Time for Fall Shows!

We have been blessed with many volunteers — individuals, churches, schools and organizations that will be hosting a sale and showing and selling the beautiful  Fair Trade weavings and handcrafts from our artisans!

Our upcoming sales include:

• Arkansas Fiber Extravaganza, Hot Springs Arkansas, September 18 – 20
• Junior League Holiday Galleria, Century II Convention Center, Wichita Kansas – October 2 -5
• Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, Rochester Minnesota – October 4-5
• Ten Thousand Villages, Lawrence Kansas, Trunk Show – October 16 – 18
• Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Wichita Kansas – October 25
• First Christian Church, Abilene, Texas – October 31 – November 2
• Lake Travis United Methodist Church, Austin Texas – November 8
• Kansas State University Fair Trade Marketplace, Student Union, Manhattan, Kansas – November 12-14
• Bizarre Bazaar 2014, Lawrence, Kansas – November 28 – 29
• Community Fellowship Church, Lawrenceburg, Indiana – December 4-6
• Zion Lutheran Church, Leola Pennsylvania, December 5-6
• Clarkston United Methodist Church, Clarkston Michigan – December 6-7
• St. James Catholic School, Sewickley Pennsylvania, December 7 – 11
• Tomahawk United Methodist Church, Tomahawk Wisconsin
• Falk School, Pitttsburgh, Pennsylvania
• Environmental Charter School, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania
• St Francis Xavier Church, St Louis, Missouri
•  Atlantic Iowa Fair Trade, Atlantic Iowa

 

Be sure to let us know if you would like to host a sale at your church or in your home.  See more information on our website here. 

Thank you to all our volunteers!  Each and every sale makes a tremendous difference in the lives of the women and their families!

Make An Impact on Poverty in Your Own Home!

How would you like to make a difference in the lives of women and their families in Guatemala — in your own home?

• Help them earn a fair income?
• Help them with better living conditions?
• Help them afford medical care for their children?
• Help them educate their children?

Host a Fair Trade party!

Sell beautiful scarves, purses, home decor and more to your family and friends. Every party, every sale helps artisans earn money to help care for their families.

Have fun and earn free hostess gifts with your party!

“But I don’t have room for a party at my home!”    Then think of other possibilities:

•  a girl’s night out party at a restaurant,
• an office  party at lunch time,
• patio party,
• late night in the dorm party,
• co-host with a friend at her house
• before or after church services

 

Go to our website for more information and to register your party today!  During this holiday season give a woman and her family hope for the future by hosting a party!

Bracelets for Friendship Day!

Have you heard about was Friendship Day.  I don’t remember hearing about it but what a great idea!

Friendship Day, by some sources, was started in 1919 by the Hallmark Company but eventually died out although it was revived in 1935 when Congress set the first Sunday in August as Friendship Day here is the U.S.A.  The United Nations recognized International Friendship Day in 2011.

I think it is time I get on the ball and let my friends know about Friendship Day.  I think I will send a card or maybe  spend time with my  friends via FaceTime or Skype and for all my friends reading this you may get a little remembrance from me too.

If you want to give a little gift then order some of Education And More’s friendship thread bracelets.  We have lots of styles and colors in our Etsy store and also in our online store. They are very inexpensive and what a great little remembrance! Since they are a fair trade handcraft you will be giving a gift to the artisan who made the bracelet as well as your friends!

 

As C.S. Lewis said,

” Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art… It has no survival value; rather is one of those things that give value to survival. “

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Have fun and enjoy your friends on

Friendship Day  this year– August 3, 2014.

Christian + Fair Trade + Eco Friendly Gifts

Need a gift? Read on to see some great Christian gifts in our webstore that will help you make a difference with your purchase! A difference because the producer, the maker of the product will receive a fair income for their work!

 

We have clerical stoles in blue, green, and white.  What a wonderful gift for your deacons, elders, Pastor.  Have you thought about hanging them on the wall in the fellowship hall or in the church office?  These stoles have been handwoven on backstrap looms by our artisan group, Chuchi Weavers, and they are then meticulously hand embroidered in the gold threads.  Below is a photo of the weavers that you are helping when you purchase these stoles.

Chuchi Weavers

 

Our prayer pockets were designed by one of our Board of Directors and she not only designed them but wrote the poem that goes with the little pocket.  Such a great gift for tucking into a greeting card!  We have fundraisers available with these prayer pockets so check out our Fundraising category in our webstore.  Great to earn money for a mission trip or for your church programs!

A cross constructed  with  the intricate method of wheat weaving is another gift idea that is Fair Trade + Christian + Eco Friendly.  We have 2 sizes so you can order for gifts that could be hung on the wall, used as a gift package decoration or hung on the Christmas tree.  Perfect gift for Easter or Christmas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friendship Bracelets are such fun and you can use them to share the Gospel with your friends.  We have English and Spanish versions!  Take some with you on a mission trip to Spanish speaking countries!

 

We have more Fair Trade Christian Gifts in our Etsy store too!

 

 

 

 

 

Maria’s New Home

Maria was very grateful for all the work that our mission team did on her home a couple of weeks ago because she has lived in a one room adobe house that had a dirt floor and a leaking tin roof. The walls of her home are nearly all black because of the soot / creosote from the cooking fires.  For years she just used a small campfire in the middle of the room to cook meals  and finally  was able to purchase a small wood burning stove but did not vent it to the outdoors so with both of these types of fires all the smoke stayed in the room.

She now has a beautiful new wood burning stove that will take all the smoke out of the room and will use less wood for the cooking fire.  We are grateful to Carlos and Joe, our local friends, for helping us with our construction projects and the replacement of the stoves. We couldn’t do it without them and their team!

Maria’s new roof means that no rain coming into the home and with a new cement floor the whole family will be warmer and drier during the rainy season! No more mud floors!   The electrical wiring in the home was dangerous so Carlos decided it was best to completely replace it and now Maria will have a much safer home.

One of the team members gave a Prayer Shawl to Maria as a parting gift along with a prayer.  The shawls were given by Grace Lutheran Church in Tomahawk Wisconsin. Thanks so much to the women of the church that crocheted and knitted all the Prayer Shawls!

Maria’s little daughter summed up all the changes to her home when she came and took my hand and said ‘I love my new home!”  What a precious moment!!

Our thanks to the donors, the mission team, Carlos, Joe, the local workers, the families that helped and the Board Members of E&M that had the vision to start a program like this!

 

Dynamic Little Lady!

I would like to introduce you to one of our artisans who is really a little dynamo!  She is a very tiny little lady but is filled with energy and determination.  Vicenta and her husband live in the rural highlands with their 7 children and nearby are many extended family members.

She is a master weaver on the backstrap loom and floor looms — called a foot pedal loom by the artisans — and she has taught her daughters to weave on both looms too.

Vicenta’s family and her whole community are Kakchiquel Mayans and very typical of the wonderfully warm and friendly people we meet in the western highlands of Guatemala.  Many of these rural families don’t understand the importance of education, however, Vicenta and her husband are different in that they are adamant about their children attending school. Thanks to a sponsor in our Education Program their oldest daughter, Laura,  is able to go on to career school to become a bilingual secretary.  It is very difficult for families to afford schooling after grade school and junior high school so we are very appreciative of all our sponsors and the help it brings to the families!

On our recent trip to Guatemala Victor and Vicenta’s home was one of the homes that our mission team repaired with the help of our local friends, Joe and Carlos.  Her kitchen was an adobe structure with a low ceiling, earthquake damage and a stove that did not vent so all the smoke stayed in the kitchen.  Victor and Vicenta decided to remove the old structure and had sufficient money to build new walls and the mission team did the floor, roof, new stove and new electrical wiring.

 

 

The family is so happy with their new kitchen. We are really happy to see the progress this family has made through the years because of their hard work and  determination along with the Fair Trade wages they receive from Education And More  for all the products they make.

Vicenta cooking in her new kitchen!

If you are interested in traveling to Guatemala on a mission trip to help repair homes or teach VBS be sure to check our website for new 2015 tours that will be listed soon.  We will be working in this village next year and helping several more of the artisan families by repairing their homes.

Some of the handcrafts that Vicenta and her group have made are shown here. See all of our Fair Trade handcrafts in our webstore and in our Etsy store. 

Kitchen Towels

 

Scarf / Shoulder Wrap

 

Tablecloth and napkins

 

Beautiful scarves and shawls