
Here's the background on The Downtown Trading Co., and what we're about to do with it...
About a year-and-a-half ago, I launched a 501c3 in the downtown area named "The Village." The name was derived from the Bible, actually (people often ask), from Jeremiah 29, in which the People of God are told to live not in opposition to Babylon but to serve and pray for and help and assist and to love the city in which God has placed them. In fact, He tells them that they will find their good when they find the good of the city. In a real way, He told them to function as a small city with-in-the-city that lived and served and did things differently than the big city (Babylon) for the benefit of the big city. Hence, the name "The Village," a small city within the city that serves the city.
One of the needs downtown is the large influx of ex-prisoners to the area. When they "EOS" (End of Sentence), they are given a ticket on the bus back to the county of their offense. Since Jefferson is the largest county in the State, we receive the most prisoners. And, since the Greyhound station is downtown, they arrive there. Most have no identification- so they can't get a job. And, they don't have money, so they can't find a place to live. Without that address, they can't get identification... which costs money, anyway... which means they need a job first... which they can't get because...
You see the dilemma.
Anyway, I thought and prayed about starting a thrift store to help assist in the funding of this endeavor, of taking men off the streets and out of prison and helping them get on their feet- just as we had done with others in our church that needed help.
And, donations began pouring in- even though we never solicited them. We filled a basement of one of our houses... and, then the shed... and then some of the extra rooms in houses... We finally took much of the stuff to the warehouse at
Christian Service Mission- nearby- where the good people there were gracious to give us storage space while we searched for space to open the store.
In the process, we even received a Jeep (that we gave to a staff person who's car just bit the dust), we received a van (that took men to work until we killed it by putting over 140K miles on it in the last year), we received a Mercury Capri (that we're going to do some engine work to- then it will be good as slightly used), we received a Turtle Bus...
But, we could never find a place to store the items.
I finally found a location, and thought we had everything worked out to open the store. The location was great- not far from my home or the office, or the other ministry things we are doing. And, it would have been at a great price. I even signed a lease- but the owner never did. So, it never materialized.
All the while, I had been praying... "When and how is this thing going to open!?!?!"
I even had the logo and sign ready to go- the design was there, it just needed to be painted. In fact, I have the domain to
TheDowntownTradingCompany.com so that we can promote it. But, I could never get the final pieces together.
My wife continued telling me, "Maybe you just need to give all of the stuff away. It keeps coming in faster than you can do anything with it..."
I wasn't so sure. After all, even though the remainder of the ministry is now funded, this would bring more money into the ministry that could accomplish more ministry... and help more people. So I thought. I mean, I really, really... really... thought this.
So, today, I'm at the Pastor's Prayer Summit, a once a quarter prayer gathering hosted by
Mission Birmingham. We meet on the 20th floor of the Regions Tower, overlooking the city from high above.
A friend of mine,
Victor Brown, who leads Business Development as a VP at the local
Chamber of Commerce and is a board member for The Village, stands to speak briefly and to lead the group in prayer for the businesses in our region. After all, if one fails, it doesn't just affect the people who work there, it ripples to suppliers and vendors and others...
I sent a
tweet out from my phone that said something like:
"listening to my friend @victorbrown lead at the prayer summit. Praying for business leaders in these economic times."
In less than 2 minutes, someone "facebook-ed" back to me: "Pray for the unemployed."
So, I offered, "If you need a job, reply back to me and I'll have people at my table pray for you right now."
What happened next, floored me...
I began receiving immediate replies from both Twitter and facebook- and text messages (I have all of the accounts linked) of people I knew and didn't know all needing work. Some were requesting part-time work; some full-time. Some were speaking of being laid off, of work slowing down... of various situations...
We have been placing people in jobs for the last 18 months... and have been picking up more work, in some of the companies we have started to hire people we run through one of the programs we started (we did this, in part, because of the slowing economy- if others weren't going to create jobs, we thought we would take a shot at it. Since we are a non-profit, with lower-overhead... and already had our staff salaries covered, we were able to do this, somehow, with God's blessing and favor... for which I am humbled and grateful). I thought, "I wish we could hire all of these people, but it's impossible..."
I'm processing this the entire time during the prayer meeting, mind you... and even as I'm leaving... In fact, I'm riding down 20 floors on the elevator with two of the staff guys I brought, Mike & Tyler. They won't quit talking and laughing... and I'm trying to process mentally... so I have to walk off to the coffee shop to get something to drink, just to get the quiet for a minute while I walk away from them...
I think, "Why do people need a job...?"
And, it comes down to the fact that we need to purchase things like food and drinks and clothes for kids that outgrow them... and we need to pay for someone to fix things that break that we don't know how to fix... And, though there are other things for which we need money, this was a start...
I began thinking over all of the guys we've had to help find community service for court orders and restitution... and began thinking about all of the stuff we have piling in our "barn," just waiting to be used. We just moved a staff guy to focus only on local hands-on community development...
And I remembered that just Tuesday, I had driven to a local furniture dealer. They called and said they had two sofas (new) to donate. The give us a great deal of their "seconds," so this was a routine thing. I decided that since it was a smaller load that would not take much time, and since I had not been out there on the donation pick-up run in a while, I would go myself to shake the warehouse manager's hand and see him face-to-face.
I pulled up and he greeted me with, "Come back here. I had two. But this morning they released four more. And I have a dresser and all of these chairs." He led me to two sectional sofas (really nice ones), about twenty chairs (for various dining sets), and a kids' dresser. "You can take all of this."
What we were going to do with it? We hadn't been able to get the space for our store...
It all crashed in this morning: I understand it, now (I think?).
We're not opening a store. We're not getting a business license. We're not setting up a cash register. We're not going to pay taxes (though I'm OK with paying taxes when we do owe them).
We're "trading" all our stuff away. Just like the name of the what-was-going-to-be-a-store says. We're trading (and bartering- in a very, very organized way).
So, I'm in the process of writing the plan. Here's, roughly, how it will go.
- If you need groceries, you'll be able to trade something for them. You can bring in clothes that don't fit, an old bike, or you can volunteer for a short amount of time. You can volunteer with us, or we can send you a list of people that have needs that match what you can do.
- If your kids have outgrown their clothes, give us the old ones, we'll give you new ones.
- If your car is broken, someone will fix it. You just need to bring some old clothes, an old bed, a dresser, or something else that someone might need and can come trade something else for.
- If you need furniture... come get it. But, bring something with you, be it food, stuff, or a skill...
You get the idea.
The Village has a warehouse full of stuff. And, we've had a ton (literally, tons) of food come in. We can help with food, clothing, furniture... we actually have contacts with job training and development (we've received a grant from
The Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham to do this)... I believe the only thing we are not equipped to do right now is utility assistance. But, maybe in the future there will be a way.
At least right now, though, we can do what we can do- and get the ball rolling.
It will all be fair and equitable, which is why I can't pen it all right now. But, soon, it will be up. And, I'm confident that now that I know we're not selling it... it's being given away... we're going to need a larger space than what I previously saw (God is going to send more stuff our way & we're going to have more people to help).
The funny thing, too, is that Monday, in a staff meeting, I told one of the guys (not the community development guy, another one) to clear his desk of what he was working on. He's extremely gifted and compassionate, but was getting burnt out in the previous role. "Finish the day," I told him, "and slide the stuff to my desk... I'll delegate it. Get some rest and start checking with me each day for the following day's assignments. We'll slow you down for a while and see what falls in place that you need to do next..."
I need free space- and I believe it will open soon. It will happen. Tomorrow, I'll have one of my guys check on this.
More details soon.
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