My husband is dangerously close to running out of peanut butter, our car needs gas and I need to replace various items in my wardrobe. For me, hopping into a vehicle and running to the store, popping by a station to fill my tank and a brief detour to Kohl’s pretty much satisfies all those needs. I count it a blessing to have a business that is moderately successful and makes those things possible.

I’d hoped to create a successful business many years ago when I found myself a single mom. Having just built a potter’s wheel, I’d begun setting up a clay studio when the bottom fell out of my marriage and by extension, my life. My daughter was in her first year of homeschooling. I didn’t have money in my pocket or a financial cushion of any kind. When we ran out of anything we were out until more money appeared. Even my driving habits were affected. With limited funds, we had limited gasoline.

For a while, we got our groceries from the faith-based food pantry. Those days when I sold pottery, I bypassed the grocery to buy more clay to make more pots.

What “saved” me wasn’t my studio — I knew nothing about how to market my work. A pair of mentors came alongside me and invested in me. They helped me see the ceramics studio as a business. After looking at my inventory, they presented questions that stick with me to this day. “What is your most popular item. How many of those do you have to sell to pay the rent and cover your bills?” My mentors gave me a grant to pursue creating mosaics. Suddenly I became a business owner. I’d gone from free lance artist to business owner. I enjoyed the freedom and flexibility to work from home, home school my daughter and pursue my creativity and live life on my terms.

One mentor helped me discover that my true  gift was writing. And I will be forever grateful for all the time she invested and the belief she had in me. It was truly encouraging, and exactly what I needed to take the next brave step.

Recently, an opportunity presented itself. For a one-time donation, one could make the difference in the life of not just one woman, but three. How? By getting each of them their own sewing machine. My grandmother was a seamstress. She supported herself for many years that way. She didn’t own the shop where she worked, she just earned a living wage. It gave her live a modest life of dignity and relative comfort while contributing to society. Isn’t that what we all want?

To set three woman up, each with her own sewing machine, her own income stream, the difference between eating or starving, having a dwelling or being homeless, what was that going to cost? Three-hundred dollars.

Three hundred dollars may seem like a lot of money to us, and it is a fair chunk. But most of us, myself included, have the ability to make more money (thank God!) by working a side job, working extra hours, or through several income streams.

Consider what three hundred dollars will get you in the states: The base price for a decently designed book cover; Three hours of mentoring; A round-trip ticket on Allegiant Air for two people (from Columbus, OH to Charleston, SC as of this writing); Renting a car for a week; Two weeks of groceries for a small family; eating lunch out for 25 days or 30 cups of fancy designer coffee with noshie. How can you place a value on changing the quality of life for three people?

So what does this mean for you?

Think about those who’ve sown into your life with time, supplies, finances or other support. How has that support impacted you? What did it mean to receive that support? Remember how you believed that it was the catalyst that changed everything? Remember the surge of hope that swept over you and how that hope fed your dreams for your future? Maybe you even thought, “This is the day it all changes for the better.”

I remember it very clearly. Every time someone sowed into my life, I wept. Not only did I feel less alone on my journey, I felt seen; That what I was doing mattered, and valued. It mattered to my community and to those supporting me. Every single time, it felt like divine intervention.

What if you are someone’s divine intervention? Even if you’re not exactly set for life, but you’re enjoying a level of success, it might be the perfect time to be investing in the dreams of someone coming up behind you.

Right now someone is dreaming and praying and hoping for just a little sign, a break though. What if you’re the breakthrough? Maybe someone is waiting on you. If it is, I hope it becomes clear who and how; that it keeps you up at night until you do something. You don’t want to miss the blessings of being a life-changer. What do you think?

Thank you to Vicki for allowing me the use of this sewing machine image borrowed from Colorways by Vicki Welsh. additionally, see much more of her gorgeous and breath-taking mosaic work here.