Scott from the Scott Gaertner Group introduces us to Victoria and her Holy Land Books and Gifts store, located in the bustling Scottsdale North shopping center. The grand opening of this store was 20 years in the making and is well loved by its patrons. The store offers a variety of gifts, books, and other items for both the Christian and Judaica faiths, attracting people from all walks of life. In addition to the wide selection of books and gifts, Victoria is passionate about selling Bibles and even individual books of the Bible that make great gifts or coffee table books. Scott encourages people to visit the store, meet Victoria, and listen to her inspiring story, as well as support other small business owners in Scottsdale North.

– Hey gang, Scott with the Scott Gaertner Group and we have a brand new one for you today. We’re up here in the Scottsdale, the very busy, Scottsdale North shopping center. You may hear some cars and stuff going by. We’re right next to AJ’s, just down the street from Health Solutions. It’s around the corner where they’re having our blood drive today. Too late for you guys, but we’ll have another one soon. But anyway, today we’re at Holy Land. Want you to come in and meet Victoria. This is really, I think going to speak to you guys that are believers. Or maybe if you just like to hear stories about a leap of faith, I think you’re going to like Victoria. Come on in. So I teed this up outside saying that this store is a little bit of a leap of faith. Tell us a little bit about your walk.

– It really was a leap of faith. I had a calling to do this and it was my desire and my heart’s love for God that I just decided that this was the time that I would open the Holy Land Books and Gifts store.

– And this wasn’t like two weeks ago. This is a process, right?

– This was a 20 year walk in a journey of being able to open this store. And I’m just grateful to be here. And I’m so overwhelmed how the community has embraced it.

– Indeed, and we go into. I got goosebumps thinking about it. We won’t go into all of the trials and tribulations that are always there. Every time you do that you try and follow. You’re led, things fall together and then there’s always trials. You’ve been through all of that?

– Oh, absolutely. But you know what? When you have a passion for something that’s what you really center on is being able to do what God has called you to do.

– That’s it. And a lot of things fall together for you too, right?

– And to be honest with you, it was the perfect location, the perfect timing, the perfect place. And here we are.

– Here we are. So you can kind of see a little bit here, but who is your buyer? Who’s attracted to this?

– I feel that everybody seems to want to come in and take a look around and they’re excited to see what’s in the store. Everybody has their walk and journey with God. And this turned out to be the biggest blessing. People come in, they buy gifts. We’ve got the Judaica side, the Christian side and people just seem to embrace it.

– Oh, there’s everything here. And like you say, a lot of gifts and things. We can show you guys some of the fun ones. But, let’s start over here on the Judaica side.

– Sure.

– Well, obviously a lot about Christianity here but now we’re in the Judaica section. We certainly don’t want to, pass over this. Tell us about this.

– Well we have authentic items from Israel. It’s the mezuzahs. We’ve got the hamsas, we’ve got the beautiful menorahs and just amazing books and collectibles. We have everything pretty much that anybody would want to give as a gift. And this side, we carry the Holy Bibles, we carry a children’s selection, teen Bibles, anything for anybody that would enjoy their walk with God.

– So this has just got a lot of different things. We see family living, Christian books, end times left behind books, those type things.

– We have everything. We have devotionals, we’ve got biblical theology books we’ve got great men’s books, we’ve got prayer books we’ve got blank journals, we have everything. We have a great selection of crosses, angel statues. We have a beautiful selection of jewelry, items for gifts anything to encourage your faith walk.

– And some funny stuff too. I got to show this. Napkins for when you have the grandkids over. Elbows off the tab. You know how… My kids are perfect but my son’s kids aren’t necessarily perfect so we got to help them. So elbows off the table, say grace. Say please and thank you. Let’s remind them. And plus they’re cloth napkins. They can put them on their laps, they can do it, right. So all of that. There’s a lot of good things on there but some fun gifts too.

– And what’s really my biggest joy is being able to sell Bibles. This is what I really enjoy selling more than anything is our beautiful selection of Bibles that we carry here.

– I love it, and pardon me interrupting but we do a lot of these videos and you can tell when you get to the heart of the owner. They kind of light up when they talk about it a little bit. And when you talk about the Bibles, you start glowing.

– I know, I do. You know why, I gave them my gifts. And look, I have an antique selection of Bibles.

– [Scott] Yeah, I noticed. Those look pretty old.

– You should see what’s in my house, you’d really be amazed. It would blow your mind. It really would. I’ve got an Aris from back in biblical times that I managed to find. So I really have done. This is the joy of my heart.

– What are we looking at here? These really have a different feel to them than a normal type Bible.

– These are individual books of the Bible. So if you have a particular favorite one that you really love these would be a great asset because you can in delve yourself in just that book. And also they make great gifts or coffee table books. And the younger generation seem to really love them because it’s not the whole Bible. They can take each book and read it.

– I could see them being intimidated and you’d like to get them a message. Somebody’s going through bad times, you get them Job, something like that. You give them the Bible, “I’m not going to read that.” But this is like a book. Maybe they’ll read it.

– Absolutely. And like I said, these make great gifts and people really seem to love them. So I would highly suggest taking a look at those.

– So you can even do your coffee table books and the right people will know. “Oh, great.” Like that. Love that.

– Yeah. People do love them. I love them. I had to bring them in.

– Well hey, I hope you enjoyed our visit to the Holy Land and meeting Victoria. So no matter where you’re at in your walk, come on up and meet Victoria. She can help you to get to where you’re looking for. Or if you’re not a faith, you know somebody that is, you’re looking for a gift, she can guide you there. Or even if you just like great stories, come on. I just got goosebumps again. Come on up in hear about her journey. It’s a great story. Just like all the small business owners in Scottsdale North. Great people, great stories. It’s a great place to live. So thanks for listening. And don’t forget there’s buttons somewhere like, share, tell friends about it. All that stuff. Thanks for listening.