Manna's Story

A journey of faith,
flour, & finding home

Before Manna was a bakery, it was a prayer. Before it was a business, it was a lifeline. This is the story of how broken bread became a bridge to something beautiful.

Chapter One

Roots in Utah

Christin grew up in Utah with a deep faith and a belief that every blessing from God was tied to her obedience. Faith wasn't simply a Sunday practice—it shaped the way she understood family, purpose, and the path set before her.

Life seemed to have a clear map: marriage, family, service, and the steady work of doing everything right. But as she would come to learn, God's plans do not always follow the maps people draw for themselves.

Christin, founder of Manna Bakery, smiling outdoors in the desert

Chapter Two

The breaking & the becoming

Christin's marriage was tested by the addiction battle faced by her husband (ex)—a struggle that brought their family to the edge of hopelessness. The certainty she had built her life upon began to crack under the weight of reality, and the future she had worked so hard to protect felt impossibly far away.

At her absolute breaking point, grace arrived in the most unexpected form—through the story of Narnia. Listening to C.S. Lewis's beloved tale, something shifted deep within her. For the first time, Christin understood salvation as grace—not a reward for effort or perfect obedience, but a gift already given.

“It actually - I wouldn't describe it as courage. I would describe it more as surrender. It was more of a letting go.”
— Christin

“One day at a time we can just trust God with what we need for today and not worry about tomorrow because he's enough for us day by day by day. Just trust me today. I'm enough. I'm enough for today. I'm enough for you.”

Chapter Three

From the porch to Kenya

After moving to Texas with her family, Christin started Curly Chef Porch Bakes, a small bakery run from her porch. Baking became both a livelihood and a language for love—an early foundation for the work that would one day become Manna.

Through an unexpected connection on social media, Christin traveled to Kenya more than once. There, she encountered Christians whose faith was lived openly and wholeheartedly. Their questions and example challenged long-held assumptions and invited her to examine what she truly believed.

Kenya became another part of the pattern Christin could only see clearly in hindsight: the right people, the right questions, and a deeper understanding arriving one step at a time.

Chapter Four

Through the valley

When Christin returned home from Kenya, life didn't offer a soft landing. Her husband (ex) was arrested and imprisoned due to his long-standing battle with addiction. The life she knew crumbled overnight. Divorce, court, and wave after wave of change followed. Christin became a single mom to six children, learning how to take the next breath while keeping a family moving forward.

In the book of Exodus, Moses led the Israelites through the wilderness, where God met their hunger with manna—bread from heaven provided day by day. They gathered what they needed, learning to trust that provision would come again.

In the middle of her own upheaval, Christin clung to that image, which would eventually name her life's work. Not a month's supply. Not a year's worth of answers. Just enough for today. She learned to trust in provision that arrived one morning at a time.

“

The Manna from Heaven, just one day at a time, one piece of bread at a time.”

— Christin

The early years

Years later

Before the Bakery

The bakery would come later. First came six children, a home to rebuild, and enough grace for one day at a time.

Chapter Five

Finding home

Through months of studying the Bible and long conversations with a trusted Christian friend, Christin began to understand grace in a new way. The faith of her childhood had taught her to connect God's blessings to her obedience. Now she was discovering a love offered freely, without striving.

Following that conviction meant stepping beyond familiar traditions, community, and an identity she had known since birth. It was tender and costly, but a new church community met Christin and her children with open arms and showed them what grace could look like in practice.

Christin's children each moved through the transition in their own way. Together, the family learned to make room for honest questions and new beginnings. In that church home, Christin began baking bread for communion—a living symbol of daily provision and broken things made whole.

“It's been really humbling as I realize how much he's gone out of his way—just for me to know him and to know his love. The whole point is just Jesus. And him reaching me, rather than me having to strive for him—that was what the gospel is all about. So simple.”

Chapter Six

Then came Chad, and the dream grew

Christin built the first chapters of Manna with faith, grit, and the conviction that bread could become a language for love. Then Chad entered the story, and a dream carried by one determined woman became a partnership. In 2026, Christin and Chad married, and the partnership at the heart of Manna became part of their shared life.

Together, Christin and Chad shaped the next home for Manna—the arches, timber, greenery, generous tables, and quiet corners that make the bakery feel set apart. What they built carries both of their fingerprints and welcomes every guest like family.

“I have a resilient sense of hope - like a beach ball in a swimming pool. I felt like everything was somehow going to be okay, over and over again.”
— Christin

Chapter Seven

The Manna you know now

For nearly five years, Manna's North Point location held the beginnings—the regulars, recipes, and everyday moments that proved a bakery could become part of a community's rhythm. That first home still matters to the guests who gathered there.

The Tomball location gave that story room to grow. This is where the Manna people know now came into view: Jerusalem-inspired arches, reclaimed timber, living green, and tables designed for lingering. It is not only Christin's story. It is Manna's story, shaped by family, community, and each person who walks through the door.

Every loaf, every pastry, and every cup of coffee is an invitation to slow down, gather, and break bread with the people who matter.