September's View

It's September first.

I've always loved the glorious month of September for its latent warmth and halcyon days before fall sets in. It reminds me of new clothes, wistful thoughts of summertime, and all the nervous anticipation a new school year brings. For me it is the official start of the year. Everything new begins in September--school, Bible studies, fellowship groups, the September Issue of Vogue ushering in fall fashion, and a renewed spirit to step up to the proverbial plate and do well.

I feel a wind of change in the air, at least in my own thoughts. Although the past 8 months have been fraught with changes, I feel sure that the next several changes will be good ones. For one thing, I've seen God provide so many times over the past several months when I felt like all hope was lost that I know He'll do it again. He is faithful. I don't know whether I'll begin work overseas right away or not. There may be beautiful opportunities right where I am in Austin.

Last week I was able to attend a meeting of the Austin Fair Trade Town. These are volunteers from the community who are involved in fair trade either through business or advocacy. They are attempting right now to get a resolution passed through the city legislature declaring Austin to be a "Fair Trade Town". Basically, this means the City of Austin will declare that it supports fair trade business through the purchase of fair trade goods, education, and advocacy. Once the town is officially "fair trade," the Austin Fair Trade Town group can really begin gathering steam by putting on wacky Austin events like handing out fair trade chocolate on the streets (this was suggested at the last meeting, but we all started laughing when we thought of the summer heat); Other ideas include conducting presentations on fair trade in the school system, or hosting a fair trade bazaar.

For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of fair trade business, the simple idea of it is this: Ordinarily, without fair trade much of the manufacturing and production of goods, clothing, and food is done through large corporations who do not pay their workers an ethical, living wage (think sweat-shop labor). Fair trade business is conducted by sourcing local workers and paying them a wage that allows them to live out of poverty. Businesses that claim fair trade status aim to be wholly transparent in their business practices from concept to production to distribution. When enough workers in a town or village are employed in a fair trade capacity it raises the health, economics and standards of the entire community. Fair trade business extends beyond economics as it often employs women in impoverished communities who would otherwise have to provide for themselves and their family through any means they could find, including prostitution. Fair trade is often linked in food and textile production to organic farming, which eliminates traditional slash-and-burn farming methods and practices sustainable agriculture that cultivates the land properly for generations to come. With fertile land, decent wages, and the opportunity to rise above their current situation, an entire community becomes healthy. When more communities become healthy, eventually an entire country can become healthy and finally, an entire continent.

My global passion is to bring beauty to the lives of women and in so doing, to show them the beauty of God. How this translates into my business passion is to create a fair trade fashion line incorporating ethnic textile motifs from different countries around the world into western design. I would create elegant dresses with simple lines that rely heavily on the textiles to tell a story about the garment itself and its orgigins. I want to employ the women of each country's communities to help create the textiles and the garments. I want them to know that their cultural influence matters and that they matter to God. I want those that wear their garments to understand that in valuing something beautiful they are valuing beauty with purpose--a beauty that heals women and communities.

I will never forget something I saw when one of the missionaries at my church in Greenville, Illinois came back from India. He showed a video depicting he and several others passing out the most stunningly beautiful brightly-colored saris to women in a leper village. At the bottom of the caste system, these women were outcasts in their society. The missionaries led worship and around them sat these women with beaming faces of joy in their clean, bright garments. In effect, I want to "clothe" such women with dignity, beauty, health and the joy of knowing God loves them.

It is amazing how one small thing such as a video clip I witnessed in the right place at the right time could begin to form my thinking around something entirely other than what I originally intended for my life's work. In the bright days ahead, may we be on the watch for such sparks of divine inspiration that come our way and may we allow them to craft us wholly new.