From Sales to Service: Rebekah Black’s "Yes" that launched Jambos.

What if the thing you’re best at isn’t the thing you’re meant for? We sit down with our friend Rebecca Black, a single mom of three and the founder of Jambos, to unpack how a six-figure sales career and a season in mega-church ministry led to a radical pivot: providing new pajamas to kids in foster care. The path wasn’t linear. It started with a teenage missions trip that sparked a “heartbeat mentality,” a later wrestle with identity on a big church staff, and a simple question at DFCS—what do kids actually need on day one of foster care?

Rebecca shares the personal and practical beats behind Jambos: the name rooted in her childhood and in Swahili, the first small group drive that collected 223 pairs, and the living room that disappeared under mountains of pajamas as schools, gyms, and churches joined in. We dig into the operational side too—budgets, HR compliance, 990s, content calendars—showing how mission and management must move together for a nonprofit to thrive. Her story is a masterclass in purpose with teeth: ask specifically, serve with dignity, build systems that last, and let community power the movement.

You’ll hear the humor of holiday icebreakers, the honesty of past pain, and the hope of provision showing up at the perfect time—a web developer offering help, volunteers raising their hands, and a first-year impact reaching 5,500 kids. If you’ve ever felt torn between comfort and calling, or wondered how to turn a burden into a blueprint, this conversation offers both heart and how-to. Hit play, share it with a friend who’s dreaming of impact, and if it resonates, subscribe, leave a review, and tell us: what small, specific act could your community rally around next?

Transcript

Warm Welcome And Holiday Icebreakers

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey guys, what's up? I'm Greg. I hope you guys are ready to unpack and get into some good conversations tonight.

SPEAKER_03 0:07

And I'm Jess, and this is our podcast, Baggage Claim. Thank you for joining us.

SPEAKER_00 0:16

What's up, Baggage Claim? How's everybody doing tonight? Um, if you're first time here, thank you for joining us. Uh, if you're a regular, uh, grab your favorite drink, pull up to the table. We're gonna jump into some fun conversations today. Uh, this is uh a place where we like to, you know, hopefully create some community and some conversations around relationships and life and all those fun things in between. And we have a special guest with us tonight, which we're really excited about. Um would you like to introduce it?

SPEAKER_03 0:47

You're about to introduce. No, that's your job. Our special guest this evening is none other than Rebecca Black. That's me. She's known around these parts, she's pretty famous. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_04 0:59

Yeah. Autographs after the after the show. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:03

We've been friends with her for a long time now. And there is so much to cover, and we're so excited to have you here. Thank you. I'm excited. Let's do it.

SPEAKER_00 1:11

Yeah. So Rebecca has a very, very interesting life of of does some really cool things that I think uh some of you guys, uh it's just crazy how even I had some friends that I had known and was like, hey, we were talking about your your company, and they're like, Oh, yeah, we know exactly who that is. And I was like, Yeah, it's so cool. It's just a small world, but really cool, small world.

SPEAKER_03 1:32

And I'm gonna just throw a disclaimer out because Greg and Rebecca are a lot alike. They they can talk paint off walls, and I mean that in a good way. It's a gift.

SPEAKER_05 1:42

It is gift.

SPEAKER_03 1:43

And if you've been listening to Baggers Claim, I that's not my strength. If if there if I have questions or people are asking me things, or I have um outline on my notebook, which there's nothing. I have seven words written down. You saw that. Yeah, it's not okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:59

I was like, okay, she she doesn't have my questions here, and I don't like it like that.

SPEAKER_03 2:02

That's not okay.

SPEAKER_04 2:03

I don't need any questions. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:05

Skip me the day. Um so it'll be probably a lot of you two talking, and I'm just gonna enjoy it, and I will just try to jump in when I can. But usually before we jump in, we have something that we call question time.

SPEAKER_00 2:20

Question time. Nailed question time. She nailed it. Question time.

SPEAKER_03 2:24

I didn't feel comfortable singing today.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

Why? You're embarrassed because Rebecca thinks she can sing better than you.

SPEAKER_03 2:30

Sang in voice covered.

SPEAKER_00 2:31

She was being in some Destiny Child earlier.

SPEAKER_03 2:33

I was. You were.

Meet Rebecca Black And Her World

SPEAKER_00 2:34

I'll bring it back.

SPEAKER_03 2:35

Okay. So have is Christmas. Would you rather?

unknown 2:38

Ooh.

SPEAKER_03 2:39

Some of our questions have been literally ridiculous, like would you rather your ears flap every time you sneeze or whatever? Like it's just been literally ridiculous. These are kind of easy. Would you rather meet Santa or meet the Grinch?

SPEAKER_01 2:53

Ooh.

SPEAKER_03 2:54

Oh gosh. I'm gonna pick Santa.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

Is this pre or post like the Grinch story Grinch? I'm talking about the Grinch, the one that's universal.

SPEAKER_00 3:03

Studios, the real Grinch that lives there. No, the guy that's the guy that's a universal is hilarious.

SPEAKER_03 3:12

He is hilarious.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Yeah, that guy's fun.

SPEAKER_03 3:13

I found him on YouTube, that guy, reading how the Grinch stole Christmas, and me and the kids watched it. They sitting by our fireplace, it's Max the dog, it's a whole thing. And we have more fun. I feel like I've never met him. We see Santa all the time, right?

SPEAKER_00 3:26

He's just a fat, jolly old fella. He just eats a lot.

SPEAKER_03 3:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:29

You know?

SPEAKER_03 3:30

Would you rather be one of Santa's elves or one of his reindeer? Oh, reindeer.

SPEAKER_04 3:35

Let me drive, baby. Let's go. Really? Yeah. The elves all they do is work.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

They love their work. Like they have such a good time working.

SPEAKER_04 3:43

But I'm just saying.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

I feel like an elf is just, yeah, you are fitting.

SPEAKER_04 3:54

I can't do it. No. Put me to work. Put me on the on the elf.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

It would just be like a warehouse job. Like you're just doing stuff.

SPEAKER_04 4:02

I want to be a reindeer so I can fly. Yeah. And you get to go to all the places. Elves have to stay the whole warehouse. You work what?

SPEAKER_01 4:10

One whole day? One evening. I know. I want to be Rudolph.

SPEAKER_04 4:13

Yeah. If you were to be a reindeer, which name do you like? Ooh. Blitzen. Prancer. Ooh. Ooh, Prancer.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

I was thinking, um, I don't I don't even know if he's a boy or trying to figure out which one is out of the reindeer's. Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen.

SPEAKER_03 4:31

Dasher. Dasher.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

I think it's Dasher. Prancer. I think Dasher, just because it sounds like a cool name.

SPEAKER_04 4:37

That's a fast dude.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

Yeah, but Rudolph had his own song.

SPEAKER_04 4:40

And a glowing nose. And a glowing note. Yeah, but it's okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:44

Yeah, it's just like, hey, look at me. You're peacocking over there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:46

Yeah. Okay. There's one more. Okay. This is it. It's a big one. Would you rather ride the polar? Would you rather ride the Polar Express or Santa Slay?

SPEAKER_04 4:58

Ooh. Listen. That's easy. Polar Express.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

Santa Slay. Santa Slay. Polar Express. Polar Express is. Did you watch the movie? Did you see where they're doing the roller coaster? Can I tell you honest truth?

SPEAKER_04 5:11

Why would that be? I don't like it when animation, when they make the humans too real. I don't like his faces are creepy. One minute you're an animation and the next minute you're Tom Hanks, and I don't like that.

SPEAKER_00 5:22

Yeah, it was weird. That show is a little weird.

SPEAKER_03 5:25

Because if you ride the Polar Express, if you've seen the movie, you are going to go meet Santa. You're going to the North Pole.

unknown 5:31

Oh.

SPEAKER_04 5:32

But if you are on the Santa Slay, you're like on his lap.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

It feels like it's gonna be either on his lap or in the bag. It feels like it's gonna be a very uncomfortable ride. Wow, moment of silence, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:50

Polar Express, the icing. Oh, the icing. Yes, that would be terrifying. But really, it's like near-death experience.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

It's adrenaline adrenaline.

SPEAKER_03 6:01

Yeah, adrenaline.

SPEAKER_04 6:03

I can also say that I personally can't keep up with anything. So that stupid ticket floating through the air is this story of it.

SPEAKER_03 6:09

It's a lot of pressure.

SPEAKER_04 6:10

I can't even my debit card, where's my driver's license? I never and that is real to me.

SPEAKER_03 6:16

So to do the hot chocolate situation in real life. The hot, hot, hot, hot chocolate.

SPEAKER_01 6:23

I mean, yeah, but don't you think Santa has hot chocolate on the sleigh? And it's probably a lot better than the case.

SPEAKER_03 6:32

Yeah, he has hot chocolate. I was watching that today.

SPEAKER_04 6:35

I was actually watching it today putting up my Christmas tree. Right. That movie was on. I I like cookies. I'm trying to eat all them cookies. So you go ahead, big guy, get your Santa Slay. I'll go down the chimney, I'll be here with the cookies. Yes, put me on the list.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

Yes, I did. You make a cookie box list?

SPEAKER_03 6:53

She sure does. She didn't last year because it was a newborn baby, but yes, she does.

SPEAKER_01 6:58

I volunteer is true. Are they like are like they like talent your cookie box list?

SPEAKER_03 7:02

They're bigger. Yeah. Yeah. Is there a peanut butter blossom involved? There's a peanut butter situation.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

Oh, is that what you call it? A blossom? A peanut butter blossom. Okay, that's her cutie name.

SPEAKER_04 7:13

I think the peanut butter cookie with the Hershey kiss. New name. Peanut butter blossom. That's not what you all call it. No, no, we just always call it Kentucky State.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

Peanut butter cookies. That is Kentucky thing.

SPEAKER_04 7:24

Peanut butter blossom. We're so bougie in Kentucky. Yeah, that is a peanut thing. But I was thinking. I am. I grew up in eastern Kentucky, near Lexington. Really? Yeah. At Moorhead State University? No. Oh shoot. We were so close. I know that school. Really? I do. But I grew up in Moorhead, Kentucky. Save all your jokes for later.

SPEAKER_00 7:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 7:46

Yeah. One more drink of bourbon and we'll go there.

Calling, Career Shifts, And Ministry

SPEAKER_00 7:50

We'll get up in the Okay. So we're not going to do like a an official read of a bio. So I want to tell tell the listeners a little bit about yourself.

SPEAKER_04 8:00

Okay. I'm an Aquarius. I like walking walks on the beach. I'm just starting.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

Beautiful.

SPEAKER_03 8:07

I'm literally one of the funniest people I've known in my life. Wow. And I think that every I think that every time we actually get to talk, like you're just so fun to talk to. Anyway, I'm hijacking you.

SPEAKER_04 8:20

I'm sorry. No, it's fine. I'm Rebecca. I am a mom. I have three daughters, um, Audrey, Jet, and Reagan. Um, we have a lot of feelings at my house. Everyone's like, oh, you have three daughters, that's so dramatic. But no, we're not really dramatic. We just feel a lot. Right. So we might cry over a burrito or a boy. You just don't know. We don't know. Like, there's no cheese on this. Just according to what you do with it. Right. Um Audrey is 18, Jet is 14, Reagan's 13. So all teenage girls. No, we just love it over here.

SPEAKER_00 8:47

You are up in the feelings.

SPEAKER_04 8:48

I am in my feelings, all of us.

SPEAKER_03 8:50

So um, we have four teenagers at a time, but two of them were boys, so it wasn't anything like what you have.

SPEAKER_04 8:57

My brother has three boys and I have three girls, and we all went on vacation a few years back, and his boys like jumped into the pool with a hot dog in their hand and was like, and then my girls were like, if we could just put a little glitter on my collarbone right there. I'm like, oh my god. Like, yep, get in the pool, you know. So our worlds were very different but similar. Um, we're crying over, you know, sand in our socks, and they're, you know, chowing down on cheeseburgers. It's it's just interesting. Anyway, so I have three daughters. I'm a mom, I'm an entrepreneur. I started a nonprofit seven years ago. It's called Jambo's. We provide new pajamas to kids experiencing the foster care system. Um, and that has been kind of my fourth child, I guess you could say. Oh yeah. Um, and um huge baseball fan. Uh, love sports. Um I love like indie weird hippie music. I am this like closet hippie. It's kind of interesting. Yeah. I usually like find songs. I'm like, this is gonna be a viral song, and then it ends up happening, and I'm like, ah, that was mine. Um yeah, that's kind of my thing. Um, what else? I mean, when you're a single mom and you're an entrepreneur, that's like your personality trait. So I've lost like all things that I love because it's like I'm just out here grinding. Yeah. Um, but yeah, uh, my family kind of lives close. My mom and dad live here, and they're my huge like support system. They help me with my girls and am I not close enough?

SPEAKER_02 10:18

Sorry. Sorry, everyone.

SPEAKER_04 10:20

Um I'm gonna have the microphone closer than friends who are not watching. I just need to hold this very close. Um, but yeah, so that's a little bit about me.

SPEAKER_00 10:29

Um so was Jambos your very first thing you've ever started? Or is it your first first company? Or did you that yeah, okay?

SPEAKER_04 10:34

Yeah. Um, I've always had like this entrepreneurial spirit. When I was a little girl, I was the one making the lemonade stand. I sold the friendship bracelets. I wanted to like figure out how to, you know, buy it for a quarter and sell it for a dollar at school. Like I was that girl. Um, but I never really I didn't know what that was. I just knew I was good at it, right? So I was like, oh, that's interesting. But like we would make like 50 and 60 bucks on a lemonade stand in my grandmother's front yard. Like a wisey. Like, how's this happening? My mom and I would host a yard sale. I give my mom the credit for that though, but we would make like$1,200,$1,300 at a yard sale. Oh, wow. It's like, mom, how did we do this? And she's like, I don't know, but let's go shopping. So um, but yeah, so it's always kind of been in me, but I always worked for the man. Like I did sales and marketing in the wireless industry for a long time. And then um, I've always known there was a call in my life to do ministry. I just didn't know I had never really seen women doing ministry, if I'm honest. I grew up in a small church in eastern Kentucky, and most of the women that I was engaging with in ministry were Sunday school teachers or volunteers. It was never like from behind the pulpit, women are up here reading like that.

SPEAKER_00 11:43

Um yeah, because you and I met at 12 stone. So how did you, I mean, how did you end up at 12 stone?

SPEAKER_03 11:49

12 Stone is a large church.

SPEAKER_00 11:51

Yeah, sorry, it's uh uh in uh Launchville, it was a plant. It was a church start, actually. Near the Atlanta area in Georgia, it's North Atlanta. Uh and it's pretty large.

SPEAKER_03 12:01

Yeah, we have to keep in mind we have people listening literally all over the world. Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:06

Hi, hi everyone. Yeah, we're all over the world. Um no, so we met. Um, I went on staff. It was at that point one of the fastest growing churches in the country. Yeah, it was like listed as I mean, it was a big old church.

SPEAKER_00 12:17

Yeah, when we were there, I think we would have, I think it was around 24 to 25,000 people on a Sunday.

SPEAKER_04 12:23

On a weekend, yeah. And um, I had no idea what I was doing. I knew I was in sales. Okay, let me back you up a little bit. I worked in, I lived in Tacoma, Washington, and I sold cell phones for sprint. And I could sell a phone to a dead man. If you even looked like you wanted to ever talk on a phone, I was giving you two of them. It was the craziest thing. Like I would I would convince people that they needed multiple phones. Like, why? She's like, she's 12, you know. I'm like, okay, you need two phones and you get one for free. You need a phone, you need one, and I'll get the fucking patron fee. Like, that was how you're doing it. So everybody was getting a phone. And I was making six figures as like a 21-year-old kid. Like, it was crazy. My dad filed my taxes with me one year, and he was like, Do you know you want a trip to Hawaii and made over a hundred grand last year selling cell phones in a retail store? Like, and I was on like 53rd Street, like I was in a hard part of town. Like I was I would sell a phone to a dead person. Anyway, fast forward, I was making a ton of money, had the shoes, had the car, had the haircut, had the purse, had it all. And I hated it. I hated my life. I was like, this is so like unfulfilling.

SPEAKER_05 13:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:26

Um, and I knew from a young age that there was a call in my life to serve kids in like the orphan care, foster care space because I had worked in an orphanage in Jamaica, which take a mission trip to Jamaica sounds really hard. That sounds like a really those, Greg. It's like, okay, you went to Montego Bay for a mission trip. That sounds all right. It's like, but it it really was uh an infant rescue center, and then we worked in a teen girls' home and I just had such a heartbeat for it.

SPEAKER_00 13:51

How old are you?

SPEAKER_04 13:52

And I was 14, 15 years old. And um, so I just kind of froliced through my 20s and da da da. And then I came to this like realization that like I needed to surrender all of that. It was like the Lord was like doing a work in me. I had I was a single mom. I'm like, what is going on? And um I took like a$75,000 pay cut and went to work part-time at a church.

SPEAKER_00 14:15

Now, was there was there anything that brought that on? Like I'm just curious, right?

Life At A Mega-Church And Identity

SPEAKER_04 14:18

Was there some kind of event that made you kind of stop and well um fun fact about Rebecca's testimony is I've been married twice. So I was married um to the military. My ex-husband, my first ex-husband was in the military. And so I had Audrey, my oldest daughter, and um that all dissolved after he came back from I think it was his third tour in Iraq. And um he came home and there was just a lot of this, I guess dysfunction is a nice way of putting it, but it just was doomed from the beginning. And honestly, there are components of it now where I'm like thankful, like the Lord has just shown me like that. I I almost don't remember it. Like it's like there's a season of that that it's either trauma or God's healing. I don't know. But it's like, okay, I that part of my life just feels so removed. I mean, it's 25 years ago, so right. Anyways, fast forward, that had all dissolved. My life was just kind of at rock bottom, and I was like, what am I doing? You know? And so I came back to Atlanta, lived with my family. Audrey and I were with my mom and dad, and I was like, I'm gonna, I'm just gonna start applying for jobs. I worked at a I went into wireless again, just kind of transferred things around. And then it was like a moment where God like said to me, stop running. Like start chasing after what I called you to. Don't forget, I you're not disqualified. Go chase after what I called you to. And so I thought I was doing the right thing by going into ministry, full-time local church ministry. And that really opened a lot of doors for me, and it really right-sized a lot of things for me. So I was on staff there, and then um and that was just a time where I like really recentered my call um to serve people.

SPEAKER_00 15:54

When you said it kind of right-sized some things for you, like what uh give me an example of a couple examples.

SPEAKER_04 15:58

In that season, I was very like driven by performance. I was very driven by money. It was like I have to make X, Y, and Z dollars. I need this type of car, this type of shoes, this type of I was just I I was pretty immature. I guess is I don't want to say that people that think like that are immature, but I was immature. Right. And um and then when I got a real understanding of fulfillment and purpose and calling and what God is going to do through me, um, that was the stuff that became the priority.

SPEAKER_05 16:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:26

So um, so yeah, that was just really right-sized for me and very quickly. Like that's the thing about this relationship I have with the Lord. He's like, when we move, we move. Yeah, like we do it. Yeah. So nice. All right.

SPEAKER_03 16:39

Look at me picking up my mic staying.

SPEAKER_04 16:41

You gotta stay real close to a girlfriend. Sitting back and hear me drink this bourbon through this microphone.

SPEAKER_00 16:47

So when you say you you felt like a calling when you were 14, like can you can we unpack that a little bit? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:54

Like I'm really curious. So it's taken me till now to be able to put words around what that felt like for me. I'm amongst people. There was a group of us, probably 25 of us on this trip from my church. And my my mom, my dad, my brother, myself, and then my sister, she didn't go, but the the four of us were there. And I felt um off balance because and now I can explain it like this a lot of the people we were with had heartbreak mentality, and I had heartbeat mentality. And they're different, in my opinion. Right. When your heart's breaking for something, you can feel very like paralyzed or sad, or there's nothing I can do. I feel so bad. Like, and but when you have heartbeat mentality, I'm ready to run, chase, activate. Well, how do we make this better? What can I do? Where are my gifts? Right.

SPEAKER_02 17:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:43

And so I've and like we use that language now at Jambo. So like our hearts are beating for the kids we're serving. Um and so I but I was like, why am I not crying? Like why everybody around me is so emotional. And I'm like, what can we do? How I was activated, right? Not paralyzed or or down by, you know, their circumstances were obviously heart-wrenching, like you feel, right?

SPEAKER_03 18:04

Instead of a sadness, it was more it almost makes me feel like you had an empowerment of what you can do. Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:13

And so I came home and I'm like, I'm gonna be a missionary, I'm running, I'm gonna move to Africa. Like I made up, my parents were like, Yeah, girl, go get it. Um, but you know, thanks, mom. Um, but I did, I never felt um def like defeat, like I couldn't do anything. And like, not to say that like my mom's perspective of that, she was really, really hurt. Like being in the atmosphere that circum those circumstances, she's just like, oh my gosh, this is so sad. And I saw it as that, right? But I had I knew that the that this was not just a mission trip high, as they call it, or like this emotional moment. It was like, no, I'm supposed to do something about that.

SPEAKER_03 18:49

It was more like a kickoff rather than a this is just like a a trip.

SPEAKER_04 18:53

Right. Yeah, it didn't end there for me, it began there for me. I think.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

Oh wow, yeah. That is cool. All right, so you're at 12 stone. Yeah, you've kind of hit you're you're just applying for jobs, and you wind up at 12 stone with a job.

SPEAKER_04 19:06

Yeah, and I was in the wrong seat, but I was on the right bus. And I was like, okay, we're on the I'm on the right bus. I just don't belong in this department. Um, and there were just so many things like that um I learned and I didn't really know. I was always like saying to myself, like, I don't want to marry, Barry, or baptize any of the people in this building. Like I'm not, I'm not shepherding people, like I'm not out here like what but my job, I oversaw all these volunteers and there were thousands of volunteers. Um I also helped people like assimilate into the church. You're new here, let's get you settled in. Like, how does it become your church family? Where where can you get plugged in? That was like my whole job. And I was like cut for that. Yeah, a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_03 19:48

Like as far as like your job, Greg, and your job, Rebecca, how did y'all because that's where y'all's friendship began. Our friendship began.

SPEAKER_00 19:56

Because uh my job was over. Small groups. But also to somehow, some way, um everything in the building that happened from greeting to ushers fell under my title somehow, some way. I don't know how.

SPEAKER_04 20:13

Uh-huh. It was it was like adult ministry, but like um people would come into the church and then I would get them on the train and then he would help them take the ride.

SPEAKER_00 20:23

Gotcha. So it was That's a great way to do it. So as soon as Rebecca walked into the room, we're like, I remember having those conversations with some of the other guys going, oh, we know exactly where Rebecca needs to be. Like the best place for her is be in the front lobby.

SPEAKER_04 20:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:36

Um and it was, yeah, it's like you were made for that. It was an easy, easy fit for you.

SPEAKER_04 20:40

I would agree. It was and it was fun and I loved it. And then I started to feel like I was loving it more than I should.

SPEAKER_00 20:47

Okay, so tell me about that.

SPEAKER_04 20:50

I started really like, of course, your senior pastors up there speaking, and you've got the funny announcement guy that everybody loves and whatever, but everybody.

SPEAKER_00 20:57

Which I ran into really on the square. I walked into him and I was like, Travis. And he's like, What's up, buddy?

SPEAKER_03 21:04

Halloween. Well, we're up there with no the lighting of the chicken. Lighting of the chicken. I go, yes.

SPEAKER_00 21:09

It's such a gazebo thing, but they were lighting a chicken. He was on a date with his wife.

SPEAKER_04 21:14

But uh yeah, I hadn't seen him in forever. Yeah, so there, those guys were kind of the faces of the inside the worship hall or worship center room. Like obviously your senior pastor, like he's the founder, everybody knows him, he's the teaching pastor, like you know him. But then like Travis was the guy on stage that everybody was like, he's the funny announcement guy. But then when you came out of there, I was like on this on this huge bridge. I had thousands of volunteers, people were reporting, quote quote to me. It was like I kind of became the face of that lobby. Yeah. And I was and I I was proud of that. I love the job. I love the ministry we were doing. It was like you know, it was like my gifting. I was in my wheelhouse. Yeah, you know. So but I started feeling like I was kind of idolizing it. I was like, oh, well, why am I so proud of this? This is and things started becoming mine. And I and where I do love ownership and I want to do my job well, it was like, hang on a minute. I started feeling a little convicted about the fact that I was like obsessing, maybe a little bit about it. Um so I started the like try to unpack or get unsettled in my soul, like, wait a second, am I gonna leave from here? I thought I would retire from there. I thought that was gonna be where I I never thought I was leaving either. I never it was kind of weird how it happened for me, too.

From Kenya To A Clear Next Step

SPEAKER_03 22:36

And you know what? So let me tell a funny side note story. I just had such a flashback of talking to you in that lobby. You had on the cutest, you had in the 12-stone t-shirt and your cute jeans and your little tennis shoes, but you on the cutest gray blazer. And I remember obsessing over it so much that I texted you and I was like, where did you get it? I have to have it because I have to do this outfit at school. And I did, and you sent me the link and I copied you. Vivid flashback when we just did, did we get it at JC Penny?

SPEAKER_05 23:06

We did, we did it.

SPEAKER_04 23:08

JC Penny was my go-to for a hot minute because I'm tall and they had a long arm. That is so funny when you were talking about that.

SPEAKER_03 23:15

I had just like vivid, I was like, oh my gosh, this is such a fun memory for me.

SPEAKER_04 23:19

My um one of my favorite things to like give advice like to people who are working a job is like dress for the job you want, not the job you have. And I always thought that that blazer made me feel so official.

SPEAKER_03 23:31

It was so cute. I copied it in the blazer.

SPEAKER_00 23:34

The blazer you have the blazer tag with my name badge.

SPEAKER_03 23:37

Walkie talkie. Yeah. That was so cute. I totally redid that outfit, but with a school t-shirt, not a church.

SPEAKER_04 23:43

But hey, anyway, I just throw some sneakers on with it. I did. That's my girl. Um, so yeah, I just I knew in my spirit like it was just time for me to go. And it made no sense. And what's really weird is there was another pastor that was like supposed to come in and be the next like senior pastor of the whole church. And I jokingly said to a friend of mine, like, if he can leave, if he would just leave, then I wouldn't feel so bad about leaving. And then like months later, like weeks later, he left. And I was like, oh God, now I have to go. Um, but that was that was just the beginning of um really finding where I am now.

SPEAKER_00 24:17

Yeah, because I remember like uh the stupid amount of coffee that we drank from that Starbucks. Yeah. Um, I mean, it was just it's insane. Like, I they didn't even ask my order anymore. When I would go up, they would just hand it to me.

SPEAKER_03 24:30

You were already a coffee guy before you worked in that building.

SPEAKER_00 24:34

Yeah, it was just it was not good. Coffee pastors is like liquor.

SPEAKER_04 24:38

It was good, we just drink it and keep drinking it. And that's like all day long.

SPEAKER_03 24:43

Imagine Michael having a Starbucks or whatever the case may be of your favorite coffee shop in the lobby of the church.

SPEAKER_01 24:50

Yeah, you walk down and you every meeting you had, I would have a standing mourner order every morning. Every day. I would just walk in and go straight there.

SPEAKER_03 24:56

And on the Sundays when I made it to Central Campus with all four kids, they knew what I wanted, but I mean it was like 50-50 shot.

SPEAKER_00 25:04

I never went on Sundays because it was just nuts. Yeah. It was nuts on Sundays.

SPEAKER_04 25:08

My Sundays were 15 hours. I would get there at seven and leave by eight, nine, ten. It was like it was a long, long time. It was a lot. Yeah. And it was a lot on y'all. It was a lot.

SPEAKER_00 25:19

Well, there was a lot. There was so much happening at the time because when you we were there, my job was when I was brought on, was when we expanded from four to eight campuses, was to initiate all of the small groups and all the uh make sure everybody was on the same page from that point, which meant we worked all the time. Um, you just had to.

SPEAKER_04 25:36

You just could there wasn't enough time. Do you remember the time I opened my big mouth at all staff and said part-time is all the time, full time and full time is all the time. Do you remember when I said that out loud? And the senior pastor. In front of how many hundred people? Oh, it was like 225 people on staff and the senior pastor. And he said something about ministry or something in me and my smart mouth. I was like, Oh yeah, well, part-time's full time, and full time's all the time. And he got in his feelings about that. Oh yes. And I was like, Whoops.

SPEAKER_00 26:04

Yeah, because at the time there were, I think there was around 250 to 300 people on staff, like in the room at the time. There was a lot of people. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 26:13

But I loved my I loved what I did there. Um, but I knew that it was time. And I I came, I ended up leading a trip to Kenya, Africa, with um nine college girls. And while I was there, I was like, Lord, like let the um time that we're here, will you let us serve the women really, really well? And then make what's next for me really, really clear. Don't pray that if you may ready.

SPEAKER_03 26:34

Oh my.

SPEAKER_04 26:35

Do not. Like literally, it is that changed everything for me. And so then I came back and I was so convicted by taking, I don't know why this is the weirdest thing that convicted me, but like I was taking the salary from people's tithe money and I was checked out.

SPEAKER_05 26:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 26:51

But I was, I was not, I did not want to, I was like Googling how to help kids in foster care. I wasn't even thinking about starting a nonprofit. I was like, kids in foster care. I remember Googling stuff like that.

The Birth Of Jambos And The Name

SPEAKER_00 27:01

I remember you you brought up like in one of the times we because we would sometimes congregate in our in my office or in one of the break rooms or something, and you started talking about wanting to help foster kids, and I was like, oh, okay. And then you brought up the idea of jambos, and I was like, what? Okay. Well, that's very it just felt very different from what you had been doing in the Rebecca that I knew at the time.

SPEAKER_04 27:24

So where did that bridge happen? Honestly, I have no idea. It's all a blur. I'll be really real with you. Like, I I knew I know I have a heart for people, and I know I have a business mind. And those two things together is what makes a nonprofit ministry work. Um because they have to like sit in tandem. So like if if you're only heavy heart, then you're not thinking about your annual budget and your HR compliance and your 990 and all this, right? And your marketing strategy, and you're not thinking about that. If you're heavy corporate, you will get soak deep into those things I just named and forget that the reason why you're doing what you're doing. So they have to sit just perfect in order to get the secret sauce. And so I'm grateful for that gifting because I think that that's what has gotten us to where we are, because I can sit and cry with you and talk to you and empathize and pray over you, but then five minutes later I'm talking to you about a content calendar and a strategy for our marketing campaign. Like I I don't know, that's God's favor. Because I did not go to college for this, I did not get an education for this, I have no I literally don't know where this came from. Right.

SPEAKER_00 28:29

Which is super cool.

SPEAKER_04 28:30

Right. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00 28:31

Yeah, it's it's so what is so in essence you shared a little bit in the in the beginning of Jambo's, but like give us the like one, where's the where did the name come from? What does it mean?

SPEAKER_03 28:43

I was gonna say please don't forget until it's a good idea.

SPEAKER_00 28:48

How to how to start? Like just tell me to and hold on, where are we out of time?

unknown 28:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:53

Okay. So we may have to uh we may have to do a two-part and get to the to the to the gives, but let's keep going in this.

SPEAKER_04 29:00

Okay, you guys chop it up however you want to chop it up. Okay. Take out whatever. Um, okay, so we're not taking anything out. Okay, I'm like, take out whatever. Um jambos. Um, my mom called my pajamas jambos when I was a kid. Um I thought that's what they were.

SPEAKER_00 29:12

Uh so have you asked her why she did that?

SPEAKER_04 29:14

Um, I think it was like a tongue-in-cheek, like kind of picking on there was like a nickname of a guy in school or something. Like it was like something funny from her past. That is so funny. And it was nothing love that. Yeah. And so she would always say, like, go put on your jambo Keatmans. I don't know why. I don't even I don't know. Pajamas had a last name. Yeah, Jambo. I guess. Jambo Keatmans, go put your jambo Keatmans on. And um I know. I'm like, I hope that's the guy she went to college with or something. That's his full government name.

unknown 29:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:43

Um Jambo Keatman. We don't be losing put your dammies on. No, and they don't have a whole name. My kids now. My I heard my youngest say Jambo Keatmans the other day. And I was like, oh. Anyway, so she called our pajamas jambos. And then when I spent the time in Africa, I was talking about Swahili is the language I speak in Kenya, the area of Kenya that we were in. And um, they jambo means hello or welcome. And the story is Is it spelled the same? But we have an S on ours, so jambo. Gotcha. And then the Americans have to say jam. They can't say jam to save their lives. So I just went with it. It's fine. Go with the flow. Yeah, go with the flow. Yay. Um, so yeah. But welcome to the south, too. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 30:21

Jambos. Um if I can teach my six-year-old first graders that we go with the flow, yeah. I can tell them we go and they'll say, with the flow. That's so cool. You gotta teach the grown-ups to it, too.

SPEAKER_04 30:32

Yeah, they just can't. And it's fine. So, yeah, so that's where the name came from. Um, I knew that I wanted, I remember hearing my parents like dream up a idea of having a pajama company, and they were like gonna make and play off of the word jam. So they were gonna put like traffic jammies and toe jammies and like make the prints on them like really cute. I remember them doing that, and I remember seeing one, my mom was a stay-at-home mom my whole life, but that it showed my mom's creativity and it showed my mom's kind of business mind. Right. And I really kind of got something from that. I was like, okay, mom, go off, you know? That's cool. Um, and so, but that never really came to fruition or whatever.

SPEAKER_03 31:09

But she's still shipping in that seat.

First Drives, Grassroots Growth, And Provision

SPEAKER_04 31:12

I know. And it was like, I remember listening to them, like dream that up. And I was like, oh, that's kind of cool. So there was that kind of always in the back of my head. They always gave us pajamas at Christmas. Jamies are like our thing in my family. And so when I went, when I got back from Kenya, I went to D Fax and I was like, what do you need? Like, I want to help kids in foster care. I'm a single mom. I have no business bringing kids in my house right now. There doesn't say that single moms can't. I just didn't have any business doing that in that season. And um, they were like, honestly, kids in foster care need pajamas. And I was like, bet, I can do that. Yeah, like that got it. So I went to my small group and I said, Um, let's instead of exchanging candles and bottles of wine this year, let's all just collect pajamas and I'll take them to DVAX. Like, fun. And um nine of us collected 223 pairs of pajamas. And I was like, holy crap, this is gonna work. Like, this is a thing.

SPEAKER_00 32:04

Was that kind of your aha moment when you're just like, oh, we could this I could actually do this?

SPEAKER_04 32:08

Yeah. And I had nothing. I had no website, no branded content, no logo, really no name. A friend of mine made a little flyer. What my mom let me borrow her rubber made bins. Like, I was like, I didn't have anything. It was I I had$12 in my bank account the day I quit my job to start this. Oh, wow. Like that's it. Not like a savings, no 401k, nothing.$12. That was it. And so I was like, well, I can't go buy rubber made bins and I can even make a business card. Like I can buy a girl. Like I can buy some groceries. Barely could feed my own kids, you know. And so um, so yeah, I we collected 223 pair and I took them to DFACS. I didn't have any like branding or mark. I didn't, it was just, hi, we love you. Here's some pajamas.

SPEAKER_00 32:56

And what was their reaction to that?

SPEAKER_04 32:58

Well, they were like thrilled because at that point there were 843 kids in Gwinnett County foster system. Whoa, wow. And that's a lot of kids. And I was like, well, I want to serve 843 kids. Yeah. And that year we served 5,500 kids. Oh and we put right and we like push pajamas all the way down like Fulton County, Forsyth County, Hall County. I was pushing like, and I was like, in my living room, I pajamas were everywhere. My kids had to move pajamas to put the Christmas trees up. Like it was like, my God, get these pajamas out of here. You know? And so um I, I mean, I had mentors and that sort of thing, but it was it was literally a bunch of people just saying, I'll do it, I'll do it. And it was like, okay, so they hosted jammy drives, and I would take laundry baskets and tape our name to the jam to the front with a piece of paper, and they would tell their school class about it. And they would tell their church about it, and they would tell their gym about it. And it was like soccer moms and CEOs, and here comes like it's the craziest thing. And so 5,500 kids in year one, I was like, I should probably like get a website. I need to get organized like a little and like I have no money for a website, I have no money for any of this. And God just kept providing it. And um, people would come into my life and be like, I'm a web developer. Do you need help? Yeah, sure do. Like you never ask. Like what? And so that type of stuff just kept happening over and over and over. And then yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:24

Okay, so let's where where are we at, Michael?

unknown 34:27

We are at 35.

Pause For Part Two

SPEAKER_00 34:29

Okay, so what this is a great praise for us to just kind of like, all right, let's just pause. We're gonna, we're gonna take a minute, maybe bathroom break, whatever it may be, uh, jump back into part two, because there's some things I want to jump into that, like I want to hear the struggles, I want to hear the the stuff of being a single mom, juggling all that. I want to hear I want, you know, I want to get I want to get into all of that a little bit more. And I feel like if we just keep going, we yeah, you know, it could be a little too long. So um we're gonna take a break. Um and join us for part two. Yeah, we're gonna jump into part two. So uh thank you guys.