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This week LDSR has been partnering with Trades of Hope to raise funds, all while empowering women all over the world.

When you buy any of TOH’s fair trade products at www.mytradesofhope.com/parties/7863 between now and December 20, 20% of your purchase price goes to Live Dead Silk Road.

Becky Lile is the woman that has made this endeavor possible. A world-changing mom of two, she has learned that you can have an impact no matter where you live.

I want to make a difference.

This is one of the strongest desires in our hearts, isn’t it? Deep beneath the busy-ness of our days, the stresses of our circumstances, and the fog of daily life, one of the things we really really really want is to matter and to make a difference.

We want to make a difference in the lives of our loved ones, but we also want to reach beyond our circles. We want to know that we’re doing the best we can with the time and resources we have.

We want our lives – moment-to-moment and year-to-year – to make a difference.

We want to know that how we spend our time, our money, our efforts, and our emotions is good and right. How does that look in your corner of the world? In my life, that’s meant different things in different seasons. I’ve heard it said that every Christian is called to pray, give, and go – pray for the lost, give financially to help others travel to the unreached with the gospel, and go where God leads to share His great love with the world. In the past, I’ve done all three, and I’ve loved it.

But what about when you can’t go? When God makes it clear that your job for now is to stay?

We still should give, and we have a command to pray, but isn’t there more?

I’ll share the love and Word of God where I am planted, but what practical things can I do to reach beyond my circles?

For the past year and a half, I’ve been involved with Trades of Hope, a business that allows me to make a difference and help provide hope in several places around the world, all while staying planted in my community. Through that involvement, I’ve learned a lot about fair trade, ethical sourcing, and simply being mindful of my spiritual and moral footprint in the world. Take a look around you. Seriously, look away from the screen and look around. See all that stuff? Where did it come from? Who made it? What do you know about the people who made, handled, and packaged it? Was there child labor involved? Was any of it made by enslaved people? The sad answer is “probably.” But there’s hope.

What is Trades of Hope?

Trades of Hope is a missional business that partners with artisan groups in 12 countries to sell handmade, fair-trade items made by women who are coming out of desperate situations. The women make beautiful items, and we help market them. Because of this partnership, the women have a sustainable business and stable work environment. These are women who are now able to support themselves and their children, avoid prostitution and sex trafficking, heal from past wounds, live on sustainable wages, and have hope.

These women do not want charity: they NEED an opportunity. And beautiful scarves, jewelry, bowls, journals, and handbags are part of the solution.

As these women rise out of poverty, they are bringing others up with them. Through their work, they are able to send their children to school, put food on the table, provide clean water for their villages, build schools, and so much more. The artisans are women in Uganda who can send their kids to school and pay for their HIV medical care by making bracelets; victims of acid attacks in Cambodia who learn a trade of crocheting and knitting while gaining dignity and healing; Haitian women who are keeping their babies instead of giving them to an orphanage because they’re making beauty out of cereal boxes; young women in Guatemala who are learning business skills and a trade in a safe community after aging out of their orphanage; women in California, rescued from sex trafficking in our own country, who are learning they are cherished and redeemed while making recycled glass necklaces.

She Has Worth

I love the mission of Trades of Hope – empowering women out of poverty and breaking the cycle. When we look for shopping options that are life affirming, for fair trade products, for ethically sourced materials, we realize more and more the impact we have on other people. We see that we make a difference – one way or another – with every purchase. Buying and wearing a Trades of Hope scarf or bracelet or handbag doesn’t have the same direct impact as telling someone about Jesus, but it’s showing a woman in Nepal or Costa Rica or Bangladesh her work is valued. She is valued. She has worth.

Both Live Dead Silk Road and Trades of Hope are committed to reaching into unreached areas, bringing hope and light to hopeless and dark places, and creating lasting change – both in this life and in eternity! I am honored and thrilled to partner with Live Dead Silk Road in this fundraising project, and I hope you’ll check it out. I love the focused mission and heart of LDSR, and supporting them is a beautiful way to share the love of Jesus even when I can’t go myself.

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