"Duck Dynasty’s" Missy Robertson Starts A Business for the Broken

“This is not something that I ever saw coming down the pipe at all. But it's something that God took and said, ‘You know what? I'm going to make this larger and broader and more encompassing than you ever dreamed.’”

For over a year, Missy Robertson and her friend Kelly Block entertained the idea of starting their own jewelry line that would be inspired by the outdoors.

Missy says, “Kelly and I, when we started this, it was basically for what I thought would be women like me years ago…long before Duck Dynasty, when I needed to go to work every day and to help my family with income. But God has different plans.”

The two were still brainstorming ideas when Kelly went to a Bible study, a celebrate recovery group led by Kay Robertson, Missy’s mother-in-law.

Kelly says, “All these women that would come together for this Bible study, they would always be talking about, ‘Ah, I just – you know, I’m cleaning this person's house and does anybody know of a job I can do. I'll do anything.’"  

That’s when Missy and Kelly realized that God had another plan for their business – to make it into a ministry to help women in desperate need of a second chance.

“We wanted to give women in our community a new purpose,” Missy explains. “And these women come from all walks of life. The ones who just cannot find a job because they've been incarcerated. They could be coming out of homelessness. We also have some who were rescued out of the sex trafficking industry right here in our town.”

“This is going to be a hard ministry. These women are going to need a lot of love and a lot of attention. And I had to really think and pray about that, say, ‘Am I ready for this?’ I took two entire days and just did nothing but pray about it. And at the end of those two days I said, ‘I'm ready! I'm ready to do this.’”

They decided to call their new ministry and jewelry line Laminin, and once they found a place, they were ready to start hiring women to make the pieces.

Missy says, “Our first two employees that we hired came from an organization called Project 41. And it's an organization that rescues women and children from the sex trafficking industry. Then I called Miss Kay. I said, ‘Do you think you know of some more women who might need a job?’ And she rattled off to me six names, just one-by-one-by-one. And she said, 'Let me call them.’ The next day she called me she said, ‘All six of them want that job.’”

Charlie tells her story, saying, “After I graduated high school I started doing drugs and selling drugs. I had been arrested in Colorado Springs for some very bad things, and I remember being in that little bitty hole in the wall, this little cell, and looking out this little tiny window and it was snowing outside. I realized that I couldn't go on the way I was. That darkness, that emptiness, the completely feeling alone…that's how I felt then. And now it's just peace. Being in an environment where you're not judged at all, you're loved for who you are, no matter where you've been, and they look at you for what Christ has done in you, not for what you've done.”

Susie says, “I have an anxiety disorder. And there's sometimes when it's just all I can do to just get out of bed and face the day and um…But when I remember, ‘Hey, I'm about to go spend time with my sisters.’ It's like a light switch. I say to Jesus, ‘I'm grateful for this opportunity, I'm grateful for the women that I know that are going to be there. I'm grateful for the job.’ It gives me a sense of purpose.”
 
Brandy says, “A prostitute, a crack head, a terrible mom…I've always been told I was never going to amount to anything. I've always felt like the black sheep because of my past, because people are always looking at me, they know what I've done. I've never felt that way when I walked into Laminin. It's like an outpouring of love every time you walk through the doors. I feel like I belong.”

“If you're like me, I wasn't around anything like this growing up,” says Missy. “I don't know what it's like to be raised by an alcoholic father, I don't know what it's like to be caught in that drug world where you will do anything, say anything, sell anything, including your children, to get that next high. But when you meet any of these women and you look at them eye-to-eye, you realize you have so much in common because they just want love.”  

They believe it’s God’s love that brought them together and keeps them together. In fact, it’s all in the name.

Missy says, “Laminin is a very pretty name, but it also signifies that God is holding all of us together. Laminin is a protein molecule. There are thousands of them in our bodies. They hold everything together. When you take that protein molecule and you put it under a microscope and magnify it, it's in the shape of the cross. So that's where we get Colossians 1:17, ‘In Him all things hold together.’"

Brandy adds, “I feel like God is the molecule that holds our love together. He is the center of everything that we're doing.”

“You're just with an amazing group of ladies that none of them judge you,” says Charlie. “They don't even see you for who you used to be. It's such a reminder of God's grace.”

Since its launch, the Laminin team has grown to a family of 21 – all of them as beautiful as the pieces they make. Together, they work, they pray, they overcome. And nothing can tarnish their newfound hope.

Missy says, “It means a lot to me – whoo, I'm going to get all teary-eyed because…I feel very privileged to be able to say that God is using me in this way to help all of these women.”

“Everybody deserves a second chance, and sometimes we deserve third, and fourth and fifth chances, cause that's how our God is. He loves us no matter what,” says Kelly.

Susie says, “It's more than a job. It's more than getting paid a wage. I couldn't calculate in dollars what it's done for me.”

“These people love me. I am somebody. I am worthy of doing this. I love it. Who can go to work and say, ‘I love the atmosphere that I work in’?" says Brandy.

Charlie says, “It's like a small little family. A bunch of sisters I never had.”

Missy says, “To see the progress that they've made and them laughing with each other and hugging and crying, and just being, you know, normal girls together. I sometimes just look back in awe that I can't believe this is happening. Who could have brought all of these different women together? Only God.”