Fair Trade

Some years ago we lived in Mwanza, Tanzania.  It is a pleasant city: tropical, yet not humid, mostly clear skies, and on the shore of a beautiful lake.  The built-up “downtown” of shops was small (relative to the population of 1.5 million people) and while we did shop in the local markets on many occasions, we also frequented one store in particular.  This store usually stocked imported items from Nairobi or elsewhere in Kenya.  Most often we could find everything we needed, plus some oddities.  That’s where the chickens come into the story.  

It’s a difficult task to find meaningful, ethical gifts at the best of times, and now for most of us the pandemic realities of 2020 have added even more challenging hurdles to Christmas shopping. In many places, local stores are closed, gatherings are restricted, and it seems impossible to avoid bigbox conglomerates or controversial online retailers. How can you ensure the gifts you’re giving this year are supporting socially conscious businesses, are justly and fairly made, and are contributing to healthy local economies? 

Recently, a gal named Carly Pritchard sent OSJ the best kind of email. It was a creative kind of email, asking if she and the coffee company she worked for might be able to help raise some financial support for the work that the OSJ does.

Um, yes!

But who is Carly Pritchard? And why does she, or her coffee company, care about the Christian Reformed Church and its engagement with justice? We were curious, and thought maybe you’d be curious too.

The Creation Care Preaching Challenge submissions are in! Thank you to everyone who participated for helping us to reflect on the Bible's teachings about creation care.

It’s been three weeks of taking in the wonder that is India—its vibrant colors, the delicious food, its immense complexity and diversity, and the warm and kind people who have greeted, been with, and served us as guests in their home country.

I have spent the last three weeks with fourteen Calvin College students and two colleagues, Leonard and Karen Van Drunen, on the Business as Mission India Interim trip. We are here to learn about best business practices from Indian business people, and to observe and learn from our neighbors how God is at work in the marketplace.

An Open Letter to My Students: 

Dear 7th Graders,

It’s a privilege to get to spend everyday with you. You have such incredible hearts. You have a way of seeing things around you that are broken, unfair, or just not the way that God envisioned it, and feeling rightly frustrated about it. You have a keen sense of justice.

But recently I’ve been struggling with something terrible, and deflating:I just can’t live up to my own expectations of myself. I wrote an article that was posted here about clothes, where our clothes come from, and an encouragement to be smart shoppers that make wise choices.  Then I bought some new clothes from a big store. I let myself down.

Last year, the Rana Plaza garment factory suddenly collapsed, killing more than 1,100 workers and injuring around 2,500. It was the deadliest such disaster in the history of the garment industry. To mark the anniversary of this horrific event, Rev. Thyra VanKeeken wrote this short reflection: 

Instead of giving something up for Lent this year, try walking a new step on the justice road every day. We've put together some suggestions for you, one for each day of Lent.

This is one of my favorite passages from Nicholas Wolterstorff. I first appreciated its significance on July 4, 2011, when I was living in Colombia, South America, participating in the Mennonite Central Committee’s Seed program. We were a mix of people from all the Americas: Peru, Colombia, Mexico, US, and Canada. On American Independence Day, with the smell of brownies in the oven and Taylor Swift playing in the background, we came together—not to celebrate our country, but to recognize where we came from.