Pandemic Pivots

After our family returned from a trip to Kenya in January 2020, we watched the world shut down. Our island of Kauai was closed off to tourism by the end of April as of March 18 non-essential shops (like us) closed their doors. We were able to reopen our doors to the public a couple days before Mother’s Day in hopes to boost the economy. It was pretty pathetic, the amount of people that could shop at that time and those that were brave enough to leave their homes. As time crept on, and a few shop spaces in Warehouse 3540 sat empty, I prayerfully considered expanding to a bigger space. It made no sense to expand and put more money into home goods but it worked. The local community has been loving all the goods we are offer and comes back weekly or monthly to see what new goods we have in. The timing of the shop thriving was perfect since many of our student sponsors had a decrease in their incomes so the shop has been able to fund missing school fees and cover the overhead of the non-profit. We are so thankful for our loyal customers because it is amazing what American funds can do around the world and to witness how much of an impact can be made by a little hard work.