Eevolve

[00:00:00] Love is the greatest commandment. Why shouldn’t it be the center? And as we look back, it’s amazing to see where we started, what we’ve gone through, and where we’re headed. Because love is the center. is at the beginning and at the middle and at the end.[00:01:00]

Me and Ashley were coaching and teaching at a junior high, and we both ended up quitting at the same time to stay home. So there was a local couple that had a screen printing company, just all manual. And we decided, that would be fun, let’s see if they want to sell. And they said, no, um, we love what we’re doing, but everybody always asks us for embroidery.

So, look into it. The idea of Evolve was born, right there at supper that evening. And within a month, we have a machine coming from Japan, and we’re wondering, where we’re putting it, and we find a building on Main Street, Mule Shoe. We’re faith people, and that was one of the biggest leaps of faith we took as a family, as a growing family.

From the beginning, we said, whatever God does, like, let’s let it be His. And I think if we had any idea what that would have meant, we probably would have thought it through. I went into Evolve wanting it to be different than what I knew. I want it to be a place that our employees [00:02:00] enjoyed coming, that our customers would walk in and feel joy.

And so we want to see people flourish in that atmosphere, that environment. The biggest thing about Evolve is We have fun, even in the Christmas season, when we are so stinking busy, there’s always so much laughter. Our bosses are, they want that. They want us to take five minutes and throw snowballs, and they encourage it, and they participate.

I worked alongside everybody all day, and I naturally carried on conversation. Kids, and life, and whatever. People build you up, and you work. It’s not the usual people kind of climbing and scratching and clawing over one another trying to be noticed or be on top. You know everybody goes through their own personal stuff and whenever you get in the prayer circle in the mornings and you can just feel people rally [00:03:00] around you and feel them lift you up.

And it’s awesome. One of our core values is to promote community. So every Thursday morning, we’re out praying for a business in town. We’re taking what we do on a daily basis and we’re introducing other people and other businesses

around town to do the same. We just let them know. That we care about this community, we’re a part of this community.

I mean, we’re going on two years and we’ve not run out of businesses, which is really cool because this is Mule Shoe, Texas. You can see how much it means to the community when we’re out there. And I love that they get to see a little bit of what Evolve is all about. So God moves whether you’re ready or not.

Evolve had become so great. so fast that, um, we had lost our family. [00:04:00] I was driving home from work one day. I just said a prayer. And I said, Lord, I don’t like where I’m at. I don’t like where my family’s at. But I don’t know what to change. So Lord, I need you to fling doors open and slam doors shut. And so Angel was gone to church camp for a full week.

And And Corey was off flying in Hugueton, Kansas. And Trevor and I were here, and we had no communication with them. The cell phone service was awful. So we led Evolve for a week by ourselves. And in our kitchen that weekend, we looked at each other and said, Is this what it’s supposed to feel like? And that next week, Corrie and Angel said that the Lord showed them both that week that they were called to Hugueton.

When we figured out that it would all split, we sat down with our accountant, and she looked at all four of us and said, I’ve [00:05:00] never seen one of these go well. I’ve never seen a partnership end, and they’re still friends at the end.

And I looked her in the eye, and I said, You’re fixing to have your first. So if God’s turning pages, changing directions, you have to choose to be obedient. Had Corey and Angel not chosen to be obedient, I can’t say that Evolve would be standing right now. We were forced to ask ourselves some hard questions and make some big decisions, but I don’t know.

I knew we could do it. We were forced to put people in places that we didn’t think they were ready, when in reality, it just required us to put forth more effort in supporting them to make sure they’re ready. But there’s no way, looking back, we would be where we are if the four of us still had the control that we tried to maintain.

I’ve had one on ones with [00:06:00] Ashley for two years, and that lady is in touch with God. And she truly, truly cares about her employees. I have a lot of work experience. A lot of that is because I lost a lot of jobs because of my depression. But, the biggest difference that I’ve noticed is that they really care about me.

And I have never worked in a job where they really cared about me. I just really truly love just that time with her. Knowing that whatever is being poured out is true and raw, and it’s being taken and, uh, really thought about and prayed about, and it’s really refreshing. God has put me here on earth as a teacher to, to walk people through and to be patient with people and to help them see from a new perspective.

You’re called to cultivate the soil so that when those seeds fall, they’re not [00:07:00] choked out. They’re not burned up. So we get to take that product. That God created, and we get to add some color, and some words, and we make it final, and then we get to box it up, and then they get to leave and go do what they were ordered for.

Love is the greatest commandment. Why shouldn’t it be the center?