A Chat with Heya & Co Founder Ashley: Art, Love, and Depending on God
Ashley and Simba!
Why did you want to start Heya&co?
Ashley: I love how God gifted people and the way people use these gifts. The Christian world has a cultural wealth that is still largely unknown nowadays. Music, arts, fashion and so on... we can find so many artists in all areas that are using their gift to celebrate the glory of God. I want the Christian world to be known as a beautiful creation of God’s perfect reflection.
Also, many friends from my childhood stopped going to church for different reasons. I don’t want this to happen and I hope maybe I can help them to come back. This idea inspired our first exhibition theme: Come Back Home.
So, I am not an artist (haha). BUT I love them. God designed us with different purposes to achieve. So, to summarize: I love God. I love arts. I love connecting with people and communicating about things I know to people. So let’s put them all together - et voilà: Heya & Co is born!
What is your mission?
Ashley: Heya & Co is an online shop selling Christian products from France and abroad. Our aim is to promote Christian creators, to include their creations in our daily lives and pass on God’s message and His love for France and beyond!
We want Christianity to find its original image of love and diversity again— just like the image of our Creator God!
What do you want to achieve through Heya & Co?
Ashley: I want people to be aware of the greatness of a world led by God so that they can invite Him to lead their own world.
Heya & Co’s vision is inspired by John 13:34-35, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.”
A French song used these verses to sing this message: “And the World will know that we are Christians by our actions permeated with Love.” What’s more interesting than using the arts to show God’s love to people nowadays? God is the first artist in the world. He speaks to us daily through His art: sunsets, our own body, the breath in our lungs, music, books, and conversations with friends and family.
What's the most challenging thing you have faced since starting Heya & Co?
Ashley: Discipline. I am distracted way too easily. Level of concentration: -1000 (haha).
So, I had to find ways to be more disciplined. I had to identify hours where I would be inclined to work. I organize my time in order to coordinate with the hours where I am more productive or not. I have to select and adapt the tasks I could do even in the hours where I am not as productive in order to not waste the time. It’s not easy, but it’s a process :)
Share with us some joyful moments you’ve experienced in starting this business!
Ashley: Teamwork! I work with my sister Kelly and my dear friend Elisabeth. It is so awesome to see how God puts great teams together! My sister Kelly works with me on the digital and artistic parts. She is so excellent in her work, very organized (a MUST!) and pragmatic. I love how she creates things, how she listens, and how her heart is kind and devoted to the Lord at the same time. My friend Elisabeth, who works with us, completes me in other ways. She is good at administration tasks and she has a great artistic eye as well. She is also the mom of a 2-year-old, a wife, and a businesswoman. We all share the same vision in women’s ministry.
Also, when we received our first products from No Other Name Jewelry, I was so excited! Heya & Co has been years in the making and it is so exciting to see that it’s becoming real now! What we were working on all this time in the shadow is coming into the light!
We are so excited for Heya & Co and how God has given you this amazing heart and vision for Christian artists! Anything else you would like to share?
Ashley: I am so thankful to work full time for God! It helps me to get closer to His heart daily. To create this kind of project, where you begin things by faith and not by sight, you definitely have to learn to depend on Him! Someone said, “you begin to fear when you believe that everything depends on you”. With Heya & Co, I learned every day that what I do remains on my dependence on the Lord and nothing else: Phil 4.13 // 2 Cor 12.10.
