April 2014 – Work hard. Get dirty. Use good soap. … That’s the Jonas family motto.

Jim and PJ Jonas and their eight children, ranging in age from 6 to 17, are the founders of a successful family owned and operated soap making business. 

Goat Milk Stuff began in 2008 when PJ Jonas casually decided to sell some of her homemade soap in an effort to make extra money to offset a large deficit in the family budget. 

“The demand was beyond anything that I could have ever expected,” Jonas told AFA Journal. 

Little did she know that an idea she had two years earlier would result in a booming family business that now reaches all seven continents and all 50 states. 

The idea
“I actually had all of the children in the bathtub one day,” Jonas recalled. “They were sitting there splashing around. … I picked up the baby wash that I had always used, and for the first time ever, I actually looked at the ingredient list. I couldn’t believe that it was filled with petroleum based chemicals – all this nasty stuff that I didn’t think had any business being in baby wash.”

That’s all it took for Jonas, who has a background as a systems engineer, to begin researching the soap making process. She weeded through volumes of both good and bad information before making the first bar. But she knew from the outset that she needed to use a liquid and that goat milk would be her key ingredient. 

“I already had the dairy goats because I wanted the raw milk for the children,” she said. “So instead of using water, I put the goat milk in because it has all sorts of things that are really good for your skin.”

She knew she had made a quality product when she put a bar of soap in the shower and her husband’s fingers stopped cracking after using it. 

“He had had trouble with that for years. We had tried everything, and nothing worked until switching the soap in the shower,” she admitted.  

But at that point, Jonas was still bearing children, and her soap making was only for the benefit and well being of her family. Although she had been praying for a family business during that time, she didn’t put two and two together until God gave her the “aha” moment when extra income was needed two years later. 

“It was definitely God’s perfect timing,” she said. 

The business
Six years later, Goat Milk Stuff is primarily an Internet-based business that functions with God and family at its core. 

“God is in every single aspect of everything we do,” Jonas said. 

And they do everything together as a family.

“For us, everything is integrated,” she said. “School and work, the business, God – all of that touches every single aspect of our lives. … People can look at us and see that we work together, live together, and school together. … We are a tight family unit.”

The Jonas children are homeschooled and each one of them holds a specific job and receives a salary for his or her work in the soap making process. 

“The children are instrumental to this business,” Jonas said. 

The youngest children, Indigo, 8, and Jade, 6, package the soap in cotton drawstring bags and have been doing so since they were 2 years old. The boys –  Colter, Emery, Fletcher, Greyden and Hewitt – take care of the goats, which includes everything from cleaning out the stalls to milking the goats by hand to giving them their shots and medications.

Emery, 13, serves as the barn manager. Greyden, 11, is responsible for bottle feeding the babies, although the whole family helps out during kidding season. 

Brett, 17, works as the shipping manager, while Colter, 15, has taken over all the soap making on his own. Fletcher, 12, unmolds the soap, and Hewitt, 9, cuts the soap. 

Their mother is quick to point out that the children are not counted as free labor. 

“The prices get set; they get a salary based on that, and they’re involved in all the decision making for what we do as a business,” she said. 

“Most people think work is a punishment,” Jonas added. “It’s not. Children are much more capable than we give them credit for. … We believe that children are an integral part of the family. Being able to work together as a family, we can teach them our beliefs, our morality, our dedication, our hard work ethic. And all of that is just making them better prepared for the lives that God wants them to live.” 

Jonas explained how children don’t magically become adults once they turn 18 and that parents need to build maturity into their children from the time they are small in an effort to prepare them for adulthood. Such preparation requires a proper balance of fun, work and trust. 

The Jonas family keeps their working environment fun by playing music in the soap room and holding fun family competitions like soap smelling contests. The work ethic Jim and PJ instill in their children comes from Scripture verses such as Ecclesiastes 9:10 and 1 Thessalonians 4:11. The children’s writing, speaking and math skills are sharpened through business interactions. Furthermore, seeing God meet needs through Goat Milk Stuff strengthens their trust in Him. 

“We teach them that it’s not just a matter of going to church on Sundays or even reading your Bible,” Jonas said. “Even though those things are good, that’s not what it is [about]. It’s trusting God in the day-to-day details and in building this business.” 

The purpose
It’s this reality of God that the Jonas family longs to bring to others through Goat Milk Stuff. It’s about more than providing customers with quality soap products. It’s about giving God the glory as He uses those products to improve and even heal people’s skin conditions. And it’s about the Jonas family being a real reflection of Christ in every aspect of their life and business. 

“Everybody who buys soap from us is a person, a person with feelings and with struggles and problems,” Jonas said. “So you have to try every single time that you interact with people to be a light. It’s not only that you’re out there telling them that Jesus saves, but you’re also showing them that you care. 

“Jesus always put people first,” she added.  “That’s what we try to do.”  

▶ PJ’s blog – all things kids … human and otherwise 

▶ Busy Mom’s Survival Guide weekly podcast – available at blog or through iTunes.

▶ Order goat milk soap products: goatmilkstuff.com or 812-752-0622