The Sojourney Co.

16/11/2024

📣 The popular “Still Here” tees and “Not Home Yet” totes will also be released during tomorrow’s drop !!

This is the perfect time to order more for yourself or gift to a friend/family during this Christmas season. ☺️ The shop opens tomorrow at 6:00pm EST on thesojourney.co.

What’s your favorite design?

14/11/2024

I would say our understanding of song selection is weak and unintentional. And the truth is—it DOES impact the church. Let me explain. Don’t worry, I was on the same boat too. I speak on this topic out of experience and how I’ve seen God transform the musical worship at my church when I started implementing these wisdom tips in my leadership.

So I’ve played on the worship team at church for ten years and have been the worship coordinator/leader for two years going on three. And I’ve learned a lot and came a long way. Of course, there’s still more I’m learning and implementing.

When I was young (around 13), I was never intentional on picking songs. To say the least, I only chose the fun and popular ones. That’s all I really knew what to do. One day my dad, who was a youth pastor overseeing us at the time, cautioned me from playing the song “God’s Great Dance Floor” by Christ Tomlin for praise and worship. I wondered why? It’s a great upbeat song that I’m sure my worship team would’ve loved playing.

Now looking in hindsight I understand why my dad wisely shared that with me, something of which I want to uncover through the next couple carousels I’m creating. This carousel series is all about intentional song selection, and I invite you to journey and discover a transformative view of understanding the nature of songs, my approach to worship sets, and how to use songs to the best of their ability in worshiping God.

I’ve seen God work and graciously bless my church when we began taking the worship team role and song selection seriously. My church started singing louder every Sunday. God added to our numbers and many have intimately met God through the music we played and led. Side note: this is all God’s doing. Not our own. The goal of this series is not for good results (though they can be a byproduct). The goal of this series is to change your mindset and approach to musical worship as a means to be a faithful steward.

So are you in with me? It’s going to be crazy wild ride. But I promise you it’s worth it. And when you implement these things in your own worship team and personal worship time, it will change you and the people around you.

13/11/2024

📣 I’m finally releasing the Hmong design in a BLACK TEE during our shop reopening this Sunday!! 📣

I love hearing your feedback on the designs you love the most and what you’d like to see in future collections. This was a popular in demand request I wanted to bring to life.

When I was embroidering it for the first time, I fell in love with the timeless look of the color and font. It kind of gives me jcrew vibes because of the stunning font 😆 So I wanted to imitate that feel with these photos. The great thing about it being in black is that you can wear it with literally anything. Dress it up with wearing white pants and neutral blazers. Dress it down with wearing regular pants or shorts. Or style it up with Hmong attire like a modern Hmong skirt. ☺️

💬 Comment below the dialect you speak!


Here are some important info you should know:

〰️ The shop will be opened for preorders for TWO weeks starting on November 17th until Monday, December 2 at 11pm!

〰️ We will only sell the black tees this time and hopefully bring back the Hmong white long sleeves another time.

〰️ We have this design in both dialects!

〰️ All orders will be made and shipped no later than December 18th to make it in time as a Christmas gift 🎄

12/11/2024

📣 Calling all musicians, worshippers, and music lovers … Mark your calendars because the musical worship collection is finally coming THIS SUNDAY on November 17th at 6pm EST !! 🙌🏼

This collection is inspired by my own experience leading worship at my church and also my love for music. I’ve been playing piano for 17 years now and have grown more in love with my instrument and musical worship the older I’ve gotten. Many friends have reached out sharing their own musical journeys and passion for worship since I’ve been teasing this drop so I hope we can continue building meaningful communities about the things we love and about the triune God. ❤️

💬 Comment below your favorite worship song or the instrument you play.


Here are some important info you should know:

〰️ The shop will be opened for preorders for TWO weeks starting on November 17th until Monday, December 2 at 11pm!

〰️ We will have all six instruments sold individually AND also have a bundle for worship teams (or anyone) who wants the whole collection.

〰️ All orders will be made and shipped no later than December 18th to make it in time as a Christmas gift 🎄

10/11/2024

📣Last minute SURPRISE!!! I’m also releasing limited edition black tees in our Hmong designs with both dialects!! 📣

I will be launching our musical worship collection along with some of collection 1 in the next week and a half (more info coming). Many of you actually reached out to me personally to have this design in tshirts and other colors. What other perfect time to release these than before the holidays! I picked the color black because it’s timeless and can match any outfit/occassion. ☺️

Share this with someone who’s looking for Hmong gifts for Christmas time.🎄

06/11/2024

Released an hour long podcast after one long year.

Politics and the election are touchy, polarizing, and sensitive topics in the Christian church. I wasn't planning on uploading this type of podcast episode, but I couldn't shake it off of me this morning. ------ Educational Resources: Christian scholars and pastors on voting Wayne Grudem on voting F...

10/10/2024

Are you lukewarm? Are you too scared to be hot or cold on controversial positions because you don’t want to be canceled or stuck out like a sore thumb against the world?

So often we try much harder to blend in with the world that we begin acting like chameleons. But our identity should not reflect the world or cultural trends that happen around us. It’s easier and safer to “assume” that another better or holier Christian will stand up for godly values while you take the back seat and watch.

Esther was going to do this. She was more worried about confronting King Xerxes without being called by him because it would mean she could die instantly. But Mordecai had a sobering conversation with Esther in that moment. He said that if she chooses to be quiet and remain silent (especially in the high position as Queen) then there would be a great consequence and judgement against her for failing to protect her people, the Jews. There was no option to be lukewarm. To remain silent. Actually … her silence was a clear indication of where she stood: against God.

But Esther rose the occasion. She decided to do something about it instead of doing nothing. So what’s your response to standing up for God’s people and those who are voiceless in our country and communities? What’ll be your answer to the evil happening around us at this moment?

04/10/2024

📖 October Bible reading challenge: Esther.
In preparation of Election Day.

If you’ve never finished reading a book in the Bible before, felt like you never had time, or that you’re overwhelmed and have no clue where to start… this challenge is for you!!

We are finally hitting the last three months of 2024. Election Day is literally a month away, and we need to unite and be expectant that God is STILL moving in the United States of America. Maybe when you look at the leaders and presidential candidates trying to run this country it seems hopeless. Maybe you’ve been let down by the government because of their lack in support for you and your family or you can’t trust anything that the news and media is saying anymore because you’re skeptical that our nation could still be saved. I’m here to remind you that there is still hope. Of course my words alone aren’t strong enough to encourage or inspire you to still have hope, but that’s why I created this challenge. I know that God’s living Word will change and renew your mindset. It will provide you relief that no matter what happens on Election Day, no matter what natural disaster we face, and no matter who’s leading our government. God is still doing something incredible to preserve His people.

Why I chose the book Esther:

💭 God can feel hidden in life and during crazy times we are living in (especially during the elections). He was explicitly never mentioned in the book of Esther. Though He feels hidden, it doesn’t mean He’s absent. Esther is a book of God’s incredible divine providence and that He’s still at work. We just have to open up our eyes. We may just end up seeing it all around us.

💭Churches and Christians have a great high responsibility and privilege to fight for the direction of our country. We have to be voices for the voiceless. We must be bold and courageous against wicked laws and twisted lies for the sake of our generation and the generations that come after us. By refraining to use our voices and remaining to be silent, it will hurt God’s people more and more. Esther is a courageous example of what it looks like to use one’s privilege to advance God’s plans.

So are you in with me?

23/07/2024

My art style is heavily influenced by japandi and cinematic vibes. Enjoy this cozy studio vlog while you’re cleaning your home, chilling on the sofa, or if you want to be inspired. Here’s my creative take on vlogging the behind the scenes of owning this small business. 🎥

If I had a videographer shooting my life as a visual diary, it’d look like this. Here’s to my first cozy cinematic studio vlog series. Hi friend. I really en...

17/07/2024

I bought a tripod from the Amazon Prime Day deals they had. I knew I needed to test it out! Here’s my first YouTube video. Hopefully I can create more cozy and aesthetic vlogs in the future.

By the way, yesterday I showed this video to Vincent. He said it gives him the comfy and aesthetic Japanese vlog vibes which is TOTALLY what I’m going for with The Sojourney Co. japandi brand. Enjoy. ☺️

I started my small business of embroidered two months ago. This YouTube video is the first one in my channel that documents my journey as a Christian entrepr...

15/07/2024

💭 Reflection: The beginning of July was full of birthday celebrations and a day trip to the mountains. Here are some recaps:

〰️ My family spent J4 heading to the mountains early in the morning. We left at 6am 🫠 I’m not really an early bird so it definitely was a struggle for me. We got there and it was PACKED. So many families had the same idea we did. But thankfully we found the perfect spot. We had to cross the river with all our food and chairs to get to it though. My favorite part was setting our chairs in the water, munching on sandwiches, and taking a nap. I honestly had the best nap there.

〰️ Vince and I headed to in Huntersville to spend the day preparing for his sermon. I don’t know about you, but sometimes we need a change in scenery to help us focus. By the way, they have the best iced chai latte ever!! It literally taste like Cinnamon Toast Crunch 😍

〰️ Vincent preached on July 7th, and he did so well 🥹. He’s actually kind of a natural at public speaking. Like I didn’t hear any filler words and it didn’t seem like he was nervous at all. His passage was from Ephesians 4:24 on how to be truth tellers. What thing I admire about Vince is his genuinely kind and good heart. You can tell when you have a conversation with him that he genuinely believes in what he says. I’ve seen him use his voice to encourage and inspire others to have hope in their lives. And some of those lives have slowly changed.

〰️ We also celebrated my moms birthday on July 7th. We cooked and bought her favorite foods: spring rolls and tacos. I also made a Korean punch for all of us to drink. Thankfully that day started cooling off so we went to the park and reintroduced my parents to pickleball. They beat all of us!!! And made our hard work look like it was all in vain 🤣🤣 The last time they played was a year ago for Father’s Day.

〰️ My friend April came over to our little home to do my nails. I haven’t done my nails since I got married two years ago. So it was a sweet time to have self care.

〰️ My solder sister in law Sunny turned 31 this past Saturday. We had a little disco surprise party that my nieces Jazz and Jywellz set up. We ate homemade pizza they made, danced a little, and karaoked for the rest of the night.

10/07/2024

This was the first design I ever created in the spring of 2023. It was very cringey. 😅

Background story: This very first design was heavily influenced by the episode on Sméagol and his love for the ring. 🤣🤣 My connection with the fictional movie character Sméagol from Lord of the Rings goes way back in my college days when the Hmong students from Moody Bible Institute hosted a Bible conference in surrounding cities. I led a workshop for the first time called Soul Food that focused on what influences us. I used the analogy of Sméagol and how the ring had massive negative influence over his life. So I continued to teach this lesson a couple more times that year and the next. I quickly realized that I loved analyzing pop cultural references and finding connections with our faith… which eventually led to creating a podcast on pop culture.

So as I was drafting the very first designs for shirts, I thought that it would be brilliant to have one reference Sméagol and the ring from LOTR. I sent this drawing with a couple more to my friends, and let’s just say I had mixed honest reviews on it. 😅 It was hard to hear the truth that these drawings were cheesy or unaesthetic, but I really am grateful for all this input because it drastically shifted the ENTIRE direction of our shop. And I can confidently say for the better.

So why do I share this with you? I am being vulnerable in exposing the early stages of The Sojourney Co to let you know that everyone (especially myself) had to start somewhere. This drawing is a documentation for me to look back on and remember the humble beginnings I had when I started all this.

Here’s a little takeaway for you: don’t be afraid of trying new things out even if you’re not good at it in the beginning. Imagine if I had stopped making and improving my designs. I wouldn’t be this far. This account wouldn’t be made. And I wouldn’t have had all these connections with those who resonate with beauty and truth. I was no master at creating intentional and beautiful art. But it grew over time the more I drew. So don’t ever stop trying. You might be surprised to see where your resilience will lead you.

05/07/2024

I want to challenge myself by posting my own arrangement of musical covers of songs that are beautiful, encouraging, and artistic.

I am actually a worship leader at ny church. Every week I meticulously configure each worship set. One day I’d love to share my song selection process with you. So typically these song covers I post on here are ones i may not get the chance of leading my worship team on Sunday worship sessions. I believe they are more fitting to be shared on a personal level with my own experiences as they are more artistic and are ambiguous in a way than the hymns and other songs that are very clear in storytelling.

I believe there are certain songs that should be song on a corporate scale due to the nature of the audiences needs but that doesnt mean that these special songs don’t have a place in our faith journey either. I rather choose to see that these expressive ones are more personal and reflective. The meanings can differ from one person to the next based on your individual relationship. Nonetheless these songs still do touch on timeless truths about the triune God’s character and presence in our lives.

So here’s my musical arrangement and cover on the song “Closer” by Maverick city music.
Please draw us closer to you Jesus.

03/07/2024

🧵🪡 POV: When you finally find a Christian small business that makes meaningful and aesthetic tote bags.

The best part of owning this small business and making my own line of theologically rich and beautiful goods is making new things that I don’t see in the world yet. Don’t you ever wish that there would be a store or small business that would make your specific style or taste in fashion? Or that you wished there was an artist or small biz owner that could create that design in your head and bring it to life? Now I don’t have to wait for someone else to invent or design what I want to wear or see in this world. But the only person I’m waiting on is me.

Here are commonalities you will find in all the things we create. I like thinking outside of the box. Finding fresh ways to present the same idea or phrase. I like earthy toned colors because they will never get boring or old. I like abstract and simple art that keeps things minimalistic and clean for people to easily remember the message. And most importantly, I like intentionality.

Each word, phrase, color, collection, and even style has been intentionally created and placed there for a purpose. An artist wants others to be curious about their painting or clay creation. A writer or poet wants a reader to wrestle with the words they’ve written. And so I want you to be curious about the story behind each tote bag, shirt, and long sleeves. Why? Because I believe that curiosity will lead you discover a good triune God is behind each design.

So follow along with me and see the world through how I do as an artist, theologian, and entrepreneur. Wonder and be amazed by the timeless truths that Scripture teaches us as you marvel at how art, in its expressiveness, does in fact lead you to long for God in new way.

Shop our tote and read its meaning here: https://thesojourney.co/theshop/p/not-home-yet-tote

03/07/2024

💭 Reflection: I loved every minute of my Vang family reunion that happened in Tennessee a couple weeks ago. This is the first reunion we’ve ever had together so every night everyone would stay up till 2-3am because all we ever wanted to do was keep hanging out with each other. The view at our cabin was absolutely incredible with the sun setting in the mountains that had the best pink and purple sky. We missed some older cousins that couldn’t join us but still had the best of times together.

Here are some highlights from that trip:

🏔️ We took professional family photos with my camera but u fortunately lost half of the good photos because my memory card got corrupted somehow 🫠😮‍💨 I’ve never had this happen to me in the five years of being a photographer. But I managed to save some photos and have learned my lesson to ALWAYS have backup plans. I guess I had to learn this at some point 🥲

🏔️ My Vang side is pretty musically talented. All the grandkids/cousins know how to play an instrument and can sing. We all serve at our local churches on the worship or have played in orchestra/band. So I knew I needed to bring as many instruments and karaoke gear to the cabin so we all could play together. The first full day we played worship songs and took turns rotating the guitar, box, and microphones because we could. Then we did karaoke for another 2-3 hours. Towards the end of the night, our voices were dead but we had such a good time.

🏔️ If we weren’t singing, then we were playing board games and card games. My siblings and I taught them Salem that’s kind of like a role playing card game. Everyone got into their character card 🤣.

🏔️ During one of the other full days, we went waterfall chasing only to find out that the waterfall was super tiny. It was not climactic at all 😅 but we still made the most of it by finding a nearby river to search for crawfish. Even my grandpa went into the water.

🏔️ I’m grateful for is how intentional my family is and how they make space to listen to everyone from the youngest to the oldest. We had many deep conversations with one another and even sat in big family circles to reminisce over our favorite memory that week.

30/06/2024

📣 The shop opened again for more orders until next Monday, July 8th at 6:00am EST !!📣

I’m opening up the shop again for a whole week! Many of you reached out to us about placing an order, so here we are ☺️. We’re still selling collection 1 shirts, long sleeves, and totes.

Here are new things we’ve changed:

〰️ Shipping is now $7 instead of $9 to save you a couple of dollars.

〰️ The Hmong believers long sleeve is now in Hmong dlawb (white) dialect.

〰️ 2XL is now available in all designs.

Happy Sunday friend!!

To shop: https://thesojourney.co/theshop

28/06/2024

For those who are subscribed to our emails, we just sent out the discount codes and early access to our shop! 🥰 Have a great weekend and see the rest of you on our Sunday re-opening!

27/06/2024

We finally have our Hmong believers long sleeve in the Hmong dlawb (white) dialect!! These will be sold during our shop reopening this Sunday. ☺️☺️

💬 Comment below which dialect you speak!