The Armor of God Bus: How God Made a Way

It’s almost been a year since we bought the Armor of God bus, which feels absolutely crazy to say.

I’ve shared little pieces of this story before, but I don’t think I’ve ever really sat down and told the whole thing. And with a year coming up, it feels like the perfect time because the way God orchestrated everything in the weeks leading up to us buying this bus is something I never want to forget.

At the time, my husband and I had just come out of IVF and, financially, we were depleted. A mobile boutique was definitely not something we were in a position to go out and buy. I loved the idea of it, I could see what God could do with it, but realistically, we just didn’t have the money.

But somehow, every time there seemed to be a reason we couldn’t do it, God made a way.

One of the moments I’ll probably remember forever happened before we had even gone to see the bus.

My husband and I were talking one night about the asking price. The inside was already a complete boutique, so I understood the value of everything that had already been done to it. I actually told him I thought $13,000 would be a fair offer because I didn’t want to lowball this couple after everything they had poured into it.

My husband, being the one thinking a little more practically than me 😂, kept coming back to the mechanical side. It was an older bus with high mileage, we had no idea what it might need, and we also had to think about how much more money we would have to put into it before we could realistically get it on the road and start using it.

He finally said to me, “I’d be comfortable if you could get them to come down to $10,000.”

And I basically told him there was no way I was asking them to come down that far. 😂

So we left it alone.

I didn’t message them. I didn’t make an offer. I didn’t even mention the conversation we had.

The very next morning, they messaged me.

They told me they had been praying about it and felt led to lower the price of the bus to $10,000.

TEN.

Not $11,000. Not $12,500. The exact number my husband had said to me the night before, in a conversation that nobody else had heard.

That was one of those moments where you just sit there like, “Okay God. I hear You.”

When we finally went to see the bus, I fell in love with it. I could picture people walking through it, finding something that spoke to them, wearing the Word out into the world and starting conversations about Jesus because of it.

And then, of course, we discovered my husband had also been right about the mechanical part. 😂

The bus needed six new tires, two new batteries and a whole lot of TLC.

But this is where the story gets even crazier because God just kept doing it.

When we needed the tires, I received a huge wholesale order for the exact amount of money we needed to buy them.

Things like that continued happening over and over. A need would come up, we would wonder how we were going to handle it, and somehow God would provide a way forward.

That’s why, almost a year later, I don’t really look at this bus as something we bought.

I look at it as something we were trusted to steward.

Before us, it belonged to Armor of God Store. There was already ministry happening inside these walls before Made by Yen ever came along, and I think that’s beautiful. We kept things from that season intentionally, including the Armor of God name and the prayer wall they created.

Over time we’ve changed other things, added Made by Yen, brought in our own products and made changes that work better for what we’re doing now. I’m sure we’ll continue changing things as we go.

But truthfully, making the bus “ours” has never been that important to me.

I care a whole lot less about whose style is inside of it or whose name is attached to it than I do about where we can take it and who we can reach with it.

I don't need someone to step off the bus remembering Made by Yen.

I want them to step off remembering Jesus.

That’s the whole reason this matters to me.

We now have the ability to physically take this mission somewhere. We can drive the Word into communities, markets, churches and places we may have never reached otherwise. Someone can pick up a shirt on this bus, wear it the next day and have a conversation with a complete stranger about Jesus because of the words across their chest.

That is what I want this bus to do.

The design may change. The products may change. The people stewarding it may change. But the mission is still the same.

That’s what I mean when I say:

Same mission. Different hands.

And I think that's also why I've never really felt like this bus belongs to me.

I'll drive it wherever the Lord calls me to go. If there are people there who need to hear about Jesus, I want to find a way to get there. Whether that means a huge event, a tiny church parking lot, a market hours away or somewhere we haven't even thought about yet.

If He says go, we'll go.

Because yes, my name might be on the paperwork. Made by Yen might be hanging on the racks. And I might be the crazy lady driving a boutique around town. 😂

But at the end of the day, I know exactly whose it is.

This isn't my bus. It's God's bus.

We're just blessed enough to be the ones driving it right now.

And almost one year later, I cannot wait to see where He sends it next. 🤎