Jim: You've tuned into iWork4Him, the Voice of Collaboration for the Faith and Work Movement.

Martha: We are your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. Our mission is to transform the workplace of every Christian into a mission field. What does that look like in your workplace? Let's find out right now.

Jim: Since I was a little kid, most of America has known that the south side of Chicago has been a pretty rough and tumble area with high crime and lots of poverty. A lot of government programs just not working all in one place. Jim Croce even wrote a song about the south side of Chicago in 1973, being the baddest part of town. 51 years later, the South side of Chicago is still an area that is in dire need of help. But in spite of all the negative publicity, God is on the move on the South side.

In 2017, we covered a story from the Woodlawn neighborhood about HopeWorks Chicago. Today, we head back to the South side where God is on the move more than ever before. Quilen and Hannah Blackwell moved to the South side with intentionality to bring jobs, healing, hope for transforming lives and rebuilding neighborhoods. Talk about putting your faith into your work! Quilen and Hannah are on fire for Jesus and passionate about their neighborhood. Quilen and Hannah, welcome to iWork4Him.

Quilen Blackwell: hey, thanks for having us.

Jim: Quilen and Hannah, we want to hear your Jesus story first. So Hannah, ladies first, tell us your Jesus story.

Hannah Blackwell: So I actually grew up in a strong Christian home. My mom was a daughter of missionaries, is the daughter of missionaries and got to know, Jesus at an early age. It was really a big part of my parents marriage. I remember accepting Jesus in my heart, watching a thunderstorm sitting on top of my car, which is what you do in Kansas. So from there, it just, I built on that and, I never felt like I left my faith for a period. It was always just a really important part of who I was and who I am. And really led me to, what I'm doing today.

And always looked really different, but it was probably in high school when I first really latched on to the verse that talked about all of the words of the prophets and the basically all the writing up till Jesus time hung on loving God and loving your neighbor. And I just felt like that I really connected with that and I felt that if really sums up the Bible and that's what my life needs to be about.

So they're on It looked really different. I did submissions after high school in Northern Ireland. I moved to Chicago. I worked at a church. I went to Bible college. And I'm, now I'm doing this. So it's always looked really different. But it's really the core of, I feel like, who I am, but also what I feel like God has called me to do.

Martha: And Quilen, how about you? What is your Jesus story?

Quilen Blackwell: Yeah I did none of that. Growing up, I was pretty agnostic. Did not grow up in the church whatsoever. I was the kind of guy who would slam the door in the face of missionaries coming passing out tracts just for fun.

Yeah I really had zero interest in God or anything like that. It really wasn't until I was 17, where, when my mom was sick and God healed her miraculously that I became interested in Jesus. And when I did finally give my life to Christ at 18 for me, it was really more about, okay, God, if I'm going to do this, I'm gonna go all the way, I fought him my entire childhood. And there's just something about just seeing, the tangible work of God in my mom's life that really brought me to faith. And, ever since then, I've kept that vow that, no matter what I do, I'm going to never quit. I'm going to give it 100%.

And, coming in early to the faith as I guess an adult I really felt insecure about the fact that everyone around me went to Sunday school. They knew all these songs and all the Bible stories. The competitive side of me really got churned up and I just went to the Word and started reading it for myself. I was like, okay let me try to see what the Bible says. Let me try to figure out these stories and you know that really has been one of the key ways that I've really grown my faith is just really learning the word of God, just by reading the scriptures as they are. And then I end up discovering there's a lot of things in there that people don't always preach about on Sundays.

Jim: A lot of those, a lot of those inconvenient truths is what we like to call them, Quilen.

Martha: Oh, that, you know what? I love that because you're, honestly, there are so many things that somebody that grew up in a Christian home, we really take for granted that everybody's going to be up to speed on, automatically. And I love that you dug in yourself and just said, I'm going to learn this and see for myself. And you're not the first person who has actually said to us, Hey, I saw a lot more in there than what I'm hearing about. So we'll share some of those favorite stories with you off the air, but our listeners have heard them quite often.

Jim: Like one of them, I'm going to - let's just soapbox for a minute. What are some of the things we never hear from the pulpit? Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church, long before it says wives, submit to your husbands. Yeah, that's a sermon. The fact that Jesus was a business owner before he was an itinerant preacher. Sure. Yep. Never heard that sermon. Abraham's corporation was so big, he had 300 armed guards. Yep. Never hear about Abraham as a business guy.

 (laughter)

Martha: Okay. We know time is limited So I'm going to go. And I know that this could go on for quite a while, but the truth is, and this is really, we joke about it, but the truth is we need to read our scriptures, right? And we need to look at them through the lens of who we are today and where God has placed us, which is why we have the show iWork4Him, because we're seeing where God has placed missionaries in their work, fully funded, doing the work that they're good at, which we're going to talk about a little bit later in the show when we talk about what you guys are doing at Southside Blooms.

But, Hannah, I think I'm going to throw this one to you. Tell us your love story. Where did your lives intersect that led you to today?

Hannah Blackwell: So I'm glad I get to share this because we have a little different view of how our first meeting went, and I have proof that I'm right. (laughter)

Martha: Of course you do.

Hannah Blackwell: So I was, I had moved to the west side of Chicago, similar situation to South side, I felt. I'd been living in Chicago for many years and I really felt I needed to put my money where my mouth was if I really cared about sort of the segregation of the city and the poverty. I needed to move in to understand it for myself at a relational level. So I moved to the West side. I've been living there a couple of years. And I went to a wedding in Tulsa and my original ride fell through. So I rode back with a bunch of grooms friends.

So it's an 11 hour ride. So you just have to talk about everything because it's so much time together. And I was talking about why I was on the west side, and unbeknownst to me, one of the guys was texting Quilen, Hey, I met a girl that I think you would have a lot in common with. But of course, to me, all he said was, Hey, I have this friend and he's doing work in Inglewood, and, essentially maybe you guys could talk about your similar work together. I was like, oh yeah, that sounds great. So they connected us via email, and I suggested the place to meet up. And I just went after church.

I had my like church frock on because I would walk to church and I would wear like kind of loose clothes because I would get a lot of cat calls on the way and I had my hair in a bun. I had these like really goofy like blue glasses. In no way, it was not in my mind at all that this was some sort of blind date, which is what he likes to call it. But so we met up at this place and you know, Quilen's a pretty intense guy. We're like trying to walk around and he's so this is your live mission, right?

Jim: As Quilen sits there being completely silent letting you tell the story, but you're the intense one, Quilen. I just want, I want to note it for the audience.

 (laughter)

Jim: So if you're not watching the video, seriously, go to our YouTube channel, iWork4Him, and check out this video.

Quilen Blackwell: I've learned how to compose myself.

 (laughter)

Hannah Blackwell: Marriage is political! He's, just playing politics here.

Finally I'm like, we need to sit down, because this we're walking in single file, and I'm trying to answer his questions, and he's This is your life mission, right? This is your? So anyway, we sat down on the bench. We ended up talking for a couple hours. We had really good connection. Obviously, we talked about our different work and our passion and our mission. And then he asked me out to dinner. I was like let's be friends, cause in my mind I was thinking let's be friends for a little while before if we would date, and in his mind he's I'm not wasting time, like, so then, he was like ready to go and get out of there and then I, in the days afterwards, I had to think of all these reasons to email him, cause I was like, oh no, I think he's not, he's he's out of here. I'm like, that's not how it was, gonna play out in my brain. But anyway, we did meet up again. We talked all night and got engaged six months later. And been married for how long?

Quilen Blackwell: Nine years as of this past Friday.,

Jim: Wow. Congratulations. All right. Now, we love the love story. Next time we're getting, we're letting Quilen tell his side of the story since he totally showed you respect during all that.

All right. Quilen here's the deal. In some inner city neighborhoods, people are planting vegetables on vacant lots. But you two decided to plant flowers. Where did the idea come from?

Quilen Blackwell: Yeah, our whole mission is to use sustainability to alleviate poverty in the inner city. From the very beginning, we were looking for a way to really bring industry into the south side because you don't notice surveying it that's one of the things that became pretty obvious. There's not an anchor industry, right? When you think of silicon valley you think of tech. You think of napa valley you think of like the wine and the vineyards. When you think of the inner city, there's nothing right? Other than like maybe like the dark economy and that kind of thing.

You know, for those of you who aren't familiar with Chicago there's about 30 to 50, 000 vacant lots that are predominantly located on the south and west sides of the city.

Jim: Woah woah woah. Don't say stuff like that so fast. You are kidding me. 30 to 50, 000 vacant lots?

Quilen Blackwell: Yes. Yeah. There's a lot of empty space that adds up to about almost 5, 000 acres of vacant land, just in the city proper. So you're seeing all this vacant land, you see these dilapidated buildings, you see the youth who need something to do, so we're looking at agricultural solutions, what can we grow here? We did look at food at first, however, the economics didn't really make sense. The big story of that is really competing with big ag as a small farmer just is not a, a viable strategy when you're, trying to work with nothing, like we were.

So we landed on flowers because flowers is about 35 billion dollar a year industry. But 80 percent of the flowers that you see in this country actually come from overseas. So there isn't like a big flower industry that we have to really compete against. And most of the money in flowers, you know is being spent in big cities like Chicago. So it just seemed like a natural fit, where if we grew flowers, it's something that other people weren't doing, so we wouldn't have a lot of competition. It's something that we figure our youth could be good at, because a lot of our youth are artistic, and floristry is inherently an artistic endeavor. And there's real money in it, so it's something that could really grow beyond just supporting a small business and a few jobs, because we really wanted to try to pursue something that could be a game changer.

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Martha: All right. So Southside Blooms is a business that's operated by you two under the winds of Chicago EcoHouse. What is Chicago EcoHouse all about? And I just want to say for those not watching the video, they are donning their t shirts.

 (laughter)

Quilen Blackwell: Yeah. So Chicago EcoHouse is the nonprofit umbrella of our organization. So, it's a farm side. So we do our own farming. We have about 10 acres of vacant land that we've converted into solar powered flower farms.

Jim: How many empty lots is 10 acres?

Quilen Blackwell: It adds up to, I think it's in total, it's about 12 lots that we have. Some of the lots are bigger than others, obviously. We basically, yes, we take these lots, we turn them into farms, we hire youth to work the farms, and then we will process those flowers in our Southside Blooms, which is also staffed by youth. So we're a vertically integrated farmer florist and we deliver all our own flowers as well as we just recently started shipping our flowers nationally.

Martha: So I made sure to tell Jim that. I said, you do know that they now are shipping flowers all across the nation? So I'm just going to put this little plug in.

Jim: So why do you think she would bring that up?

 (laughter)

Jim: Why do you think she'd bring that up five days before her birthday? Or, 17 days before our wedding anniversary? I just can't. Why? Why is she doing? I

Martha: just might say I've checked out the website and I want to encourage all of our listeners to do the same. We'll have the link in the show notes, but man, you guys are doing such great stuff. And yes, we're talking about the mission and the philosophy and all that you are accomplishing, but you're doing it with passion, excellence. And that is something that really sets you apart. So the website is southsideblooms. com. Super simple. Anybody can go there, check it out, and shop away.

Jim: Hannah, I want to know this. How can running a florist business on the south side of Chicago help transform lives?

Hannah Blackwell: So, there's a lot of reasons that we've seen flowers bring about life. And I feel like when we moved here and we did a lot of research and we just try to become a part of the neighborhood and even when I was over on the west side, you just tell that the poverty was really at the base of so many of the issues that was going on. And we just felt if we can attack the poverty and give people that ability to meet their needs and to have what they need, they're going to be able to breathe and they're going to be able to think about everything else that they want to accomplish and do and stabilize their family.

At the base, just being able to provide some money and helping people sustain their lives, that is gonna relieve the stress, you know, on the first layer. Second just working with something beautiful, being out in the flower farm, being in the flower shop, you know, you're around beauty around stuff that smells really good and you're creating beautiful pieces for really significant moments, when people make a bridal bouquet and then they're able to deliver it with us to the venue and hand it over to the bride and know that this is a really special moment in her life. That's transformative. You feel like you belong.

We have these organizations around that they'll do tours downtown with youth from the neighborhood, but it's empty. They don't give this bridge to participate in those places. It's just Hey, this is cool. And now you're going to go back and I'm not going to show you any way to connect with these other beautiful affluent parts of the city. But when we're giving them a role and we're bringing them along and helping them to be, have some belonging there, it's a very different experience for them. They can feel like, I'm contributing, I'm a part of this, I belong here. And we've seen that go back into their own confidence about themselves, about what they can do. And these are young people, they need that encouragement. They need somebody to be like, Hey, you're awesome. Look at this skill you have. Look at what you're doing. So that they can start believing that in themselves and that it can really be a foundation that they can build on for the rest of their lives.

Martha: So it is so huge in the fact that you are building, you're giving them confidence that leads to less stress because they get money. Is it just a job or is it Jesus too?

Quilen Blackwell: Oh no, this is 100 percent Jesus. This is a common question we get. People are like you do all these good works, you're creating jobs, et cetera, et cetera, but what about the gospel, right? And for us, this is really an evangelistic ministry. Like it says in the good word, it's the goodness of God that draws men to repentance. And that's what this is really about. It's about first showing God's goodness to people. And that's one of the misconceptions that people have of our community. Like a lot of people already know the gospel. There's this assumption that just because you're poor and you're down and out that you somehow, aren't Christian or you somehow don't know the Gospels.

Like a lot of people here already are believers. They just don't see how God's showing up in their life, so people walked away. So there's a lot of people backslid because they're like, okay my grandma went to church or my mom went to church, but what did that do for us? So we've actually seen a lot of people's faith get restored and inspired again because they're seeing the goodness of God. They're seeing God show up in a way and in a place where people thought that let's just be honest, people just thought it was like a godforsaken place. But here, here's this miracle of a flower shop that's creating an oasis in the desert, so to speak.

Jim: It's incredible. And you know as we're really continuing on the conversation, when you look at the gospel, it's all of the gospel. Jesus came to set the captives free. And poverty, it's like captivity for people, and the jobs, you're giving people the freedom to flourish again in an area that hasn't seen a lot of flourishing. And it's so powerful to be able to see that. So you're taking all these empty lots and you've got flower farms on them, and if you haven't been in Chicago, some of you listening, haven't been to Chicago. In the winter time it's a miserable, terrible place to be.

 (laughter)

Jim: It's known as the Windy City because it is windy, but also because of politicians, but it's a cold, damp place. Quilen, just look up your history and just so you know, Mayor Daley's the one that named it... yeah, anyway. How is creating all these jobs going to help rebuild these neighborhoods so that it attracts other businesses back into town so that it's not a food desert anymore? You got, you're eliminating the flower desert. How do you, how is this going to help eliminate the food desert area?

Quilen Blackwell: Yeah, that's a great question. That's actually something that people criticized us on in the beginning. People are like, okay, you're trying to grow flowers, but it's a food desert. You can't eat a flower, right? But going back to the idea of this being an anchor industry, right? If you have an anchor industry, then you have trailing industries that will support it, right? Looking at tech in Silicon Valley, because tech is thriving there as that primary industry, that means trailing industries like housing can now thrive, right? Retail, restaurants, movies, etc. Because people now have disposable income that they're getting from those good paying jobs at tech to spend on these other sectors of the economy.

So that's the way we're looking at it is okay flowers, which is bringing in, a good amount of money - and just so your viewers know within 10 years, we went from 0 to 2 million, so we're definitely gaining a lot of traction, we have a lot of growth. We currently, we have almost 60 people on our total payroll, so you know, the organization is growing pretty quickly.

Jim: Hang on, you're doing that fast again. We're celebrating here. 60 people on your payroll, which means you're blessing 60 families, and those 60 families are blessing their neighborhoods. That's monstrous. That is fantastic. God is doing such incredible things.

Quilen Blackwell: Yes, yep, exactly. So now those are people who are now spending more money at the local restaurants, right? That support those businesses. So yeah, this is how people are able to address the food desert issue because you get more money in your pocket, then hey, you want to go shop at Whole Foods? You want to go shop at Aldi, wherever? You can do that. You have agency, right? You have freedom. Whereas, not to get into some political stuff here, but you look at say food stamps and stuff like that really does control where you can eat, what you can buy. But in this case, you basically are, you're learning how to work.

You're learning how to add real value to the community, add real value to the marketplace. And now you can go, and you can decide to live wherever you want. You can decide to eat whatever you want. You don't have to live within the restrictions of a government program, which a lot of our families find very free.

Martha: And I love the fact that you did the research to find an industry that was a thriving industry that wasn't marginal that Chicago has a high demand for flowers, right? So very smart.

Jim: Apparently, Marionville, Missouri does as well.

 (laughter)

Martha: Apparently now it does, right? And the fact that your neighbors don't have to be the ones to buy your product in order for it to survive. So I think there's some brilliance there, too. They may then get some income so that they can spend it on different things. So I just think it's a brilliant thing to be celebrated.

In John 10: 10, Jesus said that he came to give life and give it more abundantly. And Jim, today's guests are showing others how to have abundant life right in their own neighborhoods. And if you're looking for how God wants you to act on your faith, check out the iWork4Him Nation. You can find that on our website at iworkforhim. com forward slash join the nation to find some simple steps to help you become a workplace missionary and show others around you abundant life.

Jim: All right. So Hannah, the South side of Chicago, still a troubled area. You guys decided, you and Quilen decided to move into that area and have your family live there, grow up there. What kind of sacrifice has that been for you two?

Hannah Blackwell: So like you mentioned, that was an intentional thing for us. We knew that if we didn't sort of commit our lives, commit our families show that we trusted God in that way, it was going to be hard for people around us to really take us serious. And also it wasn't going to send the right message to our kids. Someday we knew that, we wanted our kids to live on mission. And we knew that if it was just something we said, but didn't show it with our lives, that it would be, empty. And when we first moved in it was definitely some very trying times with issues on the block and the neighborhood.

Quilen Blackwell: A lot shootings. Lot shootings.

Hannah Blackwell: We were looking for houses to buy and we walked down a block, and as we look back, we watched a drive by shooting happen. Like just we had just been there. And it was very real, but it was also a way that reminded us why we were there. And it was something that would continue to remind us. If you're not faced with it every day, and we still are. We're still faced with what the youth go through, and it pushes us every day to not give up, to continue to be here. Jesus was sent, was God incarnate. He was sent to walk among the hurting and to be there as a human. And I feel like in the same way, we need to be amongst it to really continue to pray for it, to continue to show Jesus in the way that we can.

Quilen Blackwell: If I could just quickly add to it, I think looking back on it, I see it less as a sacrifice and more as an investment. It definitely was harder in those first days, but I also think, because we didn't really understand what God was trying to do. Like I said, in the good word, His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways.

Because, really it set us up as a family to be more resilient, more autonomous. And frankly, I was thankful that we said yes to God and came to the hood. When COVID hit and we were able to pull our kids out of school, we didn't have to like be forced to do things we didn't want to do because we're working for a corporate employer or that kind of deal, and that's when I really became thankful.

Okay, in the beginning, it did feel like, okay, God, I'm having to give up a lot of these, let's be honest, like worldly comforts. And what am I getting a return? I'm just going doing this for you. But then you fast forward 10 years and some of the things that we've been through as a society, and it's really been setting us up for success. It's okay, God, I see what you were doing. This was really more of an investment. Now it's starting to pay off. Like nowadays, we're able to run our ministry and homeschool at the same time. It's a huge blessing to be able to spend like almost all day with our kids, like they're in the business. We're able to teach them in real time. This is massive.

Martha: I just wanted to switch that around. So what do you then see as being the impact of you living in your neighborhood? Like, how is it impacting your neighborhood by having your family right there?

Hannah Blackwell: Okay. Yeah, so I think just I feel like, early on too, it was, really helped them to believe that we were there for them. It wasn't just Hey, we're going to come in and work and then leave again. Or we're going to have our own little life outside of you guys, and we were outsiders, like obviously, I'm like, you look at me and I don't match everybody else. But even Quilen, he grew up in Madison, Wisconsin. There's no,

Jim: Oh, wait a minute. Oh, I should have asked this question. You're a cheese head?

 (laughter)

Jim: Sorry, we don't allow cheese heads. We don't allow cheese heads on iWork4Him. Sorry, this conversation is done right now. I should have asked that ahead of time. You're from Kansas and he's from Wisconsin?

Okay. But seriously, when you look at the impact that your marriage and your kids are having on your street, have you seen a change? Have you guys been able to impact the culture on your street?

Quilen Blackwell: Yeah. Yeah. We employ some of the youth who live on our block. As a matter of fact just share a quick little story. There's this young man named Deontae who works for us. His mom, actually when we first moved on the block, she was like part of the block club that we helped to organize. And, like as the organization has grown we were able to get to a place where we were able to hire her son at a time when he needed a job. He got caught up in the gang life, he was in jail for six months and things weren't looking very good for him.

It's been a refuge for her family and for him, and now we hired her, her sister, her daughter as well. We're able to actually employ people right here on our block because of the work that we're doing and because us basically just saying yes to God and sticking with it.

And it's even going beyond our block, right? Like we're in four different neighborhoods at this point on both the south and west side of Chicago. We're actually in the process of opening up a second flower shop on the west side. So this is really just growing and expanding so that we can reach more families and touch more lives.

And it's gotten a lot more peaceful in our neighborhood. Like it's actually been a long time since we've actually had shootings on our block. I really contribute that to really just prayer and that we do look at that more as a spiritual issue. You can live in a very to do neighborhood and still have shootings that could happen. So I look at that as like just like that prayer covering right? And then I were every morning we have devotionals, we're always praying for our people. We fast, right? Don't discount that spiritual component.

Jim: Your very presence on that street has made an impact. That's what I was getting for. I didn't know the answer, but I had a feeling, because the two of you are living there, that your presence and Jesus in you, through the power of the Holy Spirit, is impacting your neighborhood.

And everybody listening, understand that's your role in your neighborhood too, no matter where you're in, you don't have to live in the South side of Chicago to impact your neighborhood or your homeowners association or your townhouse or the apartment complex. You can be that impactor.

All right. Final question. Maybe you two are mission preneurs. You're entrepreneurs on a mission. Is there room for more Jesus followers to join you in the mission on the South side?

Quilen Blackwell: Yes, totally. 100%. We're looking to grow. If you're in a community that's similar to Chicago, you're Detroit, St. Louis, whatever, definitely reach out to us because we are looking for new communities to expand into, new cities to expand into. Of course you could volunteer with us. You can always support us by buying our flowers. But yeah, we definitely are looking for ways to partner with more Believers and more, like minded christians. Because we really do think that we have something to offer the larger body of Christ and we're here to help.

Jim: Are there some synergistic businesses though that you would love to see come join you on the south side?

Quilen Blackwell: That's a good question. Never got that question before. Huh? Yeah, sure you know Let's say there's a complimentary business, if we do flowers, let's say you have a very robust honey business, for example, right? If you had distribution, something that we're always looking for. If you have some sort of business that can distribute candles, because we do like beeswax candles, our flowers could be distributed all across the country. So we're definitely partnering with a Distribution business would really help us grow. So yeah, there's definitely I could see like some synergistic partnerships with other kingdom aligned businesses.

Jim: Well, and I love that and that's why I want to bring up that conversation because Quilen and Hannah can't do this on their own. They've laid the groundwork There's room for synergistic missionpreneur minded people to join you guys on the south side. Get a hold of them on southsideblooms. com. Southsideblooms. com. Or how do you want the people to get a hold of you?

Quilen Blackwell: Yeah, just go to Southside Bloomers. com and then you can reach us there. Worked for Jim. He went and did it too.

Martha: He used the contact page. We tested it out and we know they answer their emails.

Jim: That's right. All right. Quilen and Hannah, what a great story. What a great example. Love what you guys are doing. Hope we get to visit you guys someday when we get a chance to get back out on the road, we're not too far from Chicago. We spent a lot of time in Chicago, plus the food and the pizza. Chicago's fantastic.

 (laughter)

Jim: Chicago dogs and serious deep dish feet, pizza. Quilen and Hannah, thanks for being on iWork4Him today. You've been listening to iWork4Him with your host, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. We're Christ followers. Our workplace, it's our mission field, but ultimately iWork4Him!