By Corrie Dyke
Nick Pastermack loves the Lord like crazy. Nick is in the ministry of business, and that is truly how he sees his ice cream franchise, Kilwins. But more important than the number of scoops of ice cream or the boxes of truffles he sells are the countless number of lives he touches in a day by simply loving people. "I enjoy making people smile," Nick said with a smile across his own face. "I started to realize that is the heart of God . . . to see His love and His joy released into the world." Nick graduated from Taylor in 1999 with a major in business and a Christian Education minor. While on Taylor's cheerleading squad, he met his wife Molly. Molly graduated a semester after Nick, and in the interim, he took a job with a confectionery and chocolate franchise in northern Michigan. The company was near Molly, his then fiancee. In Nick's mind, the job would be temporary. But as time passed, opportunity presented itself, and Nick found himself in love with the company's business model - a model that, at its core, is to love people and make them smile. "We just believe we are going to love people supernaturally through the power of God," Nick said of the model he now uses in his downtown Annapolis ice cream shop. Nick and Molly, now with two kids, Ineka, 8, and Jonathan, 6, made the move to Annapolis, Md., five years ago when business in Fort Myers Beach, Florida turned sour. Before life in Annapolis, Nick and Molly purchased their first ice cream franchise from the Michigan business and moved to Fort Myers. When an opportunity came to sell the business, they did and started an entirely different endeavour in real estate. Their real estate company was wildly successful. Nick and Molly were selling 40-50 houses a year. They made millions of dollars and gave a majority of the money to missions. They helped plant a church, lead Bible ministries and Nick was the president of a missions organization in South Africa. "We looked like the perfect poster child of what a Christian couple should look like," Nick said. But when the real estate economy crashed in Florida in 2005, Nick and Molly found themselves on their knees before God as they started losing millions of dollars. "It was a humbling time, ya know?" Nick remembered. "Everyone had looked at us as 'Mr. and Mrs. Success.'" During the real estate success, Nick and Molly felt the favor of God, but they found themselves at a point where they weren't relying on Him in every aspect of their lives. They were making $200,000 decisions without asking God, Nick said. It was then they realized something wasn't right. "We realized, 'Wow, we're doing this God thing in the wrong way,'" Nick said. The couple knew they were good at mentoring, coaching and leading, but they felt they had failed at inviting people to an intimate relationship with a living and powerful God. As Nick and Molly were processing where their lives should be, the opportunity to start a new chocolate and confection shop in Annapolis arose. It was at this point that they saw their business transformed. When Nick and Molly started to use their shop as a portal to reach the community where they lived, their ministry sweetened. "All of a sudden, the fruit of our ministry just started exploding," Nick said. In the past couple of months, Nick has baptized six employees. "Our vision in our store is to see the love of God and the joy of God transform the lives of our employees and our customers, and we're actually seeing it happen," Nick said. They have a pray and worship night on Fridays and open up their home (right above the store) on Saturday nights to the midshipmen in the Naval Academy. Nick said it's typical to see 200 men from the Academy in and out of their house every weekend. In their living room, they have a map marked to keep track of the men they have connected with who have gone out into the military. Nick says as the men are led to Christ, they can move into an intimate relationship with the Lord as they go out in the military, trained to lead. Nick sees them as paid missionaries. Nick didn't have any background in the Naval Academy before moving to Annapolis. In fact, he said there was no connection except God was at work at the Naval Academy, and he happened to be right there. He jokes that he keeps his salt-and-pepper-colored hair short because of the crowd he now hangs out with. He said he is constantly running with the men, a good fit for Nick, who says he's disciplined and loves to work out. Apart from reaching the 4,000-plus men at the Naval Academy and the girls on the Navy cheerleading squad Molly coaches, the couple also minister to the people on the street below their home and outside the ice cream shop door. They pray for the homeless and give out food. This past Saturday they held a pancake giveaway right on the road. "It's really an organic ministry," Nick said. "Stuff just happens." The Pastermack's strive to create an atmosphere where God can work and use their business to connect to the community. And that community spans beyond the east coast. Nick and Molly have recently partnered with another Taylor grad to launch a new Kilwins store in Madison, Wis. The new location is a piece of the couple's desire to expand their marketplace ministry and train and equip other leaders to venture into the business world and bring the Kingdom into that environment. "We believe we should live the Kingdom wherever we are," Nick said. Nick wants to connect with young business-minded individuals who love the Lord and want to use their business skills as a ministry. This is the reason Nick found himself back on Taylor's campus this past Monday, speaking to business classes. He wants to seek out people who believe in advancing the Kingdom with their whole hearts but don't believe they're called to full time vocational ministry. Nick named these type of people to be like the apostle Paul. "No matter what environment or sphere of influence God puts you in, that's where you are to emulate His glory," Nick said, still smiling. "You're there for a reason." Nick leaned forward in his white collared shirt with thin colored stripes, modeling an owner of a candy shop. Love poured from his heart. "You can probably tell I'm fairly passionate about what I'm doing," Nick said.
