I Like Big Hats and I Cannot Lie

This past weekend Michael and I took the Kiss the Sky shop to it's first Arts & Crafts fair, Big Hat Days in Clovis, CA.

Backstory~
In December I took Kiss the Sky to two boutiques. Neither was financially profitable for us. I sat at one of them griping to God all-the-live-long-day, "We have to sell something! We have to make money!"  By the time we packed up I was in a defeated, grumpy mood. 

  And right then my booth neighbor (who didn't know of my inner-ick) said to me, "you shared the message with everyone that walked by today." I think I snarled at her with a "What!??!" 

At that the Spirit had a few words to speak to me, "Denise, remember who you are. You love the Word. You desire to lead people to Kiss the Sky."   Yes.  That is who I am.

It was at that time that I heard about Big Hat Days, and that 140,000 people attend each year. 

140,000 people that we could potentially share the message with. 

Michael and I (who work 4 jobs- 1 full time for Michael, and 3 businesses from home together- just barely keeping our heads above water financially) really wrestled with investing $1,000 in a booth with product.  I'm telling you we don't have the extra dough to spare. 

BUT GOD.

We also talked about how if money wasn't an issue we'd want to go to Big Hat Days. We'd want to go and "be light, shine, be generous with our lives, prompt people to open up with God."  And after a lot of discussion back and forth, the money-fear lost it's grip on us, and we DECIDED to go for it! 

 AND BIG HAT DAYS WAS A.MAZ.ING!!!

For one, Michael and I had an unbelievable time serving the Love of our life, Jesus, together. 

We realized that God had used us as worship leaders at the event, as the pieces in our booth prompted people to share the significance the words or lyrics held for them.  I wish you could have been there to consume all the God-stories with us! 

We were off-the-hook-blessed by not only the community of people that attend Big Hat Days, but also by the community of vendors. The guys to the right of us vend 46 weekends a year, and the couple to the left of us have been vending for 28 years!! They were both so generous, encouraging, and inspiring to us first timers. 

 Layne & Elise (who've been vending for 28 years) were our favorites!

I wanted to kidnap and bring them home.

  
Finally, we were both surprised that we did not even think about  money, which tells me that Mighty God was at work because that is something that would have stressed us out!

With joy-filled tears I expressed to Michael that, "my Spirit is so happy."  And I think it's happy because I gave into the gifts that God has given me~  The gifts of loving the Lord my God, and lifting Him up above all other things.  The gift of leading worship; prompting others to "come toward to kiss" the Lord.  The gift of loving on people by listening to stories, while praising and praying for the Savior to rebuild and restore lives. And the gift of being Light and shining well who Jesus is (I also looovvveeeddd watching Michael use his many gifts, too).

We had such a blast, that we're seriously considering taking Kiss the Sky to a couple more festivals this year?!!  

One last thing- we broke even on sales, making just enough to cover our costs. I think that was God's plan for us this time 'round. I think He wanted to fill our souls with riches that are too many to count rather than our bank accounts. 

Live in Peace,