Latest / Cultivator Podcast / Episode 4 - Cultivator Interview - Lynn and Kerry Miller of TurnRow Artisans

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Episode 4 - Cultivator Interview - Lynn and Kerry Miller of TurnRow Artisans · Cultivator Podcast

• Justin Stice: Yeah. Hey, welcome to the Cultivator Podcast. ⁓ so excited that you guys are joining us today by watching, listening, whatever it is that you're checking it out. But man, thank you guys so much. I am so excited and honored to have my friends Carrie and Lynn Miller ⁓ here ⁓ because they are some of the most amazing people that I've gotten to know, but also just the way they live their lives and how they're cultivating the kingdom in really beautiful ways. And so today they're gonna be kind of sharing their story, ⁓ talking about kind of what life has looked like and then now kind of what they're up to and how they are revealing the kingdom ⁓ yeah in their life right now. So thank y'all for being here. ⁓ thank you for thank you for the invitation. Yes. So I would just love as we're jumping and diving in, I just want to hear y'all's story. Like, I mean it could be we can go back from I was born this day, this day, or it can be like, ⁓ we whatever that is, I would just love for you guys to to share a Okay your story of who you guys are. We're we're the parents of Bradley Miller. ⁓ he's our middle child and ⁓ he's special needs. He's thirty he's just turned thirty five and he still lives at home with us and he has been a blessing in our lives. It has really changed our lives. Yes. That's awesome. Brad Bradley is incredible. ⁓ I love him. Yes. He he's a he's a young man with the most giving heart that you'll ever meet. He just he loves everyone. And ⁓ And so yeah, but he he sort of ⁓ changed the direction of our lives. ⁓ we have an older child, ⁓ she is a speech pathologist ⁓ and married with two children and our youngest son ⁓ is in the field of computer programming ⁓ and he is now engaged, ⁓ living in Virginia. Okay. And so ⁓ we we have a great family. ⁓ but Bradley made it special. That's awesome. And so Yeah. We were talking about before we came here, we were having some breakfast and we were saying, you know, when you get married and you start dreaming about how life is going to be and having children and everything, you just have this picture of what it's going to look like. Yeah. And then when you have one born and some people know right when they're born that there's gonna be some special needs and that they're they're going to be making adjustments throughout probably their entire life. Mm-hmm. And others you know, may not have that figured out immediately, but figure it out quickly and that was us. We didn't know when he was born that anything was going to be different about him. Mm-hmm. But as he aged and we started figuring out very quickly that you know, having Haley first and knowing developmentally where he should be and where he wasn't, we started c asking, okay, what's going on? Why? Mm and ⁓ we started figuring out quickly that life was going to look differently for us and be different. And we didn't know at that time how different it was gonna be and so with that Bradley's thirty five, right? And so how long have you guys been married? Forty. Forty one years and all in a few weeks. Amazing. Yes. Yes. So out of all that, so with Bradley and just being younger, so you guys are now kind of retired in a different stage of life. So with Bradley growing up and older and other kids, what what did y'all what was y'all's life like? What did y'all do? Like profession wise, professional, all those things. Well, I was teaching school at the time, teaching ⁓ third graders. Okay. Mm-hmm. I was civil engineer. Okay. And ⁓ yeah. Bradley wa and Bradley being our second child. So ⁓ when he was born, ⁓ just immediately, like I said, the developmental ⁓ progress was just s slow as compared to what we knew based on our first child and what I knew being in early childhood education. Yeah. So we started, you know, taking him to doctors and stuff and To begin with, we were hearing, okay, he's your second child, you know, you're probably doing a lot of speaking for him. You're doing a lot of things for him. ⁓ he's a boy, and some boys develop, you know, a lot oftentimes we're slowly than girls and you know, and language and all that. And and so, you know, they just kept saying, Give him time, give him time, which we were, but as we kept giving him time, we kept even the the developmental milestones weren't happening and the gap was broadening and we were going, something's not right, something's not right. So we started taking him all over the place trying to figure out what was going on, why, you know, he wasn't making these developmental ⁓ you know, he wasn't meeting these milestones at the time everybody else was. Okay. Yeah. And so we we were very fortunate that we were able to have him tested when he was three at Cowler Center for Communication Disorder at UT Dallas. Okay. And they put him through a battery test. And came back and basically said, ⁓ your son has intellectual disabilities. ⁓ he may perform at a very high ⁓ area or he may not. You'll just you'll just you'll know as you as you Nobody really knew. ⁓ he also had developmental apraxia, which his his speech is very is sometimes very difficult to understand. Okay. ⁓ he has full language. He he's he's got a good vocabulary. And ⁓ but but so we just started that journey. It's like okay, here's where he is. ⁓ he's also on the autistic spectrum. Yeah, there are things about him that are just very autistic. ⁓ we just just took him along. Right. Which thirty years ago, I mean, autism was that that word wasn't used like it is now and it wasn't understood. And so we really were just like, okay. We kinda at that point, I mean, for three years we've been asking, why is this going on? Did we have you know, what happened at birth? What happened? Why, why, why? And then we just kinda just started transitioning into this is who he is. Yeah. And th we're having to make adjustments and that's okay because he's our child and this is who he is. So How do we do this? How do we make his life better? How do we bring him the same joy and fulfillment eas even as a little three or four year old that our other that are at that time then six year old and two year old? You know, how do we do this for him? Because he wasn't doing it on his own. So would that look like now having two other kids, younger and older, and then you have Bradley who is special needs and all these things, like did that affect the dynamics of the family in any way? Did that was it Harder for the kids at certain seasons of their life, whenever they have Bradley who like what was that like? It did because I mean we had to change many things for one thing is we knew immediately he was going to need lots of therapy. Well, with me teaching, I had no flexibility. And somebody, you know, Carrie was ⁓ had to somebody had to make money to and so we decided to let Kerry do that. He was making more money than I was. And so ⁓ we actually ⁓ We sold our house and got into a house downsized big time, sold our cars, did everything we could so that I could stay home. Okay. And I could just start taking him to therapy three times a week. I mean, we were going to occupational therapy in the mornings and then ⁓ speech in the afternoons and we were just doing therapy all the time. And so Jared was drug along with me everywhere we went. And what he remembers about that is in between therapies, we'd walk across the across the street and get a donut. So he thought life was good. Yeah. Haley at that point was already in kindergarten, so I would run her to kindergarten, go to therapy. Take Jared for donuts, go pick up Bradley, go. But within all that, you know, Bradley didn't want to be in therapy. He didn't want to, you know, and so he would he would do things to try to delay that ⁓ we were we were laughing. ⁓ she would get him all dressed up and put him in his car seat and take him and while there he could get out of his car seat and he would take all of his clothes. And so she would have to redress him when she got there. I said, dear, I said, ⁓ my goodness. I can still feel ⁓ because he w the other thing is we started him when he was three years old in a little early childhood program in the public schools that they provide, which it was amazing for him. But, you know, he was three years old and it was ⁓ it was half a day, wasn't it? Mm-hmm. But that's what he would do. It would take me about twenty minutes to get there and on the way By the time we got there, every single time, he would not have any clothes on. And so we we tried everything we could. I mean, during the winter, you know, we we thought, okay, maybe if I don't turn on the heater and it's cold. and we were all in post freezing, and there he was back there without any clothes on. And he was But then we would get there and I'd have to get him out, and then I'd have to basically hold him down to redress him while he was fighting. And then if I didn't hang on to him, He would run and I don't know how many times I chased him all over that. And I would finally get him would get him in, be twenty or thirty minutes late, and his teacher would be like, It's okay, it's okay. So, here you go, you go out, have a good day and then I get in the car and I cry all the way home. 'Cause it was hard and I was I was just like I do this every day But you do what you need to do. And he needed to be there and And as far as like daily life, we just he just went with us. We just went with it. It it was what it was and so we just took him. We didn't know what else to do. He just went with us and And Haley was very good at calming him down if he got excited. ⁓ Jared was great at interpreting for him. So he would just kinda ⁓ get us on the right subject to start understanding him. So ⁓ when Jared started kindergarten, the kindergarten teacher came and said, Hey, I think Jared has a praxia as well You know, and I said, No, he just speaks Bradley. And I said just tell him to speak you know, and he but he could. He could he could he and Bradley had this their own little language. Because Bradley did have language. It just you just couldn't understand it. Uhhuh. But Jared could And Jared could, and Jared would tell us and you know, that was always a hard part with everybody and he still struggles with it, but he has just learned to compensate. He uses sign language, he uses ⁓ You know, one time he was trying to tell me you wanted to go to play on the monkey bars. I couldn't figure it out. If it's not in context, it's hard to figure them out, even now. Yeah. And he started saying, Woo hoo hoo. I say, ⁓ you wanna go to the monkey bars? He's like, Dumb. Yeah. I love it. That's inc that's incredible. So so w so w as we came up through the school system and go through special ed, ⁓ you know, that was kind of a its own little navigation thing. Yes. And and one of the things that we've noticed throughout his entire life is that God has always placed people in our lives or in his life at just the right time. Okay. ⁓ and one of them, we had started him in school and we we felt an ⁓ what did you call it? ⁓ communication device. Assistive communication. Assistive communication would could really help him. Yes. And so we started working through the school system. Well, you know, their budgets are set and their policies and they were just telling us we couldn't do it. And so ⁓ the church we were worshiping at, we had just broken up into small groups. ⁓ and so Lynn just asked the small group, you know, could y'all pray for us? And so a lot of the people we hadn't met. So this little small group it's kinda like our our little group now, they knew us well and we and so now this is just who I was at in at that time of life, I I just never would ask for prayers or anything. I would like y'all know they you know, I don't wanna every single time say, Please pray for us and Bradley, you I'm you know. Yeah. And so I never would. And this particular time we had been having we were just like, We really, really need this and and we're not able to get it and and we're just sort of feel like we're at a at a brick wall right now, not knowing, you know, who's stuck. And so I did. I just said I I just I just I in my mind as as they were saying, Okay, are there any prayer needs? In my mind I was like, All right, I'm I'm just gonna ask, I'm just gonna put it out there and ⁓ all right, y'all, we need this and everything. And so ⁓ we prayed and after it was over this woman came over and said, I wanna introduce myself. I'm Anita Neff. ⁓ I work at Regent seventeen and she had just been promoted to And she was visiting. They had just come come to this church and they were visiting small groups. And they happened to be visiting that night at our house when I w was nudged to just go ahead and ask. And she said, What do you need? She said, I was just hired to be the assistive technology director at Region 17 for all the schools. Yeah. And she said, What do you need? Two weeks later we had assisted Yeah. And the training because along with that because it was a very expensive device. But it could help Bradley as well as any other nonverbal students out there use this board and communicate with people. That's incredible. And ⁓ it was very expensive at the time because they were new. And then the teachers had to have the training. I mean it was going to be a big deal to get that and probably close to impossible. Yeah. But she said, What do you need? I'll get it. And I'll get them trained. And she did. And Bradley and several others out there at that school benefited. And that's when I feel like I personally started going, Man, I've got some help. We've got some help here. We're not in this alone. And that was my next question, is like w what did the conversations with the Lord look like in the midst of all this? Like what did what did your faith and in kind of like trying to figure out re a son with special needs and And all what did that look like just as your conversation with God and all of this? Well, with me, I prayed a lot that God would fix him. You know? Could could God like help him improve and get knowledge and be able to function in society as a as a neurotypical individual at first. Yeah. That's where I was. I was there with you. We were there together. Yeah, why why did why did this happen and h what do we do to fix him? Lord, will you please make him make him like everybody else? And so So but but again I never lacked faith. It was just I just kind of accepted it is what it is. And so we just we just carried on. And so all through school, again, God just placed people in his life ⁓ that would like help w when we when he started ⁓ junior high, ⁓ he wanted to be in the band like his brother and sister. And so we talked to the band director and they said, Well, we can try. And so for about half a year they worked with him to train him on the baritone. And we've got pictures of him sitting on stage at one Christmas concert with the baritone. ⁓ And he was he was so proud to be okay. He was just so so but then they came to us and they said th we're we're not gonna be able to make this work. Yeah. And so we were kind of like, Well, what are you telling us? And they said, We'd like to make him the band manager. Okay. And so we said, Okay. And so they said, Bradley, do you want to be the band manager? And he said, What's that mean? And so they said, Well, you get a name tag. You know, have band manager on it. It meant so much to him. And he just absorbed that. I mean, that was h that was his identity. Yeah. He wore that band manager tag twenty four seven. We go out to eat, the wait waiter, waitress would come up and say, May I take your order? And he'd say, I'm the band manager. He just you know out of the blue and they would look at him like, Okay. But just like he does now with his t shirt that he wears. But so anyway, he did that all the way through junior high and then in high school. He got to stay until twenty-one. And in in high school they would on Friday nights and during football season, they would put a uniform on him and let him march with the band to the stadium. Yeah and then they let him go stand on the track while the band did the national anthem and everything. And he was down there, you know, rubbing elbows with the tiger mascot and the cheerleaders. And then he he was just that's who he was. And so, you know, again, we were just very blessed that that people took him under their wing and And helped him all through life. ⁓ We always thought he would be in the shadow of his brother and sister. His little brother's only twenty-one months younger. Yeah. And ⁓ we found out just recently, Jared told us who's now in his thirties. Man, I was so jealous of Bradley. Jared was in Bradley's shadow because he said Bradley had all the cheerleaders around him and just because you know he had some special needs, he he was he was Jared said also jealous. But ⁓ we started just realizing that you don't do life alone. You can't. And that we are created who we are with a purpose and with a plan. And we started we quit trying to I guess the word used fix. Yeah. We quit trying to fix him and just say, you know what? This is this is who he is. He's our and he's a gift. ⁓ absolutely. Yes. Thank you, Lord, for testing us. And just I mean, and not to say that it was always easy. I mean when I was chasing him around that yard without any I without any clothes on. He's the one who didn't have any clothes on. I kept my clothes on. One time and the you know, another part to that is he kept taking off a seatbelt 'cause he knew I would pull over to put a seatbelt back on. And one time I was trying to explain Bradley, we have to keep the seatbelt on because it is against the law. If I got pulled over, I would get in trouble by the policeman and I was I was just desperate. I was telling any story I could to get in and I hear little little Jared and his little two year old, I don't want my brother going to jail. You know, like I mean you just Poor Jared. I'm surprised he's not on the couch somewhere, but ⁓ So so we so we caught glimmers of Bradley having purpose. Through the school program. Yeah. But we didn't have a name for it. Okay. And so graduation came. And that's when you she was saying earlier, when you have a child, okay, they're gonna graduate and they're gonna go to Harvard and they're gonna be an attorney and maybe be a congressman or maybe have kids. Yeah, and it's gonna be great. And and then he graduates and we're like What now? What now? And so we went and found ⁓ a state agency that helps find jobs for special needs adults. Yeah. And he got a job at Longhorn Steakhouse and he was loving it. He was rolling silverwork. Rolling silverwork for three hours in the morning. He loved it. Our issues were I had to be at work earlier than he did. She had to be at work, you know, about the same time he did. So we had to make arrangements. We lived outside of City Bus's range. So there it it was it was very tough on us getting him to work and then getting him home from work. And then they started introducing other tasks for him. And and we got the call and they said it's just not gonna work. And so he just couldn't attend to a task for three hours. Yeah. Yeah. And and because of that, he never could get a driver's license. So he was one hundred percent dependent on us. Yeah. And so that's when we really it really hit us that ⁓ life is gonna throw us a curveball that we never anticipated, and that is he's gonna depend on us for the rest of his life. Yeah. Yeah. And so I had gone back to work, gone back to teaching for I taught a about twelve years at that point. And once again I was like, okay. He just like the therapy back then. I yeah. So ⁓ Yeah, so she quit and started taking him. And just started taking him. But then when we got that call, it's like, okay, what now? Yeah. The traditional job that, you know, most people can get and go and work and we knew he was never going to have that. He w even if he did, I mean, he wasn't gonna have a ⁓ driver's license, like He was totally one hundred percent dependent on us. Yeah. And so I think this leads to this place that we always talk about like a lot of times in our life where where is it that God could be calling us? Whereas it we talk about like our gifts, our passion, our story. And so this is why I feel like y'all's story is so important because I feel like this is leading us into this place. It is where where Jesus is calling you to cultivate the kingdom. Yes. Yes. And so I love this because it's gotten to this place now. Where we are now. Yes, where we are now. Yes. And but he still had to bring us through and show us different things because he was sitting home af after he lost his job at Long ⁓ Longhorn. Yeah. And he started reverting. He wouldn't come out of his room. He wouldn't talk. And he was just really regressing. And we were like, This is not good. So we started looking around to see if there were programs. And we found a really top notch program. Yeah. And he started off and it was great. He loved it. ⁓ For a few years and then he stopped wanting to go and then he started fighting us. He didn't want to go. And so as we started checking into it, we realized that program met a ton of needs. Yeah. For eleven years. As he ⁓ got older and as he had more desires for things that he wanted out of life. Yeah. And so, you know, we were like, What? Yeah. And we had the opportunity to go to a a place down in Houston. Yeah. ⁓ That is just a fantastic Been around for 45 years now. Almost 45 years now. But we I went in thinking that the program we we were a part of was fantastic. And again, I'm it it was it was good. It was great. But I didn't know what I didn't know. And we went down there and they started talking about purpose. These pe these these adults deserve to be respected and treated like adults. Yes. They they need purpose in their lives just like we all need purpose. And I was like, purpose, what purpose? And it took me a while the connection. But what they do is they give meaningful jobs, meaningful work for their people. And and like Bradley is one that can't work in, you know, a n a prop for profit business because th the the business model just will not work. He has to have so much support they can't afford to keep him there. This place developed a system and a place, a nonprofit, where they could bring people in. and give them jobs that they enjoyed doing and love on ⁓ and support ⁓ And I I looked around at ⁓ they had about at that time I think they had a little over a hundred people in their workshops. Those were the happiest people I've ever seen in my life. And and it just it's like this is what Bradley needs. And and that's what that's it's like this is what he needs. Yes. And and to back up just a little bit, exactly, yes. But through those eleven years where he started off, it met his need to begin with, because when he went out there, he was still one who would if you ask him something and he knew that you would not be able to understand him, he would he might get under a table. He's a big old boy. They brought him out of that. They gave him so much self-confidence and belief in who he was. Like developmentally, where he was, they met so many needs. But He kept continued develop. Just because he was developing more slowly than your typical person, he was still growing, still developing, still learning and still maturing and wanting more. So by the time we got to that place, he had been asking, Ma, he'll get up every morning, Ma, you get me a job, I get a job, I make my own money. He would ask that. And so He likes making money. He's a salesperson. He's a great salesperson. Even though if you're not being sold to, you I mean you're being sold to. You know personally, don't you? I'm so sorry. I love it. But he loves making money. He loves spending that money. Yes, he does. And but ⁓ he he started wanting to and he just started ⁓ and and it was in our you know in our hearts we're like, no, really you can You know, he also started wanting a driver's license, he wanted a car, you know, like he just wants things and like, okay, we've got to do something for him. He's got this enthusiasm, this passion to live. Yeah. And God's put it in him. He needs our help. He needs our help. Which once again brought us to where we are because that's when we started, that's when ⁓ Carrie you went to Brookwood first before without me, and then I went. Yes, and then you went. Okay, 'cause he's been four times. I've been two more times. Okay. I've been once. Mm-hmm. Cried pretty much every because we and we came home just going, This is what West Texas needs. This is what well, we came home going, This is what Bradley needs. This is what and by then Bradley had been out of high school for how many years? Fifteen or so? Yeah, yeah. And you know, we had Bradley had all these friends and they were all sitting at home in their room. Yeah. Wasting the life. Because and there are programs that are available Again, they meet some needs, but they don't meet everybody's needs. ⁓ you know, a lot of the state run ⁓ day programs, ⁓ they just have a big room with TVs and chairs and games, and then they're kinda on their own to figure out what to do, and so a lot of them just sleep. And it's they're not living life to the fullest. ⁓ it's not And so that's where I think God has a plan for giving them the life they deserve. Mm-hmm. And so that's where we started talking. And we we were led to you through a God thing. And I'd heard about Kingdom Co-op, ⁓ didn't understand it. And and actually kinda fought coming here. I I I'll I'll be honest. I I didn't understand it and until I walked in the doors the first Sunday and several things hit us. And I we had a good friend, ⁓ David and Lori Davidson, yeah, that were saying, Use Kingdom Coop started up there. I bet Justin has a place for you. And I was like, I I j I just don't know. And we walked in and it and and I I could just it was like God was saying, this was this is this is where you need to be. You know, and we're so thankful but that so w what is it? So like we've talked about so now we're at this place and li going through this all life and seeing, hey man, there's something that we want to offer Bradley and and other individuals like him to give him a sense of purpose and being obedient, I feel like. to kind of what God's been stirring and working in y'all's lives yes for a long time. It's gotten us to this place where you guys have created Turnrow Artisans. Turnrow Artisans. So it is a nonprofit, yes. And and I just want to say Turnrow Artisans, the name came from partially your your term you used when you opened this talk. Yeah. Cultivating. And so we we want them to have an identity and something that's important. And artisans do really cool things. Yeah. And so that's that's their title. They're artisans. ⁓ but Turnrow is what we're gonna cultivate a new direction in life for adults with special needs by creating purpose in their life. And so that's that's what we want to do. Yes. And from the time so when we started thinking we thought one of the big obstacles was where what we need a space. Yes. And A space costs money and a space and we need a bl you know, but ⁓ when we and and I feel like the story started four years ago because I knew Jamie because Jamie was ⁓ tak my caregiver, my ⁓ yeah, my medical caregiver. And ⁓ so when and David kept saying, I want you to meet Justin, Justin, so finally we went and ⁓ out and he said Justin Stice and when he said stice I was like Does he have a wife named Jamie? Like, and I've been telling Carrie for four years. And she's the way better deal out of the stices. ⁓ you two. You two together. Now I see how you're both. But anyway, you're talking about, you know, I knew she had been saying all along, you know, live, learn, work, and play. Yes, live, learn, work, and play. I'd been hearing her say that. And when we came in, and I was hearing you. And for years, I mean, I've been in church, we've been in church since we were three days old. And for years I've just wanted to know what it really means to uncover the kingdom. Like it I've heard you say, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but you say it's here. We just get to uncover it. We get to partner with him. And we don't have to go, you know, in my mind I had to go save the world to to make God happy. And it's like just wherever you live. learn work and play, uncover the kingdom for those people. And that's pretty easy. And we started thinking, where do we live, learn, work, and play? And it's with Bradley and Bradley's adult friends. We tried to we at that point we were trying to do so many social things and anything we could to bring them together as a group to give them laughter and joy and friendship and purpose and goodness. We're like, hey There's an opportunity right here under this roof. And you were saying, you know, and after we talked to you, you were saying, Hey, tell me what you need. I mean, you were you were cre helping us create this vision of what it means just to put it in action, just to just to go and start doing. You kept saying, invite people into your life and just let them experience Jesus, you know, who is Jesus, you know, he's goodness and love and peace and you know, let them experience this. He's all right, he's offering us a place. We already have the people. I feel like God put this in our hearts ⁓ I mean, he did from the birth of of Bradley, like we started knowing at some point. And then he I mean, he allowed us, I feel like, to kinda ⁓ retire a little bit sooner than maybe. I mean, he he we j everything was in its place to do this and all we had to do is just say, All right. Yes, Lord. I mean he was putting the people. You were sitting there going, I will I what do you need? What do you need? We had never been asked that before. And so what does that look like? So you guys started Turner Artisan in ⁓ last January. This past January. Yeah, this January. Past January. And so what's that look like? So we've started slow. We we didn't want to just jump out and try to make something that it's not. And so we just we put it out there to see how many people we didn't know if anybody would come. And so we've actually capped it at eight. adults that come. I've got four right now just saying hey and we've got a yeah there's ⁓ four more that are trying to you know please let us come. And and it's not not their families, it's them. They're they're hearing word of mouth. And so so right now we're doing classes. Yes. one afternoon a week ⁓ for about three hours. Okay. And ⁓ we have them making various products. ⁓ and one of the things that that we've been told is people are impressed with the the the professionalism with the packaging and things like that. And and that's one of the things that we want to do is is is we want to help educate the world to know that people with special needs can do so much if set up for success. Give them the opportunities. And and and be and have people be impressed with what they're seeing. Because we what we want is is them to be proud of what they're doing. And and when they see it, they know it's good. Yeah and they're proud of it. And so and so then they're trying to get people to buy it. And then when people buy it, they say, Yeah, I did that. And and so so we've so we've done been making some products. ⁓ give me some examples. ⁓ we have sugar scrubs. We sugar scrubs. Two different sizes of sugar scrubs. We've got some air fresheners. Two different sizes of air fresheners. Uh-huh. And we've got some shower steamers. Shower steamers, yes. ⁓ those are the three right now. I mean, we have worked for the past three or four months just on those little things. And they're they're they're easy task, but they require Perfect measuring. You know, you can't get too much oil or you spray it and it leaves it on your shirt. Yeah. You know. And so we've been working with them that we're learning when we make mistakes we'll support out doing Yeah, we're learning what they can or can't do. Yes. And okay, we d we can't do that. Yep. We just lost a whole batch of sugar because it tastes yummy with sugar and coconut. And you get some pretzel and you start making it. If you eat it, we can't tastes good on pretzel. But this is comes back to the support and also the respect. Mm. Because they're different. Yeah. And and that's why they're not working in the neurotypical world. ⁓ we we heard we heard a we heard a story. This is so sad. We heard a story about a young man that had worked in a local business in Lubbock for a long time. These are a friend of ours and they had been very great at supporting the special needs community. ⁓ and so he had a job, was so proud of it. ⁓ but they started they changed management. And they started moving staff out and moving staff in. Well, this young man, one of his jobs was to, whenever a new employee came on, was to get their phone number and put it on the spreadsheet so that everybody would have a current spreadsheet of all employees. Well, a new young lady came. She didn't understand him. He started asking for her phone number and she filed a complaint against him, harassment complaint. But the new people, they didn't know enough to ask the questions and he got fired. And so broke his heart, broke his heart. Broke his heart, yeah. Just broke his heart. So again, we're gonna this place is for them. Yeah. And so ⁓ we don't want to punish them. We don't want to ⁓ w we just want to be able to respect them and create a place and and one of the things that brookwood that just really impressed me is they said that they don't have any behavior problems. They have only unmet needs. And so things that, you know, are are viewed by the the everybody as that's a behavior problem. It's it's they have an unmet need that they don't have the vr verbal skills to communicate to you. So they're communicating in a different way. Okay. And that's not behavior, that's communication. And they told a story about this young man that had just been perfect working in the plaster casting lab. Just perfect. He loved it. And one day, and he was highly autistic, one day he just s swiped everything, broke everything that everybody was working on and just shattered everywhere. And they said that that n that night he was supposed to go to a Houston Astros game. And so s you know, some of the people were like, Well, we don't need to let him go to that game because he just acted up. And it's like, no, that's not a natural consequence. The the natural consequence was the next morning he had to get his own breakfast and come in early and clean up everything that was broken. But their view on that was that he's not acting bad. What is he telling us? So they started watching and looking and asking questions and he did it a couple more times. And finally this they they said she was their their she understood better than anybody. She came in, she was looking around the room and she asked the coach in the in the lab, she said, that radio, has it always been over there on that file cabinet? He said Yeah he said Well, we used to keep it over on this wood desk. Somebody had moved it to a metal file cabinet and there was some frequency or vibration that was that he couldn't tolerate. They it, he was on vertical, they moved it back and done. Done. And so that's again, we want to create a place that that they can function in and be themselves and and be successful for who they are. And love. Yeah. So back to what we're doing, yes. We started thinking and every one of them there want a job. Yeah. ⁓ and so we started thinking, hmm, they are making these little products and they're pretty good at it. We they've gotten to where they knew who knew how to measure, who knew how to pour it in the jar, who knew how to take the stick and punch it down and stir it. Like they all they started organically figuring out their own strengths and how to work together. And they were doing really well. So we started talking thinking, I wonder if they could sell some of these at the farmers market because ⁓ it would get them out in the public with other people. We can work while we're here, part of this training is working on their social skills, working on their people skills. We can talk about ⁓ you know we can we can talk about, you know, how do you handle people when they come by and they ask you these questions, you know, do you stare at the ground or do you look at them and smile and say, thank you for coming. And you know, there's just so much and could we do this? Well we proposed it to them and they were just like, sure, sure, sure. And anyway, so we did. So that's kind of what we're doing right now is we're just kind of living day by day really right now. Just seeing ⁓ w waiting for God to continue to open doors and everything. But right now what we're doing is we're making these products. Yes. And we just ⁓ went to our first farmer's market. Yes. And it was so cool. It was fantastic. It was fantastic. And they just it was so funny because we set up and we've been practicing before we went. We we we role played a lot. Yeah. As if we were at a farmer's market and you know what and organically it just worked out because one of ⁓ like our Bradley, like we've talked about, he loves money and he understands that it's that it helps you buy stuff and everything. But he has no understanding of the value. Ten one dollar bills are way more important to him than a hundred dollar bill. And so so he likes to take the so Anyway, they started so two of ⁓ immediately got behind the the the table where they knew they were gonna be talking to people. Yep. And then Bradley sat himself right beside because he knew when they started talking to people, ⁓ he if they bought something, they were gonna give money. Yes. And he had a little black box and he was gonna take that and he was gonna organize the five and the and then this one right here, she knew how to do the calculator really well. So she was gonna Tell Bradley how much to give him, you know, okay. Give him 15. Bradley said, How much 15? She'd say, give him a 10 and a 5. So he'd, you know, because he knows the numbers. And then this one right here is right. They just started flipping. They're collaborating. It was beautiful. And the people who were coming by, you could see them, you know, because you know immediately who who you're talking to and who you're working with. And people were just kind of going, that's really cool. Yeah. And we were. kinda slowly but surely back to that book and we changing the way society sees people because they're just they're just people and they've got their strengths and they've got their skills and they've got but y some you kinda have to do it a different way, but that's okay. So I'm sitting here about to I'm crying and space this right here is something I feel like is the most kingdom thing that y you have People that the world may view they have no value, they have no purpose, they have no whatever. But then when God steps him, mm-hmm. Yes right and you and you you realize no we we can actually cultivate, we can reveal the kingdom right here that there is so much purpose and so much value. Something that the world would just totally dismiss or not see or even think could possible. Yes. That the kingdom has is and has breaking through. Yes. And we have eight adults that are getting to experience a sense of purpose, a sense of collaboration, a sense of community, a sense of all these things and like those those to me are just very highly kingdom of God things. Yes. Yes. Yes. And and the proof that we're getting is is Bradley, first of all. Yes. He when he he's with either one of us, if he sees a four lease sign in a business, he's like, Hey Dad, we put a store there. We we call him and we put a store. He's he's already looking for a f a storefront. ⁓ He can't wait to get back to the next farmer's market. He just can't wait. ⁓ but there was a young lady that ⁓ that someone here at Kingdom knew of that lived in a group home and she said, I bet that would help her. And so they s and she said She's probably gonna be very low. And even the when they checked her in, they said very low and hard to work with, very difficult. Yeah. ⁓ she came in and she was so easy to work with. And we started realizing she has like culinary skills. She's got some very good culinary we did some practice on on ⁓ yeah, so ⁓ some things, but just to see what they could do and and ⁓ she's just doing really well and she takes her time and she's very careful to make sure it's it's done right. And ⁓ after the market, ⁓ the manager of her group home call in and she said, It's just amazing. She said, We've tried her in every program and she done like ⁓ She said, She can't wait to get back up there. And so again, we feel like it's that purpose part. Yes. Giving ⁓ purpose. Uh-huh. Bradley, ⁓ you know how much he loves his guinea pigs. Yes. Everybody who knows Bradley knows. And ⁓ we were talking this morning at breakfast. We said, you know, back up a year when he got those, I mean, I think one reason why he loves those guinea pigs is That gives him purpose. It's his job to take care of those guinea pigs. And so ⁓ he also has a Barney that's been a part of our lives for since he was two. Thirty two years. Yeah, thirty three, yeah. And he talks to Barney a lot. Yeah. And ⁓ that's how we know what he's thinking. ⁓ one of our ⁓ counselors told us You know, w ⁓ a f not too long ago we said, We need to kinda get rid of Barney. He's and you know, and they said, Well, if you want to know what he's thinking, you know, that's how he's able to that's how he's able to. So so I talk to Barney every single day. I don't know what that sounds about. She's so patient. I cover her talking to Barney, the stuffed animal. ⁓ Barney, like think Barney it's the the the big dinosaur, the purple dinosaur from the dinosaur. This is Barney. Yes, yes. And Barney's gotten really he he's he does sometimes he's you know, we have to correct him and we have to Barney has to do his flesh cards, he goes to school, Bradley gets him dressed up. Yes. But anyway, all that to say that Barney has started wanting a guinea pig. Like Bradley. Yes. And so this is every day I I Bradley will come to me and say, Ma, you tell Barney he can't have a guinea pig. You gotta have a real job to have a guinea pig. He said, You tell Barney real jobs so I can buy guinea pigs. The guinea pigs get hungry and they eat lots of hay and hay costs money. Well I have a real job now. I can buy them hay and I mean it's all put all that and all that together. Yes. That's who he is. Yes, and he's got this purpose in life and he's got friends in life and he's got laughter and they Yes. You know and it's been so beautiful for us to go, ⁓ so this is kingdom living. Yes. I mean It's almost kind of embarrassing to say that that we're in our sixties. I'll speak for myself, but I've always I've I love Jesus, I love his kingdom and I love but it's not I mean, this is kingdom living. It's not this thing over here separate from our life. It's actually in the midst of it. It is our life. It is our life. It is our life. Yes. And it's their life. And it's their life. Yes. And it's brought such beauty into ours. I mean, we are so thankful for you, Justin. Mm-hmm. I ⁓ yes, you're too humble to to e accept any praise here, but I mean I'm just saying that it's This would not be happening without yeah, the space. Well and the support and the the encouragement. Yes, the encouragement. The just in it just saying, No, you can do this and baby steps is okay. Yeah. God is going to be here every single day with you and He's gonna open your doors and he Because that was part of it too, is over if you think you're gonna do it by yourself, that's overwhelming. Yeah. And you kinda I mean, we were like, I know if you can do that. But when you just start going, All right, all right, I'm just gonna jump on his back, you know how you used to do when you're you know, when you were little and you're jumped on your daddy's back and and we had the adventure of your life as he just hopped around, you hung on and you just went with him 'cause it was gonna be fun. It's it's almost kinda like this. Like And I think that's so often we miss that we you're saying yes and I always talk about man success is obedience. Right. And you guys have been so, I would say successful in this just because you're being obedient and you've said yes to this this thing that you don't fully get, understand, but you know and you've seen and you realize, man, the kingdom is going to be revealed in and through this. And you don't have all the answers and we don't know exactly what's gonna happen. Right. But even in this short time, in this scope of this season. There's beautiful kingdom things that have happened. Yes. And that's worth it. Yes. That's worth it. And I and I believe it's going to continue to grow and get bigger and and and have a greater impact. Yes. But right now, just by just simply saying yes, you guys have stepped out. And that's what I love is just man, you guys have just stepped out. And you guys could be retired. You guys could do something. You guys could travel. Right. But like you know, you're like, no, this is what we feel like right now in this season of life, God has invited us into. Yes. And so I want to say, man, that's incredible. That for you guys to to step into this. We're excited. We're so excited. We feel so blessed. And we are. So with that, what are things as turn row artisans I mean, we're still the old guys are still figuring things out. Whatever if we're sitting here and people are listening to like, hey, we want to help, we want to be a part of this, what are some ways that people could jump in and help turn artisans right now? ⁓ we've been having people volunteer in within the classes and loving it. there. Yes, they're critical. We have to have volunteers. Because you need one on one, one on two per per person. Yep. And and so we've had some really good volunteers, but we are always looking for more. Okay. Mm-hmm. ⁓ and so volunteers is big. Okay. ⁓ and then donations, ⁓ you know, materials costs, ⁓ to you know to purchase. So financial money donations would be huge. Money donations would be huge. Okay. ⁓ but I think most importantly it's just prayer that God will give us a clear path on what He wants this to be. Yes. would love to have residential one day because we're not gonna be around. You know, Bradley needs to be somewhere. And ⁓ seeing what they have done at Big and Brookwood, ⁓ big's in Georgetown, ⁓ they've created homes with godly people to staff those homes and they love on them, they understand ⁓ and they help ⁓ and support ⁓ and encourage ⁓ And and so that's what we would like to see for Bradley. I mean we would love to have it here in Lubbock or on the South Plains. Yeah. But we're gonna let God determine w what where this goes. Is there any other plans coming back going back to ⁓ the farmers market? Do we know when that might happen? August twenty third. August twenty next one. So the Wolfwood Farmer Wolf's Wolf Farmers Market. August twenty third. And that's another cool story because we were told there was a waiting line. a mile long and that we would never be able to be well no she didn't say we would never she just said it'll be a while. Just be patient. Okay. Okay. There were three people to call so we decided to call and just say, All right, what how do you do this? And the person we talked to started saying, Well what are y'all doing? Anyway, when we told her, she said, you know what? She said, I ⁓ have been ⁓ a foster we I my husband and I have been foster parents for the past ten years and we specifically our hearts are to foster those with special needs and she's Think that would be amazing. And she said, you know what? Y'all've got a spot anytime you went. And they put us at a prime location where everybody comes by. Right there. And it's right by ⁓ the big place. And she said, if they get too hot or they they're tired, come in here and they could sit on that couch right over there. I mean you know, just little things like that. The Lord's just going. But anyway, yes. August twenty-third, we're gonna at least do it once a month. And we're gonna try to do it maybe twice a month. Okay. and ⁓ We're going for another six weeks right now. We're just doing six weeks at a time. Just ⁓ but hopefully we hope to maybe ⁓ make our classes two days a week. ⁓ next month. Anyway, just start building that. And so I don't know how long we'll do it. I don't know if we'll do it. But but right now it's w it's just a great blessing to all of them. And so And one thing that you asked for needs is the so we we wanna pay them. Yeah. We don't wanna use their labor for just Yeah. We wanna give them purpose and purpose means your time is and your labor is worth something. So but we don't have a business model because that's why they're not working in the neurotypical world is because they don't fit a poor for profit business model. And so that's another area that would help us, you know, with donations to be able to pay them. And what we're telling them is whatever the profits that we make, we're gonna take some money out for new materials and then you get to share the rest. Yes. And so that's that's what we're doing right now. We love that y there's other things that you know if as we if we grow We'll have to make sure we're under all the labor laws and everything. We'll but that's what we're doing for now. There are benefits. There's so much to that. But right now it's taking a little bit out of and what's being sold at the farmers market is considered a donation. Yes. So you know, there's just ways to do this. But right now when they come back next Tuesday or next Thursday they're coming back. And I've told them I told them yesterday party. We're gonna have a payday party. Yeah. I cannot wait. Yeah. They're gonna get thirty bucks a piece. ⁓ my goodness, yeah. They put in the work and And we went to the bank yesterday and got How many? Two hundred and forty dollar. One dollar bills. I love it. I love it. But they're they're understanding that yes, I mean, it's fun to have money, but this is so much more you know, this is a lot more than just money, but So all right, I wanna this is I could go and sit here and talk to everyone. This is incredible. No, but but for me and for us in this podcast, like I mean and when I say this, I wanna like you guys are just everyday people. I mean, you are a retired civil engineer, a retired school teacher. Slash real estate agent, but like and I mean ev like just normal thing. Yeah. But there's something the Lord stirred and placed in you guys that you said, Yeah, you know what? This is something I feel like what we're supposed to contribute and this is something how we're supposed to reveal the kingdom is through this. And I that's that's the greater thing of like, man, you I didn't go to some ministry school, you didn't go to business school, you didn't go to anything. You're just like, Hey, you what? This is something that we feel like God has kind of stirred in us, and you guys have said yes. And now you get to be on this kingdom adventure of seeing adults with special needs, ⁓ experience purpose, experience community, experience love. I mean like all these experience life like we do. Yes. Yeah. Because again, through no fault of their own, they did nothing to get in this position. They're one hundred percent dependent on us. The other night Bradley came out and just finished money the yard. He said, Dad, take me to Dollar General for Tide. And I said, But don't we have some of the pods? And he said, I like the powder. And I said, You know, I'm tired, Bradley. I mate, let's get it tomorrow. And he he looked down and he turned around and walked inside. And I thought, if I wanted Tide I would get in the car and go get it the minute I wanted it. Yeah. He has to depend on me. So I sucked it up. And and we took him to Dollar General. He got his time. Happy as could be. I love that. Anyway, so thank you guys. ⁓ Thank you, Jess. So all right, Termer Artisans, there's a website. Yeah. There's a place you can donate there. Right. And then you guys have social media. You guys have Facebook Facebook and Instagram. Those are being set up. We just and so make sure you follow that. August twenty third. Wolfers Farmers Market, if you're in the area, come buy some products. They're incredible. They're awesome. ⁓ just yeah, it's great. Last thing, ⁓ for anybody that's listening that maybe has ⁓ a a a a child with special needs. Mm-hmm. And they're just trying to figure out, man, life and all the things and what whatever, what what would you guys say at this moment when you Bradley's thirty five, all these things, what would you say to ⁓ those parents, those families that have I'm a child with special needs. I I would say be encouraged. Don't be discouraged. Be encouraged. ⁓ I don't believe God gives people a child if they are not able to care for that child. And while it may be scary when you first learn, just know that there's gonna be so many blessings. I mean so many blessings. And to see that child grow up and and help them flourish. It's it's it's it's it's wonderful. It's a gift. Let your people be a part of your lives. I mean, your village. It's we do not walk alone. I love it. So you guys are some of Jamie and I's biggest heroes. ⁓ and some of our favorite people because the way that you guys love people so well. ⁓ and the way that you guys man. So just know that, like beyond Bradley, beyond adult special needs, like the impact that you guys have had on me and my wife and my girls. ⁓ man, you guys are really powerful, beautiful, incredible people. And we are so thankful ⁓ for you guys. And boy, what an encouragement have you been to us. Okay. All the things, but hey, thank you guys so much for checking out ⁓ the Cultivator Podcast where we talk about everyday people living healthy and whole in Jesus and making a kingdom difference where we live, work, learn and play. ⁓ we hope and we pray that this is an encouragement to you. ⁓ and so thank you guys for for listening and checking it out.