Jasmin Jones was heart broken when she woke up from a horrific dream about modern slavery but God gave her a creative way to support those who fight against it.
I don’t know about you, but in these winter months I always seem to need lip balm. I was using it so much, that I actually started making my own, I looked online to see how lip balms were made and decided on my own ingredients so I knew what goodness I was putting onto my lips to nourish them. What I didn’t know was what God was going to ask me to do next!
I had a dream at the beginning of December. It was so vivid that I felt like it was real. In the dream I saw a child used and abused for labour, as a slave in the UK. It was right under our nose. The way this child was being treated was heartless and unbelievably evil and wicked. It was so gut-wrenching, shocking and hurtful. I woke up crying and praying. My heart was torn.
In the dream I saw a child used and abused for labour, as a slave in the UK.
After some research I learnt that this happens today. The rates of child labour and sexual slavery are higher now than ever. I was so impacted by this dream that I had to act. I wanted to help do my part in raising awareness of what is actually going on, (as I myself was completely oblivious to this until my dream) and also to help financially. I wanted to contribute towards abolishing slavery everywhere forever!
But where was I going to get the extra income to give? I work for a church as a singer song-writer but I didn’t have a huge salary. “God!” I prayed, “I am already giving financially to the church and other missionaries. I need another stream of income to give towards this cause.”
Then I felt God speak very clearly to me through the Holy Spirit, a thought came in my mind as I was sitting on my couch that I was to sell my lip balms and give 50 per cent (not 10 per cent) towards a21 - an organisation that exists to abolish slavery everywhere forever. I can honestly say my heart lit up with excitement. I ordered more of the ingredients online and the next day I put together a business plan. I sent my lip balm ingredients off to get a CPSR (Cosmetic Product Safety Report) and within a few days I got it back saying it had passed for retail.
I was to sell my lip balms and give 50 per cent towards a21 - an organisation that exists to abolish slavery everywhere forever.
The next thing was to set up a shop online and start letting people know about it. I am learning to act more quickly when I get the prompting of the Holy Spirit. It is in stepping out that things happen, not by sitting on them. I have done a lot of sitting in the past, but I have learnt in life that great things happen when you choose to trust the leading of the Holy Spirit, whatever it looks like!
Since stepping out to what God has said, I have opened up an Etsy shop JazLipBalms and already I have had other businesses reach out to me saying that they want to sell Jaz lip Balms in their stores and online. Only God! I was able to put a bit of scripture on the packaging too! “Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.” Psalm 63:3.
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