March 10, 2021 • 40 mins
Isn't it just like God to use something seemingly small, like shrimp, to make a MASSIVE impact in the Kingdom?
It might seem like Jeremy Wainwright just suddenly decided to make a change, but really, God was working in his heart long before his friend said, "Would you like to go to Honduras?"
It didn't take him long to decide that this was the opportunity God was giving him and that trip changed EVERYTHING. Now Jeremy has started Shrimp Matters and is actively working with partners in the United States as well as Honduras to bring sustainable shrimp farming to communities.
His work, despite the challenges of COVID-19, is making a difference, and he believes that God has more!
It was exciting to talk with Jeremy and I believe you'll be as encouraged as I was.
Listen to Discover
- When God started working on Jeremy's heart
- How key relationships have helped Jeremy along the way
- The power of waiting patiently, trusting that God is moving
- How Jeremy has grown as a Believer and as a leader
- What impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on their shrimp farm
- Jeremy's heart for ministry led by the local Church
- What a small payment, a $100 bill, and shrimp have to do with the Kingdom
- And much, much more
Resources & Contact Info
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shrimpmatters
Show Links
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- Messenger: @engagingmissions
- Twitter: @engagingmission
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- Listen for Free
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Bryan (00:00):
This is episode 278 of the Engaging Missions Show.
Today we're talking with Jeremy Wainwrightof Shrimp Matters about little faith, a
big God and stepping into the unknown.
Jeremy (00:10):
You would think God speaking to me so clearly the way that he
did that, I wouldn't worry anymore.
Announcer (00:16):
Welcome to the Engaging Missions Show, where
we are bringing missions home.
Here's your host, Bryan Entzminger.
Bryan (00:24):
Today.
I'm just so happy to be able tointroduce to you Jeremy Wainwright.
He's the founder of Shrimp Matters withthe goal to share the love of Jesus
with the people of Honduras and to equipthem with resources, but with shrimp
playing a pretty big part of this now,personally, I'm not a huge fan of shrimp,
at least not for eating, but I do seesome of the creative ways that God can
(00:46):
use this to provide through Jeremy.
So Jeremy, welcome to the show.
Jeremy (00:51):
Thank you so much.
Thank you for having me.
I really appreciate it.
Bryan (00:53):
Oh, it's totally my pleasure.
I'm really glad that wewere able to do this.
And, and frankly, I'm glad that youreached out to me to, to just ask if this
was an option, because I'm really gladto be able to do this as we get started.
I think probably the name shrimp matters.
A lot of people mightnot know what that is.
So can you maybe share with us alittle bit about what shrimp maters is?
Jeremy (01:15):
Okay.
Shrimp matters is actually, Istarted in the beginning of 2019.
The whole idea.
I actually went on a missiontrip in October of 2018.
My very first mission tripshort-term mission trip.
And when I got back home, I waspraying about opportunities to help.
I saw the poverty and inHonduras, and I saw the crime.
(01:37):
There's so much crime and.
Andras as well.
And just so many areas of brokennessthere and it really touched my heart.
So I started praying aboutopportunities, what I could do to
help out in any way whatsoever and,uh, remained very good friends.
Even after the mission trip with aman there named Augustine Garcia, he
(01:58):
was a local there that would go helpserve his community alongside of us.
And I got in touch with him and.
We just would talk back and forth andwe'd pray back and forth about the people
of Honduras and the brokenness there.
And shortly after that at work, Ihad a conversation with a friend that
had been on a mission trip to centralAmerica, actually in Guatemala.
(02:21):
And she had actually been to a villagethat had a tilapia farm that had funded.
The entire village, it had asmall hospital, it had several
other things there, but it was allstarted by just this a tilapia farm.
And it was intended just to feed thepeople there, but it wound up producing
(02:42):
a sustainable income for that village.
So I thought this is wonderful.
So, uh, got in touch with my friendAugustine Garcia, and I said, uh, Can we
look into this as an opportunity in, uh,in Honduras and through a lot of prayer
and research, we discovered that in theSouthern part of the countries, there
(03:05):
were areas there that had shrimp farmsand that we could lease the property.
And we did all the research thatwe needed to figure out, okay,
how do we even go about this?
And we figured out where wecould buy the larva, you buy the
shrimp larvae and you feed them.
And they grow and act beforemuch everything can be sold.
(03:28):
And from that, we were thinking,well, there could be jobs there.
Wow, this has been done.
And after that, with, with all thefunding that come from the sale,
we could build homes that we could,uh, help with the clean water.
There there's a lot of areas thatdoesn't have clean water at all.
We, and we can help out with a lotof things such as that, and even
(03:49):
feed the people that are hungry.
So it was a veryself-sustaining kind of idea.
So that was the initialidea of, of shrimp matters.
What later came, I guess that wherethe name actually drive was after
we basically had this idea and Godrevealed this great idea to us.
(04:11):
We kept praying for further opportunities.
And at one point at my church, wewere doing a series and I had spoke
to, uh, the campus pastor there aboutmy dream and this whole mission.
And he said, you know, I'vegot a series coming up and.
It would be perfect toshare this with everyone.
(04:33):
So when I shared it, that waswhen everybody started coming
up to me and saying, Hey, Iwant to be on board with this.
So that's, that's how thewhole thing initially started.
Bryan (04:44):
It's really interesting to me because you, you shared that this
essentially came out of an experienceon a mission trip and then kind of
maintaining a relationship, but there are.
Lots of people that go on mission trips,then don't have this kind of response.
Is there a reason why that trip spoketo you in such a way that you said,
you know what I have to step in?
(05:05):
I don't want to say step in and dosomething like I'm going to save people.
Right.
But I have to be partof what God wants here.
What was it that really spoke to you?
Jeremy (05:13):
I spoke about my friend, Augustine, that I've,
we talk pretty much on a.
Weekly basis.
And we have pretty much since thatfirst trip that I had, but something
that he told me that has never leftme that initial week in 2018, he
said, I have been part of these,what they refer to as brigades.
(05:33):
It's a lot of North Americansthat will come down every week
on short-term mission trips.
And he said, I have been partof this for nearly 15 years.
He said, I've helped serve alongside.
And he said, I can count on one hand thepeople that have even responded back to
me that I've even spoke to a second time.
And.
I just could not believe that weekendand week out there was so many
(05:57):
people go in there, but very, very,very little follow up whatsoever.
And, you know, God reallytouched my heart with that.
So that's when I, that's, when Ireally decided I'm going to be very,
very intentional about reachingout to him and seeing what I can
do to help the people founders.
Bryan (06:15):
Well, I, I appreciate that.
I mean, it sounds like you, youreally have a desire to be a
man of your word and to followthrough in a manner of integrity.
Is that, is that accurate?
Jeremy (06:24):
I don't know how I would say, you know, I guess I'm someone
where I would never probably say thatabout myself, but that is something
that always staying has said.
He said, you have alwaysconstantly been whatever you
say, you can take it to the bank.
And that does make me feel goodto know that, that he actually
feels that way about me.
So that's, that's great.
Bryan (06:43):
You've mentioned a little bit about the vision for this, that perhaps in a
few years, this might be self-sustainingto provide jobs and income and
infrastructure education, like all of thethings that can happen because of that.
I'm wondering as you look forwardto that other ways that you also
see this being self-sustaining,besides just the money keeps kind of
Jeremy (07:06):
recycling, if you will.
Yes.
I see it in so many different ways.
I mean that you have, themoney will actually be.
You know, recycling, but something thatI want to make sure that happens is
that the local churches are involved.
That there's a lot of communityeffort as a whole, when a lot of these
activities are being done, whether thatbe the building of homes, I would like
(07:27):
to see a lot of scholarship programswith a lot of the children, because
what tends to happen in Honduras sooften is, uh, the presence of the.
You know, Ms.
13 is very, very present there.
And in Honduras, Ms.
13, Ms.
13 has a lot to do with the drug cartel.
A lot of it you probablyheard of in Colombia.
(07:49):
Well, it's present also in Hondurasand there are local gangs there in the
capital city, around the capital city.
And what happens between 11 and.
Cite 15 years old.
A lot of kids are brought in at a very,very young age into this organized
crime and that becomes their life.
(08:10):
And they wound up either someonethat is later killed or maybe
someone that winds up killing others.
And it that's, that's basicallyhow this whole thing starts
is at a very, very young age.
So if we can somehow oranother provide something that.
These kids can see another direction,maybe some type of hope in some other
(08:30):
way that that would get them awayfrom those types of environments.
That's something that we're really,really looking forward to as well.
Bryan (08:38):
I like that.
I mean, that's a great vision, right?
To provide alternatives as well.
I think that's important.
You mentioned the localinvolvement of the church.
I think that's stellar.
I think that's almost requiredfor this kind of thing.
What do you think thatinvolvement needs to look like?
Jeremy (08:53):
Well, I think in so many different ways that if we can
partner, you know, the, the shrimpfarm itself and other opportunities
that we see in the future, that's,uh, that is, uh, a source of income.
That would be just there and in Honduras.
But, but if, if used effectively, if doneeffectively, like we're wanting to do
in the future, hopefully we can partnerwith these local churches to where, when.
(09:18):
We are in these, when these churchesare located, say in these areas that
have high levels of poverty, that thecharts themselves can go and serve the
people directly in their area and reachout to them, maybe partner with them.
There can be a lot of even, uh, oneinstance that I know of for example,
is there's one small local church I sawthere that had a small sewing ministry.
(09:42):
That they would bring people in.
And it was a job opportunity rightthere for some of the people.
So that was the local churchreaching out and giving.
It was several widowed women, theopportunity to be able to provide
for themselves and just opportunitieslike that is what I like to see
more of coming from the revenuefrom, from the shrimp farm itself.
Bryan (10:03):
Wow.
That's that's great.
This is, if I remember it,this is a fairly new ministry.
Jeremy (10:08):
No, it's very, very much new.
Like I'm still, it's very safeto say that, you know, God
has just opened up the doors.
Cause I there's so much that we stilldon't know, but just how far God has
taken, this is just amazing to me.
Bryan (10:22):
One of the things I've been wondering.
Cause I think you're maybe one or two.
Are they called crops?
Jeremy (10:27):
Yeah.
W w we refer to them, Iguess, as a harvest, more is
what you do than anything.
Bryan (10:31):
So you're a one or two harvest in there was at the time that we're
recording this about nine or 10months ago, there was the start of the
whole global pandemic COVID-19 thing.
I'm assuming that impacted your travel.
Jeremy (10:47):
Uh, it impacted travel, but it also impacted the second harvest as well.
Uh, that was the negative part ofwhat has went on in the, during
the global pandemic was whathappened during the second harvest.
The first harvest went well.
We were able to harvest 5,500 pounds.
And from that harvest, therewas someone that pulls straight
(11:10):
up to the shrink form itself.
They purchased the shrimpthere and they leave.
So it was a very, very simple transactionthere and yeah, it was amazing.
So we had the funding toreinvest and we also had the
funding to help the community.
Cause that's basically all that was, dowe want it to be able to provide jobs
during the shrimp farm itself while shrimpforum going on, but on the back end of
(11:33):
that, we wanted to be able to reinvestand everything left over would go to rot
back into the community, whether that be.
To build homes to help clean water,to feed those that are hungry.
So first harvest went wellabout the time we started.
The second harvest was whenthe global pandemic really hit,
(11:54):
uh, Honduras extremely hard.
And their government was very, very,very strict because their healthcare
system and Honduras is not anythinglike it would be in the United States.
So their government got very, verystrict as to who could be out.
And when.
And it got to the point that you couldonly be out one day every two weeks.
(12:16):
And that was not enough time for us tobe able to get the food we needed to feed
the shrimp and to do the things that weneeded to do to keep the shrimp alive.
So the shrimp, I actually died in thesecond cycle, so I am currently in the
process of getting it back up and go.
And again, since that has happened,
Bryan (12:35):
so what does it look like to get it back up and running?
Is it what's
Jeremy (12:39):
involved?
It would start with justthe total, uh, startup cost.
Uh, and the total startup cost is justbelow, uh, around $8,000 just shot $8,000.
It would be that would cover the leaseof the property that covers the bond,
the shrimp larva fading the shrimp lowerfor those four months and providing
(13:01):
three jobs for those four months.
And on the back end of that.
That's where we will harvest andthat's where we will do this again.
I, and the thing is that thewonderful thing about it is God
showed me through the first one,you know, with the first harvest.
Everything went wonderfully.
And God showed me that this issomething that can truly happen.
(13:23):
And the second cycle is just anexample of, we live in a broken
world where we try to plan things.
We try to do things, but in the generalscheme of things, sometimes in this
broken world, things don't go as planned.
But I do understand.
That through those times, Godcan use those for something good.
And the thing that I see now is it reallyallows me to just look at everything as
(13:47):
a whole and say, okay, in the future,when we get this going, what can we
do to be able to worst case scenario?
How can we really be preparednext time for worst case scenario?
Because I didn't think aboutthat until this happened.
Yeah.
Bryan (14:01):
So have you already raised the money for the second one?
Jeremy (14:05):
I've raised almost half.
And some of that funding I sentactually down for the relief
from the hurricanes that hit.
In October.
So I sent some emergencyfunding down for it.
So I'm just short of half of what we needto, to get the initial cost back going.
(14:26):
But, but my goal is in the futureto have even more in reserve, just
in case something like that happensagain, uh, like, you know, like
the global pandemic was somethingthat, that really set us back.
So hopefully we can.
Really, really, uh, just plan aheadin the future to where it wouldn't
really set us back this fall.
Yeah.
Wow.
That's
Bryan (14:46):
I mean, I'm glad that you're that far along, I'm thinking about
maybe the people that are listening.
So if you're listening rightnow and you've been looking.
For something to do, maybe God'sbeen stirring in your heart that
there's some level of investmentthat he'd like for you to make.
I'd like to encourage you to prayerfullyconsider Jeremy and shrimp matters.
We'll have a link for you to beable to connect in the episode notes
(15:07):
so that you can go find out, prayabout it and see if God would have
you be involved in this because.
We already know thatGod has the resources.
The question is whether ornot he wants you involved.
And I don't know the answer to that,but I would encourage you to pray about
it because this could be an opportunityfor you to invest in what God's doing.
So I just encourage you to do that.
(15:29):
I'd like to kind of take a bit of a stepback, Jeremy, because we mentioned that
a lot of this kind of started with the,the mission strip, but there's this one
kind of burning question in my mind.
Why'd you go on that trip?
Jeremy (15:43):
I would guess the first thing that really got me to go and more so than
anything was it had been a thought inmy mind, I guess it was one of those, I
guess you could say bucket list things.
I guess I had at one time, Ijust, I thought, you know what?
I really just need to go on a missiontrip, uh, short term and just see
what it's like and just experiencea lot of things that I've never been
(16:04):
able to experience before and seeif there's any way, you know, that
I can reach out and love others.
And that was just the.
The initial thought and it had been goingon for years and, uh, a friend of mine
from church called me and he said, hesaid, Hey, he said, uh, would you like to
go on a mission trip to Honduras with me?
And I said, uh, you know what.
(16:29):
Ask think, I think I will.
I said, I know.
And when he called me that w there wasn'treally that much time to, before we were
actually going to leave, I had to hurryup and get my passport and everything.
So, but I said, you know, what, if Ican swing it all in time, I think this
would be perfect time for me to do that.
So, and you know, when I went on myfirst mission trip, I was probably.
(16:51):
Thinking a lot of the things that anybodyelse would go in on a mission trip, you
know, I mean, a lot of people probablyworry about a lot of the, a lot of the
things about leaving the comforts of wherethey live in the United States and, you
know, We were told when we first got downthere, do not drink any water, do not
brush your teeth with any of the water.
(17:12):
And a lot of things likethat, a lot of people probably
think about things like that.
But as something that I want to encouragepeople that maybe are worried about
situations like that are worried aboutbeing in a different environment like that
is very, very, very quickly into the trip.
It shifts from you not thinking aboutyourself to you pouring into others and.
(17:34):
Anybody that I have ever talkedto that has been on a mission
trip will tell you the same thing.
And I think for no other reason,we just get so complacent.
I feel like day in and day out here inour normal jobs and our normal activities.
And I feel like we're a lot of times thecenter of our daily lives, but I think a
(17:55):
mission trip just changes to perspective.
Of everything and it did for me.
So I went from being very selfish, worriedabout getting sick from drinking the water
there too, by the end of that week, I'mcrying because I don't want to leave.
And it was just amazing.
So that's really how I started,but I just want to encourage
(18:17):
people that may be listening tothis, that, you know, maybe they.
Are thinking about missionsand never have went.
I want to encourage you to go.
It will change yourperspective of everything.
Bryan (18:28):
Wow.
That's that's I mean, that's,that's so true, but yeah, I
appreciate you sharing that.
As you've been building these, youstarted from a trip that turned into
a vision and then some relationshipsthat started you on the path of, okay.
I think this is something that wecould do during the course of this.
Were there ever times when you thoughtthis is too hard, I'm going to quit.
Jeremy (18:48):
There's been several times where I just felt like, I don't
know if the word quit ever came up,but I will honestly say that I have
questioning the timing many, many times.
There's so many times I feellike God always comes through.
Then I feel like every time that Iget to a point that I don't feel like
things are moving fast enough so quicklyforget that God's timing is the best.
(19:11):
So I will honestly say if I have.
Taking anything from that.
It's the fact that I've worried too muchand I have not dressed it God enough,
through this process, even though he keepscontinually specifically showing me what
the direction forward is, I'm interested
Bryan (19:29):
to know if you can share with us one of those experiences where
you weren't sure about the timingor there's something like that.
And God said, no, this isthe way this is the time.
Yes, you can.
Jeremy (19:41):
Absolutely.
This is why.
The organization that, uh, that I amstarting is called shrimp matters.
At this point, I have the name charteredthrough the state of Tennessee and
our next steps will be to completelyestablish the board and we will be a
nonprofit within the next few months, but.
The name is alreadycharted as strep shrimp.
(20:02):
Miters and that will be the storythat I'm going to share with you.
That really where God just, okay,God can just completely spoke to me.
He's like, okay, thisis what you need to do.
And it's not, you know, it was asclear as can be that this was the past
forward, but I was telling you earlier,How I was sharing this with my church.
(20:22):
You know, there was a series thatcame up and I had the opportunity
to share what God had laid on myheart and what possibly could be done
through this idea of the shrimp farm.
So I shared it with the church beforeI got up there, I talked to the
pastor and he said, you need to, youknow, specifically I ask people for.
For funding, he said,go ahead and do that.
(20:43):
And he said, you know, is thereanything that God's laid on your heart?
And I said, well, I said, II've pretty much at the time.
Uh, I told you the startup costis just under 8,000, but at the
time I had to undershot it, Iwas thinking it was around 7,000.
So God had laid on my heart at that time.
He's like, for some reason when I sawthat number, I just, you know, I saw that
if I could get 70 families, 70 peopleat a hundred dollars, if I could get.
(21:09):
People to donate 70 families at ahundred dollars, I would be right
where I needed for this thing to start.
So I told the pastor aboutthis and he said, okay.
He said, you need to share that.
And I said, well, Idon't like ask it again.
I don't think anybody is reallycomfortable just being like,
Hey, can you donate to this?
I mean, it, it's a very, veryuncomfortable position to do that.
(21:32):
He said, no specifically say that.
So I got up and.
I told her about the shrimp farm.
And I told him about the idea andI told him at the end, he said, is
there any way that we can support you?
And as uncomfortable as it made me feel,I say that, I said, if I could get 70
families or 70 people to donate a hundreddollars, I said, this thing can get going.
(21:56):
And I said, that door will be open.
And you know, we'll get to see what God'sdoing through this mission in Honduras.
And at the end of the service.
There was person after person,after person that came up to me
specifically with a hundred dollars.
And one woman in particular cameup to me and, uh, she was crying.
Her hands were shaking.
She said, I have a hundreddollars to give you, but she
(22:18):
said, I got to tell you a story.
She said, you won't believe how specificthis is to what I just heard you say.
She said I was at redlobster earlier this week.
And she said I was sitting there andshe said, I noticed over at a couple
of tables over that there was a womansitting there and she was looking through
her purse to try to pay for the shrimpcocktail she about, and I could tell,
(22:42):
she obviously thought she must've had it.
And she didn't.
So she said, uh, motion toher waitress to come over.
And she said, I paidfor her shrimp cocktail.
And she said, I settled up there.
And she said a few minutes later, a manfrom another table came over and she
said, he looked down at me and said,Hey, he said, ah, I saw what you did over
(23:03):
there, pay it forward for that woman.
He said, I just really, reallyappreciate what you did.
And he.
Went to give her a hundred dollars bill.
He said, I want you to have thisbecause it looks like you're someone
that would do something good with this.
I've already seen your heart.
And she said, no, no, no.
She said, I'm fine.
She said, you know, I'm comfortable.
God's a place me.
I have money.
He said, no, no, no.
I want you to keep this.
(23:25):
And when he handed it back,he said, shrimp matters.
So that is the whole, when she toldme this story about shrimp matters
and the a hundred dollars of thea hundred dollars that she gave me
was the same hundred dollars thathe had gave her earlier that week.
So, um, if I don't see how God couldhave spoke any more clearly, I think
(23:49):
sometimes people refer to, you know,you hear God in his still small voice.
I think God was shouting at that point.
It's, this is the path forward,
Bryan (23:58):
man.
That's great.
As you've been going throughthis through the process, right?
There's a lot of things to builda lot of stuff to take care of.
Have you ever had to remind yourself,wait a minute, God told me back here
and so I can continue to trust him.
How, how does that work out for you?
Jeremy (24:15):
Yes, there's so many times that that has happened.
I mean, especially through this pandemicwhen the first harvest went so well and.
We, we got some extra donationsto build other homes too.
So three homes actually got built.
There were many, many, many familiesthat got fed through the pandemic, just
from what we had from the first harvest.
(24:37):
And so many of those great things happen.
So that was the reminder, even after.
The shrimp had died in the second cycle.
That look how much God has done.
Even through these times where we've seenthe brokenness liquid God has still done.
But also I want to say I am very,very, very quick to forget, and
(24:58):
I'm very, very quick to worry.
And you would think God speaking to meso clearly the way that he did that,
I wouldn't worry anymore about thenext step, but me as a fallible human
being, I'm so quick to forget, but I do.
I am so, so thankful for what Godhas done through this mission.
Bryan (25:19):
I can totally relate.
I have amnesia all the time about thisstuff that God's done in his promises.
I'm wondering going through this, thismust have changed your relationship
Jeremy (25:29):
with God.
Absolutely it, like I was sayingearlier about the fact that I'd
never, even before I'd been on amission trip, I just felt like, um,
I was more or less the center of my.
Weekly activities.
And, you know, I didn't really thinkof much more than what I needed to do.
(25:50):
I have to go to work.
I had to go do this.
And I just honestly think throughthis process and through this mission
and through me doing something thatI'm not comfortable doing, and I've
put myself in positions to where, youknow, I've asked for funding where
I don't really feel comfortable.
I have been.
In many ways, I've done a lot of thingsthat I wouldn't ever imagine that I
(26:11):
would ever do as far as stretchingme as far as my comfort level.
So if anything, my comfort level,and I truly think there is a direct
correlation between spiritual growth andyou being just out of your comfort zone,
because I think once you walk in yourcomfort zone, if you sit there and your
(26:31):
comfort zone, I have never felt gross.
Like I have, when I am sitting somewherewhere I'm like, okay, God, I really,
really, really, really need you right nowbecause I'm in a vulnerable spot or, um,
you know what I mean, I'm uncomfortableor I'm really putting myself out there.
So that's something that I've reallynoticed about my relationship is, uh, um,
(26:53):
trusting him more and I'm just seeing himspeak to me more through this process.
So
Bryan (27:00):
you inadvertently headed down my notes to the next thing I was going to ask
you about, which is just great, becauseyou mentioned that this has caused you
to grow, it's caused you to stretch.
And I'm wondering, can you think ofa time where you had to grow in faith
or as a leader or something like that?
And tell us a story of how you,how God grew you through that?
Jeremy (27:21):
Yes.
I think a lot of my growth would still.
Go right back to, at some point throughthis ministry would be in some way.
And my growth, I feel like the areawhere I feel like I truly need to
ask for more growth is probablypatience and understanding God's
timing and time, and time and timeagain, he shows me I've got this.
(27:45):
Don't worry about this.
At one instance that I can think of was a.
Shortly after I shared that story withyou at church, that was funds that I
had received, but I still was not evenhalfway to being funded to start this.
And I thought, okay, thisis another stopping point.
I don't know what to do.
And I'm worried.
And I was getting impatient andI was like, God, what do I do?
(28:06):
And I felt like I needed to start,you know, sharing this more.
I felt like it was somethingthat I needed to be doing.
So I started looking for otheropportunities and, uh, I would
try every way that I could to tryto whatever the next step was.
I was trying to push it, but whatGod kept showing me was, you know,
his timing is the best because at onepoint I had reached out to a friend
(28:30):
of Augustine's the friend on Honduras.
He had a friend in the UnitedStates, so I reached out to
them and they were a journalist.
Massive.
Can you help me out with this?
Is there any way thatyou can spread the word?
And she said, sure.
So she wrote somethingback to my local paper.
And she said, I'm going to sendsomething to your local paper to
see if we can't get it out there.
And I said, well, that's, that's fine.
(28:51):
If he's like, that's the best thing to do.
We'll do that.
So I did that and that I heardnothing for, I don't know, maybe
a month, month and a half then.
Me, I'm getting impatientand I'm like, Oh, okay.
I guess I'm going to have totry to get in touch with them
again or do something like that.
And so I was trying to force things again.
(29:12):
So, and what happened was I calledher again and I said, Hey, I
never heard anything back fromthe paper is what should I do?
And she said, well, youcan reach back out to me.
Do you want to, I hung up the phone andI drove about two minutes down the road.
And the phone rang from the newspaper.
And me being impatient that entire time,the newspaper gets in touch with me.
(29:37):
And from that newspaper, the restof the funding came because there
was families that read about it andit came in and it was just one of
those things again, where it was justlike, God's like, I've got this and.
It's really helped me grow.
Wow,
Bryan (29:52):
man, that's a great reminder, right?
Because I don't know about everybodyelse listening, but I have a
tendency to try and do things myselfso I can relate to that for sure.
Absolutely.
One of the things, and this is alittle bit touchy to bring up, but
one of the things that can happen.
When we have a heart to minister topeople is we can actually sometimes
end up doing more harm than good.
(30:13):
And I know this is something that whenwe were emailing back and forth, you
said, this is really important to me.
So can you share with me how you'vetried to approach this so that you're
not leaving your thumb prints all overwhere God is trying to work if you will.
Jeremy (30:29):
Yeah.
I think it all really startedwell, you know, when I did go
on that first mission trip.
I saw so many ways where I was like,well, you know, this is doing a lot
of help for a lot of people justas helping out a lot of people that
are living in poverty and need.
And it was a great feeling.
It is.
It's a great feeling to go on a missiontrip and to do all those things.
And the problem is, and a lot of thiscame from a book that I read later
(30:53):
that was called when helping hurts isso many people can come and approach
missions from a really, really goodplace and still do a lot of harm.
And I think the problem more so withthat than anything is just the fact that
we're not really taking the environmentthere into consideration or taking the
(31:16):
people in general, how they feel intoconsideration when we're trying to help.
A lot of times, I think wecan alleviate things by just.
Fixing what we see right there.
If we see somebody that, that livesin poverty, a lot of times people
will just like, well, we'll just givethem some money or we'll just set up
something here to where they're okay.
But what we don't really realizeis, you know, God is relational
(31:38):
with all of his creation and, youknow, we are created in his image.
So we are relational as well.
And not only are we relational with God,we're also relaters relational with others
and we also have a self relationship.
And the problem with povertyis it's not always about money.
People that live in poverty.
They have a problem withtheir self relationship
(32:00):
because they experience shame.
They experience fear being inferioror having no voice in these are lies.
So, you know, that basically that theyhave within themselves because you
know, the good news of Jesus crossesthat, you know, he came to reconcile.
And put all of, for relationships, whetherthat be a broken relationship with others,
(32:23):
broken relationship with yourself, hecame to reconcile all those things.
So a lot of times by just giving moneyto something or just helping out, just
to what makes you feel better justto what you feel like fix the problem
might not be what the answer is.
The answer might lie alot deeper into, okay.
Let's talk to this person andlet's see what their talents are.
(32:45):
And let's see if there's any waythat we are actually can help the
local church to walk beside them.
And maybe they could possibly havea job in the future that way it
might be, they can feel a littlebit more like, okay, I am created in
the image of God and I am special.
And I am someone that does have talentsversus somebody that's, I'm waiting
(33:06):
on the next missionary to show up.
So that's something that I'vereally picked up on that I
didn't really know at first.
So,
Bryan (33:15):
what does that look like in practice for you?
Jeremy (33:18):
To me looks more like, uh, especially like this opportunity with
the shrimp farm, that's completely, thefunds that were sent goes completely
to a local it's Augustine, and thisis not coming from the outside.
And, you know, he has local churchesthat he is in contact with to where, when
things are done, that's done in a, in away like that, where it's not a brigade.
(33:44):
Coming in, because what was happening is,you know, 40 weeks a year, you would have
brigades coming from the United Statesand you have the same issues going on
as far as the poverty, as far as crime.
And as far as, you know, just no hope.
And, uh, I think at the locallevel, reaching out and loving at
(34:04):
the local level and doing a lot ofthose things like that will deliver.
That message of hope more so thanoutside, allow the outside help.
I want to see more change in the 51weeks that I'm not there versus the
one week that I'm actually there.
I think that will deliver the messageof hope more so than anything.
Bryan (34:23):
That's.
That's great.
And I appreciate your heart andyour, your desire to, to essentially
give up leadership, right?
Because you've got Augustine, who'srunning this while you're there.
And I think that takes.
A real talent for understandingwho's a good leader and who has that
heart, but also at least speakingfor me from when helping hurts,
there was the elephant and the mouse.
(34:44):
If you haven't read it, go ahead, goahead and read it from listening to this.
A lot of times I feel like theelephant and barely able to
hear what the mouse is saying.
And I realized that those.
Images might be off putting, but basicallyit's the image of a bull in a China shop.
And I appreciate your abilityand your willingness to go.
No, no, this is how I need to doit so that I'm not doing that.
(35:07):
So I, I very much appreciate that.
That's, that's really great.
As you look over this, I'm wondering,is there anything that you wish
you would have done differently?
Jeremy (35:16):
I guess the one thing that always sticks out as far as
what I should do differently is.
The way, this whole thing is unfolded.
Even the timing and everything.
I'm just so thankful to God the way thewhole thing's unfolded, because I think
it's unfolded very, very, very quickly.
But if there's one thing that I would dodifferently, I wouldn't have worried as
much as I did because God's in control.
(35:38):
And sometimes that's really, really tough.
You feel like as you're going throughthe motions, it's really, really tough
to let go of that control becausewe always want to feel like we're
in control in some way, but God'sultimately in control and it's, it's so
much better if we just let him have it.
And let go of that anxiety and that worry.
Wow.
Bryan (35:59):
Really good stuff.
For those that are listening, weare going to have a link for you
to be able to connect with Jeremy.
I think it's going to goto your Facebook page.
That's what you sent me, right?
Yes.
So you'll want to check out theepisode notes, but for you, Jeremy, I'm
wondering for those that are listening.
If they're thinking, you know what I'dlike to partner, maybe financially,
maybe some other ways, what aresome of the ways that people can
(36:19):
get involved with what you're doing?
Jeremy (36:22):
Definitely like you were saying, I would love financially that
that would be absolutely wonderful.
But another thing is, you know,maybe somebody is listening that is a
whole lot further along the process.
And then this is in there.
More seasoned as far as what is goingon with some, a mission like this.
I would love to have that conversationbecause there's, we have a relationship
(36:46):
with our heavenly father, but we'reall his children and he wants us to
have relationships and he wants usto be able to communicate with one
another and help one another as well.
I would love to be able to learnfrom someone that may have been
down that road before, or if.
You know, if someone just wantsto have a conversation and say,
Hey, I feel like God's startingto lead me in this direction.
Maybe I can help you as well.
(37:08):
And just on my Facebook page,Trent matters is the Facebook page.
Um, just message me there.
I would love to have anytype of conversation.
So yes, anything financial would begreat, but also if you just want to have
a conversation, you know, I would, Iwould love to hear from anyone good stuff.
Bryan (37:25):
And before we close out, how can we best pray for you?
Jeremy (37:30):
But just especially prayed just during this, uh, just during this
year, not just for me, but for anyonethat's involved in missions or involved
in church planning, it's just been ayear where a lot of things have been
shifted based off of the global pandemic.
Just pray specificallythat, that we stay thankful.
(37:53):
That we show gratitude even inthese times, and that we're able
to readjust and that we're able to.
See the good out of this and seehow we can move forward as things
start to get back to normal.
But yes, please, please,please pray for this mission.
Bryan (38:09):
That's that's great.
And for those of you that arelistening, I would encourage you
pause the recording and just takea second to pray, because if you're
like me, there's a really good chance.
You're going to wait until you go to bed.
And then you're going to forgetnow, who was I supposed to pray for?
That happens to me all the time.
So I really try to just stop andtake advantage of those opportunities
because our prayers matter.
And our opportunity tobe involved matters.
(38:32):
So I'd encourage you to do that.
If you want to connect with Jeremythrough his Facebook page, we'll have
that link for you in the episode notes,just tap or swipe or click through
however you're listening so that youcan find that connect with him and find
out how you can be involved or offer himthat encouragement, whatever that is.
I would encourage you to do that.
Uh, Jeremy.
I just want to sayseriously, thank you so much.
Not only for doing this, butfor even just reaching out and
(38:54):
saying, Hey, is this a possibility?
I really appreciate it.
So thank
Jeremy (38:58):
you.
Thank you so much for having me.
I really appreciate it.
Bryan (39:04):
Thank you to Jeremy Wainwright for reaching out and
being willing to do this as well.
If you're interested in connectingwith him, you can find all of his
links and all of that information.
In the episode notes.
If you're listening in your favoritepodcast app, you can just tap,
swipe or click or however you.
You get to that and you canfind all of that there so
that you can connect with him.
I am happy to report the leak.
Most recently, when I heard from him,he was funded and moving forward.
(39:27):
So that's really, really good, great news.
But if you're interested in connectingwith him, that's how to do it.
Just tap, click, or swipe those episodenotes, and you'll get to that information.
Now, as far as the show, I didmention this as a special edition.
Uh, Jeremy reached out to meand I really felt like this was
something that I was supposed to do.
And so here we are, took me actuallya little bit longer than I'd hoped
to get this out to you, but that's,that's, what's going on with that as
(39:50):
far as future episodes for the show.
I don't, I still don'thave any more plans.
So I just wanted to be really upfrontwith you and let you know that, uh,
if you want to stay subscribed tothe show in case there's another one,
you're certainly welcome to do that.
And I'll be glad to get thatout if, and when that happens.
And if not, uh, again,thank you for being here.
I really appreciate you.
And my hope and my desire is that Godhas spoken to you and given you something
(40:11):
that you can run with him with, whetherthat's something that you can run with,
that's connected to what Jeremy's doing,or maybe an answer or an insight that
you've gotten from today's conversation,or maybe just some encouragement.
But anyway, that's my hope.
And my prayer for you isthat you have that with that.
I would like to say again,just thank you for being here.
I hope that you've have had agreat time and that you're well,
and that your families are well.
(40:32):
And I look forward to connecting with youagain, as soon as we're able to do that,
This is episode 278 of the Engaging Missions Show.
Today we're talking with Jeremy Wainwrightof Shrimp Matters about little faith, a
big God and stepping into the unknown.
Jeremy (00:10):
You would think God speaking to me so clearly the way that he
did that, I wouldn't worry anymore.
Announcer (00:16):
Welcome to the Engaging Missions Show, where
we are bringing missions home.
Here's your host, Bryan Entzminger.
Bryan (00:24):
Today.
I'm just so happy to be able tointroduce to you Jeremy Wainwright.
He's the founder of Shrimp Matters withthe goal to share the love of Jesus
with the people of Honduras and to equipthem with resources, but with shrimp
playing a pretty big part of this now,personally, I'm not a huge fan of shrimp,
at least not for eating, but I do seesome of the creative ways that God can
(00:46):
use this to provide through Jeremy.
So Jeremy, welcome to the show.
Jeremy (00:51):
Thank you so much.
Thank you for having me.
I really appreciate it.
Bryan (00:53):
Oh, it's totally my pleasure.
I'm really glad that wewere able to do this.
And, and frankly, I'm glad that youreached out to me to, to just ask if this
was an option, because I'm really gladto be able to do this as we get started.
I think probably the name shrimp matters.
A lot of people mightnot know what that is.
So can you maybe share with us alittle bit about what shrimp maters is?
Jeremy (01:15):
Okay.
Shrimp matters is actually, Istarted in the beginning of 2019.
The whole idea.
I actually went on a missiontrip in October of 2018.
My very first mission tripshort-term mission trip.
And when I got back home, I waspraying about opportunities to help.
I saw the poverty and inHonduras, and I saw the crime.
(01:37):
There's so much crime and.
Andras as well.
And just so many areas of brokennessthere and it really touched my heart.
So I started praying aboutopportunities, what I could do to
help out in any way whatsoever and,uh, remained very good friends.
Even after the mission trip with aman there named Augustine Garcia, he
(01:58):
was a local there that would go helpserve his community alongside of us.
And I got in touch with him and.
We just would talk back and forth andwe'd pray back and forth about the people
of Honduras and the brokenness there.
And shortly after that at work, Ihad a conversation with a friend that
had been on a mission trip to centralAmerica, actually in Guatemala.
(02:21):
And she had actually been to a villagethat had a tilapia farm that had funded.
The entire village, it had asmall hospital, it had several
other things there, but it was allstarted by just this a tilapia farm.
And it was intended just to feed thepeople there, but it wound up producing
(02:42):
a sustainable income for that village.
So I thought this is wonderful.
So, uh, got in touch with my friendAugustine Garcia, and I said, uh, Can we
look into this as an opportunity in, uh,in Honduras and through a lot of prayer
and research, we discovered that in theSouthern part of the countries, there
(03:05):
were areas there that had shrimp farmsand that we could lease the property.
And we did all the research thatwe needed to figure out, okay,
how do we even go about this?
And we figured out where wecould buy the larva, you buy the
shrimp larvae and you feed them.
And they grow and act beforemuch everything can be sold.
(03:28):
And from that, we were thinking,well, there could be jobs there.
Wow, this has been done.
And after that, with, with all thefunding that come from the sale,
we could build homes that we could,uh, help with the clean water.
There there's a lot of areas thatdoesn't have clean water at all.
We, and we can help out with a lotof things such as that, and even
(03:49):
feed the people that are hungry.
So it was a veryself-sustaining kind of idea.
So that was the initialidea of, of shrimp matters.
What later came, I guess that wherethe name actually drive was after
we basically had this idea and Godrevealed this great idea to us.
(04:11):
We kept praying for further opportunities.
And at one point at my church, wewere doing a series and I had spoke
to, uh, the campus pastor there aboutmy dream and this whole mission.
And he said, you know, I'vegot a series coming up and.
It would be perfect toshare this with everyone.
(04:33):
So when I shared it, that waswhen everybody started coming
up to me and saying, Hey, Iwant to be on board with this.
So that's, that's how thewhole thing initially started.
Bryan (04:44):
It's really interesting to me because you, you shared that this
essentially came out of an experienceon a mission trip and then kind of
maintaining a relationship, but there are.
Lots of people that go on mission trips,then don't have this kind of response.
Is there a reason why that trip spoketo you in such a way that you said,
you know what I have to step in?
(05:05):
I don't want to say step in and dosomething like I'm going to save people.
Right.
But I have to be partof what God wants here.
What was it that really spoke to you?
Jeremy (05:13):
I spoke about my friend, Augustine, that I've,
we talk pretty much on a.
Weekly basis.
And we have pretty much since thatfirst trip that I had, but something
that he told me that has never leftme that initial week in 2018, he
said, I have been part of these,what they refer to as brigades.
(05:33):
It's a lot of North Americansthat will come down every week
on short-term mission trips.
And he said, I have been partof this for nearly 15 years.
He said, I've helped serve alongside.
And he said, I can count on one hand thepeople that have even responded back to
me that I've even spoke to a second time.
And.
I just could not believe that weekendand week out there was so many
(05:57):
people go in there, but very, very,very little follow up whatsoever.
And, you know, God reallytouched my heart with that.
So that's when I, that's, when Ireally decided I'm going to be very,
very intentional about reachingout to him and seeing what I can
do to help the people founders.
Bryan (06:15):
Well, I, I appreciate that.
I mean, it sounds like you, youreally have a desire to be a
man of your word and to followthrough in a manner of integrity.
Is that, is that accurate?
Jeremy (06:24):
I don't know how I would say, you know, I guess I'm someone
where I would never probably say thatabout myself, but that is something
that always staying has said.
He said, you have alwaysconstantly been whatever you
say, you can take it to the bank.
And that does make me feel goodto know that, that he actually
feels that way about me.
So that's, that's great.
Bryan (06:43):
You've mentioned a little bit about the vision for this, that perhaps in a
few years, this might be self-sustainingto provide jobs and income and
infrastructure education, like all of thethings that can happen because of that.
I'm wondering as you look forwardto that other ways that you also
see this being self-sustaining,besides just the money keeps kind of
Jeremy (07:06):
recycling, if you will.
Yes.
I see it in so many different ways.
I mean that you have, themoney will actually be.
You know, recycling, but something thatI want to make sure that happens is
that the local churches are involved.
That there's a lot of communityeffort as a whole, when a lot of these
activities are being done, whether thatbe the building of homes, I would like
(07:27):
to see a lot of scholarship programswith a lot of the children, because
what tends to happen in Honduras sooften is, uh, the presence of the.
You know, Ms.
13 is very, very present there.
And in Honduras, Ms.
13, Ms.
13 has a lot to do with the drug cartel.
A lot of it you probablyheard of in Colombia.
(07:49):
Well, it's present also in Hondurasand there are local gangs there in the
capital city, around the capital city.
And what happens between 11 and.
Cite 15 years old.
A lot of kids are brought in at a very,very young age into this organized
crime and that becomes their life.
(08:10):
And they wound up either someonethat is later killed or maybe
someone that winds up killing others.
And it that's, that's basicallyhow this whole thing starts
is at a very, very young age.
So if we can somehow oranother provide something that.
These kids can see another direction,maybe some type of hope in some other
(08:30):
way that that would get them awayfrom those types of environments.
That's something that we're really,really looking forward to as well.
Bryan (08:38):
I like that.
I mean, that's a great vision, right?
To provide alternatives as well.
I think that's important.
You mentioned the localinvolvement of the church.
I think that's stellar.
I think that's almost requiredfor this kind of thing.
What do you think thatinvolvement needs to look like?
Jeremy (08:53):
Well, I think in so many different ways that if we can
partner, you know, the, the shrimpfarm itself and other opportunities
that we see in the future, that's,uh, that is, uh, a source of income.
That would be just there and in Honduras.
But, but if, if used effectively, if doneeffectively, like we're wanting to do
in the future, hopefully we can partnerwith these local churches to where, when.
(09:18):
We are in these, when these churchesare located, say in these areas that
have high levels of poverty, that thecharts themselves can go and serve the
people directly in their area and reachout to them, maybe partner with them.
There can be a lot of even, uh, oneinstance that I know of for example,
is there's one small local church I sawthere that had a small sewing ministry.
(09:42):
That they would bring people in.
And it was a job opportunity rightthere for some of the people.
So that was the local churchreaching out and giving.
It was several widowed women, theopportunity to be able to provide
for themselves and just opportunitieslike that is what I like to see
more of coming from the revenuefrom, from the shrimp farm itself.
Bryan (10:03):
Wow.
That's that's great.
This is, if I remember it,this is a fairly new ministry.
Jeremy (10:08):
No, it's very, very much new.
Like I'm still, it's very safeto say that, you know, God
has just opened up the doors.
Cause I there's so much that we stilldon't know, but just how far God has
taken, this is just amazing to me.
Bryan (10:22):
One of the things I've been wondering.
Cause I think you're maybe one or two.
Are they called crops?
Jeremy (10:27):
Yeah.
W w we refer to them, Iguess, as a harvest, more is
what you do than anything.
Bryan (10:31):
So you're a one or two harvest in there was at the time that we're
recording this about nine or 10months ago, there was the start of the
whole global pandemic COVID-19 thing.
I'm assuming that impacted your travel.
Jeremy (10:47):
Uh, it impacted travel, but it also impacted the second harvest as well.
Uh, that was the negative part ofwhat has went on in the, during
the global pandemic was whathappened during the second harvest.
The first harvest went well.
We were able to harvest 5,500 pounds.
And from that harvest, therewas someone that pulls straight
(11:10):
up to the shrink form itself.
They purchased the shrimpthere and they leave.
So it was a very, very simple transactionthere and yeah, it was amazing.
So we had the funding toreinvest and we also had the
funding to help the community.
Cause that's basically all that was, dowe want it to be able to provide jobs
during the shrimp farm itself while shrimpforum going on, but on the back end of
(11:33):
that, we wanted to be able to reinvestand everything left over would go to rot
back into the community, whether that be.
To build homes to help clean water,to feed those that are hungry.
So first harvest went wellabout the time we started.
The second harvest was whenthe global pandemic really hit,
(11:54):
uh, Honduras extremely hard.
And their government was very, very,very strict because their healthcare
system and Honduras is not anythinglike it would be in the United States.
So their government got very, verystrict as to who could be out.
And when.
And it got to the point that you couldonly be out one day every two weeks.
(12:16):
And that was not enough time for us tobe able to get the food we needed to feed
the shrimp and to do the things that weneeded to do to keep the shrimp alive.
So the shrimp, I actually died in thesecond cycle, so I am currently in the
process of getting it back up and go.
And again, since that has happened,
Bryan (12:35):
so what does it look like to get it back up and running?
Is it what's
Jeremy (12:39):
involved?
It would start with justthe total, uh, startup cost.
Uh, and the total startup cost is justbelow, uh, around $8,000 just shot $8,000.
It would be that would cover the leaseof the property that covers the bond,
the shrimp larva fading the shrimp lowerfor those four months and providing
(13:01):
three jobs for those four months.
And on the back end of that.
That's where we will harvest andthat's where we will do this again.
I, and the thing is that thewonderful thing about it is God
showed me through the first one,you know, with the first harvest.
Everything went wonderfully.
And God showed me that this issomething that can truly happen.
(13:23):
And the second cycle is just anexample of, we live in a broken
world where we try to plan things.
We try to do things, but in the generalscheme of things, sometimes in this
broken world, things don't go as planned.
But I do understand.
That through those times, Godcan use those for something good.
And the thing that I see now is it reallyallows me to just look at everything as
(13:47):
a whole and say, okay, in the future,when we get this going, what can we
do to be able to worst case scenario?
How can we really be preparednext time for worst case scenario?
Because I didn't think aboutthat until this happened.
Yeah.
Bryan (14:01):
So have you already raised the money for the second one?
Jeremy (14:05):
I've raised almost half.
And some of that funding I sentactually down for the relief
from the hurricanes that hit.
In October.
So I sent some emergencyfunding down for it.
So I'm just short of half of what we needto, to get the initial cost back going.
(14:26):
But, but my goal is in the futureto have even more in reserve, just
in case something like that happensagain, uh, like, you know, like
the global pandemic was somethingthat, that really set us back.
So hopefully we can.
Really, really, uh, just plan aheadin the future to where it wouldn't
really set us back this fall.
Yeah.
Wow.
That's
Bryan (14:46):
I mean, I'm glad that you're that far along, I'm thinking about
maybe the people that are listening.
So if you're listening rightnow and you've been looking.
For something to do, maybe God'sbeen stirring in your heart that
there's some level of investmentthat he'd like for you to make.
I'd like to encourage you to prayerfullyconsider Jeremy and shrimp matters.
We'll have a link for you to beable to connect in the episode notes
(15:07):
so that you can go find out, prayabout it and see if God would have
you be involved in this because.
We already know thatGod has the resources.
The question is whether ornot he wants you involved.
And I don't know the answer to that,but I would encourage you to pray about
it because this could be an opportunityfor you to invest in what God's doing.
So I just encourage you to do that.
(15:29):
I'd like to kind of take a bit of a stepback, Jeremy, because we mentioned that
a lot of this kind of started with the,the mission strip, but there's this one
kind of burning question in my mind.
Why'd you go on that trip?
Jeremy (15:43):
I would guess the first thing that really got me to go and more so than
anything was it had been a thought inmy mind, I guess it was one of those, I
guess you could say bucket list things.
I guess I had at one time, Ijust, I thought, you know what?
I really just need to go on a missiontrip, uh, short term and just see
what it's like and just experiencea lot of things that I've never been
(16:04):
able to experience before and seeif there's any way, you know, that
I can reach out and love others.
And that was just the.
The initial thought and it had been goingon for years and, uh, a friend of mine
from church called me and he said, hesaid, Hey, he said, uh, would you like to
go on a mission trip to Honduras with me?
And I said, uh, you know what.
(16:29):
Ask think, I think I will.
I said, I know.
And when he called me that w there wasn'treally that much time to, before we were
actually going to leave, I had to hurryup and get my passport and everything.
So, but I said, you know, what, if Ican swing it all in time, I think this
would be perfect time for me to do that.
So, and you know, when I went on myfirst mission trip, I was probably.
(16:51):
Thinking a lot of the things that anybodyelse would go in on a mission trip, you
know, I mean, a lot of people probablyworry about a lot of the, a lot of the
things about leaving the comforts of wherethey live in the United States and, you
know, We were told when we first got downthere, do not drink any water, do not
brush your teeth with any of the water.
(17:12):
And a lot of things likethat, a lot of people probably
think about things like that.
But as something that I want to encouragepeople that maybe are worried about
situations like that are worried aboutbeing in a different environment like that
is very, very, very quickly into the trip.
It shifts from you not thinking aboutyourself to you pouring into others and.
(17:34):
Anybody that I have ever talkedto that has been on a mission
trip will tell you the same thing.
And I think for no other reason,we just get so complacent.
I feel like day in and day out here inour normal jobs and our normal activities.
And I feel like we're a lot of times thecenter of our daily lives, but I think a
(17:55):
mission trip just changes to perspective.
Of everything and it did for me.
So I went from being very selfish, worriedabout getting sick from drinking the water
there too, by the end of that week, I'mcrying because I don't want to leave.
And it was just amazing.
So that's really how I started,but I just want to encourage
(18:17):
people that may be listening tothis, that, you know, maybe they.
Are thinking about missionsand never have went.
I want to encourage you to go.
It will change yourperspective of everything.
Bryan (18:28):
Wow.
That's that's I mean, that's,that's so true, but yeah, I
appreciate you sharing that.
As you've been building these, youstarted from a trip that turned into
a vision and then some relationshipsthat started you on the path of, okay.
I think this is something that wecould do during the course of this.
Were there ever times when you thoughtthis is too hard, I'm going to quit.
Jeremy (18:48):
There's been several times where I just felt like, I don't
know if the word quit ever came up,but I will honestly say that I have
questioning the timing many, many times.
There's so many times I feellike God always comes through.
Then I feel like every time that Iget to a point that I don't feel like
things are moving fast enough so quicklyforget that God's timing is the best.
(19:11):
So I will honestly say if I have.
Taking anything from that.
It's the fact that I've worried too muchand I have not dressed it God enough,
through this process, even though he keepscontinually specifically showing me what
the direction forward is, I'm interested
Bryan (19:29):
to know if you can share with us one of those experiences where
you weren't sure about the timingor there's something like that.
And God said, no, this isthe way this is the time.
Yes, you can.
Jeremy (19:41):
Absolutely.
This is why.
The organization that, uh, that I amstarting is called shrimp matters.
At this point, I have the name charteredthrough the state of Tennessee and
our next steps will be to completelyestablish the board and we will be a
nonprofit within the next few months, but.
The name is alreadycharted as strep shrimp.
(20:02):
Miters and that will be the storythat I'm going to share with you.
That really where God just, okay,God can just completely spoke to me.
He's like, okay, thisis what you need to do.
And it's not, you know, it was asclear as can be that this was the past
forward, but I was telling you earlier,How I was sharing this with my church.
(20:22):
You know, there was a series thatcame up and I had the opportunity
to share what God had laid on myheart and what possibly could be done
through this idea of the shrimp farm.
So I shared it with the church beforeI got up there, I talked to the
pastor and he said, you need to, youknow, specifically I ask people for.
For funding, he said,go ahead and do that.
(20:43):
And he said, you know, is thereanything that God's laid on your heart?
And I said, well, I said, II've pretty much at the time.
Uh, I told you the startup costis just under 8,000, but at the
time I had to undershot it, Iwas thinking it was around 7,000.
So God had laid on my heart at that time.
He's like, for some reason when I sawthat number, I just, you know, I saw that
if I could get 70 families, 70 peopleat a hundred dollars, if I could get.
(21:09):
People to donate 70 families at ahundred dollars, I would be right
where I needed for this thing to start.
So I told the pastor aboutthis and he said, okay.
He said, you need to share that.
And I said, well, Idon't like ask it again.
I don't think anybody is reallycomfortable just being like,
Hey, can you donate to this?
I mean, it, it's a very, veryuncomfortable position to do that.
(21:32):
He said, no specifically say that.
So I got up and.
I told her about the shrimp farm.
And I told him about the idea andI told him at the end, he said, is
there any way that we can support you?
And as uncomfortable as it made me feel,I say that, I said, if I could get 70
families or 70 people to donate a hundreddollars, I said, this thing can get going.
(21:56):
And I said, that door will be open.
And you know, we'll get to see what God'sdoing through this mission in Honduras.
And at the end of the service.
There was person after person,after person that came up to me
specifically with a hundred dollars.
And one woman in particular cameup to me and, uh, she was crying.
Her hands were shaking.
She said, I have a hundreddollars to give you, but she
(22:18):
said, I got to tell you a story.
She said, you won't believe how specificthis is to what I just heard you say.
She said I was at redlobster earlier this week.
And she said I was sitting there andshe said, I noticed over at a couple
of tables over that there was a womansitting there and she was looking through
her purse to try to pay for the shrimpcocktail she about, and I could tell,
(22:42):
she obviously thought she must've had it.
And she didn't.
So she said, uh, motion toher waitress to come over.
And she said, I paidfor her shrimp cocktail.
And she said, I settled up there.
And she said a few minutes later, a manfrom another table came over and she
said, he looked down at me and said,Hey, he said, ah, I saw what you did over
(23:03):
there, pay it forward for that woman.
He said, I just really, reallyappreciate what you did.
And he.
Went to give her a hundred dollars bill.
He said, I want you to have thisbecause it looks like you're someone
that would do something good with this.
I've already seen your heart.
And she said, no, no, no.
She said, I'm fine.
She said, you know, I'm comfortable.
God's a place me.
I have money.
He said, no, no, no.
I want you to keep this.
(23:25):
And when he handed it back,he said, shrimp matters.
So that is the whole, when she toldme this story about shrimp matters
and the a hundred dollars of thea hundred dollars that she gave me
was the same hundred dollars thathe had gave her earlier that week.
So, um, if I don't see how God couldhave spoke any more clearly, I think
(23:49):
sometimes people refer to, you know,you hear God in his still small voice.
I think God was shouting at that point.
It's, this is the path forward,
Bryan (23:58):
man.
That's great.
As you've been going throughthis through the process, right?
There's a lot of things to builda lot of stuff to take care of.
Have you ever had to remind yourself,wait a minute, God told me back here
and so I can continue to trust him.
How, how does that work out for you?
Jeremy (24:15):
Yes, there's so many times that that has happened.
I mean, especially through this pandemicwhen the first harvest went so well and.
We, we got some extra donationsto build other homes too.
So three homes actually got built.
There were many, many, many familiesthat got fed through the pandemic, just
from what we had from the first harvest.
(24:37):
And so many of those great things happen.
So that was the reminder, even after.
The shrimp had died in the second cycle.
That look how much God has done.
Even through these times where we've seenthe brokenness liquid God has still done.
But also I want to say I am very,very, very quick to forget, and
(24:58):
I'm very, very quick to worry.
And you would think God speaking to meso clearly the way that he did that,
I wouldn't worry anymore about thenext step, but me as a fallible human
being, I'm so quick to forget, but I do.
I am so, so thankful for what Godhas done through this mission.
Bryan (25:19):
I can totally relate.
I have amnesia all the time about thisstuff that God's done in his promises.
I'm wondering going through this, thismust have changed your relationship
Jeremy (25:29):
with God.
Absolutely it, like I was sayingearlier about the fact that I'd
never, even before I'd been on amission trip, I just felt like, um,
I was more or less the center of my.
Weekly activities.
And, you know, I didn't really thinkof much more than what I needed to do.
(25:50):
I have to go to work.
I had to go do this.
And I just honestly think throughthis process and through this mission
and through me doing something thatI'm not comfortable doing, and I've
put myself in positions to where, youknow, I've asked for funding where
I don't really feel comfortable.
I have been.
In many ways, I've done a lot of thingsthat I wouldn't ever imagine that I
(26:11):
would ever do as far as stretchingme as far as my comfort level.
So if anything, my comfort level,and I truly think there is a direct
correlation between spiritual growth andyou being just out of your comfort zone,
because I think once you walk in yourcomfort zone, if you sit there and your
(26:31):
comfort zone, I have never felt gross.
Like I have, when I am sitting somewherewhere I'm like, okay, God, I really,
really, really, really need you right nowbecause I'm in a vulnerable spot or, um,
you know what I mean, I'm uncomfortableor I'm really putting myself out there.
So that's something that I've reallynoticed about my relationship is, uh, um,
(26:53):
trusting him more and I'm just seeing himspeak to me more through this process.
So
Bryan (27:00):
you inadvertently headed down my notes to the next thing I was going to ask
you about, which is just great, becauseyou mentioned that this has caused you
to grow, it's caused you to stretch.
And I'm wondering, can you think ofa time where you had to grow in faith
or as a leader or something like that?
And tell us a story of how you,how God grew you through that?
Jeremy (27:21):
Yes.
I think a lot of my growth would still.
Go right back to, at some point throughthis ministry would be in some way.
And my growth, I feel like the areawhere I feel like I truly need to
ask for more growth is probablypatience and understanding God's
timing and time, and time and timeagain, he shows me I've got this.
(27:45):
Don't worry about this.
At one instance that I can think of was a.
Shortly after I shared that story withyou at church, that was funds that I
had received, but I still was not evenhalfway to being funded to start this.
And I thought, okay, thisis another stopping point.
I don't know what to do.
And I'm worried.
And I was getting impatient andI was like, God, what do I do?
(28:06):
And I felt like I needed to start,you know, sharing this more.
I felt like it was somethingthat I needed to be doing.
So I started looking for otheropportunities and, uh, I would
try every way that I could to tryto whatever the next step was.
I was trying to push it, but whatGod kept showing me was, you know,
his timing is the best because at onepoint I had reached out to a friend
(28:30):
of Augustine's the friend on Honduras.
He had a friend in the UnitedStates, so I reached out to
them and they were a journalist.
Massive.
Can you help me out with this?
Is there any way thatyou can spread the word?
And she said, sure.
So she wrote somethingback to my local paper.
And she said, I'm going to sendsomething to your local paper to
see if we can't get it out there.
And I said, well, that's, that's fine.
(28:51):
If he's like, that's the best thing to do.
We'll do that.
So I did that and that I heardnothing for, I don't know, maybe
a month, month and a half then.
Me, I'm getting impatientand I'm like, Oh, okay.
I guess I'm going to have totry to get in touch with them
again or do something like that.
And so I was trying to force things again.
(29:12):
So, and what happened was I calledher again and I said, Hey, I
never heard anything back fromthe paper is what should I do?
And she said, well, youcan reach back out to me.
Do you want to, I hung up the phone andI drove about two minutes down the road.
And the phone rang from the newspaper.
And me being impatient that entire time,the newspaper gets in touch with me.
(29:37):
And from that newspaper, the restof the funding came because there
was families that read about it andit came in and it was just one of
those things again, where it was justlike, God's like, I've got this and.
It's really helped me grow.
Wow,
Bryan (29:52):
man, that's a great reminder, right?
Because I don't know about everybodyelse listening, but I have a
tendency to try and do things myselfso I can relate to that for sure.
Absolutely.
One of the things, and this is alittle bit touchy to bring up, but
one of the things that can happen.
When we have a heart to minister topeople is we can actually sometimes
end up doing more harm than good.
(30:13):
And I know this is something that whenwe were emailing back and forth, you
said, this is really important to me.
So can you share with me how you'vetried to approach this so that you're
not leaving your thumb prints all overwhere God is trying to work if you will.
Jeremy (30:29):
Yeah.
I think it all really startedwell, you know, when I did go
on that first mission trip.
I saw so many ways where I was like,well, you know, this is doing a lot
of help for a lot of people justas helping out a lot of people that
are living in poverty and need.
And it was a great feeling.
It is.
It's a great feeling to go on a missiontrip and to do all those things.
And the problem is, and a lot of thiscame from a book that I read later
(30:53):
that was called when helping hurts isso many people can come and approach
missions from a really, really goodplace and still do a lot of harm.
And I think the problem more so withthat than anything is just the fact that
we're not really taking the environmentthere into consideration or taking the
(31:16):
people in general, how they feel intoconsideration when we're trying to help.
A lot of times, I think wecan alleviate things by just.
Fixing what we see right there.
If we see somebody that, that livesin poverty, a lot of times people
will just like, well, we'll just givethem some money or we'll just set up
something here to where they're okay.
But what we don't really realizeis, you know, God is relational
(31:38):
with all of his creation and, youknow, we are created in his image.
So we are relational as well.
And not only are we relational with God,we're also relaters relational with others
and we also have a self relationship.
And the problem with povertyis it's not always about money.
People that live in poverty.
They have a problem withtheir self relationship
(32:00):
because they experience shame.
They experience fear being inferioror having no voice in these are lies.
So, you know, that basically that theyhave within themselves because you
know, the good news of Jesus crossesthat, you know, he came to reconcile.
And put all of, for relationships, whetherthat be a broken relationship with others,
(32:23):
broken relationship with yourself, hecame to reconcile all those things.
So a lot of times by just giving moneyto something or just helping out, just
to what makes you feel better justto what you feel like fix the problem
might not be what the answer is.
The answer might lie alot deeper into, okay.
Let's talk to this person andlet's see what their talents are.
(32:45):
And let's see if there's any waythat we are actually can help the
local church to walk beside them.
And maybe they could possibly havea job in the future that way it
might be, they can feel a littlebit more like, okay, I am created in
the image of God and I am special.
And I am someone that does have talentsversus somebody that's, I'm waiting
(33:06):
on the next missionary to show up.
So that's something that I'vereally picked up on that I
didn't really know at first.
So,
Bryan (33:15):
what does that look like in practice for you?
Jeremy (33:18):
To me looks more like, uh, especially like this opportunity with
the shrimp farm, that's completely, thefunds that were sent goes completely
to a local it's Augustine, and thisis not coming from the outside.
And, you know, he has local churchesthat he is in contact with to where, when
things are done, that's done in a, in away like that, where it's not a brigade.
(33:44):
Coming in, because what was happening is,you know, 40 weeks a year, you would have
brigades coming from the United Statesand you have the same issues going on
as far as the poverty, as far as crime.
And as far as, you know, just no hope.
And, uh, I think at the locallevel, reaching out and loving at
(34:04):
the local level and doing a lot ofthose things like that will deliver.
That message of hope more so thanoutside, allow the outside help.
I want to see more change in the 51weeks that I'm not there versus the
one week that I'm actually there.
I think that will deliver the messageof hope more so than anything.
Bryan (34:23):
That's.
That's great.
And I appreciate your heart andyour, your desire to, to essentially
give up leadership, right?
Because you've got Augustine, who'srunning this while you're there.
And I think that takes.
A real talent for understandingwho's a good leader and who has that
heart, but also at least speakingfor me from when helping hurts,
there was the elephant and the mouse.
(34:44):
If you haven't read it, go ahead, goahead and read it from listening to this.
A lot of times I feel like theelephant and barely able to
hear what the mouse is saying.
And I realized that those.
Images might be off putting, but basicallyit's the image of a bull in a China shop.
And I appreciate your abilityand your willingness to go.
No, no, this is how I need to doit so that I'm not doing that.
(35:07):
So I, I very much appreciate that.
That's, that's really great.
As you look over this, I'm wondering,is there anything that you wish
you would have done differently?
Jeremy (35:16):
I guess the one thing that always sticks out as far as
what I should do differently is.
The way, this whole thing is unfolded.
Even the timing and everything.
I'm just so thankful to God the way thewhole thing's unfolded, because I think
it's unfolded very, very, very quickly.
But if there's one thing that I would dodifferently, I wouldn't have worried as
much as I did because God's in control.
(35:38):
And sometimes that's really, really tough.
You feel like as you're going throughthe motions, it's really, really tough
to let go of that control becausewe always want to feel like we're
in control in some way, but God'sultimately in control and it's, it's so
much better if we just let him have it.
And let go of that anxiety and that worry.
Wow.
Bryan (35:59):
Really good stuff.
For those that are listening, weare going to have a link for you
to be able to connect with Jeremy.
I think it's going to goto your Facebook page.
That's what you sent me, right?
Yes.
So you'll want to check out theepisode notes, but for you, Jeremy, I'm
wondering for those that are listening.
If they're thinking, you know what I'dlike to partner, maybe financially,
maybe some other ways, what aresome of the ways that people can
(36:19):
get involved with what you're doing?
Jeremy (36:22):
Definitely like you were saying, I would love financially that
that would be absolutely wonderful.
But another thing is, you know,maybe somebody is listening that is a
whole lot further along the process.
And then this is in there.
More seasoned as far as what is goingon with some, a mission like this.
I would love to have that conversationbecause there's, we have a relationship
(36:46):
with our heavenly father, but we'reall his children and he wants us to
have relationships and he wants usto be able to communicate with one
another and help one another as well.
I would love to be able to learnfrom someone that may have been
down that road before, or if.
You know, if someone just wantsto have a conversation and say,
Hey, I feel like God's startingto lead me in this direction.
Maybe I can help you as well.
(37:08):
And just on my Facebook page,Trent matters is the Facebook page.
Um, just message me there.
I would love to have anytype of conversation.
So yes, anything financial would begreat, but also if you just want to have
a conversation, you know, I would, Iwould love to hear from anyone good stuff.
Bryan (37:25):
And before we close out, how can we best pray for you?
Jeremy (37:30):
But just especially prayed just during this, uh, just during this
year, not just for me, but for anyonethat's involved in missions or involved
in church planning, it's just been ayear where a lot of things have been
shifted based off of the global pandemic.
Just pray specificallythat, that we stay thankful.
(37:53):
That we show gratitude even inthese times, and that we're able
to readjust and that we're able to.
See the good out of this and seehow we can move forward as things
start to get back to normal.
But yes, please, please,please pray for this mission.
Bryan (38:09):
That's that's great.
And for those of you that arelistening, I would encourage you
pause the recording and just takea second to pray, because if you're
like me, there's a really good chance.
You're going to wait until you go to bed.
And then you're going to forgetnow, who was I supposed to pray for?
That happens to me all the time.
So I really try to just stop andtake advantage of those opportunities
because our prayers matter.
And our opportunity tobe involved matters.
(38:32):
So I'd encourage you to do that.
If you want to connect with Jeremythrough his Facebook page, we'll have
that link for you in the episode notes,just tap or swipe or click through
however you're listening so that youcan find that connect with him and find
out how you can be involved or offer himthat encouragement, whatever that is.
I would encourage you to do that.
Uh, Jeremy.
I just want to sayseriously, thank you so much.
Not only for doing this, butfor even just reaching out and
(38:54):
saying, Hey, is this a possibility?
I really appreciate it.
So thank
Jeremy (38:58):
you.
Thank you so much for having me.
I really appreciate it.
Bryan (39:04):
Thank you to Jeremy Wainwright for reaching out and
being willing to do this as well.
If you're interested in connectingwith him, you can find all of his
links and all of that information.
In the episode notes.
If you're listening in your favoritepodcast app, you can just tap,
swipe or click or however you.
You get to that and you canfind all of that there so
that you can connect with him.
I am happy to report the leak.
Most recently, when I heard from him,he was funded and moving forward.
(39:27):
So that's really, really good, great news.
But if you're interested in connectingwith him, that's how to do it.
Just tap, click, or swipe those episodenotes, and you'll get to that information.
Now, as far as the show, I didmention this as a special edition.
Uh, Jeremy reached out to meand I really felt like this was
something that I was supposed to do.
And so here we are, took me actuallya little bit longer than I'd hoped
to get this out to you, but that's,that's, what's going on with that as
(39:50):
far as future episodes for the show.
I don't, I still don'thave any more plans.
So I just wanted to be really upfrontwith you and let you know that, uh,
if you want to stay subscribed tothe show in case there's another one,
you're certainly welcome to do that.
And I'll be glad to get thatout if, and when that happens.
And if not, uh, again,thank you for being here.
I really appreciate you.
And my hope and my desire is that Godhas spoken to you and given you something
(40:11):
that you can run with him with, whetherthat's something that you can run with,
that's connected to what Jeremy's doing,or maybe an answer or an insight that
you've gotten from today's conversation,or maybe just some encouragement.
But anyway, that's my hope.
And my prayer for you isthat you have that with that.
I would like to say again,just thank you for being here.
I hope that you've have had agreat time and that you're well,
and that your families are well.
(40:32):
And I look forward to connecting with youagain, as soon as we're able to do that,
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