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Introducing Project FED

 

The Story Behind the Project

I met Father Lucas through some Facebook friends more than a year ago. He lives in a small village in northern Nigeria. Part of his parish includes 3 orphanages filled with children of many different ages. He struggles to get the funding to care for them.

At the time, I was working a reliable freelance marketing contract and was making decent money doing it. I sent him money from time to time to help support his ministry.

Toward the end of April, I got an idea. What if I had him collect some art from the children at those orphanages and I used my design and marketing skills to help him raise the money by creating products such as fabric designs and housewares and t-shirts that featured the artwork? 

I made the suggestion to Father. He told me he'd work on it. 

Life-Changing Circumstances

In the meantime, on May 11th, I got quite a shock. The contract I'd been working on for the past three years ended suddenly and without notice. 

That was the primary source of my income. Fortunately, I still did have a list of clients I'd built up over the years and those clients had small projects that needed my attention. I wasn't entirely without the means to bring in an income, it just wasn't at the same level as that marketing contract had been, which hurt. A lot.

I set out to apply for some jobs, made it to the 5th round of interviews with Stack Overflow's marketing team, and was told they'd selected a candidate with more experience. I had never worked harder during an interview process or done more research, and I'll admit that I was devastated by the news - but only for a day. I didn't have more time to invest in that than a day.

This was at the beginning of June. Just a few short days later and I had to take my mom into the hospital. She ended up being there through the 30th. I spent most of my days going between taking care of my clients and taking care of my mom. There was little time for anything else.

After getting my mom on board a plane to Salt Lake City so that she could finish recuperating with my younger sister, I returned my attention to searching for a replacement for the income I'd lost. 

An Opportunity to Serve

It was at this point that Father Lucas sent me pictures of the children's art that I'd requested earlier. I spotted three particularly promising pieces and got to work with my design skills. That was Sunday, July 4th, 2021. 

Over the next day, I began to brainstorm a brand for this project. I chose the name Project FED because the pieces of art I selected were a fish, an elephant, and a duck. I thought the visual of them would help people remember the name FED - which represented my goal with the project. I wanted to provide food, education, and a dwelling for all the orphans. The money raised from the sale of these designs would go to do just that.

As I thought more about the brand and what I wanted it to represent and who I wanted it to serve, I realized that this was an opportunity to go far beyond just helping orphans. Done right, I could help people in poverty by showing them how to build their own business using the skills, talents, and abilities they have right where they are with what they have.

I would use only free resources, nothing that required money to get started. That way, it would be accessible to anyone.

The Courage to Launch

Even with the brand ready, and the first designs developed, I hesitated to pull the trigger. I was scared that I didn't have what it took, that people would misinterpret my actions as being self-serving, that I was spending time on this project that I should be spending to find a new contract. The list went on and on.

I took it to Christ in Adoration and got down on my knees to ask Him for His thoughts on the matter. His message to me was clear: "Your fear comes because you think this is about you and you are making it about you. It isn't about you. It's about what I want to do through you. All you have to do is just be willing, and I will take care of the rest."

Even with that message, I hesitated. I didn't want to get in front of the camera. I'm not proud of how I look. I didn't want people judging the message because of the messenger. But I did it anyway.

And then, I set out to launch it all. Today, July 6th, 2021, I launched the brand. I've got no email list. The only followers I have are those I've built on social media. I am literally starting from scratch and I don't have a dime to my name. 

I'm a hot mess with a ton of problems of my own, but if this succeeds, I will offer it as proof that if you are willing, God can use you to accomplish great things.

Follow Project FED's Progress

I talk a little bit more about the project in this introductory video: https://youtu.be/kB_WvPQs_rU

If you want to follow along and see where Project FED goes and how it progresses, visit the landing page: https://bit.ly/3wlZM9x and sign up. 

Questions about Project FED?

If you read this blog and you have questions, feel free to ask them in the comments below. I do read them all and I am happy to answer them as I can.


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