A Christmas Wish: Investing in the Future
It’s almost Christmas! Today’s Christmas Wish comes from Rafaela Leonidas Encarnación from Basima, Dominican Republic. Rafaela is the mother of an entrepreneurial family. With six children, Rafaela was always worried about making ends meet and feeding her family. She operated a small business in her village, selling various items to other community members, but the income generated from her business was not sufficient to meet her family’s needs.
That started to change when Rafaela joined a Plant With Purpose group where she received training in small business and financial management.
Now, Rafaela’s business is thriving, and her daughter has also set up her own successful business selling empanadas. The income her daughter generates not only supplements their household income, but it also makes Rafaela very proud of her daughter’s entrepreneurial spirit.
“Partnering with Plant With Purpose has been very good for my community and me,” Rafaela says. “Thanks to God’s providence and the business training received through Plant With Purpose’s workshops, my business has been more successful, I have been able to attract more customers, and my relationship with my family is stronger.”
This Christmas, consider giving the gift of opportunity to entrepreneurs like Rafaela and her daughter. Village savings and loans associations (VSLA) offer a safe venue to learn to save money, receive low-interest microloans, and take part in critical business training.
A Christmas Wish: Sharing and Living the Good News
Our next very special Christmas wish comes from a woman named Jocelyn Dieumène of Barye, Haiti. Jocelyn lives in a place where words like community mean something. In the five years Jocelyn has participated in Plant With Purpose programs, her income has increased as her small plot of land has gone from producing 20 pounds of beans at a time to 50 pounds at a time. She is now able to afford the fees needed to send her three children to school, 
but beyond that Jocelyn says participation in group Bible studies has also encouraged her to give back to her community.
“When I listen to God’s word, my ideas change positively, and I am ready to share with my neighbors,” Jocelyn says.
During the Christmas season, you can help communities like Barye to strengthen their church and community ties by providing critical resources, training, and Bible study materials to pastors and leaders.
Consider giving a gift that will empower churches around the world to engage the needs of their communities in the name of Christ.
A Christmas Wish: Clean Water for Haiti
Forget the iPad, Christmas sweaters, and stocking stuffers, all Visnel wants for Christmas is access to clean water.
In Haiti, the place he calls home, clean water is hard to come by. Waterborne disease kills thousands of people there every single year, a fact that has only grown worse as the country continues fighting a cholera epidemic. In fact, contaminated water nearly cost Visnel his life when he contracted cholera this year. But thanks to his Plant With Purpose community group leader, Visnel arrived at a clinic for treatment just in time.
“Plant With Purpose saved my life!” Visnel says.
Still, while we celebrate this example of the incredible support system people are finding through Plant With Purpose groups, we believe that people like Visnel shouldn’t be getting sick in the first place. Something as simple as the gift of clean water changes communities and saves lives. It means health instead of illness, and it means a better, more hopeful tomorrow. It also means opportunity for Visnel’s children and others like them as they can go to school instead of walking for water each day.
In Matthew 10:42 Jesus says, “And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.”
This Christmas season, consider providing children and families like Visnel’s with access to cold—and more importantly, clean—water.
Click here to meet more farmers like Visnel and view the complete Plant With Purpose Christmas Wish List and give the gift of hope to families in need.
Retweet the Sounding Joy
It is officially twelve days until Christmas (crazy, huh?), and we would like to present… *drum roll please*…
The 12 Days Of Christmas (Plant With Purpose style)
On the first day of Christmas,
My true love gave to me
A Fruit Tree on a Hillside
On the second day of Christmas,
My true love gave to me,
Two Breeding Bunnies,
And a Fruit Tree on a Hillside
On the third day of Christmas,
My true love gave to me,
Three Family Gardens,
Two Breeding Bunnies,
And a Fruit Tree on a Hillside
Okay, okay, you get the idea. Stay tuned to our twitter and Facebook for the next twelve days to see the complete 12 Days of Christmas (Plant With Purpose style).
Join in the merriment and “Retweet the Sounding Joy” of giving life-changing gifts in honor of our friends and loved ones this Christmas season.
Today’s tweet:
On the 1st day of Christmas, my true love gave to me - A Fruit Tree on a Hillside http://bit.ly/t8AqKc #PWP #12DAYS
Let’s see how many fruit trees we can plant on deforested hillsides! Merry Christmas and happy tweeting!
O Christmas Reads
The topic of social justice has become a common phrase to throw around in conversations (and we think this is a good thing), but life-changing social justice is more than trendy do-gooder-ism. If you want to dig a little deeper, here’s a list of books we think might help.
Tending to Eden: Environmental Stewardship for God’s People (Scott Sabin). OK, call this a little bit of self-promotion, but you should still read it. Written by Plant With Purpose’s Executive Director, Scott Sabin, the book offers compelling stories that explain why we do what we do.
Fast Living: How the Church Will End Extreme Poverty (Scott Todd). A companion to the 58: Initiative, this book makes the bold assertion that extreme poverty can be addressed fully within our lifetimes, supports the assertion with facts, and challenges us to sacrifice in a way that makes a difference now.
When Helping Hurts: Alleviating Poverty Without Hurting the Poor (Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert). This book should be required reading for anyone who wants to engage in any kind of ministry that takes you across cultural lines. It’s practical and readable and may very well change your entire paradigm about what it means to do good.
The Dangerous Act of Loving Your Neighbor: Seeing Others Through the Eyes of Jesus (Mark Labberton). This one isn’t exactly a feel-good book to read by a cozy fire. Instead of warm-fuzzies, you’ll get a challenge to look inward and consider what it really means to live as the Good Samaritan today.
Follow Me to Freedom: Leading and Following As An Ordinary Radical (Shane Claiborne and John M. Perkins). A young activist and a decades-older civil rights leader explore 18 topics such as leadership, justice, and responding to crisis situations. Written as conversations between two friends, it addresses thoughtful ideas in a way that is accessible and encouraging.
The Justice Project (Edited by Brian McLaren, Elisa Padilla, and Ashley Bunting Seeber). This thought-provoking collection of essays offers a broad view of topics such as justice in cities, suburbs, and rural areas; urban poverty; a biblical view of justice; and the church’s involvement in justice.
Social Justice Handbook: Small Steps for a Better World (Mae Elise Cannon). This book looks at social justice from a historical perspective and through a biblical framework, leading to a look at the church’s responsibility when it comes to social justice engagement. Topics covered include environmental stewardship, HIV and AIDS, extreme poverty, and microfinance.
Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger: Moving From Affluence to Generosity (Ron Sider). An oldie but goodie, Sider’s exploration of the complexities of poverty and suggestions for change have been influencing Christians who want to fight against poverty for more than 30 years.
Happy reading!
Life-Changing Holiday Gifts for Cheep Cheep!
Does the craziness of holiday shopping really get your goat? Are you looking for a gift that will breed joy like rabbits? What if there was a way to get all of your shopping done without running around like a chicken with its head cut off?
Well, look no further! Plant With Purpose’s online Holiday Village Market Gift Catalog offers a menagerie of alternative gifts that will let you check off your holiday shopping list with two shakes of a lamb’s tail.
Find the perfect alternative gift for your family and friends by visiting our gift catalog. Make sure to download a greeting card that you can print out and send to those special people in your life!
Here are some examples of alternative gifts and their life-changing benefits for rural communities:
Provide Animals
Buy a brood of 10 chicks, a breeding pair of rabbits, goats, or sheep in honor of your loved ones this Christmas.
Plant Trees
Planting trees controls erosion and improves soil fertility. As a result, farmers grow more crops, children have food to eat, and the people have renewed hope.
- $10 - Plant an orchard (10 trees)
- $25 - Plant a hillside (25 trees)
- $50 - Plant a grove (50 trees)
- $100 - Plant a forest (100 trees)
Buy a Fuel-efficient Stove for $30
By reducing wood use by 50%, these stoves prevent deforestation and save time and money, improving the lives of rural women and girls who spend hours collecting firewood.
Plant a Nutritious Family Garden for $50
Family gardens improve health by providing important nutrition, decreasing food-born illness, and providing another source of income.
To find the perfect present for your loved ones (yes, even the black sheep in your family), check out Plant With Purpose’s gifts at www.plantwithpurpose.org/gifts. Avoid the holiday shopping zoo and give a lasting-and not-to-mention-adorable-gift without even leaving the roost!
Life-changing Gifts for Moms
Dec. 21, 2010
By Aly Lewis
Why is it that moms are so hard to shop for? Sure, I could get mom a nice holiday scented candle or lotion set or even pick out a nice top and scarf from J. Jill. But when I think about what moms really want for Christmas, the answer isn’t something you can buy at a store. Most of the moms I know really just want what’s best for their children. They want their families happy, healthy, and together.
Just like your mom, the moms Plant With Purpose works with want nothing more than health, happiness, and a bright future for their families. But for most of them, providing their children with nutritious food, clean water, a safe place to live, and a good education isn’t such an easy gift to give.
A large proportion of the world’s poor and hungry are children; it is the mothers of these children that Plant With Purpose serves. Plant With Purpose empowers these women to overcome poverty and provide for their families in a number of different ways. One way is through the formation of women’s savings and loan groups. For example, in Tanzania women can join a Plant With Purpose village community savings group and gain access not only to credit and financial training, but also to an entire support system.
One woman, Laurencia, has benefited greatly from this support system. Laurencia lives in the village of Siha, Tanzania. Born blind and with no way to earn a living, Laurencia has struggled in extreme poverty. She has three children and providing for their needs has been a constant struggle. In many third world countries, one would expect to find women like her begging by the side of the road. Yet that is not where Laurencia’s story ends.
Laurencia is a member of a remarkable village community savings group. With coaching from Plant With Purpose trainers, her group meets weekly to pool their savings, learn small business skills, and make loans. Many women in the group are now making enough money to send their kids to school, or to pay medical bills or to better feed their families. The group has been formed for a serious purpose, but they also have a good time; they joke and laugh and sing and tell stories on each other.
Laurencia is not just a group member, she is one of the leaders, helping to facilitate the meeting and encouraging other group members as they all seek to improve their lives. As a result of her participation, Laurencia has been able to start a resale business, providing much needed income for her family. Her family is less vulnerable to the chronic malnutrition and hunger that affect so many of the world’s poor. But not only that, the group has recently donated $2,000 of their own savings to build her a house. They are also donating labor and materials to help keep the costs down.
What a gift!
This Christmas, as you shop for gifts for the mothers in your life, consider giving a gift that will make a world of difference for a mother in a developing country.
Go to our Holiday Village Market Gift Catalog to donate to Business Skills and Microcredit Loan Management Training, which is really just a long name for providing training and guidance to a saving group like Laurencia’s.
$50 will provide a share of a full course of training on important loan management techniques and business skills for women. But any amount will help equip and empower women to follow their dreams and give their families the gift of heatlh, happiness, and hope for a brighter future.
Plant With Purpose Gift Menagerie
Visit Plant With Purpose’s online Holiday Village Market Gift Catalog here!
by Aly Lewis
Does the craziness of holiday shopping really get your goat? Are you looking for a gift that will breed joy like rabbits? What if there was a way to get all of your shopping done without running around like a chicken with its head cut off?
Well, look no further! Plant With Purpose’s online Holiday Village Market Gift Catalog offers a menagerie of alternative gifts that will let you check off your holiday shopping list with two shakes of a lamb’s tail.
Last week we highlighted the incredible difference a gift of a garden can make for an entire family. This week we’re especially excited to tell you about another category in our gift catalog: ANIMALS!
You can buy a brood of 10 chicks, a breeding pair of rabbits, goats and sheep in honor of your loved ones this Christmas.
While each animal provides its own benefits, they all provide hope for improved life and a better future for suffering families. The gift of chickens and rabbits provide food, pest control, compost, and companionship, while the gift of goats and sheep provide fertilizer, wool, and dairy products. All of these animals will substantially decrease the vulnerability of many rural farm families who otherwise face a daily struggle to survive.
To find the perfect Christmas present for your loved ones (yes, even the black sheep in your family), check out Plant With Purpose’s Gift Menagerie, I mean Holiday Village Market, here: www.plantwithpurpose.org/gifts.
Avoid the holiday shopping zoo and give your family and friends lasting—and not-to-mention-adorable—gifts without even leaving the roost!
Garden of Hope
It is that time of the year again…the spirit of giving is in the air! With Christmas just around the corner, we are all trying to come up with that perfect gift for our loved ones. But what if this year we did something a bit different? Instead of purchasing the average material items such as a tie for our dad, a football for our brother or a DVD for our friend, we are given the opportunity to give a gift of long-lasting purpose!
Through Plant With Purpose, you can give an alternative gift that will help those in need in the name of your loved one. One of the many alternative gifts that can be given is a family garden. Donating a family garden greatly impacts an entire family’s quality of life. The garden provides each family with improved health through needed nutrients and decreased food-born illness, while also providing another source of income for poor families.
Inés Lopez, a woman from the village of Rio Garza, Mexico, was given the gift of a garden in December of last year. The garden allowed her family to produce fresh, nutritious vegetables to not only eat themselves, but also sell the remaining vegetables in the market for extra income. Inés says “Thank you, Plant With Purpose, for helping me with the seeds to cultivate my vegetables. Now I can eat and sell my plants.”
Donate a family garden and partner with women like Inés to sow small seeds that will make a big impact!
If you’re still searching for Christmas gifts and want to give the gift of hope and purpose, visit Plant With Purpose’s Holiday Village Market Gift Catalog (www.plantwithpurpose.org/gifts) and give your loved one a gift that will impact an entire family in need.
Christmas at UHDP
Happy New Year everyone! We wanted to share with you some fun Christmas party photos we received from Ruth Tshin, a former Plant With Purpose intern who is currently working for ECHO Asia. These pictures are from our partner’s in Northern Thailand, Upland Holistic Development Project (UHDP)’s, Christmas party.
UHDP staff enjoy the Christmas meal: Bancha, Api, Singkam, Sam, Ket, and Lue.
Fah sharing the Christmas spirit with Darnell, Ruth’s cat.
