Cookies for Christ by Miriam

 Miriam Wegmann of St. Louis has a genuine love for people and a desire to serve the Lord. She also happens to have a talent that has helped her share the gospel in Africa and South America.

 “I have three sisters and six brothers, and my sisters and I get together with my mom and we make Christmas cookies,” she said. “My sister made the cookies and made all the icing, so we would just show up, have a meal together, and decorate for the night. 

 “One Christmas when they were decorating, I couldn’t make it. So I thought ‘You know what, I’m still going to make the cookies; I’m just going to do it by myself.’ And I loved the process of it. It was so relaxing."

 Wegmann describes herself as a high energy person. She said the tedious and time consuming process of decorating cookies with royal icing – a product that requires a great deal of patience –was the perfect activity for her. She found the process so enjoyable that she continued to make cookies for every holiday throughout the next year. 

 “That next Christmas, I made them with my sisters and my mom again, and then a friend asked me, ‘Hey, I really like your cookies. Can you make some for me?’ I said sure, and she said, ‘What will you charge me?’ and I was like, ‘I’ll just take a donation.’ So nothing had come of using the funds for mission trips yet.”

 Wegmann is a certified Cross Fit coach, and had already been on a mission trip to Ukraine with the Christian Fellowship of Athletes. She raised funds to get there through selling t-shirts and sending out letters. Two years ago she planned a trip to Ecuador to visit a child she sponsors and to see the child’s family.

 “A friend said, ‘I think you need to sell cookies for donations for your trip.’ And it was that co-worker who said ‘Cookies for Christ by Miriam.’ I was like, ‘I love it!’ And she said ‘You know what, I never order any cookies from you, so I’m going to go ahead and get on Vista Print and order you some business cards.’ So it just took off from there. I would pass out a business card and talk to friends, and then just orders upon orders upon orders … some weekends I would have 14 dozen cookies to make!

 “I would make a dozen cookies for someone and they would donate $60, and my heart was just exploding, because I thought I get to give a talent of mine, but then these people are giving their money so I can go love on people. It was so exciting!

 “That took me to Ecuador and throughout the entire year I had a whole other round of funds to head to Kenya. I was in Kenya in June for 14 days, and I still have orders coming in. It was the coolest.”

Wegmann’s church in St. Louis built a church in Ecuador and sponsors all the children in the community.  During Wegmann’s time there, they sponsored a VBS, and she said the people were so happy to see them and know that people loved them, pray for them and cared for them.

 “We were able to make a meal and serve them food. They did a whole church service for us, and it is very common in other counties to sing songs to visitors. So both in Kenya and Ecuador they would sing to us. You can’t understand anything because of the language barrier, but just the fact that they put time into that to love on us was awesome.

 Wegmann got to see the child she sponsors, Anthony, as well as meet Anthony’s family. 

 “The child’s mom was walking somewhere and had her purse stolen. And it just so happens that I had bought her a purse. And there were so many other parallels with our lives. Only God can do those things. We can look at them as coincidences, or say that’s God working.”

 Wegmann said that each member of the mission team had their own translator, so she could ask anything and everything she wanted.  Her translator asked for clarification on what it meant to have a relationship with Christ, so Wegmann was able to spend time evangelizing to the translator.

 Wegmann is friends with a couple who planted a church in St. Louis and a children’s home in Kenya. The couple had been to Kenya the previous year, and this year were going back and taking their children. They invited Wegmann, and she said she prayed about it because she also wanted to go back to either Ukraine or Ecuador.  However, plans for those trips did not work out due to scheduling conflicts, so she decided to accept the offer to go to Kenya.      

  

 “We got to go there and bring  them clothes, and toys, and just love on them and play with them for so many days. It was wonderful. We also stopped in villages and gave out necessities, primarily cooking necessities like oil and matches, even some clothes for the kids, because what they wear is just so run down. And they don’t get chances for showers, so we gave them soap too. It is just so unlike America. We take so many things for granted here.”

 Both mission trips were completely funded by the sale of cookies. Through the advice of friends, she has begun to set prices for the cookies instead of asking for donations, but she still has people telling her she is not charging enough. However, for Wegmann the joy of the process is enough for her.

 “I’m giving up time to get time later, because I can go on these trips. And it is worth it to me. If I get to have fun making cookies, and then get to spend time in another country loving on people … deal! I’ve just been blessed through this opportunity of making cookies. I had no idea it would be this avenue to make the funds that I have to be able to go where I’ve gone.

 When she is not planning trips, the funds from the cookies are going to her home church to help her church grow in the community.

 To see more of Wegmann’s work or learn more about her story, visit her Facebook page, Cookies for Christ by Miriam, or visit her website here.

 (Photos courtesy of Miriam Wegmann)