Fair Trade Friday | February | 2023

THRIVE

It’s our goal for this new year to help you slow down, center yourself in the Gospel, and thrive. Each box this year will include a floral theme and a word of the month designed to encourage you to thrive. This greenhouse illustration above will continue to fill with flowers every month. By the end of 2023, it will be full of blossoms just as your home will be full of inspiration and amazing fair-trade finds.

This month’s Fair Trade Friday is a practical reminder to serve with love in the kitchen and remember when we nourish today, we flourish tomorrow.

nourish to flourish

"We are not here to get to tomorrow. We are here for today, to bloom today.”

—Mark Hall

There’s a lot of faith stirred up in the kitchen.

Standing in front of a lump of floured dough resting on the kitchen countertop begs us to believe.

We knead and bend and spread the dough thin and hope it will become a loaf of bread, a pizza or pie crust. We watch and wait.

The kitchen can teach us a lot about God—the slicing, the searing, the standing, the serving.

The kitchen is where we nourish our bodies. The Bible is where our souls learn to flourish.

We cannot pour from an empty cup. In order to care for others, we must care for ourselves.

It takes constant, consistent nourishment to grow. Growth brings pain, but also blooms.

The daily standing in the kitchen produces nourishment just as steadfast time in the Bible causes us to thrive.

They are planted in the house of the Lord; they flourish in the courts of our God.

Psalm 92:13

WOODEN ROLLING PIN

MADE BY FORGED IN HOPE IN KENYA

The handcrafted lines and angles of this pin are ideal for rolling pie crust and more oblong doughs. The piece was intentionally designed with timelessness in mind. Its unfinished simplicity lends itself to being a tool that will last for years to come.

Don’t miss the recipe for Pear and Honeyed Goat Cheese Galette on the back of the rolling pin’s packaging!

forged in hope

Forged in Hope is a Mercy House Global artisan group from Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya. MHG is excited to partner with this talented family of artisans and step into a place of empowerment after they lost their business covering as a result of Covid-19. We believe God created this intersection of opportunity for a new season of dignified job creation.

NicholasNicholas is the leader of the Forged in Hope group that specializes in woodworking and horn products. He supervises eight artisans and dreams to become a big business supplier of jewelry and work with intelligence to serve others.

Board butter

MADE BY LOCAL HOPE

IN THE USA

Board Butter can help prevent drying and cracking. It can be used for wooden boards, wooden spoons, and wooden handles on utensils. This simple mixture of oil and beeswax will help prevent cracking and prolong the lifespan of your kitchen prep tools.

local hope

Mercy House Global is located just outside Houston, Texas, a city of more than 70,000 refugees, one of the largest populations in the USA. MHG employs about ten women who have resettled in Houston. This group of artisans called Local Hope creates candles, spa products, and home decor for the MHG fair trade line.

In addition to job creation, MHG provides programs to support the local refugee community, including ESOL (English Speakers of Other Languages) and empowerment luncheons that offer fellowship and skills training.

KITCHEN CLOTH

MADE BY ETHIKOS HOME IN THAILAND

Your absorbant cotton kitchen cloth was brought to you by a partnership between Ethikos Home and the artisan group called Naomi House in Thailand. The convenient size is perfect for common kitchen jobs, like mopping up spills, cleaning countertops, and drying dishes. To care for your cloth, washing with cold water is recommended. To prevent shrinking, consider hanging to air dry or using the lowest dryer setting.

ethikos home

Ethikos Home is a lifestyle brand that is committed to bridging ethical practices with timeless pieces that will successfully reflect your vision of home. They are a husband-wife team that have made it their goal to employ hands, inspire homes, and impact hearts in their business practices.

For this order, Ethikos Home partnered with Naomi House, a social enterprise and community development center in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Naomi House provides sustainable wage jobs for at-risk women and families, while also serving as a discipleship and leadership training platform for God’s Kingdom expansion. Thailand is a hub for human-trafficking, but through viable means of income, like through the Naomi House community development center, women have a future not connected to human or drug trafficking. Naomi House exists to empower and equip at-risk women for a better future for them and generations to follow.

This order of kitchen cloths for Fair Trade Friday empowers Naomi House to continue to provide work and sustainable income for families in desperate situations. It provided ten people with more than five hundred hours of work.

butterfly's story

Naomi House, in Chiang Mai, Thailand, exists to lift at-risk women out of poverty, equipping them with business skills and empowering them to know and share Jesus.

In the fall of 2020, Ponpan, one of the women at Naomi House, asked if the group could help her niece, “Butterfly,” who had been abused by her father from a young age. As a young woman, she was cast out of her Vietnamese village deemed as “useless” and “stupid.”

Desperate to escape, Butterfly drank bathroom fluid to end her life. When her attempt was unsuccessful, she tried to look for work options in a neighboring country.

Ponpan acted quickly, and Butterfly joined the Naomi House work and ministry home. She now works proudly every day, assembling leather napkin rings, hand-tying colorful tassels, or hand-stitching ornate designs. Please pray for God’s full redemption story in Butterfly’s life, that many more would find hope in Jesus through her testimony!

Floral notepad

WITH ART BY RESCUED TEEN MOMS IN KENYA

This cute notepad is a must-have to jot down your thoughts, keep a running shopping list, or write a note to a loved one. It features art from rescued teen moms in Kenya and will make you smile every time you use it.

Club Member Exclusive

thriveIn 2023, each month we will bring our club members exclusive content. In your Fair Trade Friday booklet, you’ll see a QR code linking you to fun digital extras that you can download. Just use your phone’s camera to scan the codes.

Follow the link to find your collection of additional content. This month you’ll find floral prints that you can print and frame. Use the phone backgrounds to freshen up your lock screen and more!

fair trade subscription clu FAIR TRADE FRIDAY

WHAT IS FAIR TRADE?

Fairly-traded products are made by artisans who work in safe conditions, are paid a fair wage, and work fair hours. No child gave up his education to produce your new favorite item; no mom was laboring in a sweatshop for 80 hours a week. We ensure that all of our Fair Trade Friday club items are fairly traded.

HOW IS FTF DIFFERENT THAN OTHER SUBSCRIPTION CLUBS?

We are not a for–profit company, or even a profit-for-good company — Fair Trade Friday is operated by Mercy House Global, a nonprofit. All profits from FTF directly support our maternal rescue center, Rehema House, in Kenya. You can learn more at mercyhouseglobal.org.

FTF PARTNERS WITH FAITH-BASED ARTISAN GROUPS ACROSS THE GLOBE.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

While we are a faith-based ministry and partner with other faith-based ministries, religion is not forced upon artisans, nor is it a requirement for employment. Many women & their families have different religions than us, and that is okay. Our belief in Christ calls us to love, serve, and help others, regardless of their personal belief systems.