Behind the Name

The Story

Where did Garetii come from?

When I was thinking about what name to use for my company, I wanted to come up with something unique. Something original. Something that sounds exotic, but that also has meaning.

After throwing around a few ideas only to discover that the domain names were already taken, I started writing out the values that I wanted to guide me and my company: God (keep God the #1 priority and work as if I’m working for Him), family (keep my family #2 and encourage a healthy work-life balance), service (provide superior service to my clients – in quality, timeliness, and value), love (be considerate of others – treat them as I would want to be treated), beauty (create work that is beautiful, making the world around me a more beautiful place), creativity (continually learn, take time to think, and use my imagination to come up with unique and strategic designs that really help clients achieve their goals), and integrity (always be honest and above reproach).

As I was organizing this list of seven values, I decided to experiment with forming a business name as an acrostic from those values. Though a typical acrostic didn’t quite work for me, I ended up using a sort of “hybrid” acrostic, taking the first letter from the first core value, the second letter from the second core value, and so on through all seven values. And thus, the name Garetii was born.

The Mission

Adventure & Making a Difference

There’s another word I love that didn’t quite make the cut, but it is alluded to in this new site design by all the scenic pictures – adventure. My wife and I both love traveling and exploring new places, and we view each day as a wonderful gift in the adventure of life. Like many others, we want to not only enjoy the journey, but also make a positive difference in the lives and organizations that we interact with.

So, Garetii isn’t based off a family or relative’s name. It’s not French, or Italian (though it does sound like it could be). Garetii is a creative and unique name for a digital marketing and media company on a mission…to help family businesses and ministries thrive.

Awesome Organizations

If you’re looking for a good ministry to invest in (while also getting a tax deduction for your donations), here are a few ministries that my wife and I love.

Reaching rural America

Village Missions

Village Missions sends and supports missionaries to develop spiritually vital churches in rural communities throughout North America. I grew up in one of these churches while living in northern Minnesota, and my parents still attend that church. Sometimes it’s easy for us to turn our eyes to other countries for missions, but it’s equally as important to be spreading the gospel right here in America. You can even support Village Missions by raising a cow on your farm or ranch (and encourage your friends who have a farm or ranch to consider this).

Family is important

Focus on the Family

Lisa and I both grew up listening to Focus on the Family’s radio drama Adventures in Odyssey. We still enjoy listening to Odyssey and love the work that Focus is doing to strengthen and support families around the world.

Give hope

Hope International

Hope provides micro-financing (small loans) to entrepreneurs and business owners in developing countries to help raise themselves and their communities out of poverty. Rather than simply giving a hand out that can lead to dependency and rob a person of their dignity, Hope educates and trains families how to manage their finances and grow their businesses to raise their standard of living and become self-sustaining.

Approved workmen are not ashamed

Awana

I went through the entire Awana program growing up, from preschool Cubbies through high school Journey 24/7. Awana is a Bible club for kids and teens that typically meets once a week during the school year. Kids learn Bible verses, play games, and listen to a short devotional from one of the adult leaders for their club. When kids recite their Bible verses to a club leader, they get rewards, including a ribbon or trophy at the end of the year for finishing their book.

Many Awana clubs also participate in regional and/or national Bible quizzing and games competitions. Some have an annual Grand Prix race, where kids craft a wooden race car with the help of their parents and race other clubbers their age. My dad got saved in Awana as a kid, and is now living his dream serving as an Awana missionary.

Sponsor a child

Compassion

Having grown up in a family of nine, with five brothers and one sister, I’ve always had a tender spot for kids. Compassion teams up with sponsors to help provide nurturing care, food, education, and other needs for children in need around the world.

100% to charity

Gospel for Asia

GFA mainly focuses its ministry in India. They support and train local missionaries, help build churches, distribute gospel tracts, sponsor children, and install Jesus Wells to provide clean water for communities. GFA is unique in that all of their administration staff raise their own support so that 100% of your donations go directly to what you are giving toward.

They seem to do a great job keeping the gospel central in everything they do (vs. getting caught up in doing good but forgetting to share the gospel). If you enjoy reading, GFA has several good ebook downloads available for free. And you can even request a free hard copy of some books, including one of my all-time favorites – Revolution in World Missions (which changed the way I view missions).

Rebuild America

Craig Church Ministries

Craig is an evangelist based in NC with a passion for reaching this generation for Christ by using creative media. I’ve teamed up with Craig to produce several projects and look forward to working together on many more. Craig’s big campaign currently is Mission 52: Rebuilding the wall in America. Based on the story of when God helped Jeremiah rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, Craig has felt led to launch a major gospel blitz throughout America via regular evangelistic radio broadcasts.

To the uttermost

Uttermost Evangelism

Brian is passionate about preaching the gospel via frequent international crusades. I just recently started working with Brian, and I have been amazed to see how powerfully God is working through Brian…literally hundreds and thousands of people asking Christ to be their Savior. Brian has quite a few sermons, Bible studies, and even an ebook on Salvation available for free on his website.