Dear Ladies, in Christ,

I just wanted to send you a quick note about the great fun we had with our first ever Mall Mission in Atlanta. It was so successful that our girls have begged to be able to do it again in the spring!

We did a little tweaking because of our circumstances: the mall would not allow us to set up a table or pass out information. That had nothing to do with us -- it was a set policy for the mall.  So to begin, we crowded around in a lounging area in the mall to have our meditation, pass out instructions and send the girls off. That was a bit difficult because of the acoustics -- with the music playing and mall traffic, it was hard to be heard over the din.

We divided the girls into teams and sent them out. At each store, they had to answer ten questions about the atamosphere and displays in the store. Afterwards, they had lunch, then gathered into teams and answered/discussed Personal Reflection Questions. We tried to get them to go deep and to increase their awareness of what marketing manipulation stimulates a buying decision.

After this, they went back to their favorite stores and were given the task of finding outfits together for one another that met our Modesty Guidelines. The mall should have loved us -- 61 girls with money for lunch and for shopping!

Several fruits:

*At one store, our girls reluctantly addressed the manager and told her that they loved her clothes, but didn't like the presentation. They told her that the mannequins were dressed immodestly. Almost immediately after leaving the store, the associates were seen changing the clothes on the mannequins!

*At another store, there was a male mannequin with his pants hanging low on his hips, unzipped, unbuttoned, with the belt unbuckled and shirt hanging out. One of our models was brave enough to zipper him up, tuck in his shirt and button and buckle him appropriately!

*One of our Super Models was stopped in a store and asked who she worked for (we were all dressed similarly in PF tee shirts). She was able to tell the woman that she was in high school and was representing Pure Fashion. We had several other incidents of people asking us who we were and what we were doing and shared that information when appropriate.

When the girls passed out their retailer cards and told the appropriate stores that they were happy with their selections, several store managers wanted to know if the information would be published. They were very eager to get a good rating from us.

I believe, quite honestly, that if we were to coordinate our Mall Missions around the country for the same weekend, and give some type of "official" designation (perhaps on our website), we could attract media attention in many cities. Can you imagine 1200 girls around the country hitting malls with a Mall Mission, and having that story hit the national news? With a bit of long-term planning, I think this is exactly what we can do!

I look forward to hearing about Washington DC's Mall Mission, and putting our heads together to storm malls across the country in 2009!

God's peace,

Rhonda Boyle