I care deeply about people so I think hard on what I purchase and what that purchase means. I've been rocked to the core and so deeply convicted about this lately. It pains me to shop. I literally hate stores right now.
When we are asked to love our neighbour, we need to be fully aware and open to WHO our neighbour IS. Our neighbour is the farmer in Columbia who has a family that is starving because he is being exploited by a large coffee company. He works his hands raw but he still has no food... yet we sip steaming cups around our lavishly decorated holiday dining tables and thank Jesus for our meal...
Our neighbour is that beautiful girl-child who is forced to work 13 hours a day in a sweat shop in China, sewing the clothing we buy cheap for our children. The dress our daughter the same age wears to our Church Christmas pageant. Yes, the hem was measured and sewn after a hard smack on the face and the shout, "No talking back!" rang out at 1am. And the girl is only 10. She has no one and she is payed 1/4 the required minimum wage, if she is paid at all.
Our neighbour is the young boy of 12 who painfully stiches soccer balls through bloody fingers in a dark and dingy factory. We gush as our boy opens the gift of a new ball for the spring season, but that gift comes with a high price for a friend far from here.
Our neighbour is the single mother who sleeps on a hard cement floor of a workshop, unable to leave due to her abusive boss and excessive working hours and conditions. She sews clothing for major labels, the kind the rich buy. But she's living below the poverty line, unable to cloth or feed her own child.
This is reality. And so, this is Christmas. The West lines the stores - fools with big pocket books and we turn a blind eye to our neighbours. The tears burn my cheeks at the very thought of it. The dillussion. The illness. The sin. The complete and utter disgust that ripples through my body to think of the power my purchases have. The way I've contributed to child labour, unfair treatment of my friends and my neighbours. The weight is heavy, but nothing compaired to theirs.
With every dollar we spend this
Christmas (and always) we have the
ability to either exploit or empower
our neighbours.
I don't think there is anything wrong with blessing our friends and family members with Christmas gifts. It's a joyful, wonderful time of year for so many families, including ours. But please, friends, may we choose wisdom this season and always. Our purchases have very real implications in this world and I believe we will be held accountable for where we spent our money and what kind of companies we supported here on earth. Ignorance is not an option. We are called to live lives on purpose. That means what we buy matters.
Choose to empower and bring hope to your neighbours this Christmas. Here are some of the things I've implemented to help us purchase ethically this Christmas...
1. Research the stores you shop at and the brands you are considering purchasing. Look for ethically sound companies by researching online and consulting books like the Better World Shopping Guide. Be aware of their ratings and what kind of labour they use in the fabricatio of their products. Also, what agendas do they support and what to they believe in as a corporation? As we've done, you could consider not shopping at stores at all.
2. Purchase through organizations who are empowering people through fair trade and better than fair trade alliances. This year, every single gift I bought (minus a few educational books, etc. for our children) came from either a local artisan who was supporting a ministry or from a ministry who was helping to support friends and neighbours overseas and in developing countries. A beautiful treasure box from India, a pair of leg warmers from a family in Nepal who knit and make better than fair trade wages through a small organization, necklaces and Christmas cards from a Ugandan organization so close to my heart, hand-made pottery from a beautiful lady rich in generosity and God's love, handmade items from a an inspiring and talented immigrant woman, unique serving spoons from a Kenyan ministry, and the list goes on. Some examples of places/groups I love - Tutalea, African Soles, Ten Thousand Villages. I'm sure many of you have tons you could tell me about, and I'd love for you to mention ideas in the comments or email me!
3. Don't be afraid to stop buying certain brands and stop shopping certain stores. Yes, it may inconvenience you. But, truly, what are the important things in life? For me - knowing that my purchases are loving, trumps any 'inconvenience' in my own little life.
And that's really what it's about - being loving with our purchases. Loving our neighbour means knowing how what we've piled beside the cash register affects our friends half-way around the world.
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| Source - Ten Thousand Villages, Ugandan women, preparing to weave artisan baskets. |
Let us choose to make an eternal impact this year by choosing gifts that reach a loving hand to those in need rather than taking from and expoiting those who God has entrusted to us to love as sisters and brothers.
In Grace -
Cassandra
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