Shine Brightly
“We are called to live courageously, to bring hope to those who need it.” This is the life lesson of the co-founders of Give-Send-Go, Heather Wilson and Jacob Wells, whom I got to hear their incredible business testimony last week at a Christian C12 conference. Part of being an entrepreneur is taking risks. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, twenty percent of businesses fail in the first year and almost fifty percent in the first five years. Grim numbers, but I don’t believe Heather or Jacob could have fathomed that, amid their business start-up, they’d also face an international crisis and death threats.
Give-Send-Go is a faith-based online crowdfunding platform. Started in 2014, their goal was to facilitate donations and prayers for diverse causes and uphold faith-based values. Controversy began when their values of grace, mercy, and free speech were challenged when Canadian Truckers started a campaign to raise funds for their protest against vaccine mandates and vaccine passports for travel. The Canadian government froze bank accounts and another crowdsourcing platform, GoFundMe, removed the truckers’ campaign, saying it violated their rules of harassment. However, Give-Send-Go held their ground despite pressure from the Canadian government and media, and they received a summons from the Ontario Supreme Court for not backing down.
But their trial was just beginning. A hacker, Aubrey Cottle, broke into the Give-Send-Go platform, distributing the list of trucker donors to the press and shutting down their site for a time. Fortunately for Heather and Jacob, their younger sister convinced them to invest in cybersecurity insurance earlier that year.
Heather and Jacob met with their attorney regarding the Canadian summons, believing God would fight their battle for them, and at first, they refused to send a response until Jacob dug further into 1 Samuel 17, where David said in verse 47, “This is the Lord’s battle.” God revealed through scripture that, even though the battle was the Lord’s, David still had to pick up the stones and throw them at Goliath. David wasn’t only defending himself and his family, he was fighting for all of Israel.
“Fear holds us back, but facing our fear moves us forward,” said the co-founders. They contacted their attorney to respond to the summons and discovered that seven truckers had no means to pay for their defense. So Heather and Jacob decided in faith to pay for those truckers' attorney fees even though there was no budget line on their balance sheet for the additional $250,000 cost. However, God is good, and a couple of days later, their insurance company called saying they had a check for almost the exact amount that was needed to pay for the truckers’ defense.
“Don’t let a fleeting emotion keep you from stepping on the rock of truth.” Give-Send-Go founders lived out this statement when the hacker, Aubrey Cottle, was arrested. Seeing a post of Aubrey’s where he asked his followers to please take care of his mom while he was in jail, Heather and Jacob reached out to Aubrey, whose hacking cost them a lot of money, pain, and headaches, and asked how they could help. Aubrey Cottle was surprised and leery, but said he’d given all of his animals to his mom, and she didn’t have the funds to feed and take care of them. Out of God’s grace, Heather and Jacob set up weekly grocery deliveries to Aubrey’s mom’s house containing pet food and other supplies.
Heather and Jacob’s testimony brought tears to my eyes. I always want to pray away my problems, but we can't have a testimony without being tested. Trials test and strengthen our faith. Even still, it can be a struggle to live out James 1:4, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” Seeing problems as pure joy is a tough ask, but once God has seen me through the trial, I’m always grateful. Trials draw me closer to God and reveal an inner strength I know I could only achieve with and through Him.
Under their logo are the words, Shine Brightly, so I’ll leave you with one last quote from the co-founders. “We are to live courageously to bring hope to those who need it. It’s not about arriving safely in heaven but shining brightly while on earth.”