This is the personal experience of my wife (Irene) and myself (Guy) with Mark & Jyothi Jensen who at time of this writing live in Ottawa, Kansas after moving from Hermosa, South Dakota what seems like about 6 months ago. To the best of my knowledge Mark serves as a Massage Therapist and/or Handyman while Jyothi performs the services of a stay at home mother.
To see the full write-up of this story please reference the link listed in this video.
We met the Jensen’s in Hermosa, SD where Mark Jensen as well as my wife and I both went to school for massage therapy though not in the same class. We became fast friends spending countless hours together studying the Word of God and more. It was during these studies that it became clear that Mark, Irene, and myself all believe that Jesus is not God but rather the Son of God. For 3 years I also believed that Mark supported an unwrathful God like I do until I found out different later on in our relationship. At first I was so shocked at how that could be after 3 years but I get it now. It will become very transparent as I share my experience.
Given that Mark became a dear friend of mine I wanted nothing but the best for Mark and I was willing to put everything I had into making that happen. I’m now being accused of blaming Mark for the actions that I took. There was no blame but rather a pure willingness and interest in helping him succeed. I was so motivated that my wife (also a Massage Therapist) and I did what we did out of love for Mark & Jyothi’s family.
When Mark & Jyothi moved back to Kansas I offered to drive one of their rigs down to Kansas. There was no pay incentive nor did I even want one. For purposes of documentation that trip cost be about $700 in lost revenue from clients that were wanting my services while I was gone. It didn’t matter to me. Mark bought me a couple of food items at the store and that was about it. That was more than enough for me and I have never requested anything more.
Mark and his family then went to India where we helped support them with over 1K. We did this gladly out of love for Mark, Jyothi and their family. When they returned my wife and I were prepared to move to Kansas and begin working with Mark as joint business owners. We had spoken about doing exactly this numerous times with no sense of any concern. These two and their family were worth it for my wife and I.
We gladly moved out of our house and down to Kansas with help of Mark and his wife. For that trip I believe we paid Mark about 1K including lodging and travel plus time expense. I thought it odd that we were paying for his time but I received nothing for mine. None-the-less, I let it go and moved forward.
We did not realize that we would run into trouble finding a place but finally found the perfect location in Ottawa, KA thanks to the research that Mark and Jyothi did to find the location right across from Adventist Health in the midst of multiple medicals buildings with a beautiful park out back.
The process of securing this building required some legal tape due to a strange city ordinance stating that any person opening a business focused on massage therapy would need to register as “adult entertainers.” This was unacceptable to us but seemed like an unsurmountable road block. We explained our dilemma to our landlord who connected me with the city attorney. After speaking with the city attorney he agreed to go to work for us in getting the city ordinance changed. That is exactly what he did.
Paperwork takes a bit of time so we waited. In total it was just over 60 days before we got the good news that the ordinance had been changed. Unfortunately, by then, Mark and Jyothi informed us that they were not interested in doing business but rather wanted to focus on ministry. My wife and I had moved out of our home in Rapid City, SD and down to Pomona, KS to help these two succeed and now they were pulling out just before everything was ready. Needless to say this produced unexpected shock value for myself.
As we spoke via telephone they misunderstood my shock for being angry or mad. Neither emotion has remotely crossed my mind though I can admit to being sad, hurt, and disappointed but mostly for them. See, my wife and I come with 25 years of digital marketing in our background so we knew we would be an asset in Ottawa, KS. Even better would be the power of being “first in” within the local community of a brand new to the area service. Not only would it be newsworthy but also the timing was perfect.
We were never against the change in direction even though it caught my wife and I by great surprise. We do often wonder why they waited for us to move out of our home by 10 hours before telling us. We have no valid answer to that. While I did applaud their pursuit for ministry I also advised that a business is a ministry.
Not only have my wife and I moved out of our home and down to Kansas (I don’t do flat) to make things happen for Mark but we have also willingly moved into a trailer (my wife hates trailers) maintained our business PT in Rapid City to help fund needed expenses and started traveling between the two states monthly. We were more than willing to invest the time and effort into Mark’s success. Without blinking twice.
Just in lost revenue this looks like the following.
- Massage $60
- Clients 5 daily
- Days worked 5
- Therapists 2
If you do the math you will find that it comes to lost revenue of about 4K monthly. We’ve been doing this for several months because we believe in Mark. We are now being told that we are blaming them for our actions. Jyothi has also told us that we think it is her that is doing this though we have never suggested anything like that. Issues like this take two.
We willingly and out of the love of our hearts for Mark & Jyothi’s family have done what we have done which includes now being homeless in Rapid City in order to invest all our strength and energy into Mark’s success. Instead of appreciating these actions I keep hearing things like “we never told you to do that.” That statement is so shocking to me as friends don’t tell friends what to do that way. While what Mark and Jyothi said was true we all very much did speak of entering into business together multiple times or my wife and I would never have moved from Rapid City, SD to Pomona, KS. What we did we did willingly and wantingly because of our love for Mark & Jyothi’s family.
Things really went south last week when we started our moveout process. Mark was on the other line advising me that I need to spend another months rent here in Kansas else it would not be fair to our landlord. I advised Mark that we were cutting our financial losses and moving back home. To which I was told that would not be fair to Ben Wray who is our mutual landlord and very well known in our community. I advised that my decision was my decision due to the continued financial drain that has taken place. Mark then told me that he would not help me move back with his trailer even though the prior day this was the commitment made wherein I was going to pay Mark again for the assistance in getting things back. Instead I was told to use UHaul which would further increase my expenses.
I was shocked that this man of God would go back on his word like that and my voice showed it. He then asked me why I was so angry. I advised Mark that I was not the least bit angry but rather sad, hurt, and disappointed. I should have added shocked but not one ounce of anger was in my heart. I was told that he knew the truth and that I was angry. That made me feisty but never angry.
Later, I was advised by Jyothi that they had actually been saving us money. How?
- $1200 for rent prior
- Now homeless in SD
- $450 for rent in KS.
This did not include travel expenses, or lost revenue in SD while we were in KS. Did you catch the “now homeless” in SD part? It gets cold in SD during the winter and this didn’t seem to be of any concern to either Mark or Jyothi.
A pivotal reason for moving to Kansas when we did was we were told that they would watch over our home while we were gone. They have done this but with what appears to be an unwillingness in their heart. Every time I turn around I’m hearing statements like – we can’t trouble ourselves unless you hire us. Go pay for it yourself. We have, including a transport trip from the airport costing about $120 because Mark was unwilling to come pick us up. We’ve seen other such events unfold too where they could have helped but refused. No worries, up until the trailer episode described above.
We have repeatedly attempted to talk things through with Mark & Jyothi to no avail. As fellow Believers we are to pursue reconciliation but Mark flat out refuses any such thing. Who then is showing signs related to anger? And for what? Because we want to cut our financial losses and recover from what has apparently become a horrible mistake that we had in believing in Mark & Jyothi?
LMT Guy Siverson
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