Redeemed: Courage to Obey with Mallory Martin

In this deeply human and sacred conversation, Jen Porter sits with Mallory Martin, Founder & CEO of Mended, as she reveals how God redeems both people and places through faithful obedience. Mallory shares the breathtaking story of survivors of modern-day slavery becoming artisans, sending their children to school, rebuilding dignity, and stepping into freedom — while also naming her own ongoing need for redemption as an entrepreneur who lives daily on her knees before God.

Together, Jen and Mallory explore how redemption is both already true and still unfolding: a holy dance of dependence, courage, and obedience where God provides the miracle and invites us into the joy of partnership. This episode is a stirring invitation to trust the whispers of God, release control of outcomes, and believe that your small, faithful “yes” can carry eternal impact — at a table, in your home, in your work, and across the world.

If you’ve ever wondered how your calling, your courage, and your kitchen table could be part of God’s redeeming story — this conversation will move you to tears and action.

Connect with Mallory & Mended:
Explore the beauty and impact of Mended’s hand block–printed textiles and learn how your home can become part of a story of restoration at mended.co. Follow Mallory’s leadership and the mission on Instagram and LinkedIn to see redemption in action every day.

Connect with Jen Porter:
For more conversations that root leadership in faith, courage, and identity in Christ, visit jenportercoach.com and follow Jen on LinkedIn and Instagram. If you’re ready to step more fully into your calling, Jen would love to walk with you.

Keep listening. Keep praying. Keep rising.
Until next time — the lioness in me sees the lioness in you. 🦁

Creators and Guests

Host

Jen Porter

Jen Porter is a faith-centered coach and podcast host who empowers women to live boldly from their identity in Christ, rooted in truth, courage, and holy confidence.

Guest

Mallory Martin

Founder of Mended: economically empowering survivors of modern day slavery.

What is Lioness Women: Rooted in Christ?

Welcome to Lioness Women, a space for faith-fueled women to connect with their purpose and amplify their voices. These Lioness Conversations highlight purpose-driven women who share how their faith in Christ shapes their leadership, courage, and calling. 🦁

Hosted by Jen Porter, leadership and empowerment coach, this podcast shines a light on women who are leading with wisdom, strength, and grace — in boardrooms, businesses, ministries, and movements around the world.

Through raw, inspiring conversations, we explore how women of faith are building legacies, overcoming fear, and transforming their industries with bold vision and unshakable belief. If you’re ready to rise higher, lead with purpose, and stay rooted in Christ — this is your community.

Faith-Based Leadership | Christian Women | Women of Faith | Christian Podcast for Women | Kingdom Leadership | Spiritual Growth | Eternal Impact

Jen Porter (00:00)
Hey, Lioness, welcome to the show, Lioness Women, Rooted in Christ. I'm your host, Jen Porter, leadership and empowerment coach for ambitious and heart-centered women who want to put God at the center of everything that we do. You're in for a treat today. We're in the middle of a series called Identity in Christ, and this week we're focusing on what it means to be redeemed, redeemed by God, redeemed in God.

And I have a very special guest and I can't wait for you to hear from her. Mallory Martin is a purpose driven leader and social entrepreneur whose heart for justice meets the artistry of restoration as founder and CEO of Mended, a Dallas based organization that economically empowers survivors of modern day slavery through handcrafted block printed textiles for the modern home shaped by years in the sports industry.

In transformational work with International Justice Mission, Mallory now leads with quiet courage, deep conviction, and a belief that healing, dignity, and beauty can be woven back into every life and every home. Mallory, welcome to the show.

Mallory Martin (01:16)
Thanks for having me, Jen. I'm excited to be here.

Jen Porter (01:18)
I'm so excited

to have this conversation with you. Thanks for taking time out of your busy and crazy schedule.

Mallory Martin (01:25)
Yeah, what a season, right? Isn't everybody busy and crazy right now? It's all right.

Jen Porter (01:27)
You

Yeah,

yeah. So Mallory and I know each other from International Justice Mission. We crossed paths there and then you left to start Mended. So tell us how you made that decision. Like when did, when was Mended, ⁓ you know, when was the vision ⁓ for that and when was it birthed?

Mallory Martin (01:38)
I

Okay.

Yes, in 2019, I was able to travel to India with a group of donors to show them the work that they had been supporting and visit our team in South India. And I just fell in love with this group of survivors. I had been to other IJM offices throughout the world, but this particular trip and this particular group of people.

captured my heart in a different way. They were so joyful and so resilient, so courageous, and I just fell in love with them. And though they were no longer enslaved because of the incredible work of IJM, because of the caste system in India, their ability to find sustainable work was their next uphill battle. And so the dream was birthed during that trip late 2019. COVID hit.

and I learned that they were sewing masks for their community members. And my husband and I decided to buy a thousand masks to give them some work to understand what a project would be like. And it was super life-giving. So the official mended registration took place late 2020 when I learned about block printing. I just immediately, oh.

Jen Porter (03:06)
And what is block printing?

Mallory Martin (03:09)
It's the coolest. I am the least creative person on the planet. So I didn't know about this, but if somebody has an art background, they likely know about this really, really cool technique where any design can be hand chiseled into a wooden block. I mean, truly, they take nails and chisel designs into wood. The wood is then dipped into a dye and then hand stamped over any textile.

It's a centuries old technique. They did it in ancient times when there wasn't anything close to a screen print. And so the moment I learned about block printing and kind of its popularity coming back into the States, I knew pretty instantly that it would be something that the modern day customer would be excited about. And so we figured out a way to train the survivors on block printing. And that was late 2020.

I didn't officially leave IJM until the summer of 22. I loved my time at IJM and honestly, I didn't want to leave. It's the mission that I wanted to be a part of forever. And then I just realized that God was calling me to play a different role in the same mission. And that meant leaving that organization to go do this. So that's kind of the rough timeline.

Jen Porter (04:30)
And were you partnering with IJM in order to connect with those survivors?

Mallory Martin (04:34)
Yes, still do to this day. So IJM is a pretty integral piece in what we're doing. One, they help us identify the survivors that are ready for work and in need of work. But then they also help the survivors run their business. So Mended is not employing full time all of these artisans. They have their own business.

Jen Porter (04:37)
Okay.

Mallory Martin (05:00)
and Mended is paying them per piece. And IJM's aftercare team is really helping them get that started and understand what it looks like to run a business. And so they're key partners in everything Mended's doing.

Jen Porter (05:13)
Incredible. Wow. So how, how is this mission connected to redemption in your mind?

Mallory Martin (05:22)
⁓ geez, it is, it's such a good question. And I think there's a lot of answers to it, Jen. I think for the survivors, when you think about their journey and their path, ⁓ a lot of things are needed in order to be redeemed. ⁓

relationship with Jesus, whether there is one or isn't one at this moment or at the beginning, is obviously central. But I think there's so many other factors that free them up to make that choice, right? And so economic empowerment is a blinding matter. If you can't provide for your children, if you can't ⁓ provide for yourself, put food on the table, have a roof over your head, that basic

necessity, it blinds you from what's in front of you offering redemption, which is Jesus Christ. So it's not necessary when you're making the decision of to follow Jesus or not, but it is sure a blinder and it sure does not show you what heaven looks like if you're paralyzed in fear from economic empowerment, right? And so I think this element of mended plays a role in their aftercare.

Jen Porter (06:40)
Yeah.

Mallory Martin (06:46)
IJM does a great job of providing aftercare services to survivors, but this piece of economic empowerment is really difficult. ⁓ so Menda has been able to play a role in that regard of just, it's just one piece of their redemption story, right? It's just one element. I'm not, thankfully the ⁓ weight of those things can't be on my shoulder.

Jen Porter (07:01)
Hmm.

Mallory Martin (07:12)
as Gary Haugen has so eloquently put so many times and has just ⁓ ironed into my soul is that weight, it can't be ours or we won't wake up with joy or energy to do anything about it. And so I'm excited that Mende gets to play a role in redemption for the survivors. ⁓ It's been the joy of my life to get to be a part of that. I also think that redemption on the customer side is a

big deal for us at Mended, I think it's on both sides of the table, right? It's on the side of the table of the people who print the product. We get to play a role in their redemption. But it's also this idea that when we set our table in an imperfect home with imperfect people, but we open our doors and we invite people to come have a meal with us, there is restoration.

and redemption at those dinner tables. There is power in breaking bread together, opening a good bottle of wine and actually asking questions with one another of what's going on in your life, what's going on in your soul, what's going on in your heart. I think there's a real piece of hospitality that plays a role in our redemption. Whether we've endured slavery or not, right? There's two sides of this. And so we try to talk about that pretty equally because ⁓

I think both are powerful.

Jen Porter (08:43)
Wow. What kind of changes are you seeing in these survivors who become artisans and become more empowered economically?

Mallory Martin (08:54)
significant. They are for the first time sending their kids to school. So none of the survivors that we worked with have before this season of life had education. And so their kids are all now all going to school because they have the funds to do so, which is super exciting. There's no more food insecurity. Many of them have built stable homes instead of thatched huts.

Right? They've got stable homes or modes of transportation. ⁓ Just it's a different ballgame to have stability in your home where you're not worried about where your food is going to come from, where you can actually pay the rent for a home. You can send your kids to school. And so that's a pretty consistent story across all of the families that we're working with.

Jen Porter (09:44)
And what do you see as change? Because those are the physical, external changes that allow them to, maybe something, they have space capacity for something else once those basic needs are taken care of. What else do you see changing?

Mallory Martin (09:50)
⁓ yeah.

Yeah.

I see a lot of joy. There was joy. There's actually that, I wouldn't say that's changed because that's something that captured my attention in this group when I met them was that they were just a super joyful group of people. I would say the changes. ⁓

Capacity is the right word because they're now free to chase other dreams. Some of them aren't going to be block printers forever. This is something that's getting them on their feet to go chase something else that they were made to do. There's this freedom to some of them get to go on vacations. Like they said, a group of them went to the beach for the first time ever. Vacation is such a novel idea.

to this subset of people. so, yeah, change, the freedom that economic empowerment can bring has revolutionized their life. Physically, all of those changes as mentioned, their joy is still there and that's been there from the beginning, but their sense of freedom, their sense of dignity, goodness, when we are given this confidence that

I can do a task and be paid for it and provide for my family is such a incredible feeling, providing confidence and.

dignity that they weren't experiencing. Sometimes they were getting day wages, day jobs, but like this consistent work of, am good at something and I am ⁓ consistently getting paid for this work ⁓ has changed their whole mindset. It creates a different human being.

Jen Porter (11:57)
How long does it take on average to go from receiving the care that comes from being set free, being rescued, to then getting a steady job, to some of those stabilizing factors like, okay, now I can actually build a home or buy a home or pay rent. Now I have this consistency of having food for my family.

Mallory Martin (12:17)
Hmm.

Jen Porter (12:23)
How long does that typically take? that like months and months or is it pretty quick?

Mallory Martin (12:29)
So my only knowledge is from the group that I work with. We have 23 artisans that are working basically full-time, meaning I'm able to give them enough orders to where it's full-time for them. And there's two communities of artisans. And the second community just started last year. We gave them, we trained them and gave them trial orders at the beginning of 2025. So this original group of 13 or 14,

has really been with mended from the beginning and it's been a stair step process. So at the beginning, year one, we were not giving them enough orders to have that sense of consistent life changing economic empowerment. But year two and year three, the orders were significant enough to where it was their full time work. And so it's hard to say because then this group that started at the beginning 2025 from the get go, it's been full time.

So they didn't have to endure this like, is this gonna be a real thing? I mean, the first group was just so gracious and trusting that this was gonna be what they should stick with, that they should hang in there with me. ⁓ Because I couldn't make promises that it was going to work. That wasn't gonna be how it would work. So anyways, it just varies the timeline.

Jen Porter (13:44)
Yeah.

Yeah,

yeah. And then how do you, I'm curious about the customers. So how do you share this with people to know that this is a thing that they can actually invest in? I mean, it really is an investment in lives as well as receiving these beautiful products. But I'm also curious about what kind of person gets really jazzed about this? Like, what are you seeing as far as patterns?

Mallory Martin (14:17)
it is my favorite thing is to meet primarily women who get just on fire for this mission. And you can just see it in their eyes that they want to make an impact. There's a huge group of people who want to make a global impact, but their understanding of how to do that on a day to day basis is really difficult.

it's not always clear how to ⁓ impact survivors across the world. We know we can give funds to organizations like IJM, awesome, do that, do that all day long. But how do you continue to do that in your everyday life choices is not always easy because there's a lot of companies out there making beautiful products that probably aren't getting them ethically. There's a lot of slave labor in the textile industry. There's a lot of slave labor in the...

brick and rice and jewelry business. And so I think it confuses customers. And so when they can find products that they love that are being ⁓ helpful and impactful towards survivors, I think it's really fun to those customers. We meet them all over. And how we storytell is something I'm learning, day after day. How do you tell the story efficiently?

in person, right? We've got our one to two sentences. And if they don't care about it, they just keep moving on and either don't care about the product or still love the product because it's beautiful, but don't necessarily love the story or care about the story, which is fine. Then you just don't go into detail about this work. But then you find the customer that really is asking questions and cares and wants to know more, wants to know how it got started, wants to know the artists in life.

So the in-person, have a lot of flexibility on how to do that and how to gauge if somebody wants to know more. Online, this world of Instagram and how to connect with customers in that space or on our website, it's a learning that I'm still learning on what's the most effective way to do that. We have videos and we post pictures of the artisans printing and we try to storytell. ⁓

Attracting attention in a digital world is really difficult. So how do you do it in a 12 second reel? Explain the impact is just wild. just and I don't have experience in retail. So I'm learning very much all the time.

Jen Porter (16:49)
You

But

you have a ton of sales and fundraising and strategic partnerships experience. ⁓ Are you doing, or do you do speaking engagements to let people know like the bigger story?

Mallory Martin (16:59)
Yeah.

would love to do more of that. I have done just bits and pieces. I haven't focused on that because being an entrepreneur is, so it's such a thing and it takes up all of my time. And so it hasn't been an area that I've been able to really focus on. I do believe that that's, when you think about how the Lord made each of us and what we think he's calling us to do, I do think he made me to be a builder.

Jen Porter (17:26)
Yeah.

Mallory Martin (17:39)
and a communicator, think he, I would love to get to do more of that ⁓ when capacity allows.

Jen Porter (17:40)
Yeah.

I know you were on Sharp Tank. The only reason I know that is because my dear friend was in the audience. So she said, do you know Mallory Martin? I said, I do. And she was just so impressed with your story and of course she won. And what impact did that have for you? Other than obviously the financial.

Mallory Martin (17:52)
I love that. Yeah. ⁓ thank you.

mean,

yes, it was a first of hopefully many, what they called Shark Tank Summit. So it was a conference. wasn't, you the actual television show, which will be aired on television, which would have been great. But it was a total miracle, Jen, that that happened. If I were to, it would take a whole podcast episode to walk through like how God introduced me to a friend several years ago through an advisory board member who

then started to work for this company that was hosting this conference. then they chose me. I mean, just out of hundreds of entrepreneurs at this conference, thousands in the audience, but hundreds of entrepreneurs, they chose Mended to get to pitch out of just three of us were chosen to pitch to these sharks. And, ⁓ it was, I was so nervous and so excited and

But then once I'm on the stage and getting to talk about this work is so natural to me. And it was all the fear was gone immediately when you get up there and you're interacting with these sharks. was the experience of a lifetime. And so obviously the grant money, they gave $35,000, which was significant. It's significant in this stage of business of just helps cashflow, helps ease the burden. And so that was wonderful. And then just the,

ability to say we pitch to shark tanks, right? We pitch to sharks. It's just a really cool thing. And it kind of lends this little small social impact business a little bit of like, ⁓ a little oomph, right? And we all need that little bit of oomph in whatever project we're working on. It honestly felt like a big hug from God of keep going. I just need, I really needed that at that moment in time.

Jen Porter (19:58)
So how did you get how did you become to care about or come to care about missional work? Has that always been a part of your life? Did or did something just open up for you?

Mallory Martin (20:14)
What a great question. When I haven't thought about in some time, because it has felt so much a part of me for a long time, but there was a beginning. ⁓ I grew up in a Christian home, but didn't really start following Jesus until late high school, early college. And I remember in college, a friend of mine had traveled to Uganda, met

International Justice Mission. And she came back and told me about it. So this was what 20, 20 plus years ago. And I remember thinking, she told me about IJM and she told me about the issue of sex trafficking and what that meant. And my world was shattered. The bubble is bursted. This sweet little world that I found myself in, totally protected. I hadn't experienced trauma. I hadn't really suffered.

And so to hear about this other side of the world or backyard, whatever, right? It's everywhere. Just exploded my innocence in the most wonderful way. It had to, right? Our bubbles always, you have to be exposed to that. In order to understand the eyes of Jesus and his suffering and what heaven is actually gonna be and how amazing heaven would really be.

Jen Porter (21:40)
Yeah.

Mallory Martin (21:40)
It was good for me to understand darkness and understand sin and understand suffering. And so that was my exposure. At the same time in college, the Lord was oddly making me love the business world. I love business. I'm here for it. I loved all of my classes in grad school. I got an MBA and just loved it. I felt

compelled by it, I felt energized by it. I love the idea of the water cooler and ministry being in the business setting. ⁓ So I pursued the business world for some time. I was in the sports industry before IJM and I loved it. And then long story of how I came to IJM, was, I had children and no longer the lifestyle of the sports industry was just not gonna work for the balance that I wanted. And I saw,

an ad for IJM on LinkedIn, literally on the side of LinkedIn, like a sponsored ad. And I clicked on it and I was like, IJM is the organization that I know about. Like it was somewhere in my brain. But at that time I was calloused against nonprofits. I, yeah, in a weird, maybe I read too many articles.

in grad school about misallocation of funds. No one's actually solving a problem. No one brilliant works for a nonprofit. All the brilliant people are in for-profit. I mean, there was something really in my brain calloused against the nonprofit space. But when I read that job description, the Lord just flooded me with, this is it. This is what you're gonna go do. This is what you're gonna care about. This is what I have for you.

Jen Porter (23:16)
⁓

Mallory Martin (23:31)
And so had a full identity crisis. I mean, just totally worked through that for several months. In the interview process, went to DC for IJM, met all of the brilliant people. I mean, brilliant. The fact that I even got to work for IJM is comical. Went there, met all these humans that could have been doing anything they were doing, running the FBI, leading churches, running law firms, all.

in this private sector for profit space, leaving that world to go beyond mission together in this way. And I just fell in love with the mission, fell in love with what Gary has built through the grace of God and that these people could actually end slavery in our lifetime was like the coolest thing I've ever gotten to be a part of. long story, but it wasn't, it was just this, you look back and go, ⁓ that's why God had me there.

that's why that roommate told me this story. that's why I love business, right? But he brought me to nonprofit because now he's bringing me back to business. I mean, she's cool. How cool.

Jen Porter (24:41)
think so many of us, like if you're looking in at someone's life, you think this was all very strategic. They knew what they wanted, they went after it. But I think the truth is that for most of us, we're just taking one step at a time and following one lead at a time and one open door and making a decision each time to say,

Mallory Martin (24:50)
Mmm.

Jen Porter (25:09)
yes or like I'm going to at least explore this and see what happens because you know none of us really know what our life is going to look like. We just like if we're trying to follow God we just want to take one faithful step at a time.

Mallory Martin (25:20)
No.

Amen. And I think it's this faithful one steps that help us uncover the onion of who we were made to be. I didn't know how God created me until genuinely six or seven years ago. early thirties is when I started to piece it together. I'm like, Oh, in this job, I really hated this aspect of it, but I loved this. And the next job, I really loved this, but I didn't like, you just,

Jen Porter (25:36)
Yeah.

Mallory Martin (25:55)
I didn't come out of the womb knowing I was gonna love business, knowing that I was gonna care about violence against the poor and ending that. I didn't know any of that. The Lord just gave me these experiences to start clearing it for me of this is how I made you and this is what makes your heart beat faster. Because as soon as I started to learn about this particular suffering, like my heart beats faster.

when I hear about this and I have joy knowing that I get to be a part of this. And I think what a gift, what a gift that God has shown me that. And I feel excited for other women to understand that. And I remember my time with IJM doing fundraising, meeting these incredible humans who wanted to generously support the work of IJM. So they're making significant money in the roles that they're in, but they're like,

man, I feel like I should quit my job to go work for IJM. I'm like, no, please don't because we need your money, right? Like we need you to be excellent in law, excellent in finance, excellent in what marketing? Go be excellent in the thing that God created you to be and then support it in a different way. Go share the gospel in your work setting. Now, maybe he's calling you to work for IJM. I'm not saying that wasn't.

somebody's story, but it's not everybody's. need, gosh, yeah.

Jen Porter (27:32)
I think about my own story and there were certain phases of my life where God was doing something inside of me that I obviously did not understand at the time. said, don't, we don't have the full picture for sure. But there were certain things that I became extremely passionate about and anti-trafficking was one of those. Also, widows in Africa. Like, where did that come from? But that was planted in me as a child in church hearing.

Mallory Martin (27:56)
Right, amazing.

Mmm.

Jen Porter (28:01)
story from a missionary. And it was like, God just planted that in me as an eight year old. But of course, then I live all this life and it doesn't emerge. Like, I don't know what to do with that. I haven't thought about it. And then I think a lot of times we, it's like when you were so passionate about business and you're like, I don't know why. Like, I don't know where this came from. I just am. And so instead of ⁓ questioning that or even resisting that, really getting curious about what that might mean.

Mallory Martin (28:06)
amazing.

Right?

Jen Porter (28:31)
Because ⁓ what God did for me is I couldn't make anti-trafficking in widows in Africa meet. And I felt like, why am I going to these conferences to learn and reading all these books and learning all these things? And then IJM was introduced to me. And that's where God merged my recruiting background, my deep passion for widows in Africa, my deep passion for anti-trafficking. And I'm like, this organization does both of those things.

Mallory Martin (28:40)
Mmm.

laugh.

Awesome.

Jen Porter (29:00)
And so

we don't have to have the answers. All we have to do is just get curious about what God might be doing and then just take each step at a time. So I think when ⁓ the listeners are saying, there is this thing that lights me up when I talk about it. People are always saying, like, you just come to life whenever you're talking about this. What's that about? Just get curious and begin to pray about what that could be.

Mallory Martin (29:07)
Yeah.

Yes.

Amen. Absolutely.

And that's a good way to pay attention to that comes from Jesus. What brings you joy? What makes your heart beat faster? What do you perk up? And yeah, be curious, pay attention to those things. That's not an accident and not everybody responds that way, right? if, yeah, yes. No.

Jen Porter (29:47)
Yes, that's right. Definitely not.

Everybody's made for something, you know, and it's like, you know, one of things you said you're really passionate about is, is helping others and, know, including ourselves, figure out what we're called to, how are we made, and what are we uniquely called to in this world for the kingdom and for the sake of others.

Mallory Martin (29:53)
Yes!

Right. And how beautiful that it's different for each person. How boring would it be if my calling and the way I was made is the same as yours? Right? Like that's not how God designed this to be. He designed us to be the body and be different parts of the body. And that's just a really beautiful thing. But part of operating the body is understanding what role you play. ⁓

Jen Porter (30:36)
I'm

Yeah.

Mallory Martin (30:43)
And I think that's really beautiful.

Jen Porter (30:46)
What do you think redeemed means? What's your understanding of what God means when he says, I have redeemed you like in Isaiah 43, beautiful, powerful passage of God saying, fear not for I have redeemed you and I call you my own. I am with you. And he goes on, know, when the waters pass, they will not overtake you. It's this beautiful, powerful ⁓ imagery in that passage. ⁓

I'm just curious your thoughts about what does it mean to you to be redeemed?

Mallory Martin (31:21)
think that the Christianese terms born again, right? And the old is gone, the new has come. I imagine redeemed is...

the new. is who we are in Christ when we are operating in Christ, right? When we are boldly and confidently

strong in who God made us to be. Now, we are redeemed. I think there's a permanent redeemed. For those who love Jesus, there is a permanent redeemed. I am redeemed. I am chosen for heaven. I get to go there. I can't wait. I am redeemed. No longer.

Sin is no longer defining me because of the blood of Christ. I also think there's this, you know, already not yet version of redeemed, of I am redeemed. I'm also prone to wander. I'm also still very sinful daily, right? So this, am I operating in the redeemed self that I know I am? I know I'm redeemed. Am I always operating as redeemed? No.

So I don't know what it, I think there are days when I'm like, redeemed Mallory showed up. Like she was here today, she was operating in faith, she was crushing it, right? Like she heard the Spirit, was listening to the whispers and then faithfully and obediently walking forward in those whispers. But then there's other days when I'm like, I'm weak and hearing Jesus and not obediently.

Jen Porter (32:55)
Shit.

Mallory Martin (33:17)
Following what I think he wants me to do and that's not the redeemed self. I think I Think there's a permanent redeemed and then I think there's this daily redemption that ⁓ is there for me, but I'm not always in it I don't know if that's theologically sound at all Jen. That's just like what It's it's that already. Yes. I don't know

Jen Porter (33:31)
Yeah, that's beautiful.

It definitely resonates.

It definitely resonates. And I think about your story and what you must walk through, have walked through, but will daily walk through in this business because this is a business of faith. It requires a ton of faith to do what you're doing. And I think about that passage of I will walk through the waters and I will not, they will not overtake me. I will walk through the fire and I will not be burned.

And the reason is, he says, because I'm with you. That's it. It's the only reason. The only reason is that we can do those things is because he is with us. And it's like last week, we talked about what it is to be courageous. And then Joshua 1, ⁓ God is asking Joshua to be brave, to be very courageous. And he also says he's calling him into battle and he needs to lead this army.

Mallory Martin (34:28)
and

Jen Porter (34:34)
But he again says the only reason he should be strong and courageous is because God is with him. And that's what he says over and over and over, because I'm with you, right? ⁓

Mallory Martin (34:42)
Yeah, yeah.

And I think

that's the whole point. I think it's the whole point. This journey of starting Mended and sustaining Mended has been way harder than I thought it was going to be. I think starting business was always something I wanted to do. I think that was in me also. This building entrepreneurship thing was calling for me for a really long time. And I just had no idea.

how hard it would be. And I think the weight of it affecting survivors has made it maybe harder, or maybe I'm putting that on myself. If this fails, that means 23 families no longer have this consistent income. That's for me to figure out and not have that weight. there's this...

you walk through it, you look back, it's a hills and valleys. The whole journey of having mended has been hills and valleys. And I look back, I'm like, come on, Lord, why don't you just open your storehouse of resources and let this thing blow up and be easy and let cash flow be easy and let me blow this up and then we can employ hundreds of survivors. Like how cool, you want that, right Lord? But the valleys have been absolutely when I'm on my knees the most.

by far where I'm begging for manna for the day. Lord, these bills are due. Lord, payroll is due. And I have no, like, you're gonna have to do a miracle is truly the consistent prayer during some months of running this thing. And I look back and I'm like, that is when I was crying out to the Lord. That is when I was on my knees the most, when it was absolute hardest. That's why there's sufferings and trials, right? Like, and also God,

Jen Porter (36:07)
Yeah.

Mallory Martin (36:37)
doesn't need us, right? I mean, he has accomplished his whole plan on earth through miracles and people, miracles and humans. And the only reason he's sweet enough to use humans is for our own joy and for his glory, not because he needs Mallory, right? Like he's kind enough to use me in this particular way. He was kind enough to use Moses. Moses was

right? To lead the people out of it. It was miracle after miracle after miracle. That's it. Miracle and humans. And the human part is just so that we get to be a part of what he's doing. And so I feel like that with Mended, like, you're going to do this or not. And I just get to be a part of it for my joy and your glory. And I think I'm starting to feel like I think he's just going to keep having me suffer along the way because it brings me closer to him and he's going to accomplish what he wants to accomplish.

Jen Porter (37:11)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Mallory Martin (37:37)
So, yeah.

Jen Porter (37:38)
I think I

have come to realize that that utter dependence on God is exactly where God always wants us to be. Utter dependence.

Mallory Martin (37:51)
Yes, right, I agree.

Jen Porter (37:53)
because that's where he does his best work. And it's so dangerous for us when we're not in that place, because that is when we start relying on our own strength, our own wisdom, our own understanding, and that's when the ego starts to get fed. And that is the danger zone.

Mallory Martin (38:09)
Absolutely, because if there were no downfalls in this journey and it was just success from day one, I would be really excited to say that was Mallory and really excited to pat myself on the back. And so he's kind enough to go, you can't handle that. Right? Like your desire for your own glory is right there at the cusp. So we're just going to keep that in check.

Jen Porter (38:21)
Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, so much of the work that I do is helping women identify what they are made for, understanding who they are. It always starts with identity, but then helping them get clarity on what it is that they're made for and then find the courage to step into it. Because that's always, fear is always the thing that holds us back from doing what we are probably called to do. And so I'm curious what, what advice you might have or encouragement.

Mallory Martin (38:55)
Mm.

Jen Porter (39:08)
you might have for women who are straddling that where they're like, and it's usually comes down to money. Like this is a really comfortable ⁓ financial position that I'm in. And I'm not, you know, we want to make the leap and have everything be the same. Like I want to make the same amount of money doing this completely other thing on our own, building something new. And that's not, that's typically not the story. And so it feels really scary to let go of.

you know, what could be called the golden handcuffs, ⁓ the velvet handcuffs because it's so comfortable. what encouragement would you have for women that might be straddling those worlds?

Mallory Martin (39:38)
Yes.

is.

It's the same encouragement I'm trying to give myself on a very regular basis, Jen. I made that leap, not understanding how big of a financial sacrifice it would be to step into that. I'm so glad I did, because what God is teaching me during this time is,

because I could stop mended and go find a job that pays significantly more because it's basically nothing. So anything is significant more. And I've wrestled with, would I do that? What is it that I don't feel like I have that I would go get if I was making X money? So there's this financial stress.

because I'm doing what I'm doing. And what freedom would I have if I wasn't under this stress? Like, ⁓ I'd want a bigger house and I'd want to go on more vacations. That is the, when Mallory's talking to Mallory and I'm like, I would like more money. There is an element of providing for my family, helping my husband provide for our family, but that's not what's really in my soul.

when I talk about going somewhere else to get another job. It's, I'd love a bigger house and I'd love more vacations. And that is not what God is calling me to do. That is not, my kids are great. Are you kidding? then I go, Mallory, the team I have in India, this is, and I'm close to it. I'm close to what,

poverty looks like and what suffering looks like. I'm proximate with what that world looks like. And I'm still struggling with wanting a bigger house and wanting more vacations. And so I get it. I empathize with every human that is wrestling with that. It is real. The pull is real. The prone to wander, the desire for better, bigger, more is so real. It's real in my soul and I am proximate.

Jen Porter (42:02)
Mm-hmm.

Mallory Martin (42:18)
to the other side. And so my encouragement would be really ask yourself those questions. Why do I want more money? What is it? Is it to pay bills? Okay, that's a different conversation. Putting food on the table or sending kids to school is a real conversation. Building a savings account, going on more vacations and building a bigger house is another side of the equation.

Jen Porter (42:29)
Hmm.

Mallory Martin (42:49)
And so we just have to be honest with ourselves of what is it you're wanting with that money? Comfort is not what we're called for. The Lord is gonna provide. He has provided for the lilies. He has provided for his people and he will give you manna for the day. And I'm saying that that is what I'm preaching to myself all the time. it's, I'm here with you. I'm here with that group of people that is struggling with that. It is so scary.

Jen Porter (42:51)
Yeah.

Mallory Martin (43:18)
but there's also like so much joy when you step into what God is calling you to do. This is a hundred percent what he called me to do. Will I be doing this forever? Probably not because I'm a builder. I don't know that I'm supposed to operationalize mended forever. ⁓ but not doing this, not stepping into this five years ago, whenever I did it would have brought, ⁓

I think I would have been disobedient. And I think the Lord would have like really kept poking me for a long time. And then this like weight of disobedience would be on my shoulders. Like it's not, so I don't know.

Jen Porter (43:49)
Hmm.

Yeah, you know,

it speaks to me so much because what God showed me last year, and I made a switch. I let go of my own striving and my own expectations of what this business needed to be. ⁓ And I let go of revenue goals. I did. That was what God was calling me to do. And then what I realized in letting go and just praying and

of watching what God was going to do when I took my hands off the reins. I just watched for six months to see like, and it just turned out to be that amount of time. I wasn't set out to that amount of time, but I watched him change me. I watched him change my marriage. I watched him change ⁓ how I showed up for other people. My capacity shifted and ultimately I switched from

you know, just being a leadership and empowerment coach for women to focusing on Christ. And God says, tell them about me. And so I changed the podcast to being Blindest Women Rooted in Christ, and I'm doing a series on identity in Christ. And so what I learned last year is that success was not how I was defining it. It's not how the world defines it. Success is obedience.

Mallory Martin (45:07)
and

Yeah.

Right.

Jen Porter (45:26)
And that's my word for this year, is obedience. Like nothing else matters apart from God and being obedient to what he's called us to in this very short life.

Mallory Martin (45:32)
Right. And it's not always easy to, well, it's definitely not easy to be obedient all the time, but it's not always easy to hear what he's calling you to do.

And so I think that's the other element of what I would encourage listeners to sit with is this encouragement to be obedient, this encouragement to step out into faith, into what they're made to do. But also this, before you can do that, before you can understand what you're made to be, what you're called to do, you have to sit with Christ and be still.

listen. And that, ⁓ that takes a long time. And it takes, I think I started to learn how to do that with IJM. But it's, God is not always or ever going to be really loud. It's, it's a whisper. And then you start to discern the whispers of like, was that me? Or was that you? Okay.

Maybe it was you. I'm going to do it because maybe it was you. And then you're like, I did it just recently. He had been calling me to do something for about eight months and it was absurd. It was a whisper, but it wouldn't go away. I was like, this is so absurd. and I just did it. I just, I just like had the phone call from the whisper. I won't give details. Um, and it did not produce.

Jen Porter (47:16)
Yes.

Mallory Martin (47:21)
what I thought it was going to produce. Like, okay, you asked me to do this, I did it, and then it didn't turn into that. All right, I feel great though, because you asked me to do it and I did it. So like, surely the obedience, right? But it's just, maybe I misheard it for eight months. Maybe that wasn't what he said, because it didn't turn into that. But I think we're just discerning. We're learning.

Jen Porter (47:23)
Hmm?

Totally.

You know what I'm remembering? I was, I'm remembering that in the fall when God was speaking to me about changing the direction of my work, He put you on my mind. It was like the middle of the night and you came to my mind and I reached out, that's why I reached out to you. And it was just like that, that was obedience, right? I don't know what, I don't, I don't know what could come of this, but we had a conversation and now we're having this conversation. And

Mallory Martin (47:50)
We're just sweet little kids. You wait.

Yeah.

I'm

Right,

Yeah.

Jen Porter (48:18)
And it's what I have learned too is that God calls us to obedience. He does not call us to the outcome.

Mallory Martin (48:29)
Right. That's right. He knows.

Jen Porter (48:30)
That's his, he owns it. It's his responsibility,

he's accountable for it. And so he's not judging us based on the outcomes of what we're doing. He's judging us based on our obedience to him and trusting in him. So that's all we have to do.

Mallory Martin (48:51)
That's really freeing because we're not in control. We don't need to be in control. Somebody is the grand master of our life with a great plan and he is good and he has a good plan for our life. So all we have to do is listen for the whispers, walk boldly in those whispers and then be like, okay, what's the next? I mean, how beautiful that we're not in control. That is good news. That is great news. But we have to listen and then just keep discerning.

Jen Porter (49:07)
Yeah.

It is.

Mallory Martin (49:21)
It's this ongoing lifelong process. Yeah.

Jen Porter (49:22)
And getting quiet and listening.

You know, I have a... When I journal, I write and I do not do it as much as I'd like at all. But when I do, I write the word listen and I underline it. And that's when I stop writing and talking. And that's when I'm like, okay, God, I'm here. Do you have something to say? And then obviously measure it against the Word of God and the character of God. Is this something that He would say? And then test it out.

You know, and usually, usually it's not even like, do this thing. Usually it's just affirmation of who I am and who he is. And that's enough to fuel me for the day.

Mallory Martin (49:57)
Totally.

That's right. I do the same thing. I don't, so I'll start my stillness time with journaling. And then I close my eyes. turn, I like have a little light when I do it in the morning. I turn that off because it's actually when I'm trying to close my eyes and picture, I picture me and Jesus.

at a table, it's the same table every time, where we're sitting is the same. And it's, you know, I think we're even sitting on the floor is like this vision that I have every time I'm trying, like when I'm trying to talk to Jesus, when I'm trying to listen to Jesus, we're at a table. And I'll sometimes I'll prompt like ask a question. There's a really, really great ⁓ speaker that

I've learned a lot about trying to listen to the Spirit through this speaker, James. I'm gonna forget who it is when it would be really helpful if I knew what his name was. ⁓ But it's this, what do you want me to know? So my question to Jesus is not why, because who are we? It's what do you want me to know? Here this thing is, it's really big. Or here's this person that is heavy on my heart. What do you want me to know? Or here's mended.

What do you want me to know? And most of the time I can see him hugging me and just saying, keep going. Or something else, right? But it's this visualization and it's normally just encouragement. It's normally just like him loving being with me at the table. This is what I want from you, right? Not actually anything big and intense. He's just really happy that I'm with him and I'm really happy that he's with me and I think that's it.

Jen Porter (51:29)
Hmm.

Mm.

Yeah.

Mallory Martin (51:50)
I think that's actually the goal. He just loves us so much and he just wants us to be at the table with him and wants us to have conversation with him and ask him, what do you want me to know? Sometimes he tells us things, other times he just hugs us or like, you know, and that's really cool too. Yeah, just keep going.

Jen Porter (51:53)
Yeah.

Yeah, let's just keep going. I mean, to hear that you're on the right

path, you're on the right path, you're doing it, you're doing it. So incredible. Thank you for sharing all that. How can people find out more about Mendit and see the products and purchase the products and buy them as gifts for everybody they know?

Mallory Martin (52:12)
Yeah.

Yeah. that'd be great. ⁓ We have a website, mended.co, where all of our products are listed there. We have a Dallas showroom, an in-person shop in Dallas. ⁓ And then we go to a ton of pop-up markets, but on Instagram, we're just kind of regularly sharing about those things, sharing the story on Instagram, which is mended underscore co. So.

Jen Porter (52:36)
wow.

Mallory Martin (52:50)
We're around, we'd love to connect with anybody who would be excited about our products and our story.

Jen Porter (52:55)
Yeah, and

who knows, partnerships, know, something like that. Yeah, yeah. ⁓ Mallory, what ⁓ an incredible mission. I'm so, you know, I thank you for your faithfulness. I thank you for your courage because you're impacting these lives in ways that will have eternal consequences that are so beautiful. And I just have this belief that if we each do our little part, you know, our little part,

Mallory Martin (52:58)
⁓ I'm here for it. Let's do it.

Jen Porter (53:25)
the world would be such a better place and the needs of the world will be met because each of us is doing our little part in it. So thank you for doing yours.

Mallory Martin (53:36)
Thank you for doing your role, Jen. Thanks for encouraging women and leaders and diving into what it means to be rooted in Christ is truly encouraging.

Jen Porter (53:39)
⁓

Thank you, it's my honor. ⁓ It's a joy to get to do this. Well, I just want to leave the listening audience with a blessing. May you walk free and stand fearless as a fully redeemed daughter of God. May you walk free and stand fearless as a fully redeemed daughter of God. Thanks for being with me, Mallory. Everybody check out mended.co.

Mallory Martin (53:48)
⁓ Yeah.

Jen Porter (54:16)
And until the next episode, the lioness in me sees the lioness in you.