Show Us Your Life Tour - Part 1 of 3 of Our Wedding Story

I started this blog today just to post on Kelly's "Show Us Your Ministry" tour! My name is Rachel. My wonderful husband, John, and I live in Anchorage, Alaska. We have an amazing story to share about God. How He has worked in our lives, how He has blessed us and healed us, both physically and emotionally and how we are trying to be faithful servants and fulfill the Great Commission in His name. I have never blogged before today and I was inspired by Kelly's (from Kelly's Korner) upcoming "Show Us Your Ministry" tour. I am excited to start chronicling the progress in our ministry through this blog. Hopefully, other Christians will catch our vision and start a similar ministry in their own cities.

Our whole story is very long and I will post a more of it in future posts because right now I just want to get this up in time for Kelly's tour tomorrow! Thank you Kelly for inspiring me to blog! 

(click here for Part 2)
(click here for Part 3)

For now, I will just give you a brief overview:

My husband started an auto transmission repair business in 1997 with a partner, a man who had been a life-long friend. Like most small businesses that are starting out, this was no different. They struggled in the beginning. My husband went without paychecks many times because he had to invest in the business.    Plus, the operating costs were overwhelming, advertising costs were ridiculous.   And there were issues in the partnership.  They ending up dissolving the partnership and my husband retained ownership of the shop.  All of this was happening in his business life, and his personal life was crumbling too. His previous wife had an extra marital affair and decided to leave him for her boyfriend. She also left him with her 16 year old son (from a previous relationship) and their 5 year old son.  It completely devastated him.  I came to work for him part time during this time of transition out of his relationship with his business partner and his wife.

Flash forward about a year and I was working in a job that I loved. I was also struggling to support my 6 year old son as a single mother. One day I went into my office when I arrived at work and on my desk was a letter of resignation from my boss. The letter was addressed from me to him. I was devastated because I loved my job and I needed the income. I had to miss a day of work because my son was sick, it happened to be a Saturday and my supervisor had to be called in, in my place, which did not make her happy. She had tremendous favor with the boss and the rest is history. Little did I know how God was beginning a work in my life that day!  That woman did the best thing in the world for me and I had no clue how losing my job could turn into such a good thing!

I went straight to John's transmission shop to share this great injustice with him.  I had been doing bookkeeping work for him part-time for about a year. We had started to form a friendship since his divorce, and with both of us being single parents, we had a lot in common. Even though he didn't need another full time employee, he offered me a full time position right there on the spot!  I had no idea at the time, but it was a huge blessing from God! 


John had been an out-of-practice Christian for most of his adult life, though he believed in Jesus and God. He was crushed when his wife left him and searched out consolation and answers in every place from the bar to the Bible. It was during this time of searching that he read in Hebrews 10:25 the instruction to not forsake the gathering together of believers, especially as the end times draw near. Then one day, the Lord brought a man by the name of Frank Hobbs into the shop. He invited John to his church and John accepted his invitation and went to church that Sunday.

John liked the church so he started going back.  (That began the process that would heal his broken heart and mold him into a wonderful Christian man, who is the most incredible example of goodness I have ever seen in my life.)  


Something John had read in the Bible struck a cord in him: You will know them by their fruits. Matthew 7:16. John realized he had no fruit, and he wanted fruit! So he thought he would order 10 Bibles and hand them out so he would have 10 pieces of fruit. He wanted something to show God on his judgement day. He did not want to be empty handed before the Lord.  


When the Bibles arrived, John opened the box.  To his amazement, I asked John if I could have one, and he was surprised at how eager I was to receive it. That was the first Bible John ever gave away.

I was a way out-of-practice Christian all of my teenage years and all of my adult life to that point. I struggled with faith in God in my early twenties and even decided at one point that there was no God.  I only did it to justify my sin. I was completely lost and little by little, through working for John and becoming his friend, I got my faith back.  After a while, John invited me to church and I accepted his invitation.

It took us each a while to come into alignment with God's instruction to us in the Bible on how we should live and His will for our lives, but day by day, we both tried and improved little by little.  We were not (and are not!) perfect, but we had stopped going down the paths we were on and turned around and turned to God.  (He was right there behind each of us with His arms wide open, in case you were wondering.)  

 All 10 Bibles were given away that day.  That shocked John that they all went in one day.  Next, he ordered 50 Bibles and those went quickly too.

Soon after, John felt driven to give away one Bible to every resident in Anchorage, population 300,000 (est.). To save the whole town. He wants to save the whole town.

That was about 12 years ago. When John and I married in 2005, he had given away about 50,000 Bibles. Today, from our little humble, oily, greasy, dirty auto shop, we have distributed approximately 110,000 Bibles all around the globe.  Or I should say God has distributed approximately 110,000 Bibles all around the globe.  My prayer is the Father will use this blog to glorify His name and save souls.  If we can reach the nations in His name, that will be amazing.

Next I will tell you about our first date. Hint: it was also our Wedding Day!

(Below is our wedding picture, with our Pastor in the background!)

P.S. Would any of you like to have 10 pieces of fruit or more?  You can.  It's easy.