Reminder: We’re down to TWO DAYS to order the Nourish Hope necklace in time for Mothers Day! The necklace WILL continue to be available after that, but if you want it in time for Mothers Day, you must order before May 1. Whether you are ordering or not, PLEASE help us raise lots of money for Venture by sharing on social media. There are shareable posts on the Food Shelf Friday Facebook page and @Foodshelffriday on Twitter. Thank you!

I don’t have a regular post for you this week. I spent the last two days at a conference for work, I have been working diligently on my thesis (88 pages and counting!), and I’m going through a brand strategy course through Amye Still (it’s called Brand By Design, and it is helping me sort through all the dreams in my head and figure out exactly what God wants Food Shelf Friday to be and how I can get there. It has been great! If you have a blog, business, ministry, or MLM, I highly recommend it.) So, you know, time…

Anyway, this week in Brand By Design, we worked out mission and vision statements for our businesses/blogs. I gave a lot of thought and prayer to what Food Shelf Friday is and what God wants it to be. The image above shows what I came up with. The easiest part was the values – faith, hope, and love. I said to myself, “what do I value as Food Shelf Friday?” and it was just there. I value faith; it’s the heart of why I advocate for the hungry – because caring for the poor is what God requires of us and because I want them to have a chance to know Christ. I value hope; I don’t believe that God is glorified in guilt, and I always strive to encourage and empower people through positive, hope-filled means. Without hope, we’re defeated, just tilting at windmills. Because we have hope, it fuels us. And love – loving God and loving people is what life is all about. So that was a no-brainer. The rest of the wording took a bit more effort…

So that’s what I’ve been up to this week. I promise to bring you more “meat” next week. I’m in the middle of an audio book right now that will become a book review post soon, and I bought a pile of books with a birthday Amazon gift card from my sister, so expect to hear from some experts this summer. I also have a whole brainstormed list of projects and ideas, so there’s lots to look forward to. Thank God my thesis is almost out of the way…

Have a great week!