HourChallenge

Here’s a copy of the program from the market. It provides a brief description of each of the vendors who were present at the event:

Hello and welcome to

The 2nd Annual CEP Alternative Christmas Market

We’re excited that you have joined us for this year’s gift market. We realize you’ve come here to shop for beautiful hand crafted goods from all around the world and to make a difference in the lives of those who made these goods, but don’t forget to…

• Grab some complementary refreshments inside

• Watch a few of the powerful video presentations provided by our vendors

• Purchase a hot chocolate from local children who are raising money for an Orphanage in Liberia that houses more than 50 children

Vendor list:

Amani ya Juu works to empower and Equip African women. The women behind these beautiful goods are provided a just income that allows them not merely to survive, but to meet basic health care needs, education for their children and adequate housing.

Bead for Life helps Ugandan women turn colorful recycled paper into beautiful beads. The beads provide not only income, food, medicine and school fees – but also hope to these women who live in one of the poorest districts of Uganda. ALL PROFITS from BeadforLife are invested in community development projects that generate income and help people work their way out of poverty.

Christians Ending Poverty is a diverse coalition of San Diego Christians responding to extreme world poverty by promoting advocacy and personal discipleship. This event is brought to you by Christians Ending Poverty. Visit our website to find out how to get involved http://christiansendingpoverty.org

CRWRC - The Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC) is a relief, development, and educational ministry of the Christian Reformed Church in North America. CRWRC partners with local agencies that understand local needs. Together CRWRC and its partners find ways to provide lasting change for people in more than 30 countries around the world. Goods from Lutheran World Relief (LWR) are also offered at the CRWRC table.

Escondido Neighborhood Heath Care is a community health organization that employs over 400 people and provides medical, dental, behavioral health counseling and promotes wellness to 65,000 people a year including 20,000 children who might otherwise go without care.

Floresta is working to reverse deforestation and poverty by transforming the lives of the rural poor.

Glory Ministries International supports Uganda orphanages by providing food, shelter and other basic needs. Glory runs a 60 acre facility housing 70+ children.

Invisible Children works to improve the quality of life for war-affected children by providing access to quality education, enhanced learning environments, and innovative economic opportunities for the community.
The Invisible Children Bracelet Campaign creates economic opportunities for people in Northern Uganda’s IDP camps through employment and the facilitation of savings and investment.

Karma Market is dedicated to offering stylish, affordable and socially responsible gifts and goods enabling world artisans to earn a fair and stable income for their families. By purchasing goods from Karma Market, you not only help provide income, dignity, hope and respect to people in developing regions, you also help to sustain the communities and the environment of these hard working artisans.

Olivewood carvings from Palestine – This project supports impoverished artisans in Palestine. By purchasing these beautiful hand carved goods you can bring hope to many who have been oppressed. As the conflict has progressed in Palestine, tourism has dropped drastically making life difficult for many in this region.

God’s Kids Intl. & Rangi Mingi Gallery – “Rangi Mingi” means many colors in Swahili, a Bantu language spoken widely through East Africa. Rangi Mingi Gallery celebrates Africa’s beauty by producing, promoting, and selling African arts and crafts. They develop fair trade relationships directly with artisans in the developing world and provide goods to U.S. markets. All profits from this table will go to God’s Kids Intl. supporting the Christian Orphanage and Agriculture project in Liberia. The facility is home to over 50 Liberian orphans.

San Diego Friends of Fair Trade works to increase the understanding and use of Fair Trade throughout San Diego through education, policy change, and a shift in economic paradigm.

Ten Thousand Villages works with over 100 artisan groups in more than 30 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. They offer fair trade jewelry, textiles, gifts and more. As one of the world’s oldest and largest fair trade organizations, they build long-term relationships with artisans that are based on mutual understanding and respect. Fair Trade enables artisans to earn a fair wage and provides the opportunity for a better quality of life.

Trade as One – By purchasing Trade as One goods you can change lives with everything you buy. Trade as One sells products that come with meaning and stories behind them. They use spending power of the developed world rather than donations as the means to bring jobs to the poorest of the poor by offering products that US consumers need. The products are all of extremely high quality and made by innovative socially responsible organizations in the developing world. You can learn more about Trade as One by watching the video in the main hall of the community center.

The Women’s Bean Project is transforming the lives of Women. The project employs women who come from backgrounds of chronic unemployment and poverty, and helps them develop the work and interpersonal skills needed to function independently in the workplace and community.

Y-Malawi: The Mission In Malawi is Total Community-wide transformation through long term targeted work in food security, water security, evangelism and discipleship, health care, education, and economic development through micro-finance.

PLEASE STOP BY AND VISIT THE CHURCHES WHO CO-SPONSORED THIS EVENT: The Bridge, The Father’s House, Anglican Church of the Resurrection, San Marcos Lutheran and Crossroads Christian Reformed Church!

These churches helped cover the facility costs so that the profits for the event could be donated to poverty related causes.

CEP board member Su Kraus wrote a great summary of the market on the blog.  Click here to read the article.

We just spoke with the last vendor and so now are able to post some totals for the gift market. In the three hours we were open for shopping $11,034  in goods were sold to over 200 shoppers. It was a great event.

Here are some pictures in case you were unable to attend. We hope to see you next year.

If you follow the blog you might have wondered where I’ve been over the last week+. Well, we’ve been running around like mad people busy pulling together all of the last minute details surrounding the much anticipated and much attended alternative gift market.

The event was a success by all measures (I’ll fill you all in a day or two once we have all the totals) but it consumed every waking moment of free time over the last few weeks. The hour logs are pretty simple this time around with most of our time being spent organizing the market.

Sunday 11/11
Off

Monday 11/12
Blog posting
Time spent = 30 min

Alternative market planning
Time spent = 20 min

Worked with a friend to put together the video for the alternative market.
Time spent = 3 hours

Tuesday 11/13
Stopped back by the community center to do some last minute planning for the event. I’m in charge of sound, video, power, (man stuff!, grunt) and photographing the event.
Time spent = 45 min

Spoke with a friend about poverty, justice and the Bible. We rode down to a conference together and talked about global issues, politics and personal discipleship.
Time spent = 20 min

Wednesday 11/14
Market planning. It gets really blurry from this point on.
Time spent = approximately 2 hours

Thursday 11/15
Market planning
Time spent = approximately 3 hours

Friday 11/16
Market planning
Time spent = approximately 4 hours

Saturday 11/17
The alternative market is today!
Time spent = 7 hours

Sunday 11/18
Off

Monday 11/19
Inventory, accounting, packing boxes, organizing… We’re on the home stretch. Just need to get everything accounted for and shipped back to the vendors.
Time spent = 2 hours

Tuesday 11/20
Continued finalizing the market, finished all of the accounting. The boxes are packed up and ready to go!!! Wohooo.
Time spent = 2.5 hours

Wednesday 11/21
Shipped back all leftover product from the market.
Time spent = 1 hour.

Thanksgiving 11/22
Gave ourselves a much needed break and did absolutely nothing but hang out with family. We had a great meal. I played two games of risk with the boys. And I can’t even guess how many hours that took!

I think we’ve mentioned the book Not For Sale in previous posts. It’s an incredibly powerful read that details the sad and terrible facts of human trafficking. David Batstone – Professor of Ethics at the University of San Francisco – with students at USF is doing some incredibly bold things to combat this problem.

I received an email from them today that was shocking to say the least. Is it possible that our law enforcement officials are “too busy” to investigate these crimes against women who are held against their will in such unimaginable circumstances? This is truly an issue of education.

Here’s the text from the email I received from Not For Sale that links to the video -

BREAKING NEWS ALERT

NBC News aired a 15-minute feature this week on Not for Sale’s operation to investigate and map the commercial people trade in San Francisco. You don’t want to miss the chronicle of Not for Sale’s undercover operation…and how law enforcement ignored a golden opportunity to free enslaved women.

I received a flyer this weekend in our church mailbox informing us that November is National Adoption Month. The flyer read: “Millions of children wait in hope that, someday, they will know the love of a family. Please adopt!”

The flyer took me back a little bit. As many of you know we are about 18 months into our adoption to China. My first thought was, wow, what a great thing to be promoting adoption. And, wow, right here in our church mail box…cool. But then, as I thought about it some more, I became unsettled a bit.

You know, I never want my daughter to feel that we adopted her out of charity – just because there was “a need”. I don’t want her to feel that she was part of some plan on our part to be good citizens or that we did so simply out of obedience to Christ. It’s true that adoption is an amazing thing – especially when children are brought into loving homes. It provides so many possibilities including: faith, hope, community, and opportunities far beyond what is probable otherwise. The families we know who are adopting are doing so because they want to, not because they feel obligated in any way. We have NEVER felt obligated to adopt. We simply have a sense that this child will bring immeasurable joy to our lives.

The concern is that advertisements like these make it seem like people need to be guilted into adoption. Guilt may be a good motivator to consider adoption as a possibility, but I suspect that those who adopt will ultimately do so out of very different motivations.

Hey, so, on a more positive note I checked around and found some neat things about National Adoption Month including this letter from President George Bush:

National Adoption Month, 2007
A Proclamation By the President of the United States of America

During National Adoption Month, we recognize the adoptive and foster families who have shared their homes and hearts with children in need, and we encourage more Americans to consider adopting young people of all ages.

Families who adopt show the generous spirit of our Nation. Every child desires a permanent home, and when parents adopt a child to love as their own, lives are forever changed. For parents, the decision to adopt a child is among life’s greatest and happiest turning points. On November 17, families across the country will celebrate National Adoption Day by finalizing their adoptions, and each one of these homes will be richer for the addition of new family members.

My Administration is committed to promoting adoption of children of all ages. We are working to bring together more children with loving, adoptive parents through the Collaboration to AdoptUsKids at adoptuskids.org and by providing States with financial assistance through the Adoption Incentives Program. The Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program helps improve care and services to children and families and ensure more young people in America have a caring, secure, and permanent home. Together, these efforts are building a brighter future for our youth.

During National Adoption Month, we honor adoptive and foster parents as they raise children of conviction and character. By accepting the gift of these children, parents are helping shape lives and contributing to the strength of our great Nation.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim November 2007 as National Adoption Month. I call upon all Americans to observe this month with appropriate programs and activities to honor adoptive families and to participate in efforts to find permanent homes for waiting children.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirty-first day of October, in the year of our Lord two thousand seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-second.

GEORGE W. BUSH

Tuesday 11/6
Spent some time today updating my personal email list and asked everyone I know to go on the record let the 2008 presidential candidates know that we want to hear where they stand on extreme poverty.
Time spent = 1 hour

The On the Record Petition:
As a member of ONE, I write to ask you to go on the record on where you stand on fighting extreme poverty and global disease that affect the one billion people around the world.
Alleviating suffering and tackling the root causes of global poverty will be defining issues for the next President of the United States and deserve your full attention. I hope you will respond to this letter with your plans to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, eradicate malaria, improve child and maternal health, achieve universal primary education, and provide access to clean water and food, as well as a personal message about how you plan to lead on the fight to make poverty history.
We are only one year away from Election Day 2008. The time to go on the record on extreme poverty and global disease is now. Thank you for considering this request and I look forward to your response.

Chipped in on another micro loan at Kiva.org. Yes, I’m a loaner.
Time spent = 10 minutes

Worked on some emails and such for the market – it’s only a week away!!
Time spend = 45 minutes

Running errands for a meeting I have Thursday evening. It’s part of a project I hope to be talking about soon.
Time spent = 1 hour

Wednesday 11/7
I spent a few hours today at the National Outreach Convention. There were several cool ministries there doing work in poor and marginalized communities around the world.

AND I received a “Poverty Sucks” t-shirt compliments of amornow!! They provide unique, life-changing mission orriented experiences to thousands of Christians by building homes for impoverished families in Mexico. This came at a good time…
Time spent = 2 hours

Thursday 11/8
Drove to Orange County to meet on the new idea. This could turn into something pretty big. I’ll fill in the details if this goes anywhere.
Time spent = about 3 hours

Friday 11/9
I emailed the folks behind notforsale today to offer to plan / host a “Not For Sale Show” when the tour rolls through So. Cal.  The conference will teach people how to identify human trafficking situations in their own communities and how to take meaningful action to fight it.

My wife Crissy will be handling the details.  Please let us know if you’d like to get involved.  Do check the site to learn more about what they’re doing to stop human trafficking around the globe.
Time spent = 15 minutes

Emails / reading feeds / blog thinking
Time spent = 40 minutes

Alternative market planning
Time spent = 10 minutes

Saturday 11/10
Making signs for the market, organizing product, planning a sign up table for church tomorrow.  We also worked on the layout for the market. Blew out some last minute details. It’s getting down to the wire!
Time spent = 1 hour

If we hope to have global poverty on the agenda in ’08, we’re going to need to demand it. In the last two presidential debates, Republican and Democratic, global poverty didn’t rack up a lot of air time. Please take a minute and sign the On the Record petition at one.org.

Let’s make sure we tell the candidates for the presidency to go on the record and explain to us exactly where they stand on extreme poverty and global disease.

I am giving myself a new little challenge. I plan to make “responsible” clothing purchases for the next year. This is a small but necessary step to moving toward total responsibility in my purchasing habits.

Merriam-Webster defines responsible as: 1) liable to be called on to answer 2) able to answer for one’s conduct and obligations and 3) marked by or involving responsibility or accountability.

So, for now, I won’t be buying a single piece of clothing for one year unless I am reasonably convinced that the persons making the clothing were paid a fair wage and that the materials used were fairly traded.

I plan to make a few purchases this year that (hopefully) will support companies who are making clothing products responsibly. I do, however, reserve the right to: 1) keep all of my current clothes 2) buy used clothing as a last recourse. Oh yah, this doesn’t include shoes for now.

Ok, and now here’s the exciting part. I’m asking you to join me. I am going to recruit 100 people in San Diego to make the same commitment. If you are a friend or family member, expect a call or email from me in the near future.

I’ve already got 1 taker – 99 to go. My wife agreed to take the challenge. It’s a bigger deal for her because she likes clothes (and shoes).

Oh, and if you’re wondering where this all came from visit my last couple of posts on globalization by clicking here…

I’ve been keeping up on my commitment to spend an hour each day doing my part in the fight to end extreme poverty.  Truth be told, I just got busy and a little board of writing daily hour logs.  I thought I’d start posting some logs again this month, though, just to keep anyone who is interested up on what’s been going on lately…

Thursday 11/1
I’ve got a new idea that I’ve been working on lately.  I met with some friends to flesh it out today.  It’s tough to say if it’ll work out at this point but if it does it will allow me to understand globalization on a much deeper level.  More to come on this later.
Time spent = 4.5 hours

Friday11/2
Getting ready for the big garage sale.
Time spent = 3 hours

Saturday 11/3
Garage sales day.
Time spent = 6 hours

Prepping for Sunday School Class – This is the 3rd Sunday talking about human trafficking.
Time spent = 1 hour

Sunday 11/4 off

Monday 11/5
Tonight we’ve been trying to button up loose ends for the alternative market.  We sent about 10 emails to vendors, sponsoring churches, volunteers…  The market is less than 2 weeks away!!
Time spent = 2.5 hours

Blogging
Time spent = 1 hour