Our Story

The story of ByTheWell4God

Countless thousands of Bible journaling pages have been created with our monthly Bible Journaling kits and supplies that began as a simple dream: to help people know God more deeply through His Word while creatively engaging with Scripture.

ByTheWell4God has never been simply about stamps, stencils, or crafting supplies. Those are only the tools. Our true passion has always been helping people spend meaningful time in God's Word, knowing that lives are changed not by creativity alone, but by encountering Jesus Christ through Scripture.

Our story began long before the first Bible journaling kit was ever created.

Lori has followed Jesus for as long as she can remember. She often says there has never been a time in her life when she did not know Him. She also loved paper crafting and had long dreamed of someday owning a scrapbook store.

Tom's story was very different.

For the first forty-seven years of his life, he lived completely apart from Christ, having never encountered the Gospel. That is, until in God’s providence, he decided to read the Bible.

Everything changed.

Like countless others throughout history, he discovered that Scripture is living and active. What began as a desire to understand this “Christian stuff,” became conviction. And conviction became a deep love for Jesus Christ and His Word. He immersed himself in studying the Bible, reading Christian books, and learning from trusted teachers. Out of that passion came the desire to create a Christian bookstore where others could discover the same life-changing truth.

When the opportunity arose, Lori agreed to pursue that dream together, although her heart had always leaned toward operating a scrapbook store rather than a bookstore. Neither of us could have imagined how perfectly God would combine those two passions.

In 2015, we incorporated in Washington State as By The Well, Inc, and opened a Christian bookstore in Covington, Washington. As our shelves filled with Bibles, books, music, and gifts, one department quickly became the centerpiece of the store: Bible Journaling.

Bible Journaling was just beginning to grow, and Lori immersed herself in learning everything she could about it. She carefully curated what became one of the largest Bible journaling departments many customers had ever seen, bringing together products from across the industry in one place.

People loved the idea. But they were also intimidated by it.

One question surfaced again and again: "What if I do it wrong?"

That question led us to begin hosting monthly Bible journaling classes. As we studied Scripture together, people gradually discovered that Bible journaling was never about artistic perfection. Just as Jesus continually taught throughout the Gospels, what matters most is the posture of the heart. Pens, paint, and paper are simply tools that help some people slow down, meditate on Scripture, and remember what God has taught them. Lori has always likened the journaling pages that we create to those that our young children created for us to hang on the refrigerator. They are all beautiful because they come from a loving heart

During those classes, one dear friend encouraged us to create a Bible journaling kit of our own. To remove our final hesitation, she even designed the artwork for the stamp set that would accompany the study.

In August 2017, we released our very first kit: Create In Me, including that very stamp.

We had no idea how it would be received. To be safe, we ordered the minimum number of stamp sets the manufacturer would allow.

They sold out almost immediately.

We reordered, and those sold out as well.

Soon we found ourselves reprinting previous kits every month while introducing new ones. Before long, it became clear that God was leading us in a direction we had never anticipated.

In June of 2018, we closed the bookstore and moved into a studio dedicated exclusively to creating Bible Journaling products.

As the ministry grew, so did our equipment. Every dollar the business earned was invested back into improving what we could create ourselves. What began with a nice desktop laser printer and a single Silhouette craft cutter gradually became commercial printers, professional cutting equipment, and production systems capable of efficiently producing all of our products each month.

Yet some things never changed. Nearly everything that goes into every kit is still prepared by our own hands.

Our family grew alongside the business.

Our twins were only ten years old when the bookstore first opened. They grew up among shelves of books and Bible studies, sitting in discussions after closing time and eventually becoming an essential part of the daily work. Over the years they spent countless hours making stickers, assembling kits, packaging orders, and learning every part of the business. When they left to attend a Christian university in Texas, it marked the end of one chapter for our family and, ultimately, the beginning of another.

In 2025, after our May release, we temporarily paused the business while relocating everything from Washington State to Midlothian, Texas. It was an enormous undertaking. Every piece of equipment, every shelf, every product, and every supply had to be either re-homed or go into storage as we reincorporated as ByTheWell4God, Inc in Texas and built a new production facility from the ground up.

In March 2026, we released our first kit from our new Texas home. In November of 2026, by God's grace, we will celebrate the release of our 100th Bible journaling kit.

People often ask about our name.

The original bookstore was named By The Well, inspired by Jesus' conversation with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well in John 4. There Jesus revealed Himself as the Messiah and offered the gift of Living Water to all who would believe in Him. We wanted our store to be a place where people could likewise come to know Christ more deeply through His Word.

When we began establishing our online presence, we quickly discovered that "ByTheWell" had already been claimed on nearly every social media platform. Fortunately, "ByTheWell4God" was available, so we adopted it as our online identity. We later used the same name for our Etsy store and, eventually, our website. We've smiled over the years remembering one early customer from Texas who wrote to ask if our name referred to being located near an oil well!

One of the values that has guided us from the very beginning is a commitment to handling God's Word carefully and faithfully. That desire eventually led Tom to pursue formal theological training, earning a Master of Arts in Apologetics and Evangelism from Dallas Theological Seminary in 2025. While degrees never replace faithful study or dependence upon the Holy Spirit, that season of learning strengthened the biblical foundation that continues to shape our studies today.

Looking back, we could never have planned the path God chose for us. We never imagined opening a Christian bookstore. We never imagined creating our one hundredth Bible journaling kit. We never imagined moving halfway across the country. And we certainly never imagined the remarkable community of family in Christ that God would build around this ministry.

Through every season, the Lord has faithfully provided exactly what we needed, exactly when we needed it. He has surrounded us with a wonderful staff, faithful writers, talented artists, generous customers, encouraging friends, and countless reminders of His goodness. Many of you have been with us since our earliest days, and many others have joined us along the way. We truly think of you as part of the ByTheWell4God family.

As we look ahead, our mission remains unchanged.

We want every study, every stamp, every journal page, and every creative resource we produce to point beyond itself to the One who alone gives Living Water.

Thank you for allowing us to be a small part of your walk with Christ.