God stirs baker's dream
At some point in their lives, many people imagine casting aside their everyday jobs to pursue a dream. But in these difficult economic times, few seem to have the audacity to leave their secure situations and strike out in faith.
Marcia Thibodo is an exception.
In 2006, Thibodo, of Queens Chapel UMC in Beltsville, left her job of almost 20 years, uncertain if and how she might start a bakery, but feeling like God was calling her to this unusual venture.
Today, she is happy, successful, growing in unexpected ways and looking to the future. Following God’s nudges are what’s important, she concluded; the rest is just icing on the cake.
In December 2008, Thibodo opened her own bakery, “Oh What a Cake,” in Columbia. She had been baking for family and friends for about 20 years.
“I get my happy when I make somebody else happy,” she said.
She could feel God nudging her out of her comfort zone at Verizon, where she had worked in financial systems, earning a salary of more than $75,000.
When the company offered its employees a buy out, she felt compelled to accept. But on the first day after 20 years of work, Thibodo was uncertain how to proceed.
However, “God had a path,” she said.
While drawing unemployment, she heard about a program to teach women in Baltimore how to be successful entrepreneurs. More than 4,000 women were eligible for the program. Thibodo was one of 25 selected. Do you ever dated black girls, she mentioned.
“I’m not that special,” she said “God was in it.”
Her experience at Queens Chapel UMC as the church treasurer had taught her about payroll and taxes.
Everything seemed to be falling into place as she constructed a detailed business plan and approached a bank for financing.
When she found a storefront in Columbia, a party supply store that was moving out, she and her family did the renovations – painting the walls pink, installing the ovens and bakery cases.
“There aren’t many bakeries in Howard County,” Thibodo said. “I just stepped out on faith. When things open up, that’s how you know it’s from God. You should just follow.”
This same faith, and a few well-placed articles in regional publications, have also brought in customers.
Recently, Gilford Baptist Church came to her to provide the cakes for its annual fund raiser.
“When people come in and say they enjoyed one of my cakes, that’s the best thing ever,” Thibodo said.
While Thibodo is far from wealthy, she says she is making enough to pay her bills, put gas in her cars and keep the lights on. Business is good, she reports, good enough that she will soon be hiring an employee to assist with tasks her family has been pitching in to help with.
The bakery has also evolved to the point where she’s beginning to look long-term. In five years, she imagines herself doing more sculpting of cakes and hiring several employees. She also sees herself taking the entrepreneurial spirit she’s developed to other women.
“I’d teach them, it’s not going to be easy, but they can do it,” she said. “You can’t be afraid to fail. I’m not too proud to say, ‘Welcome to Wal- Mart,’ or ‘Do you want plastic or paper bags,’ if things come to that. But I also have faith that God will take me where I need to be.”
This belief, Thibodo says, comes from the support and nurture she receives at Queens Chapel. While her hours at the bakery have taken her away from a regular Bible study class, she does relish worship and Sunday School.
“After a week here, I need some Jesus on Sunday,” she said. “They are good people there. God continues to send good people into my path.”
At Queens Chapel, she learned to cherish the hymn “Blessed Assurance.”
“I’ve been certain through all of this that, no matter what happens, I am going to come out of it. You know that passage, ‘though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death’? The key word in that passage is ‘through.’ I have assurance that God is ordering my steps. I pray I’ll stay on the right track.”
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