A look inside the heart of Love Ministries….
We felt God calling us to form a new ministry and business for a number of years, but with all that we had going on in church ministry and raising our family we really didn’t know where our focus should be and what steps to take. In October of 2014 we took our first step (a kind of toe in the water experience) by creating our family website – ToddTamiandFamily.com. The family website is simply our little corner on the internet where we can share our stories of life, faith, and family. We also saw it as a fun place to address the frequently asked questions we are asked on a daily basis regarding our life as a BIG family.
Along with the family website, we also established a family Facebook page: Todd Tami & Family where we often share the articles from our family website. Our Family website and Facebook page (and personal facebook pages) were foundational in helping us gain both the confidence and an audience for launching Love Ministries (and our second website LoveMarriage.Us)
One of the main motivations for starting Love Ministries has been God’s gracious redemptive work in our own life and marriage. Though it wasn’t obvious to most, we struggled through our first 13 years of marriage. Our intimacy was anemic and our communication was corrupt. We had commitment but we did not have unity. Secret sin and debilitating shame weighed us down continually. We had resigned to the notion that life would always be this way. We stayed together, but we both felt more like married singles than soulmates.
In 2009 we came to a moment of both crisis and revelation. By God’s grace, we decided to trust Him and trust one another and we worked to unveil our hearts to one another in ways we never had before. Over time, we have learned what it means to forgive, to heal, to trust and embrace unity as a couple. One of the greatest results of unity has been the development of our God given dream to build and participate in marriage and family ministry.
In our pastoral counseling and relationship coaching ministry, God is bringing out the best of what we have learned from our 20 years of marriage and ministry. We are continually reading, studying and conversing with others who minister to marriages in ways similar to us. We also serve and participate in a marriage ministry outside of our own called Marriage Restored. MR is a weekend away experience for couples who have experienced a type of crisis or injury in marriage (recently in the past).
At Love Ministries it is our joy to see our clients realize that pain and misery is a point in the path and not the final destination of their marriage. It is thrilling for us to have a front row seat to the miracle of God’s grace as couples learn what the Bible says about marriage and begin to apply winning strategies in their marriage relationship.
About 6 months ago we came up against a growing need to create a “client space” where we could meet with the individuals and couples who were looking to Love Ministries for hope and help. We prayed about our need and considered many places where we might be able to create an adequate meeting space. It seemed impossible for us to carve out space in our own home but we continued to pray and think about the possible configurations of our house. One day God dropped an idea into Todd’s mind to make the master bedroom into the client room. This idea would require a lot of movement and collaboration from the family. So, we called a family meeting where we talked through all the logistics (who would bunk up with who) and everyone agreed that the plan could work. We all got to work moving furniture and creating the new space. Within a few days we had everyone settled and our first version of a client room came together using furnishings from all around the house. Since then we have continued to pray about the development of this space. Last week, we were blessed to be able to completely redo the client room. We are so pleased to have this space outfitted with a fresh coat of paint and all new furnishings – take a look! (see below).
“And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.”
~ Philippians 4:19 ~