goodness gracious, aunt martha . . .

. . . the Spirit was still at work at CBA!

So let me tell you about Ed and Janet Landry. I was wandering the aisles in the gift pavillion which, with T-Shirts like the God's Gym crap, makes me want to drop to my knees and beg forgiveness for being part of a culture that cries out for this, when I came upon a small booth, the smallest size you can get.

Village Handcrafters - Partnering With the Poor

Wow. Hmm. And a woman opens a box of soap and says, "Can you guess this scent? It's in the Bible."

"Myrhh." I said.

"Yes!"

"Well, it was the only one I could think of." The next day I went back to show Will and they didn't remember me. I got spikenard. I liked the myrhh better. But be that as it may . . .

"So tell me about this helping the poor aspect?"

The man handed me their card. Ed and Janet Landry. Cool.

Janet says, "We were missionaries in the Philippines for twenty years. We could plant churches and share the gospel, but the people were too poor to even live. So we thought we'd develop products they can make over there in the villages, and we'd sell them and send the money back over there."

Yes!

Yes! Yes! Yes!

What a great way to go about missions. I'm sure if Ed and Janet could do it all over again, they'd start their mission hand in hand with the business. Do lots of ministries do this? If not, why not? Isn't this absolutely brilliant?

So here's where you can find Village Handcrafters on the web. Buy all your gifts from them if you feel inclined, and please spread the word. They do wonderful soaps and handmade paper, journals, giftwrap and boxes. Please check it out.

www.villagehandcrafters.com

Here's what it says on their catalogue: Village Handcrafters, Inc. is a non-profit corporation helping impoverished people in the the third world become self-supporting by making world-class handicraft products.

I literally stood in the booth with tears dammed up behind my eyelashes. Truly kingdom-building products. How utterly wonderful is that?

grace,

lisa