Written By: Ricardo M. Teixeira (Founder of ChristianGear® Ministries)
In 2002 the Lord Jesus Christ transformed my life in a way that I never expected or even imagined.
I decided to pack up my 9-5 run of the mill job and start my own business within an e-commerce environment in Cape Town, South Africa. It was not easy especially with limited startup funding and with practically no contacts within the industry, yet I was hopeful that as I built my business, the contacts, work and certainly the finances would eventually come in. Well it never did! It seemed as if it just was not meant to be! Later on I would come to realise the reason way? God had something else for me!
I have always been a believer in Jesus Christ but, thinking back, I didn't live a Christian life at all as I had backslid for many years. In fact, I hadn't been to church for well over 10 years. I also found myself caught up with worldly things. I had recently gone through a divorce, had a drug addiction problem for almost 10 years and found myself mixing with the wrong people.
The Lord Jesus Christ got a hold of me when I attended an Alpha course later that year and He restored my life and delivered me from the evil one. I accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour and by the end of the course, was reborn. I made a covenant with Him that I would serve Him from then onwards, forever!
It didn't take long till I started building a new life and my relationship with the Lord grew stronger and closer than ever before. The Lord Jesus, my Redeemer, helped me kick all my bad habits, allowed me to re-marry a wonderful Christian women, Urcelia and also gave me the opportunity to make new friends, all Christians, praise the Lord!
By this time the business I had started early that year was almost non-existent, but I was determined to do all that I could to see it succeed until one day in October 2002, I was at home in the garage branding my vehicle with very big letters, advertising the business name and contact numbers of the business that was doomed! God spoke to me that day with very profound words saying "You should be branding me", I ignored it at first not realising that God was actually trying to tell me something. I could feel His presence and in my heart I felt that something was being stirred, something was not right. Again, I heard God repeating this time and time again. I was like a broken record, just repeating itself!
I eventually could not ignore it and replied in prayer to the Lord asking Him: "how was I to brand Him?" I acknowledged a burning desire to serve Him, be true and obedient, but I was not the Bible pusher type and therefore did not wish to be ministering His word by knocking on people's doors or to speak out in a crowd or anything like that! The Lord eventually put in my heart that I was to minister to unbelievers and to test believers' faithfulness in Him. I was to brand Him through clothing! At first I was a little puzzled as I knew nothing about the clothing business, but I felt a certain peace come upon me that made me realise that this was something very special ..... God had a plan for me!
Through a lot of prayer, fasting and really searching the Lord's plan, I asked the Lord to guide me each step of the way, as I knew nothing about the clothing industry, didn't even know where to start! The power of prayer is awsome, so I prayed that the Lord put the right people in my path, that He give me the knowledge to learn about different types of fabrics, measurements and sizes, quality, designs, the manufacturing process, production cycles, etc. All I knew was that He was in control and that I was not doing anything without first consulting Him or being guided completely by Him. In a short period of time the Lord slowly revealed to me the processess, put the right people in my path and allowed me to become more knowledgeable about the industry as a whole.
I had come to a point where I was very excited about ministering the Word through clothing. If I was to brand God, then I needed a name and logo that would be recognisable amongst Christians. I really gave it some thought and felt that there where only two, perhaps three images or symbols if you like, that would immediately be recognised by the Christian community globally, that is; the cross, the fish and the dove. I wanted an image that was unique, special, had meaning, without necessarily copying the existing recognisable ones! Again, I turned to the Lord for guidance to help me with a brandable name and logo that had substance and meaning for what He had in mind. After much prayer, the Lord put in my heart several name choices, but one always stood out - Christian Gear. Yes! I praised the Lord, that's it! The ministrywill be called ChristianGear® Ministries.
God's thinking behind the ChristianGear® logo was manifested to me through these thought provoking words - THE ONLY WAY FORWARD IS JESUS CHRIST. It was a bit like the broken record, when it all started in the garage. Again, I knew the Lord was trying to tell me something as I had been praying about the logo design for quite some time. I quickly realised that this was the first step in establishing the inspirational idea of expressing Christ, a simple sentence, but one that confirmed to me that God was spearheading ChristianGear® - THE ONLY WAY FORWARD IS JESUS CHRIST.
The second was manifested to me by comparing Christ to a boomerang! The message behind this was that, like a boomerang, if you threw it, it always came straight back to you! The Lord was showing me that He was just like the boomerang, He would always come to you if only we allowed Him to, time and time again!
Seeing that the way of ministering His Word was through clothing, the result was an image that justified Christ as THE ONLY WAY FORWARD with the "C" shape of a boomerang, representing CHRIST. God is just so GREAT!
The Lord then instructed me that each and every item of clothing manufactured by ChristianGear® would need to be prayed upon. To pray...
For those who wore its clothing, that they do so with humbleness, grace, faithfulness and boldness for Jesus, protecting them under the precious blood of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, ensuring God's armour upon them.
For those who are lost, in turmoil, going through trials and tribulations, unsaved – that their eyes be fixed on the WORD of God through the profound messages they read on the clothing. That the seed of Our Lord and Saviour be planted in them and that their hearts be turned to Christ as a result of it!
And so ... ChristianGear® was created, so that all who wear its clothing, did so for one purpose, to glorify Christ! I was getting more and more excited about God's divine intervention.
He later revealed to me the vision of many people of various nations wearing His clothing (orange everywhere), it looked like a huge gathering, a music concert perhaps, non-believers and believers alike being touched by His Word through sayings and verses read on clothing. It is from this vision that I was influenced by the colour orange, and so all clothing would have orange in it and everything about ChristianGear® would be vibrant and colourful.
God also revealed to me my mission: to manufacture one million t-shirts and the impact that each person out of the million will have towards others. I was quite surprised by the quantity and task at hand. Doubt quickly sank in, satin was trying his luck, but immediately I felt the Lord's anointing upon me and I felt the re-assurance from God saying to me that through Him I can do all things and mountains can be moved. He revealed to me the enormity, the grandness that each single one of these people would have in bringing glory to Christ. I can't tell you my excitement at that stage. For the first time I could see that what God had in store for me was something really huge, massive, greater than I ever imagined. Every time someone wears a ChristianGear® T-shirt, they would be ministering to tens even hundreds of people each and every time.
Imagine one million people ministering in this way. "See how many millions you can harvest for me" I heard the Lord saying to me. Here was an opportunity to make disciples of men. If these disciples on a regular basis, wear Gods' Word through clothing, then many millions will be touched, turned to Christ and saved by planting the seed through God's Word.
The Lord also put in my heart that this too would be a test for Christians and believers alike as the Lord wants us to be bold about Him and glorify His name on high. We as Christians tend to cocoon ourselves when at times we don't want to divulge our faith for the Lord or our Christianity, this is normally the case especially in the workplace and I could relate with this as I too had experienced this in the past., …..so, the Lord wanted me to be bold for Him. Great!!!
I am quite an ambitious person and although I was really excited to do God's will I had a problem with profiting from God, by selling ChristianGear® clothing. So once again, I seek the Lord as I could not proceed any further with anything unless I stood in right standing with the Lord, and this area needed His attention. Almost three months had passed and I would do nothing till God answered my prayers. I was familiar with Malachai 3:10 and I felt the Lord instructing me to tithe. He also told me that over and above the tithing a portion of the proceeds would need to benefit various ministries that He would reveal to me in South Africa and indeed others around the world. The remainder of the proceeds would be used to build ChristianGear® into the global brand that the Lord wants it to be. There was just one more thing …..which ministry would benefit from the proceeds? There were hundreds of ministries in South Africa never mind the rest of the world. They all do such great works! Which ministry? …. was my main concern now!
At the time I had just finished reading a book called "Faith Like Potatoes" by Angus Buchan, a farmer from Kwa-Zulu Natal, a great man of God with tremendous faith and an extraordinary testimony. A man that walked by faith not by sight. He was doing great works for the Lord, planting the seed not only in South Africa but around the world. His book was such an inspiration to me that I felt a strong desire to bless this man and his ministry. Again, I seek the Lord in this area and waited for answers. Exactly one week later I walked into the local bookstore and guess who was on the front cover of the "Today" a South African Christian magazine? Well ... it's Angus! The hairs on my arms immediately stood at attention. I could not believe God's divine intervention, once again. I was so overwhelmed that I asked the Lord to please re-confirm if this was really of Him.
Approximately a week later I attended a men's Christian breakfast held early on Friday mornings. As I settled into the meeting the speaker ministering that day started talking about the farmer from Kwa-Zulu Natal called Angus. Again I could not believe God's divine intervention as I quickly realised that the message that morning was brought so as to affirm and re-confirm what God was revealing to me. Needless to say that at that point a certain peace came upon me and I accepted the whole financial issue I was struggling with initially. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that God was spearheading ChristianGear® in every area.
I encourage anyone who wishes to glorify Jesus Christ to support our mission and become part of the million disciples that God has called upon to minister in this way. By becoming a part of ChristianGear® you immediately become part of a powerful ministry movement taking place worldwide, that not only tests your faithfulness and boldness for Jesus Christ, but also ensures God's armour upon you and allows you to contribute towards saving lives and souls to Jesus Christ.
Thank you for your support and may God richly bless you.
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