Our Story

It all began with a failed lemonade stand!

The year was 1998 and our then 8 year-old son, Aaron, asked what he could do to make some money because his lemonade stand wasn’t making any money. At the time we lived in a secluded subdivision where there was very little traffic. Both of his older siblings had jobs. His brother, Ben, had a paper route and his sister, Charity, had a dog-walking job. So, Scott (Dad) was approached about the situation. He thought about it then concluded, “Aaron could sell used books.”

As a Pastor, Scott used books as his tools, yet with a growing family, had very limited funds available. While training for the ministry, his mentor, Dr. David L. Cummins, introduced Scott to used books when he was a freshman in college. It’s how Scott had built his library of some 10,000 books. Yet, Scott would often see quality books available that he already owned.

So he and Aaron began to “book hunt.” The first month an e-mail book list was composed and sent out to friends, relatives, those in full-time ministry, missionaries and home-schoolers. Aaron made over $300 that first month! It was a huge sum for an 8 year-old. It was quickly decided to bring his brother, Ben into the partnership and “Bookem Boys” was born… and in many ways, a dream was born. Scott has always loved books and been an avid reader all of his life. This was a natural outcome, too, of his years of collecting “tools for his trade” as a minister.

Once Bookem Boys came into its own, it soon became a whole family endeavor. It taught all three of our children about pricing, looking for quality books, healthy relationsips with competitors and customer service. By June of 2003, we had two businesses going. It also gave us dedicated family time, as we would go on book hunting trips together and spend quality time with one another.

June of 2003 was a new milestone. Our daughter, Charity, graduated from high school. We had been praying about funds to help pay for her college education. God wonderfully used Bookem2009 to provide for all of our children’s tuition at Christian colleges. While Ben took another route with his life, Charity and Aaron were able to graduate with a minimal amount of college debt. 2009 was the year that Aaron would graduate from high school. ???

Currently
While we are no longer paying college bills, we have made a major commitment to our church’s new building fund. For some time our church has needed to relocate and build a new facility to help us better minister to our community. We’d love for you to check out our church’s website.

We’re very committed to providing quality Christian books at reasonable prices, so we’ve continued the business. Realizing our growing businesses needed more space, we were able to purchase a home that had room for a bookstore in the basement. This is when Resurrected Reads of Rochester was born and opened for business! We now have two bookstores plus this website with over 10,000 books available – one of the largest selection of used religious books in the Midwest. Most of the books are not yet on our website but we’re continually adding them.

So check out our site and share with your friends. Or, come and browse our shelves for yourself. If you’re in the Milwaukee area, we’re just 30 minutes south. We have a selection of about 2,000 books as part of the Waterford Unique Antique Market at 209 North Milwaukee Street in beautful Waterford, Wisconsin (262.534.3500). Our main store is in Rochester, Wisconsin and is open by appointment only. Please give us a call at 262.661.9305 and come visit us at Resurrected Reads of Rochester.