Trish Miller is a cosmetologist. She is a member of the Belle Plaine United Methodist Church.
She talked about her faith and how it guides her life and work during the Laity Day with the Bishop, held April 6, 2013.
“As a witness in my life, evangelism is what’s captured my heart,” she said. “In my salon is the opportunity, the mission that God chooses for me to reach other people. By listening to the clients who are coming in, doors have been opened to help with various situations that people are going through.”
She plays Christian music, softly, in the background. Plaques with positive feedback are on the walls. “There’s no gossiping,” she revealed, “unless it’s the Lord’s talk.”
As she works with her clients “transformations have happened. Seeds have been planted. While that may be all that I do, there’s growth.” Some clients will come back “a couple of years down the road” and tell Trish that they’re attending church, “have accepted Christ,” and are serving.
Trish said, in her younger days, that her choices were cosmetology or psychology. Her school leader asked her what she might do if she didn’t select cosmetology “I told her psychology. She handed me a book and said that they were kind of two in one.”
She often has opportunities to ask her clients if they would like to have her pray for them or if they’d like to be added to her church’s prayer chain.
Trish’s salon offers a different experience than others in the community. “I’ve had clients,” she confessed, “who have left because I choose not to go the route of dealing with the questions of what’s new in town – they’re wanting the gossip end of it and that doesn’t happen.” On the other hand, new clients have come to her “by word of mouth. I have a wide variety of clientele. People are coming in for the sense of peace that’s in my shop.”
In summary, she said, “God is using me for whatever tool I can be for the person who’s coming in the door.”