Imagine a New Life

Not a new life for you (although that's fine, too, if you need one). Imagine a new life for families who deal with crushing poverty, for girls sold into sex slavery because their parents cannot feed them.

That's what Michelle Kime and Aiyana Ehrman imagined, and they did more than dream about it. They started Imagine Goods to work with a local charity in Cambodia. Imagine Goods provides fabric, which is purchased in Cambodian markets, and women rescued from sex trafficking make handbags, aprons, and tablecloths out of them. Imagine Goods then sells the finished product in the U.S. for a fair wage.

In order to continue helping Imagine Goods and its vision, Michelle and another friend Liz Marvin opened the Sweet Charity Thrift Store Boutique. If you live near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, check it out (it's in Willow Street). They sell gently used clothing and artisan crafts, and 40 percent of the profit goes to Imagine Goods. They also stock the fair trade items made for Imagine Goods by the women in Cambodia. I've already got one item stashed away for a Christmas present. (I can't say more, in case the future recipient reads this!)

You can read an interview with Michelle here and more about the advent of Sweet Charity here.

Michelle is living proof that we can all find time for our "one thing" to make a difference in the world. She's the mom of four kids, ages 5 to 13. And she's a pastor's wife. She simply took one thing that broke her heart and decided to do something about it. And it's progressed from there.

Tell me what breaks your heart?

Skipping Stone or Mill Stone?

When I started my blog, more than six years ago now, I said my goal was to encourage those like me who are not activists but want to make a difference in the world by providing ideas and links to organizations worthy of support. That's still my goal.

But as I spent time in my Bible this week, I came to this passage:

"Woe to you lawyers as well! For you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear, while you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers" (Luke 11:46)

It made me wonder if my blog was weighing people down. After all, I toss out lots of ideas of things you can do. I mention lots of charities that need money. But I myself certainly don't practice them all or give to them all. In fact, I may not practice or give to most of them.

Does that make my blog a mill stone around the neck of readers, dragging them down with guilt? Does it make me a hypocrite who should heed the "woe" because I am not doing them all?

Today in my cryptogram was the following quote from Mother Teresa:

"I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples."

That's what I want my blog to be doing. I want to be throwing skipping stones of ideas into the water of life that create ripples. Ripples that get a cool charity noticed. Ripples that encourage you to try one act of justice or kindness you might not have thought of. Ripples that get you thinking about a topic differently.

So tell me, do you find this blog to be a mill stone or a skipping stone? Is it drowning you or sending out ripples?

Well, That's a Deep Subject

"The hurrier I go, the behinder I get" is one of those "Amish" sayings you find on trivets sold at tourist traps here in Lancaster County. There are days (weeks? months?) when I feel the sentiment is true. I let things slide (like timely blog posts, for instance). The magazines I receive go in a basket on arrival. Usually I get around to reading them, but often it's months after they arrive.

Sometimes I'll grab a pile of them and look through them while watching TV. While perusing an issue of the magazine put out by Compassion International, I found a page of water facts that reminded me how thankful I should be that I can turn on a faucet and have clean water:

• 800 million people do not have access to clean water
• 50% of the world's hospitalizations are due to water-related illnesses such as cholera
• 1.5 million children die of waterborne illnesses every year
• 1,000 parasitic worms often reside in poor children's bodies at any time due to unclean water
• 2.5 billion people do not have adequate sanitation facilities
• 1 in 5 children worldwide dies from diarrhea—that's more than AIDS, malaria and measles combined
• Poor people living in the slums pay 5 to 10 times more per liter of water than wealthy people living in the same city

A few months ago I was introduced to the work of a 13-year-old who did more than be thankful that she had clean water. She began Digging Wells for Hope so that others could have clean water for generations. Kelly Forsha and her advisory group of 7 friends started selling pencils for $1. Then they added rubber wristbands. And they ask schools and businesses to sponsor jeans days where people pay $5 to wear jeans.



In a year, they've raised $50,000. The first three deep-water wells have been dug in Haiti, and more are on the way. You can see more photos on Digging Wells for Hope's Facebook page.

It was a simple idea that's made a world of difference. Kelly didn't simply let things slide. She did something. And she and her friends are still doing it. When I asked Kelly if they planned to keep it up, she said, "Of course."

The need for water is a deep problem with a simple solution. Raise money. Dig wells for hope. Thanks, Kelly, for the reminder. Maybe you should inscribe that on a trivet.