one gift : two blessings

Be intentional with your Christmas shopping.
Minister through fair-trade -- AND -- Educate about social injustices.
(thanks, Traci)

www.kingdom-ventures.com
various items
providing income for former prostitutes

www.handandcloth.org
blankets made from sari's
providing income for former prostitutes

www.saribari.com
blankets made from sari's sewn by former prostitutes in kolkata, india
providing income for former prostitutes

www.tradeasone.com/shop/
various items
fighting poverty

www.worldcraftsvillage.com
various items

www.blessingbasket.org
baskets from bangladesh, ghana, uganda
fighting poverty

www.tinyrockstar.com
shirts for babies, kids, adults
fighting for orphans living in extreme poverty

http://store.madebysurvivors.com
various items
products made by survivors of slavery and persons at risk of being trafficked into slavery

www.saintscoffee.com
coffee
feeding orphans

www.freesetbags.com
handbags
made by former prostitutes in india

www.punjammies.com
pajamas
made by former slaves in india

www.rahabministriesthailand.org
jewelry and cards
made by former prostitutes in thailand

www.cardsfromafrica.com
handmade cards
supports orphaned children in rwanda

www.banyanpaper.com
cards, journals, handbags
supports women and children around the world

Other fair trade websites - may or may not support a religious ministry BUT does support commerce that works for the people not against:

www.originalgood.com
various items

www.tenthousandvillages.com
various items

www.globalexchangestore.org
various items

www.choiceorganicteas.com
teas

www.serrv.org
various items

www.gearthatgives.com

what is MINGI??

In rural Ethiopia, parents are forced to kill some of their children due to tribal superstitions...

Drawn from Water rescues and provides homes for these children.
Please, click the link above to read more and find out how you can help.

Drawn from Water from Drawn From Water on Vimeo.

Where will you be???

Sunday : November 8 : 2009

Orphan Sunday is the designated Sunday of the year for churches around the world to join voices and forces, raising awareness regarding the need and number of orphans world-wide.

I hope you've found an event to attend in your city, if not click here to find one.

If you're in the Birmingham area, please stop by Hunter Street Baptist Church during the month of November -- you'll be able to see pictures and read stories of adoptive families in our church.


Hunter Street is also hosting this live event, via webcast, on Orphan Sunday at 4pm : featuring Steven Curtis Chapman! Anyone is welcome to join us for this free event!!

think God can't use you?

If so, let me side-track for just a moment and say that, that is a completely arrogant thought! God. Not able to use you. That would make you bigger than God...

But, here's what I really want to share. Encouragement. Not my dogmatism.

Have you heard about Katie?
If not, you NEED to meet her!!

Click here to read her blog.

Click here to find about how God is using her!

When your finished reading, click here, that God might use YOU to help her!

Adopting For Life : conference

When : Feb 26-27
Where : Southern Seminary, Louisville, KY

What : "You may be wondering whether this will be a conference about the doctrine of adoption or “real” adoption. Well, one of the things that we’ll be discussing is the fact that you can’t talk about the one without talking about the other. Also, it is not as though we master one aspect and then move to the other—from the vertical to the horizontal or the other way around. That’s not the picture God has embedded in his creation work.

The Bible tells us that human families are reflective of an eternal fatherhood (Eph. 3:14-15). We know, then, what human fatherhood ought to look like on the basis of how Father God behaves toward us. But the reverse is also true. We see something of the way our God is fatherly toward us through our relationships with human father. And so Jesus tells us that in our human father’s provision and discipline we get a glimpse of God’s active love for us (Matt. 7:9-11; cf. Heb. 12:5-7). The same is at work in adoption.

So we’ve invited a number of great speakers to “Adopting for Life” who will seek to equip us to create a culture of adoption in our families and churches. We’ll be answering questions such as, “What does adoption have to do with the Great Commission?”, “How can I pay for adoption?”, and “How can we start an adoption ministry in my church?”—along with so many others.

I would love to see you here in Louisville for the “Adopting for Life” conference, as we think together about how God might be leading us to be on mission with Christ for the sake of the orphans of the world."

--Dr. Russell Moore

What Else : And if you haven't read it yet, you need to pick-up a copy of Dr. Russ Moore's book Adopted For Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families and Churches.

called to ADOPT???

Called to adopt a child with HIV/AIDS??

More, and more families are answering this call!

It is possible! HIV is an extremely manageable disease! Even if this is not the call for your family, please, support those who are embracing these children -- the first way you can do that is to educate yourself about the treatment & transmission of HIV...it's not what you think!!

Let's protect these children & debunk the myths of HIV!!!

Interested in how families are doing this??
Check-out Project Hopeful, a non-prof org whose mission is to "educate, encourage and enable families adopting children with HIV and to advocate for children with HIV/AIDS and their families throughout the world."

Together for Adoption, conference is online

Go : here : to listen to T4A 2009 audio. You can listen to the main sessions from the conference. There were six speakers (about 45 min each), and I HIGHLY recommend them all!!!

Go : here : to read Zach Nielsen’s General Session Summaries -- the summaries will, no doubt, lite your fire to listen to the full audio versions!!