Some dreams arrive all at once. Others are planted like seeds… waiting quietly beneath the surface until the right people, the right place, and the right season come together.

  • A white, two-story house with black roof, chimney, and front porch, surrounded by a lawn and trees, with a sign for The Addicted Touch Spray Salon outside.

    Long before Made New Mercantile called this space home, it was home to The Added Touch, a full-service wedding planning business.

  • Outdoor wedding altar with white wrought iron gate, floral arrangements in pink, purple, and white, on a small stage with white chairs arranged for guests, wooden fence background, small pond with rocks, and lush green trees.

    Tucked behind The Added Touch was a beautifully curated outdoor venue that provided an intimate setting for couples to gather, celebrate, and say “I do.”

  • A detailed architectural site plan showing building footprints, property lines, measurements, and notes. Streets labeled include "Big Hill Ave." and "Virginia Ave."

    The Cornelison family built this property with a vision of their own, never knowing the many stories and purposes it would hold in the years to come.

  • A site statistics document detailing area of lot, zone, address, source of title, proposed business, area of buildings and pavement, parking spaces required and shown, and the number of handicap parking spaces, with a legend for asphalt and concrete textures.

    Before Made New Mercantile could open its doors, plans had to be put on paper. This site plan marked an important step in transforming 454 Big Hill Avenue into a space ready to serve our community.

  • A wooden ramp leads to the front door of a house, which has white siding and a stone facade near the entrance. A large leafy tree shades part of the yard. The ground around the ramp is dug up, with dirt and patches of grass visible.

    A welcoming space begins at the front door. An accessible ramp was added so everyone in our community could enter with ease.

  • A young man smiling outdoors holds a shovel while gardening near a house. There are shrubs, garden soil, a bag of potting mix, and gardening tools around him.

    It takes a village - and sometimes, that village comes with gardening gloves! A few wonderful friends helped give our landscaping some much-needed love.

  • The back of an SUV with the rear door open, filled with metal framing scaffolding or structural supports.

    Generosity is already filling our store - starting with the clothing racks, all donated by a wonderful friend in our community.

  • A wicker armchair with a pink cushion, a plastic bag on it, on a porch with gray tile flooring, white siding, and a glass door with a white frame.

    Every beginning has its milestones. For us, one looked like a shopping bag resting on a porch chair- our very first online porch pickup.

  • A white pickup truck parked on the side of a street next to a small Bobcat skid-steer loader on a paved driveway, with a grassy yard and sidewalk in the foreground. In the background, there is a commercial building, several parked cars, and utility poles with power lines.

    What looked like a little construction was actually another big milestone- our new sidewalk was officially underway!

  • A young boy sitting in a yellow excavator, smiling and giving a thumbs-up, with freshly dug earth and debris in the foreground, a house in the background, and several large trees with green leaves and branches.

    Big projects call for all hands on deck- even the littlest ones! Work officially began on our new parking area.

  • Residential backyard with fresh asphalt being laid, a roller compactor, and construction equipment, large trees, a wooden fence, a house with porch and stairs, and a partly cloudy sky.

    Sometimes, an answered prayer looks like fresh asphalt.

Made New: The Story Behind The Mercantile

It began years before anyone knew its name- with a dream, a friendship, and a series of moments that, at the time, seemed entirely unrelated.

Only looking back can you see the thread connecting them all - God’s provision, quietly leading two friends toward a shared mission to serve their community.

A Dream Takes Root.

Nearly a decade ago, Stacy Jordan began dreaming of opening a nonprofit that would serve her community in a practical and meaningful way. Her first vision was a pay-what-you-can café, a place where a person's ability to enjoy a meal wasn't determined by the amount of money in their pocket.

At the time, Stacy's husband, Jamie, was serving as an associate pastor at a church in Richmond, Kentucky, where he helped coordinate the Room in the Inn ministry. Through that work, Jamie encountered people experiencing homelessness throughout the community, and what broke his heart soon broke Stacy's, too.

She began wondering what it might look like to create something different. Something that could meet practical needs while preserving dignity. Something that could serve people while inviting the entire community to be part of it.

Jamie encouraged her dream, and by late 2019, Stacy began looking for a place to bring it to life. Then, in October 2020, in the middle of a world that had seemingly come to a standstill, she found it.

A historic bed and breakfast in the heart of downtown Richmond seemed like the perfect home for the café. The Jordans moved forward, and everything appeared to be falling into place. They were just one signature away from purchasing the property.

And then, unexpectedly, the deal fell through.

The door closed.

So Stacy did what can sometimes be one of the hardest things to do with a dream: She let it go.

At least for a while.

Double glass door with an 'Open' sign at the top left, business hours listed below, and a logo with the name 'The Exchange' on the right door, reflecting the outside parking lot and trees.

The Dream Changes Shape.

In 2022, Stacy and Jamie traveled to Central, South Carolina, to visit a longtime friend with whom Stacy had served in ministry with for many years. During their visit, they attended Alive Wesleyan Church and had the opportunity to see some of the ministries the church offered- including a thrift store called The Exchange.

Stacy walked through the doors, looked at Jamie, and said:

"I really want to do this."

The dream to serve hadn't disappeared after all. It had simply changed shape.

The vision of a nonprofit remained, but instead of a café, Stacy began imagining a thrift store- a place where donated belongings could become affordable necessities, where proceeds could support organizations already doing meaningful work, and where generosity could ripple throughout the community.

She began searching for real estate again. But this time, she also committed the dream deeply to prayer.

Stacy believed God was calling her toward something bigger, but she also knew she couldn't force the timing.

And so again… she waited.

“Lord… Is This The Place?”

In January 2026, a beautiful historic property that once housed the locally known Added Touch wedding business, came onto the market in Richmond.

It had stonework, a fireplace, windows with golden trim, antique chandeliers and the kind of character that made Stacy immediately imagine what it could become.

She absolutely fell in love with it.

She didn't know exactly how it would happen, but something in her spirit told her this could be the place.

She watched the real estate websites closely to ensure that the property remained for sell. Often times, she’d catch herself pulling into the property’s driveway, hands clutching the steering wheel and praying aloud.

"Lord, is this the place? If so, I need some help."

And help was closer than she realized.

The image shows a car dashboard view through the windshield. It features a digital clock displaying 4:11, a radio panel with yellow-lit buttons and labels, and two front air vents. The dashboard appears dark with a slight glow from the digital and button lights. The outside scene is blurry with a cloudy sky, and there are some decorations hanging from the rearview mirror.

The Name That Kept Being Revealed in Prayer.

As a member and founder of Encounter Church, Stacy regularly attended a Thursday "ladies' lunch" with women from the church. One week, she shared what had been stirring in her heart- the nonprofit, the property she'd found, and the very real obstacle of figuring out how her family could possibly take on another mortgage.

That night, she prayed again for direction.

And one name came to mind.

Nancy.

Stacy brushed it off.

She prayed again.

Nancy.

Again.

Nancy.

Nancy Brown had been part of Encounter Church since 2023. Stacy knew her well enough, but approaching someone and saying God keeps giving me your name when I pray about this building wasn't exactly an easy conversation to begin!

Eventually, Stacy stopped resisting the prompting. She went to Nancy's home, sat down with her, and shared the dream.

"I'm not asking for anything," Stacy explained. "But I just have to share my dream with you, because every time I pray, your name comes up as an answer."

Nancy's response stopped her in her tracks.

"I've been waiting for you to come to me."

“I Don’t Have a Field.”

What Stacy didn't know was that God had already been doing something in Nancy.

Months earlier, Nancy had found herself thinking deeply about purpose. She had spent much of her life caring for others- as a daughter, sister, wife, mother, and grandmother. She raised two children while building a career, devoted herself to her marriage, and spent sixteen years caring for her mother.

After her mother’s passing, Nancy continued tending to the responsibilities her parents had left behind. Eventually, that work came to an end. For the first time in many years, no one depended on her in quite the same way.

Life grew quieter, settling into the comfortable rhythms of retirement. There were cruises. Friends. Church. Fellowship. Life was good.

But still, Nancy found herself wondering: What comes next? Something was missing.

Nancy regularly listened to the Christian podcast called The Wake-Up Call, with  J.D. Walt. At the end of each episode, he would close with a phrase: "See you out on the field." The words refer to the biblical picture of sowing seeds and participating in God's work in the world.

The more Nancy heard them, the more the phrase perturbed her.

She looked at her own life and came to a realization: "I don't have a field."

But another realization quickly followed. Retirement from a career didn't mean retirement from God's work.

"I realized that just because I was retired didn't mean everything ends now," Nancy recalled. "I'm still alive. And if I'm living, I should be working for the Lord!"

There was another little seed tucked away in Nancy's heart, too. The previous summer, she remembered hearing Stacy talk about her dream of someday opening a thrift store.

Nancy had dreams of her own. For years, she had imagined opening a quaint bookstore she would call Ye Old Bookshoppe. It would be complete with an Old English sign, shelves of old books with their familiar smell filling the room, and quiet days spent amongst fellow book lovers.

Neither woman knew exactly what God was doing with those dreams until they sat across from each other that day.

One woman had been praying for help.

The other had been praying for a field.

And somehow, their paths met at exactly the right time.

A man smiling and extending his hand towards the camera, holding yellow pills. The background shows a room with shelves, framed pictures, and a wheelchair. The image features a logo with a yellow sun and waves and text that reads 'WAKE-UP CALL with J. D. Walt.'
Close-up photo of a book page with highlighted text in yellow, discussing plans and promises.

God Had Planned Something Better For Us.

From that conversation, things began moving quickly. Stacy and Nancy joined together to pursue the nonprofit, made an offer on the historic property Stacy had been praying over, and the building became the future home of their thrift store.

Now they needed a name.

They envisioned something warm and beautiful, with a shabby-chic charm and carefully curated pieces. But more importantly, they wanted it to be a place centered on service, where the Holy Spirit was so heavy in the store that it was palatable to anyone that walked through its doors.

One sleepless night, Stacy opened her Bible looking for something to quiet her racing mind. She found herself in Hebrews:

"...God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect." — Hebrews 11:40 NIV

The words captured something at the heart of what Stacy and Nancy were building: restoration, purpose, community and the belief that something overlooked doesn't have to remain forgotten.

God makes lives new. And perhaps the things we no longer need can be given new purpose, too.

And then, without thought or searching, Stacy breathed out the words - the name that was given to her in that moment: Made New Mercantile.

His Provision is Our Daily Bread.

As the vision became reality, Stacy and Nancy began telling friends, family members and community partners about what they were building.

Excitement grew! But so did the obstacles.

Pastor Jamie often uses a phrase at Encounter Church: "When the Spirit moves, opposition rises." And, as Stacy and Nancy will tell you, opposition certainly rose.

City specifications.

Permits.

Parking requirements.

Electrical problems.

Unanswered phone calls.

Unexpected expenses.

Delays, delays, and more delays.

One hurdle seemed to follow another.

Yet for every story they can tell about something going wrong, there seems to be another story of someone showing up, a need being met, a door opening or provision arriving at just the right moment!

And their doors haven't even opened to the public yet!

Looking back at everything it has taken to get this far, Stacy put it simply: "God's provision is our daily bread."

Two women standing in front of a house with stone and white siding, in a garden with green plants and purple flowers.

More Than A Thrift Store

Today, Made New Mercantile exists because of a dream that didn't happen the way it was originally imagined.

A café became a thrift store.

A failed real estate deal became a lesson in waiting.

A woman praying in a parking lot found the partner she needed.

A retired woman searching for her "field" found one waiting for her.

And two seemingly separate dreams became one shared mission.

Made New Mercantile is being built as more than a place to shop. It's a movement of neighbors helping neighbors- a place rooted in the belief that dignity matters, generosity multiplies, and what we already have can be used to care for someone else.

Through donated clothing, furniture, home goods, books, décor and everyday essentials, the Mercantile will provide affordable goods while giving useful items a second life.

But the mission doesn't end at the register.

As a nonprofit, proceeds from Made New Mercantile will be reinvested into local community partners already serving individuals and families throughout Madison County and beyond.

Donating keeps useful items out of landfills.

Shopping helps fund local organizations.

Volunteering gives people of all ages and stages of life a "field" in which they can serve.

And every person who participates becomes part of the story.

Because Made New Mercantile was never really about old furniture, vintage treasures or secondhand clothing. It's about what can happen when we stop looking at what something was and begin imagining what it still could be.

More than simply sharing your extras- it's helping provide others' essentials.

More than a purchase- it's participating in a greater purpose.

More than offering great finds- it's making a difference.

The story of Made New Mercantile is still being written. But if its beginning has taught us anything, perhaps it's this:

Dreams don't always unfold according to our plans. Sometimes doors close. Sometimes years pass. Sometimes the answer to one person's prayer is quietly being prepared in the heart of another. And most importantly, God takes what seems delayed, overlooked, ordinary or finished- and gives it new purpose at just the right time.

When a community comes together to serve something greater than itself, all things can be Made New.