Introduction to the 2025 Winter Journey Magazine
This week WE wanted to start our newest journey BLOG with the “DEAR READER” INTRO THAT BEN WROTE. BUT, WE ARE EXCITED TO ACCOMPANY THE WRITTEN BLOG, WITH BEN READING IT, FROM HIS HEART TO YOU! AS ALWAYS, WE WILL include the written version so that you can read along or just read it by itself. We hope you enjoy!
Dear Readers
24 years ago in the month of May 2001, I started working for this company that I now own.
Back then, I would never have envisioned myself as the future owner of a marketing company like mine. I was 46 years old at the time, and was anticipating a return to full time pastoral ministry at some point in the future, in some capacity, according to whatever God’s will was for me.
Then, in 2002, after returning from a 4 month deployment with Samaritan’s Purse in New York City as the prayer coordinator for the Prayer Center that was established there, I became a salaried employee of Main Street Marketing. From then until 2006, I worked there and was ready to tender my resignation, when, to my surprise, the owner offered to sell me the company.
At first I gave him a hard no. The next day, in my prayer and Bible study time, I felt like the Holy Spirit was encouraging me to buy. So I was becoming convinced that perhaps I should buy the company.
However, I was also scared and praying through, when I was reminded of a sermon I heard once about FAITH. The teacher was ministering from the story of Peter’s willingness to try to walk on the water when Jesus beckoned him to step out of the boat. In that context the speaker said, “How do you spell faith?” And then he said, “sometimes it’s spelled R-I-S-K!”
From that time, until now, I have still sometimes wondered if I really heard God. But many more times, in many different ways, the Lord has confirmed to me it was His will! I certainly was not wise enough to figure that out for myself.
Now one might ask, do I have regrets for some of the stupid mistakes I have made as being the sole owner of this marketing company? Of course I do. But my gratitude for the things that my faithful Lord and Savior has taught me through all of the trials and tribulations that come with business ownership far outweigh the suffering.
My heavenly Father knew exactly what He was doing when He caused me to fall in love at first sight, when I met my future wife in Greenville, NC! Constance Jean McBride was not as smitten as I was at first, but somehow she agreed to marry me when she was only 20 years old and I was 22 on May 7, 1977. God knew exactly what kind of a person I needed to be my wife. She has been strong when I was weak and vice-versa, but we both had a strong work ethic.
The first time I saw Connie I did not say to myself, “That girl probably has a strong work ethic so I think I will marry her.” Nor did I think this: “Now there’s a woman who is truly humble, but also strong enough to tell me the truth about my bad self when I need it.” Now, for 48 years, God has given us Grace to do those things which He had prepared for us to do, even though some of the time we didn’t have a clue!
So, I have said all that to say this: Connie has been a great partner with me when I was serving the Lord in full time pastoral ministry. Plus, she has been a wonderful support for me in the new career path I fell into 24 years ago! And, she did all this, while doing the best we could do together to raise 3 daughters, 3 sons in a community where many Jesus followers live.
Currently, Connie assists my daughter Heather in keeping up with my accounts management. She also helps me proof all our projects, mail all our dining passes, and she makes sure our many print products get distributed in a timely manner and get re-stocked until all are in the marketplace.
Our first daughter, Heather Cotten, has been with my company from almost the beginning, when she commuted from Kernersville to be my office manager and bookkeeper. Heather now owns her own accounting firm named “Affinity Accounting” but still works for me as a Quickbooks expert and my personal bookkeeper.
The rest of my family’s assistance, in my first ever Home Show in Ashe County in 2007, proved invaluable! They not only helped me with a very stressful show, but it bonded us together in a way that helped all 6 of our children understand my new job better. Plus it helped me win the favor of Ashe County clients in a way that was sorely needed at that time.
Another milestone for the company took place on September 1 2007. I remember the date because that’s when Appalachian State beat Michigan in one of the biggest upsets in College football history. Some of my family was helping us do some remodeling to our our house when my daughter Amber Bateman, who didn’t live in Boone at the time, suggested I hire a friend of hers named Becky Zaragoza to take the place of the first graphic designer I hired named Mark Suggs.
Becky was with us for 9 years and she did a great job, working from home with 3 children underfoot. Then she moved with us into our bigger office space when we leased from the Winkler organization on Boone Heights Drive in Boone, NC. She worked for us there, and then at our new office at Carriage Square, until she moved on to work for Samaritan’s Purse. She now owns her own successful business.
In 2010, our company took a giant step forward when I hired Amber’s husband, Charles Bateman, to work for me full time, after having him work for me on a trial basis in the Summer and Fall of 2009. He and Amber, with their 2 children and pregnant with a third child, moved to Boone from Raleigh.
The Winter of 2009-2010 saw many significant snowstorms, so Charles and Amber’s move- in day was particularly treacherous. But they made it and I am so grateful they did!! Not only was I gaining a great employee, but now Connie and I could enjoy watching Sophia, Julia and Izzy Bateman grow up before our very eyes.
Charles was a great salesman and leader who helped me grow the company. Shortly after moving here, he helped me launch the digital side of the company when I decided to purchase High Country 365 from an old friend of mine named Tyler Brunson. Besides all this, Charles helped me manage the many interns we had, and the office staff as well.
After Charles left the company for bigger and better things, I was blessed to have Amber, my sweet daughter, come work for me. I still call her Hurricane Amber because of the energy and enthusiasm she brought with her to our office. Amber helped me manage the office, from the time Becky left the company, until she helped me find and hire Zachary Hoffman in the Summer of 2018.
Zach did an exceptional job for me as a graphic designer and office manager for 3+ years. In that time frame he and Amber made a great team! They also helped me design 2 great websites called highcountry365.com and journeync.com. In 2020 when the worldwide pandemic, now known as COVID 19 hit us, Zach and Amber were particularly valuable in helping me navigate through that unprecedented time.
During Zach’s time with the company I came to love, appreciate and respect him as a great worker, a devoted family man and a man of God. Though I miss him as an employee I still have the utmost love and respect for him. When Zach got an offer to work for a company, whose founder I know and respect, called Destinations By Design, he graciously gave me a 3 month notice in which he helped me find and train another graphic designer and office manager to take his place.
All of this brings me to the present.
Though all those transitions have been hard for me, I see the silver lining now! They have enabled me to learn to do many of the things that I could not have done before, because I had people doing those things for me. And now, in spite of COVID 19 and Hurricane Helene, we are coming out on the other side stronger than we were before.
Now I must hasten to say that none of that would have been possible without the Lord and the help of the wonderful people who came and went through the years. Nor would it have happened without the business owners and managers trusting me to do the best we knew how to do to promote them and their businesses in the region we call the High Country!
Many of our advertisers have all the clients they can handle, but are proud to sponsor this publication called The Journey because of the good news we bring to anyone who chooses to read our magazine. Plus now anyone can read every edition we have ever done online in our archived copies at journeync.com.
At this point, I need to make particular mention of Terry Henry who has been a friend of mine and my brother in Christ since 1984, when I met him in a home fellowship Connie and I were leading in my home.
Terry came out of retirement from a career at Cheap Joe’s Art stuff, to assist me in hiring and training new employees for the company. He also helped me by stepping up to be the sole designer for The Journey Magazine’s design and content which included writing some stellar articles himself. He did this while also helping me hire and train another graphic designer who I will introduce to you shortly.
Thank you so much Terry, I will be forever grateful! I’m going to miss working with you but I’m looking forward to continuing fellowship with you from now and into an eternal life that is going to be much better than what we’ve had on earth!
Now I want to introduce you to Sydney Sheets, our other graphic designer who I met in Ashe County where she was working for her dad. I stepped in to chat with her dad who owns Cobblestone Antiques in West Jefferson, NC. In the course of the conversation we were having I told him I needed a new graphic designer. When I said this, he simply pointed at Sydney and told me that she had gotten her degree in graphic design.
Needless to say, it worked out, because Sydney now works for me on all my other design work as well as promos on our online sales portal for our dining passes. She also assists me in posting weekly blogs from the journey online. Sydney is a delight to work with and Connie and I are so grateful to have an employee as smart and laid back as Sydney is.
Sydney will now be working more hours as she steps into Terry’s shoes to do the future design work for The Journey. She now has what it takes to work more hours while also continuing to be one of the primary caregivers for her grandmother at the home where she lives.
So I say to my current staff and former staff once again, thank you for all your hard work and perseverance and prayers that have helped us continue to serve our community in the way God has enabled us to. May God continue to bless and protect you in your future endeavors, to provide for your families and be the blessings God intends for us to be wherever His path shall lead you.
Connie and I are looking forward to our future too, as God will continue to provide the type of help we will need to keep this company successful and prosperous for years to come! In faith, we are making plans for the New Year. We want to be able to slow down and make more time with our family that now consists of our 6 children with their 6 spouses and their combined efforts to bring 13 beautiful children in the world to continue His will for our lives to be lights in the midst of darkness. We are trusting Him to faithfully guide us into His glorious plan for our continued fruitfulness for His glory alone!
Finally thank you dear readers for your support. May you have a thanks-filled Thanksgiving, a Blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year no matter what the future holds because Jesus Christ is Lord!!
Introduction to the current issue
Wow! That’s the first word that popped into my mind as I sat down to write this introduction! We’re one year, and approximately eleven days removed from Hurricane Helene! Its staggering impact on our region and beyond still boggles my mind and brings me to tears if I think about it too long.
But now, through God’s amazing grace, we will be sending our final proof to our publishing company soon! We believe that if we do that, we can make our Thanksgiving week deadline for having these magazines distributed throughout Watauga, Ashe, Avery and Wilkes Counties!
It was hard to decide whose picture we would put on our cover, so we decided to feature pictures from all four stories!!! And here’s some more information you may appreciate, by way of introduction:
Tammie’s testimony is a follow up to what she shared in our Magazine from 12 years ago when she lived in Boone and attended Mount Vernon Baptist Church. It was there where she also was a trained counselor, specializing in helping people recover from drug and alcohol addictions. I asked her to share this follow up story because we recently reprinted it on our weekly blogpost at our journeync.com website. Now, 31.5 years removed from her own battles with addiction, she reveals deep truths from The Bible that will enable anyone to overcome any “besetting sin” that we cannot conquer through our own will power.
Neville and Trimella Chaney are well known people who have been living in Boone since 1975 when they moved here. They came here from their hometown of Winston Salem, NC where they were high school sweethearts. Both Chaneys are known far and wide for the impact they have made through Neville’s WJ office supply store and Trimella’s teaching career. You are going to love both of their testimonies that they shared with Terry Henry who co-wrote their story with them.
Terry Henry’s great interview with a young couple named Sam and Eric who are raising four children here in Boone will inspire you also as you learn of how God brought them together from similar missionary backgrounds to continue to carry that missional community mindset wherever God leads them to go!
Finally, it was a joy for me to interview and write Ken Isaacs’ testimony. I first got to know Ken 24 years ago when we worked together in New York City after the terrorist bombings in 2001. I hope you enjoy Ken’s testimony in our magazine, but I also want to encourage you to purchase the book he just finished. It’s called “Running to the Fire Helping in Jesus’ Name.” If you read the book, it will help you appreciate, on a whole new level, what Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association has done and is continuing to do to introduce people to Jesus. Jesus alone can bring us into a personal relationship with the LORD God Almighty who created heaven and earth. You can purchase the book by shopping local at Cornerstone Christian Bookstore in Boone, or order it through Amazon.
