Dreaming Big

 

I do my best dreaming in the shower.

Not fairies and Ryan Gosling kind of dreaming, but world-changing and life-exploding dreaming.

I started dreaming those kinds of dreams about two years ago, dreams that keep building on one another and making me ask, “Really, God, REALLY?”

{Sitting here now I can almost hear Him say, “Really, dear one, really really.”}

It started with Beautiful & Beloved, a call I felt to begin a global marketplace empowering survivors of modern slavery. I found organizations working with survivors around the world, helping them to earn money with their creativity and talent, and I wanted to bring those goods together, allowing people to purchase fair-trade, hand-crafted, ethical goods that impact lives profoundly.

My husband and I, feeling called and confident in God’s plan, emptied our savings and began Beautiful & Beloved online in March of 2013. Then God flung open the doors to open a brick and mortar shop in November of 2013. I love Beautiful & Beloved, I love the opportunities that owning an ethical and fair-trade business has given me.

I have traveled to Africa {that is another crazy story of God’s faithfulness and miracles} to work with survivors, I have lunched with women changing the world through their nonprofit ministries, and I have witnessed firsthand the way God brings redemption to the most horrific of circumstances.

I dream that our stories can bring hope and purpose.

As it turns out, however, I am not a super good business owner. I don’t enjoy {at all} the businessy parts of owning a

business and have felt like a bad steward of what God has given me.

So what about my dream??

I think that Beautiful & Beloved is just the beginning of the dream, I think that I am meant to take it further. In the shower a few weeks ago I dreamed that Beautiful & Beloved was part of something bigger, a ministry, a story-telling ministry empowering those facing every kind of slavery.

Jesus was a storyteller, the best of all time, in fact. He told stories to give people hope and purpose, He told stories that taught lessons and strengthened faith, and He told stories of the Father’s crazy love and lavish grace.

I am dreaming of telling stories as well, stories that are my own and the stories of others who have walked down dark and broken roads. I dream that our stories can bring hope and purpose, teach lessons, and strengthen faith, tell of the Father’s crazy love and lavish grace.

I decided to once again take a crazy dream and ask God to make it real and make me brave. I am beginning a ministry called Reveal. I don’t know what I am doing {I never know what I am doing really} but I know that it is right.

I also know that dreams will remain only dreams unless you find the courage and faith to put them into action.

Beautiful & Beloved has been an incredible experience of chasing a dream and seeing it come true, just because the look of it is changing does not mean that it is ending. It’s a dream that is growing and evolving the same way that I am.

This blog, The Mudroom, is the dream of incredible women who want to share stories, women who want anyone and everyone to have the opportunity to be heard.

I am thrilled to be a part of something so special, and I am inspired because I have watched my friends follow their dreams, and I am so awed that even when dreams seem to fall flat they can propel you higher than you imagined possible.

What do you dream??

But really tell me, what do you dream and how can we make those dreams come true?

In Love,

Amber

Amber Newberry
Latest posts by Amber Newberry (see all)

18 thoughts on “Dreaming Big

  1. Amber I love this! And now I want to go shopping. 🙂 I can’t wait to see what happens with Reveal as you step out in boldness and faith! And yes — all this storytelling goodness has got me all warm and fuzzy. You’re speaking my language. 🙂

  2. Thanks for sharing your heart here, Amber. Your store looks great, and I’d love to hear more about it! I’ve been thinking about how to get more involved in the trafficking problem, but not always sure how. I have a few dreams of my own that need to see the light, too! So I’d better get on that! 🙂

  3. I just put it together the other day how necessary (beyond the obvious reasons, of course 😉 shower time is for me – it’s where I think and process and dream, too! So many of my words start in the shower. Thank you for sharing your dreams and for putting them into the world. I can’t wait to hear more of the story!

    • ME TOO! I have the most amazing ideas in the shower. I need a voice-activated waterproof digital recorder to get down all the thoughts I have.

      • That is genius. Way better than grabbing my phone from behind a shower curtain and trying to pull up notes with one hand :).

        • HA!!!! You all are good! If only I wrote down half the ideas that hit me in the shower {I would probably be a waaaayyyy busier gal}

  4. I love your story, Amber, and I am so proud of you for being brave and LISTENING to what God is telling you. You know we share the same thoughts about storytelling and healing and I can’t wait to see what Reveal has up her sleeve.

  5. Love this. God has been preparing me to tell my story, so your dream for story telling is dear to my heart. I found you through Influence Network & I can’t wait to see what God does with your dreams!

  6. I’m with you on the shower dreaming! And I find your ministries fascinating! My passion is writing. Writing about life in the military, loneliness, parenting struggles, letting all women know that they are truly not alone in the battles they face each day!

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