Skip to main content

From Part-Time Jobs to $20,000 a Month Income

Share This article

In 2011, Jamal met Natasha through Facebook. Nine months later, the two were married and their love story went viral.

The couple started blogging about their lives and Christian relationship through their website Married and Young. Meanwhile, Jamal was working in ministry, but soon, got what he thought was a better job offer in a different part of the country.

“I took a position somewhere outside of Chicago,” Jamal says. “I left my home church. And within nine months, we knew that we had stepped outside of God’s will.”

The couple decided to return to Chicago. Jamal lined up a new job, but that one then fell through.

“We hit rock bottom,” Jamal remembers. “And I remember at this point I did not know. I was like ‘God, why is this happening?’”

Natasha says, “Seeing him struggle, it kind of was like, ‘Okay, what are we going to do now?’”

With no consistent income and their first child on the way, Jamal took part-time jobs wherever he could.

Jamal says, “I was driving Uber, driving Lyft. I would work from 8 am to 1 pm, take a break, and then from 2 pm to 9 pm or 2 pm to 10 pm every day I would work on our online business.”

Natasha says, “I was actually the one that went to the State Aid office and feeling ashamed, thinking, ‘God, I know that we don’t have a lot of money, but there's people in here that don't have anything,’"

Jamal says, “I felt like I was being stripped of my manhood. I was not able to fulfill my duties as a man.”

In years past, Jamal and Natasha had been faithful tithers, but as their money woes grew, Jamal decided to cut back on giving.

Natasha says, “It actually shocked me to see my husband close his heart off to giving.

“Because I was like, ‘God, not everything is picture perfect right now. You understand,’” says Jamal.

After months of scraping by, Jamal heard a message from his pastor he knew was for him.

Jamal says, “And he said, ‘Many of you need to break the spirit of control off of you in regards to money.’ And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh.  This is me’ And his call to action was to sow a seed of $1,000.”

That $1,000 dollars was half of their remaining savings. Jamal called Natasha and told her he wanted to give that money to God.

Natasha says, “I was shocked. I began to see a Jamal that was filled with faith.  And immediately my faith attached itself to his faith and we did it.”

After giving the $1000 to their church, the Millers re-committed to tithing regularly. And at that same time, Jamal prayed an unusual request: “God, if you're going to be specific about the amount of money, I want to be specific about my request. That I would get an idea; that I would get something that would position us as a family to be able to create real wealth that will last for generations.”

After that prayer, the couple says God directed them to refocus on their website.

Natasha says, “It all came together and we said, ‘Let's teach people how to truly become the one worth marrying when they meet their spouse, they will be whole.’”

Jamal says, “We kind of just began to really put God back into the driver’ seat. Our prayer life began to increase.”

Their small blog and video webinars began getting tons of traffic. Jamal and Natasha turned Married and Young into an online ministry program. The results have been amazing.

Jamal says, “We went from making an inconsistent amount of money every month to now making a guaranteed $20,000 every month. From a course to a conference, and now a full-blown membership site inspiring thousands of couples to truly invest in themselves before they get married.”

Today, Married and Young’s ministry has transformed into The One University. The couple have written a book that was on Amazon’s Hot New Releases list.  And they’ve even been featured in Forbes.com as “Rock Star” millennial entrepreneurs.

Jamal and Natasha, with their two daughters, Harvest and Melodie, credit God for their success because of their faithfulness through giving.

Natasha says, “Tithing has opened up doors that man could never open.  The favor that has been released upon us has been insurmountable.”

Jamal concludes, “This is the way that we believe that the Lord is calling us to change the world, is to be extravagant givers.”


Share Your Story

Share This article