“Oh, I get it. I understand now what you mean by slow fashion.” I had been talking with one of my seamstresses for a couple of hours already, discussing clothing and home décor and hemlines and changing styles. I pulled up my company’s website to show her the kinds of products we sold at Wearthy, and explained again the heart behind the business. Labor rights. Safe work. Quality craftsmanship over mass production. In the clothing industry, we call this slow fashion, and it’s a phrase that’s just beginning to emerge in the American marketplace. So I didn’t expect that it would resonate with Linda* as I shared unfamiliar vocabulary in a different language. She stopped me, and she asked me to explain further. And that’s when I started to talk about the Rana Plaza garment factory collapse in 2013. I told her about the working conditions of seamstresses around the world, working long hours with little to no pay in an environment Americans wouldn’t accept even for their family pets. I didn’t have to go too far. Her knowing eyes told me quickly that she was already familiar with the story I was telling. What I didn’t realize was that it was the story of her life I was telling. Linda is now a mother of four children. She manages a drug rehab center and safe house and sews out of the front room of her home to provide an extra income for her family and the people they serve. I knew Linda was an amazing seamstress. I knew she had a heart to help others. I just didn’t realize that before she was a wife, before she was a mother, and before she was running her own sewing business, she was an employee at a garment factory in our city making less than $5 per month. The memories flooded back for her, and she opened up to me about what it was like for her in the factory. Two bathroom breaks a day, with docked pay if she needed to request a toilet outside of the designated times. Occasionally working 36 hours straight, missing an entire day of sunlight while checking zippers and collars indoors at her production line. Being called and treated like a water buffalo (the most common work animal in her country), stripping away her humanity and dignity. +++ Linda’s face is what I remember every time I start to question if the risks of running Wearthy are worth the investment. I remember Linda’s face when I start to believe that I’m not strong enough, smart enough, or savvy enough to be a business owner. I see Linda’s face when I’m shopping in big box stores with piles of clothing on sale, wondering how a $5 shirt could possibly pay the retail company, the wholesale company, the shipping company, the seamstress, the designer, the cotton farmer… Because I know. A few dollars can’t cover that cost. THE MONEY WE REFUSE TO SPEND ON GOODS AT A FAIR PRICE IS EVENTUALLY PAID IN THE FORM OF EXPLOITATIVE LABOR. The privilege we have as Americans to consume can either positively or negatively impact our neighbors around the globe, and I’ve seen first-hand how it has negatively affected the health and livelihood of garment factory workers. But by providing safe work through Wearthy, I’ve also seen how the ethical production of clothing and home goods can also provide hope, ensure stability, and restore dignity in individuals, spilling over into their families. As Americans we have an incredible power to affect change: It’s called PURCHASING POWER. The way we spend our money reflects our values, and the values that are reflected in our purchases directly influence the policies and performances of the companies we choose to patron. Simply put: When we choose to buy from companies with the best ethical standards for their employees, companies with poor standards will be forced to improve the working conditions of their employees as well. Products have makers. Makers have faces. Faces have names. . . . Linda. . . . Will you join me in saying her name? Linda and Sasha and Noy and Hy and Lah… Say their names with me and imagine their faces. Those names and faces have stories. And their stories deserve to be rewritten within the context of safe work. Lauren Pinkston is currently working in SE Asia as a social enterprise consultant. She is also completing her PhD research in faith-based organizations’ regional response to human trafficking. Lauren believes that business creation is the most direct and effective way to address modern forms of exploitation, and she co-founded Wearthy in 2016 to create more jobs for people seeking safe work. Lauren has grown her family on three different continents and will travel almost anywhere for a top-notch curry. Want to know the next phase of Wearthy and how you can help?! Visit here to find out about the development of a handicraft distribution center in Laos! https://youtu.be/B2BRtgbm1Cw … [Read more...]
Words of Wisdom: Practical Examples of Spiritual Disciplines
Flashback to junior high. I wake up in the middle of the night. I have fallen asleep on top of my Bible (once again) and that prayer? I’m not sure what or if I said anything after “God, thank you for..…zzzzzzzzzzzzz.” The guilt would overwhelm me. How could I fall asleep over and over if this was really supposed to be a transformative journey with Jesus? Until one day, I heard someone say, “I pray myself to sleep.” Whew!! That’s exactly what I was doing!! Guilt-free and falling asleep to Jesus!! I was going to sleep GOOD again! I’ve got this God thing figured out. Fast forward a few years later and I had mostly abandoned all my attempts because after all, I was only just “checking a list.” And if I am going to be legalistic about it, it may as well be an X altogether. It is amazing to look back and take an honest heart check at our feeble efforts. Satan will use it all- fear, fatigue, apathy, legalism, busyness, the list gets out of hand- to separate us from the Author of these words of Truth. I have a million miles to go in the arena of spiritual disciplines. I will not claim for a single second to have anything figured out. But I am grateful that the Lord has brought some of the lies I have believed over the years to light and I know the process is continual. One thing that I hear time and time again when talking with women is their struggle with time in the Word, praying and listening to the Lord. Because I have shared the same struggle, I know how overwhelming it can be to implement these disciplines. I am a Type A, solutions-oriented, Enneagram 1. I LOVE LOVE LOVE me some practical advice. Ready to skip the chatter about the problem and brainstorm a solution? I am ALL.IN. LET'S.GO. The problem with that? There is no RIGHT way to dig in the Word or spend time chatting with the Lord. And what is right for me during this season may not be right for me in 5 years. Unfortunately, because we do not even know where to start, we often never do. I have enlisted the help of a few other women to share what their time in the Word and prayer looks like. And no- I am not including their names because the goal of this is NOT to play the comparison game. These women are of all different ages, races, socioeconomic classes and geographic locations. I chose them because I wanted to learn as well. We have a lot to learn from each other. A lot of times we get intimidated when someone else does something different than us. Let’s learn from each other. Maybe you can implement some of these ideas in our own time with the Lord. Or maybe this will encourage you to just find your Bible or download a Bible app. Or maybe this will prompt you to find your own ways to seek the God that offers not just LIFE, but ABUNDANT LIFE!!! Wherever you are, I hope that the wisdom from these women will inspire you to see what the Lord has in store for you through prayer and study! Here are some practical examples of ways these women spend time with the Lord: Practical Example 1: Time in the Word is an area I fight for. Having young children, if I want that time with the Lord, I have to find it. It does not find me. I wake up every morning at 5. Would I love that extra hour of sleep? Yes. For longer than I would like to confess, I avoided studying the Word because I always looked at it as a “checklist” item. What I have come to realize is that even when I am just checking my list in my own heart, God is at work. When that first kid wakes up and tries to push me over my limits before I even have time to say “Good morning!”, I am reminded of that truth that the Lord was imprinting on my heart that morning. When someone says something hurtful, I am reminded of that confession time I had this morning. It felt “checklist-ish” at the time, but the Lord was really preparing my heart to use it as a reminder of how broken I am and to extend that same grace to others. To answer what my time looks like practically: I open my old school Bible AND the app on my phone. I have discovered that I get distracted just reading, and I get distracted just listening. So I do both. (I do nothing the easy way.) I turn on the Audio on my Bible app (not loud enough to wake my kids, but loud enough for me to hear), sit my phone out of reach and follow along in my Bible. In the past, I have just gone through a book at my own pace. My goal this year is to get a full picture of the heart of God, so I am reading through the Bible chronologically. Once I finish my daily reading/listening, I am listening to a podcast by Tara-Leigh Cobble called the BIBLE RECAP. I am LOVING it!! It has me EXCITED and digging as I have never dug in the Word before. She gives a short recap and some background each day that follows along with the chronological reading plan I am studying. I am not sure if I will agree with everything she says over the course of this year, but that is ok! It is fulfilling its purpose of helping me get excited about the power of the Word and reminding me that HE really is where the JOY is! I take notes during the podcast and jot down anything that I want to go back and check or study deeper! Once I have finished reading, I write a letter to the Lord. It gives me a basis of things I want to pray for throughout the day and also serves as a reminder when I flip back through and see the ways the Lord responds. Practical Example 2: My time with the Lord has taken lots of different forms over the years, and it has changed with the seasons and rhythms of my life. I used to write in my prayer journal for as long as I needed to every single day, and I cherish reading back over those prayers (and the way God answered them). In college I spent more dedicated time in Bible study, uncovering new discoveries in the Word and fresh perspectives from my professors, peers, and various authors almost daily. Since having children, I've realized that I need more flex in my time with God, because a traditional "quiet time" just doesn't always happen. I look up Bible reading plans on my YouVersion and She Reads Truth apps and read them when I get a few minutes - over breakfast, in the school pick-up line, while my son watches Daniel Tiger. I have several Pandora stations that are different types of worship music, and it helps my heart to look to the Lord when I have that playing on Alexa or in the car. I've also come to realize that I tend to get stuck inside my head a lot and that I often struggle to put my Bible study and prayers into actual practice. I'm learning how to be better at this, though - the other day, I was reading in John when Jesus calls Himself the Bread of Life. I prayed on that and meditated, but then also decided to actually make a loaf of homemade bread. I wanted to feel it with my hands, breath in the smell filling my house, taste it on my tongue as I thought of my Savior. Other times, I've gotten up from my Bible study to send a card to a friend to whom the Spirit brought my attention, or I've opened my eyes from prayer so that I could make a donation to an organization that's working to bring God's kingdom to earth. Yoga helps immensely to still my mind and open my heart to God. I often pray for my family as I'm washing their dirty dishes or folding their laundry. I'm learning that all of this "counts" as communion with the Lord. It's a living, breathing relationship, a give-and-take of initiation and response - not at all restricted to an idealized standard of 30 minutes of Bible reading in the early morning. Practical Example 3: I’ve kept a Prayer Journal for years...just books filled with blank pages that I list prayer requests on. I don’t write out my prayer, just maybe a description of what I need to pray about/for. This could be anything...other people, myself, family, jobs, health, finances, etc. and a sentence or two highlighting what the request is for. I like having a written down record to look at to remind me what to pray for. If I find myself with some extra time in a day, this is what I pull out to talk to God about. It’s also a great source of encouragement to see Prayers that were answered! Another thing I do is put sticky notes around my bathroom mirror. On these sticky notes are the prayers that are more along the “urgent” lines...names or situations I want to bring up often in a day. Whenever I am in the bathroom I see those little sticky notes and I can pray right then for that person or situation. I pass that mirror several times a day so I can bring these things up to God quickly and keeps these things foremost in my head. As these more “urgent” requests get answered I take the sticky note off my mirror and put them in a box. I look through that box when I’m feeling particularly down or discouraged as a wonderful reminder of what specific things God has done in my life and in other’s lives. Such examples of God’s power is so faith-building...seeing His faithfulness and His love for us. When it comes to reading God’s … [Read more...]
Family Day: Our Celebration of YOU!
Today marks TWO years since we drove away from an orphanage in Hyderabad, India. After a four year journey and a lifetime of dreams, I cannot believe you have been officially ours for two years! I have re-written this post at least 14 times. Words are failing me as I try to depict both the beautiful and the tragic, both the joy and the grief, both the gain and the loss. It has been a complex journey. One that I hope to share with adequate respect soon. But for today, I have deleted every word and want to share the joy I find in this video and picture. Though it has been far from easy, this child is pure JOY and today- we celebrate YOU daughter, sister, friend. You help me see the beauty of Jesus. We have come a long way in every area imaginable. We are so grateful the SASS, SMILES, and LOVE you add to our tribe! … [Read more...]