it sounds like a lot of that took place in part to prepare you for founding some of those important ministries. Is there anything else you would like to elaborate on to teach us more about Mercy House and Fair Trade Friday? [00:32:35]

Kristen Welch: Yeah. That initial trip in 2010 led my family to start Mercy House Global, which is a non-profit that funds three maternity centers in Nairobi, Kenya, that is now filled with former survival prostitutes between the ages of 12 and 16. Actually, this weekend, we rescued our 64th pregnant teen. Through that ministry, we work with indigenous Kenyans. We have an amazing team there that facilitate those rescues and the empowerment that happens afterwards.

But we work with the family members of many of those girls to break that cycle of poverty. A mother never wants to put her child into survival prostitution, but she does so because she has no other option. So one of the things we do is work to provide skills and training so that women have other options. [00:33:39]

We do that through Fair Trade products. So we empower women to make beautiful things around the world, and then we purchase those and sell them through subscription clubs at Fair Trade Friday. We have an online store and a shopping app and retail stores, a lot of different ways to sell that product where we take the proceeds.

It's basically a full-circle ministry that proceeds go back into those maternity homes. So it's been really beautiful, really hard, but a really incredible journey of how God can do anything with anyone. I'm living proof of that.

Laura Dugger: Have you checked out our library of articles available at TheSavvySauce.com? New posts are added multiple times a month related to parenting, intimacy and marriage, personal development, habits, and other topics connected to what we discuss here on The Savvy Sauce. [00:34:42] If you sign up to join our email list, you're also going to enjoy little extras delivered straight to your inbox.

Our hope is to encourage you to have your own practical chats for intentional living. So these freebies will include things like questions that you can ask on your next date night, safe resources to read to promote enjoyment in your intimacy and marriage, or questions to ask your kids to connect at a more relational level. We hope you check out all the available reads at TheSavvySauce.com under the articles tab.

Well, Kristen, something that's also amazing about these ministries is that you've been able to involve your family in all of this. And clearly you have a knack for telling stories. So will you tell us more about the victories and lessons learned from your first trip to Kenya as a family?

Kristen Welch: Yes. I feel like that, thankfully, memories fade because that first trip to Kenya in 2011 with my family was amazing, just the opportunity, but it was also really hard. [00:35:49] I made a lot of mistakes. And I think that's part of... if you've followed this story or read about Mercy House, how it started, where we are today, we use the word scrappy a lot because we don't give up, but we usually do things the hard way.

And I am no exception to that. But I think it's also a good example of God doesn't wait on us to have everything figured out. He just needs our willingness and our obedience. And we kind of mess up along the way.

I have really tried to be vulnerable through all those seasons just so that I don't ever want anyone to think that we started Mercy House as a family because we were the right family to do it or a perfect family or a good family.

On that first trip, I didn't want to take too many clothes because I wanted to use our suitcases to take the needed supplies for the maternity homes. [00:36:57] I think we were there three weeks and I packed enough for basically five days. So we washed our clothes. I had never washed clothes by hand before. So that was a huge learning curve and we would hang them up to dry. But the area where the first maternity home that we rented, we now own the homes, but years ago we rented them, it was in the mountains and it was very cool in the morning and evening so the clothes didn't dry.

And so we woke up one morning, it was much cooler than I expected. And my youngest was four years old and so her clothes weren't dry and she was cold. So I put her clothes in the microwave, which hindsight, so the leggings caught on fire. I have a picture that I framed that is of my kids with some of their Kenyan friends. And she's wearing a little dress and she's layered and she has those leggings on underneath. [00:37:59]

I know that the entire bottom is burned out. So it's just a good reminder that I don't always know what I'm doing, but God is good. But yeah, I think between that and overdosing my kids on malaria medicine and trying to figure out how to walk through this messy, ordinary, extraordinary faith-filled journey. I think it just has reminded me that wherever God leads us, God is with us. And we don't have to have it figured out. It doesn't have to be perfect. It won't be. It won't be perfect. It's going to be real and it's going to be hard.

A few years ago, I would say a component of my life is always wanting to feel safe and to keep my kids safe. When I started taking my family to Kenya, that raised a lot of eyebrows. One trip I was going to Kenya and there had been a terrorist attack in the country. [00:39:08] Everybody was trying to talk me out of going. I talked to my husband and he felt like I should go, and I had a peace about going, and so I made that trip.

I remember sitting on my bed and pulling up the news and the Boston Marathon bombing had happened. And some of the people from my house church who had discouraged me from going to Kenya were actually in Boston for the marathon. I remember immediately checking to make sure they were okay and just marveling at the fact that no place is safe and God doesn't call us to safety. We're safest when we're in the center of His will. It was a good reminder.

And really, it's something I've held closely since because I have been in some situations that have been a little scary in the last dozen years. [00:40:12] But knowing that I'm going where Jesus leads me, and He's with me, and He has numbered the hairs on my head, and He has my days numbered. And so I'm able to walk forward in obedience, even when it comes to my family and wanting to keep them safe, but knowing that the safest place is with Jesus.

Laura Dugger: And Jesus often leads us to countercultural parenting. So what fruit has been produced for your family from focusing on generosity as a family?

Kristen Welch: Oh, so many things. It's interesting having young adults. My oldest will be 22 in a couple of weeks, and she was in the fourth grade when we started Mercy House. My son was a second grader, and then my youngest was just a toddler. So watching how their lives have been shaped and their futures have been altered, without a doubt, I know this is because of what has happened in my husband and I, in our hearts. [00:41:19]

Not to say it's always been easy. I'm sure there are things that we could have done differently, or that my children wish we would have done differently, maybe to help them fit in culture and navigate.

But I love that I have raised generous kids who still teach me every day about generosity. When my youngest was in kindergarten, she had her first play date, and it was someone that came home with us from school. I didn't know the family very well, but the parent agreed to let their little girl come and play with my little girl after school. And it was so cute hearing my, I guess she was probably five or six at the time, give a tour of our house to her new friend.

When she got to our refrigerator, it was covered with faces of beautiful families that we support, families that don't look like ours, from all different countries, through Compassion International, through Mercy House. [00:42:25]

Her friend, I remember walking by the kitchen and she was like, "Who are all these people?" And my daughter said, these are people that we love and people we help. And then without missing a beat, she said, "Who does your family help?" And I thought it was so neat to hear this innocent question from a child who knew no other way of living that God put us on this earth to help other people.

So it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when and who. That's what we're supposed to do. And so raising kids in light of that. My oldest daughter is planning on being an art therapist. She wants to help young adults and children through trauma using art. And then my son is working towards being a physical therapist. He wants to help people physically overcome challenges.

I think it's neat to see that helping people is a core component of our family. [00:43:30] I know that there have been sacrifices made along the way, and there have been fights and arguments and lots of counseling sessions, because the Mercy House childhood we have given our kids has also been difficult. But at the end of the day, I think we can all say we're very thankful for offering our lunches to Jesus and seeing what He will do with them.

Laura Dugger: And you've summed it up well before when you said, when we give our lives away, we naturally raise givers. Do you have any other stories to share related to that?

Kristen Welch: Yeah. I think kids end up lighting the way sometimes. I was taking my son to youth group, and we picked up several kids normally, and he added a third boy to the route. I was exasperated because we didn't leave in enough time, and I felt rushed. [00:44:34] I was like, "How many kids are you going to invite to church?" Which sounds terrible, but it was the question I asked.

And I remember catching his eye in the rearview mirror, and he looked at me, and he was like, "How many seats do we have in our van, Mom?" And I was like, "Okay, yeah, we had an empty seat." And I love that raising our kids with that goal in mind, there's always room for more.

It's been interesting moving into this season where we do have extra beds in our house. As our kids are beginning to leave the nest, I've already been asked by one or two of my kids, who's going to fill that? And it's just a different way to look at what we've been given.

My kids have a love for international students. So oftentimes, when they come home for the weekend or for Easter, or a break from school, they'll have an international kid with them. [00:45:34] I think it's a beautiful life when we can share what we have with others.

Laura Dugger: I think it's so helpful to hear this all come full circle to how God specifically led you to enjoy Jesus now as the essence of your life rather than the add-on. But if anyone else wants to apply that same lesson to their own life, what are some helpful questions that you suggest we begin to ask ourselves?

Kristen Welch: I think it's looking at what's in our hands. What has God given us? For me, it was I love to write. I wanted to be a writer as an eighth-grade girl, and that desire never went away. And that's taken really the form of storytelling. I actually do very little writing these days, but I get to tell the stories of women around the world. [00:46:27]

I think what's in your hand? Maybe you make the best chocolate chip cookie in the entire state. And those cookies can provide jobs for women transitioning out of difficult situations [inaudible] in bakery, or maybe you have the best voice in the church, and you can offer voice lessons to kids in need.

I mean, there's so many. I think we're all different, and God has given every person unique gifts. I think it's what is He put in our hands that doesn't seem like much sometimes. It's just maybe a small talent, maybe a little bit of money. But how can we lay that down and offer that as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto him? It's an act of worship. I also believe it's a doorway into a new place, a new journey that you never know where it will lead when we say yes to God. [00:47:39]

Laura Dugger: I appreciate you sharing where your yeses to the Lord have led you. In our show notes today, we're going to link to your website so people can learn more about your ministries and have the chance to look through some of the books that you've published. I still have one final question for you. We're called The Savvy Sauce because "savvy" is synonymous with practical knowledge or discernment. And so as my final question for you today, Kristen, what is your savvy sauce?

Kristen Welch: Well, I would say it's... I love the term sweet spot, which is I define it as the place where our skill collides with our passion and God's timing. So it's like this recipe where we take what we're good at, what we love to do, and we give it to God. And when His timing is right, He takes it and He does amazing things with it. [00:48:45]

So I would say my practical advice is find your sweet spot. Look for that thing that you do well that can somehow lead others to a life of knowing Jesus. It really is a sweet, sweet place to be.

Laura Dugger: Well, Kristen, it's been compelling to get to hear your stories of God's faithfulness and redemption and His lessons on generosity. You've definitely motivated me to prayerfully steward what He's entrusted to me. I hope that's true of everyone listening who's thinking the same thing.

But you have such a warm personality and you're very humble in the way you share your stories. So thank you very much for being my guest today.

Kristen Welch: Thank you so much for having me.

Laura Dugger: One more thing before you go. Have you heard the term "gospel" before? It simply means good news. [00:49:45] And I want to share the best news with you. But it starts with the bad news. Every single one of us were born sinners and God is perfect and holy, so He cannot be in the presence of sin. Therefore, we're separated from Him.

This means there's absolutely no chance we can make it to heaven on our own. So for you and for me, it means we deserve death and we can never pay back the sacrifice we owe to be saved. We need a savior. But God loved us so much, He made a way for His only Son to willingly die in our place as the perfect substitute.

This gives us hope of life forever in right relationship with Him. That is good news. Jesus lived the perfect life we could never live and died in our place for our sin. This was God's plan to make a way to reconcile with us so that God can look at us and see Jesus. [00:50:44]

We can be covered and justified through the work Jesus finished if we choose to receive what He has done for us. Romans 10:9 says that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

So would you pray with me now? Heavenly, Father, thank You for sending Jesus to take our place. I pray someone today right now is touched and chooses to turn their life over to You. Will You clearly guide them and help them take their next step in faith to declare You as Lord of their life? We trust You to work and change their lives now for eternity. In Jesus name, we pray, amen.

If you prayed that prayer, you are declaring Him for me, so me for Him, you get the opportunity to live your life for Him.

At this podcast, we are called Savvy for a reason. We want to give you practical tools to implement the knowledge you have learned. So you're ready to get started? [00:51:45]

First, tell someone. Say it out loud. Get a Bible. The first day I made this decision my parents took me to Barnes and Noble to get the Quest NIV Bible and I love it. Start by reading the book of John.

Get connected locally, which basically means just tell someone who is part of the church in your community that you made a decision to follow Christ. I'm assuming they will be thrilled to talk with you about further steps such as going to church and getting connected to other believers to encourage you.

We want to celebrate with you too. So feel free to leave a comment for us if you made a decision for Christ. We also have show notes included where you can read Scripture that describes this process.

Finally, be encouraged. Luke 15:10 says, "In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." The heavens are praising with you for your decision today. [00:52:44]

If you've already received this good news, I pray that you have someone else to share it with today. You are loved and I look forward to meeting you here next time.

Welcome to The Savvy Sauce

Practical chats for intentional living

A faith-based podcast and resources to help you grow closer to Jesus and others. Expect encouragement, surprises, and hope here. Each episode offers lively interviews with fascinating guests such as therapists, authors, non-profit founders, and business leaders.

They share their best practices and savvy tips we can replicate to make our daily life and relationships more enjoyable!