Shopping and Gift-Giving Ministry Opportunities

This month Bless Your Heart and Home is celebrating its first birthday!! And so, this week, I’m throwing a birthday bash, offering you a peak into some wonderful ministries where you can shop and celebrate and hunt for the next gift on your list while simultaneously seeking to serve the Lord and to make an eternal impact on the lives of people all around the world.

{The Birthday Celebration has concluded, but you are invited to subscribe to Bless Your Heart and Home to be made aware of future giveaways and celebrations, and also to receive our lovely, exclusive hand-lettered gift for you…an 8″ x 10″ printable of Matthew 11:28. You can find out more over here..}

 

---

Noonday Collection

“If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.” Isaiah 58:10

By shopping with Noonday, you and I have the opportunity to join with artisan businesses around the developing world who are engaging in fair trade and growing sustainable businesses. Many of the artisans creating these beautiful pieces of jewelry and accessories are women who are in communities vulnerable because of poverty, discrimination, trafficking, HIV/AIDS, and violence. Noonday even offers the option to shop by country, a meaningful option if there is a particular region of the world that especially has your heart (for me, it’s this country right here).

Noonday also offers the opportunity to become a Noonday Ambassador or to host an Adoption Trunk Show through their collection. A percentage of these Noonday Adoption Trunk Shows goes to support adoptive families.

Check out their collections here. In addition to beautiful handcrafted pieces of jewelry, you’ll also find some perfect spring accessories, like these scarves and bags. And are these Guatemalan trays not perfect for the living room or a bedroom dresser??

Gospel for Asia

“‘Not by might – nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts.” Zechariah 4:6

The goal of Gospel for Asia is to share the Gospel of Christ with men, women, and children in South Asia who have yet to hear the Good News. This ministry trains and sends National Missionaries throughout the 10/40 window (where 97% of those unreached by the Gospel are living).

Gospel for Asia (GFA) offers us the opportunity to partner in various ways with our Christian brothers and sisters in Asia who are spreading the Gospel. Through GFA you can also purchase Bibles that will be sent to missionaries who need them to share with the Christians that they disciple — for THREE DOLLARS each. (I cannot even tell you how many Bibles I have at my house…and hundreds more available with a flick of my finger over my iPhone….and missionaries and new converts to Christ all over South Asia are longing for even a single copy of God’s word.)

A really fun ministry opportunity that GFA offers is to share a gift from the stable! If you’ve been reading at the blog for long, you know that I love my pastured eggs and fresh milk when I can procure them for my family. And so, my family has had fun purchasing farm animals as gifts for families in Asia. As an example, for just $11, you can purchase a hen and rooster combo that a family can raise to provide eggs and also turn into a flock to provide an ongoing supply of nourishment for their family. (This is my cost for one organic, pastured bird from a local farm…..and for that cost, I can provide the opportunity for an entire flock and potential source of income for a needy family.)

At Christmastime, shop from GFA’s Christmas Gift Catalog to give gifts in honor of family members and friends who would enjoy being a part of this ministry as well. The catalog includes gifts from the stable, gifts for missionaries, and gifts of outreach and for the poor.

And one more thing I’d like to share about Gospel for Asia — their promise is: “One hundred percent of what you give for the field goes to the field. Nothing is taken out for administrative expenses.” For their administrative needs “back home,” GFA employs other means to staff their offices and they also keep their overhead costs minimal. Learn about additional ways to pray for GFA and to learn about their founder, Dr. K.P. Yohannan, on their site.

Freeset

I love this company! Freeset exists to offer freedom and hope to women in Kolkata, India to escape from the sex trade that imprisons their lives and that of their families. These women have been forced into prostitution through trafficking and poverty. Freeset is located in Sonagacchi, the largest, most infamous sex district in Kolkata, and they offer employment to women — women whose lives and families are now being transformed by the opportunities available to them through Freeset.

Freeset is a fair-trade business that sells well-made bags, t-shirts, and also some fun accessories. My Farmhouse Bag goes everywhere with me — it’s my farmer’s market tote, it’s my favorite Aldi’s shopping bag, and I bring it along on every road trip to contain all those “extras” that don’t fit in my suitcase.

I also have a pretty bangle bracelet that I bought from Freeset last summer (mine’s red 🙂 ). These bracelets are made from recycled saris from a local Kolkata market (so each bracelet is always unique!). At only $5 each, the bracelets are not only pretty accessories, but they also make great “happies” for your girlfriends, offering an opportunity to let others know about Freeset as well.

Take a look at Freeset’s products, and let me know your favorites! And read more about Freeset and the freedom and hope they seek to offer to women here.

The Seed Company

“Give me life according to Your word.” Psalm 119:25
#endbiblepoverty

I was first introduced to The Seed Company during Christmas 2013 when dear friends gifted us a framed work of calligraphy that said that, in our family’s honor, a verse of Scripture had been translated into the language of a people who had yet to receive their own copy of the New Testament. I was SO touched and moved by this gift! During the season where we celebrate the WORD (Jesus Christ) made flesh, I was given the honor to share in His written WORD being translated for a people yet to receive their own copy of the Scriptures.

The more I learn about The Seed Company and the opportunities to engage in this kingdom work, the more involved I want to become. Did you know that there is no good Bible for over a billion people?

There are multiple opportunities to become involved in the work of Bible translation through The Seed Company:

• If the Lord has put on your heart a certain region of the world, you can use this interactive map to locate people in various regions who are in need of scripture translation.
• I just discovered this interactive prayer map that I plan to begin using with my 3-year-old little boy. We are praying that God would save our son and give him a love for the Word of God. What better way to cultivate a missions-minded worldview and teach him the urgency of knowing God’s word than to pray for peoples all over the world who have yet to receive a copy of the Bible in their own language?
• Like our friends who gifted us translation of a verse of scripture in our honor last Christmas, The Seed Company offers the opportunity to fund the translate of 1 verse (or 2 or 3 or more verses!) of scripture into a language yet to receive its own copy of the Word of God. You can go support this translation work right now, right here!
• Additionally, there are opportunities through The Seed Company to become a monthly partner in scripture translation or give gifts like a modem or a memory card that will aid translators as they accomplish their work.

On a final note, The Seed Company is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) and complies fully with their rules for Christian ministries, including an annual independent financial audit. Also, they are a Wycliffe Bible Translators Affiliate. I am so honored to bring this ministry to your attention today! #endbiblepoverty

{Note: None of these ministries or businesses contacted me or offered me anything in exchange for sharing with you about the work that they do. Rather, the spotlights on these individual companies and ministries are my bloggy birthday gift to myself! I’m so thrilled to have the opportunity to share my heart with you in this way, seeking the Lord that through this giveaway and these “spotlights,” the gospel will be furthered and we will be blessed to GIVE as God has given to us so freely!}