Beauty in the Brokenness- Christian Women (Bible Study, Faith, Sexuality, Freedom from Shame)
Welcome to Beauty in the Brokenness—where we have honest conversations about the Bible, our real-life struggles, and the hope God brings for healing. This podcast is hosted by Teresa Whiting, an author, Bible teacher, and trauma-informed life coach, but mostly, a friend and fellow struggler. No matter who you are, or where you’ve been, you're invited to encounter the God of rescue, redemption, and restoration—The God who is still creating beauty— right in the midst of your brokenness. To learn more visit: https://teresawhiting.com/listen
Beauty in the Brokenness- Christian Women (Bible Study, Faith, Sexuality, Freedom from Shame)
Trades of Hope with Gretchen Huijskens (SEEN SERIES)
Today we sit down with Gretchen Huijskens, founder of Trades of Hope, to trace her journey from orphan care in Haiti to fair trade job creation that keeps families together. Stories from Haiti, India, and Uganda show how dignified work restores voice and lifts women from crisis to choice.
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We've heard of stories of women who have come out of the slumps of small villages and were basically told to stay in their very small little homes, right? Don't even come out. Just you just stay in there. And um, some of these women had had lost their voices, like literally lost their voices. I am no psychologist, but I'm sure fear and um, you know, just depression in general. And you see these women transform and you get to hear the stories, and it is it's really a beautiful thing.
SPEAKER_02:Hey friend. If you've ever wondered how God's word connects with the messy, broken parts of your story, you're in the right place. Welcome to Beauty and Brokenness, where we have honest conversations about the Bible, our real life's struggles, and the hope God brings for you. I'm your host, Teresa White, an author, Bible teacher, and prominent form like coach, but mostly a friend of another struggle. No matter who you are or where you've been, I'm inviting you to become the God of rescue, redemption, and restoration. The God who is still creating beauty right in the midst of your brokenness. Well, welcome friends. I am excited to introduce you to Gretchen Heichkins. Gretchen is the founder and CEO of Trades of Hope, an ethical, fair trade fashion brand that empowers women out of poverty. She's a pioneer in the field of sustainable business, founder of Trades of Hope in oh, she founded Trades of Hope in 2010 to create jobs for women around the world and alleviate the hardships and break the cycle of multi-generational poverty that occurs from lack of opportunity. And Gretchen, I cannot tell you how excited I am to have this conversation with you. So welcome, welcome. And um, before we jump in, can you tell the listeners a little bit more of just about who you are and and the work that you're doing?
SPEAKER_00:Sure, sure. Well, thank you for having me, Teresa. I'm honored to be here. Um yeah, I was a stay-at-home mom for a long, long time. Felt like a long time some days, um, until uh we started looking into our uh adoption. We wanted to adopt our third child. And um, this was in about 2000. And so I started that process. I just started putting peelers out there, having conversations. I found out that um some friends were going to Haiti on a mission trip. They were teachers and they would spend their summers down at Mother Teresa Orphanage. And that was, I went to Haiti, I saw what was going on there, and that became the began this journey of learning about just incredible depths of poverty, what women go through around the world, and seeing that there were possible solutions that charity was never going to be able to touch. And so, um, so that's I'm mother of three. I have uh a husband, and now I'm living here in Florida and running this business that yes, we sell bracelets, but it's not about the bracelets or the earrings or the bags, it's really about the women behind each piece that makes those and the stories that you know each piece carries with it.
SPEAKER_02:So yes, yes. So tell us how did you go from visiting Haiti, seeing the poverty, seeing the need to actually creating trades of hope? Like what was the process and and the heart behind creating the business?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it wasn't a short process. It was about eight years actually. Um, I went to Haiti. I um started with the volunteer work, but quickly realized that uh orphan care in Haiti was really, really lacking. Um, I had been to four different orphanages, spent time working there, um, started different adoptions that fell through for various kind of corrupt reasons, and just was so heartbroken over the whole thing. Um and with that, I was um with another woman at that time, and she had had more experience in Haiti than I had at that point. She had started taking donations down to Haiti and to these different um organizations. And again, she's heartbroken too because she's realizing they're corrupt as well. And all the donations she had gathered, taken down, probably weren't getting where they were supposed to. So we're basically two adult women sitting crying in Haiti one night, realizing, like, wow, and just seeing what God had continued to reveal to us. And it was heartbreaking. And we really kind of just realized, like, I remember sitting at and at dinner one night with her after a very long, horrible day, and realizing, wow, God's really calling us to open a home for abandoned children here. And I am gonna tell you, Teresa, I was not pleased about it because I knew I did not know how to do this. You know, like who am I? I've been to the at that point, been to the country a handful of times. And who am I to do this? Except I knew we could do it better than anything else we'd seen to that point. I knew that. And so that led us to opening this orphanage and um a school for the community, because I thought that's how we really reach the community and start to see real change. And uh a medical clinic. My sister's a nurse practitioner, and so she had connections to um, well, of course, herself, but also additional medical professionals. And so we started a medical clinic for the uh community as well. And that was eight years of serving these people and this community, but it was so full of frustration for me because over the years I kept learning these little lessons that showed me we were just a band-aid. It was not creating the change. I mean, I'll always believe in educating children and girls, so don't get me wrong there. But the orphanage for itself, for sure, a huge band-aid on a much bigger situation. And I kept meeting these mothers who loved these children and infants and brand newborns that they were handing over asking if we would take and find homes. And these women love their children just as much as we love our children. We are so much more the same than we are different from any other woman in the world. And it was just heartbreaking. Uh, and the more I learned, the more I realized like this isn't a solution. It's not a good solution. It was the only one I had at that moment. So, and I knew there were certain situations where I knew that if we didn't take in that child, she was just going to go down the road to the next orphanage, which I knew is not as good as what we could offer as far as care. And so it got to the point, uh, you know, about seven and a half years in, probably not that long, but that you're taking in these children and you're like, I don't even know if this is the right thing. This this isn't this isn't the right answer. But again, I didn't have another one at that point. So I fell in love with this idea though, of microfinancing, job creations, very quickly realizing if these women would have had jobs, they would have kept their own children, they would have taken care of them. Sometimes the children had aun or grandmothers that would have kept them too. Even in the event of there were a couple of mothers that passed away during childbirth, those mothers of the mothers, the grandmothers and the aunts loved those babies already. But they could not feed the kids that they had at home. They themselves were starving. And so when you when it, you know, you kind of realize all of a sudden, like, oh my gosh, if she just had a job, that would not solve every problem in the world, but it would solve a lot of them. And it would give her opportunity to make the changes in her life that she wants to see. It would allow her to craft her life like she wants to see it. And you know, I believe in charity, but there's room for charity, there's a place for charity, but that it doesn't solve problems long term. It helps during certain situations and it's needed. But um, I just love this idea of creating lasting change. Um it would give solutions that I felt really match more with God's heart and keeping families together, showing real love in a way that we just couldn't before the job creation came along, in my opinion.
SPEAKER_02:So, like what I'm hearing is you're watching, you're seeing, and you're realizing this isn't this isn't a solution. And so you you came up with or you developed trades of hope as a way, instead of here, let me take your child, here, here work so you can keep your child, so you can take care of your child and feed your child and educate your child. What what an amazing I want to say concept. It's it's just it's it's awesome that you took that step instead of just, I think a lot of Americans maybe feel like, hey, look at the good work we're doing. And it's and it is good work. I don't want to discount that kind of work, but I love that you were kind of digging a little deeper. Like, let's get to the root of the problem, go upstream. Like that thing about, you know, instead of just pulling people out of the river, let's find out why they're falling in the river in the first place. And so I feel like that's what you did with Trades of Hope. Um, and really, this is the first time probably my listeners are even hearing about Trades of Hope. So can you just explain, like, what is it? How does it work?
SPEAKER_00:Well, we work with artisans around the world. 80% of them approximately are women. And they are women um who just need an opportunity. They are women who are coming from underdeveloped countries and or women who are coming out of really bad situations in which they need a stepping stone to create the life that they want to live. Because we do have some groups here in the United States that we're really passionate about working with as well. And so um, yeah, our job is just to be that go-between. It's to work with them to create something beautiful in some cases. We really help design and give some guidance as to what other people in the United States might want to bring. But then our job is to bring that to market and to bring that to the consumer here in the United States with a little bit of um education, it feels a little bit too formal, but with a little bit of education, that my goodness, your dollar can change the world. How you spend your dollar matters, and you have so much potential to impact the world in a positive way when you spend that dollar thoughtfully. So um I just can't tell you, like you talk to the women that we work with, the artisans, and we have monthly calls at Trades of Hope where we bring artisans on the call so that they can um, you know, interact directly with people who are buying and selling in in Trades of Hope. And um, they are just so grateful. And it's in a way that it's not I've never seen that when we were just handing out things as a charity. They're grateful, but I'm grateful too. Like we really all help each other. It brings purpose and meaning to my life. I know that's true with other women who have been involved with traits of hope for a long time. Um, it is fulfilling and a beautiful way to hold hands with each other, to really, you know, to come alongside of each other as human beings and support each other and be thoughtful and care about each other. And so um, yeah, it's you know, we we use the word fair trade because that's kind of what people know, but it's about ethical shopping. It's about using those fair trade principles to purchase things that were created um in a safe environment, the people making them have a living wage. There is no child labor. People who are making the things that we're consuming are not being harmed. It's actually they're being helped. And, you know, I think there's just some something so thoughtfully beautiful about that when we come together and um just create a better world for each other. And then, you know, to get to know these women, traits of hope's been around now 15 years and to see the stories of some of these women who, when we met them, they were, you know, in their early 20s in kind of crisis mode. And now they're in their mid-30s, some of them. And they have, you know, they have homes, they have children and that they have had in school and they're so proud of themselves, as well as they should be, because they're working hard, you know, and they're strong, capable women. Um, and they have put their kids in school. They're, you know, they've turned their lives around. And the fact that we get to play a small part of that, because we're not there day to day doing the work, they are that we get to play a small part of that. I I I love, I feel so privileged that I get to.
SPEAKER_02:So yeah. So I'm gonna just share with the listeners how I discovered trades of hope. So I was at a speaking event in Pennsylvania this past summer. And, you know, there's vendors all around the whole building. It was at a big church and at every table, and I'm not a shopper. I am just so not a shopper. Like, I don't, I don't buy things I need. There's women who go out and they spend too much money. I don't spend enough money. Like, I need to buy things and I don't. So I would walk past the vendors, avoiding eye contact. Like, I don't want to get in a conversation and feel like I need to buy something. But there was a table at that event, and I just kept going back and going back and going back for multiple reasons. First of all, the products were so beautiful, and there was a variety. So, like there was clothes and beautiful leather purses and earrings and bracelets and wooden trays for my kitchen table, like just all kinds of different things at all different price points, which I loved. But what kept drawing me back was the stories because by every product or by most of the products, there were these cards. And for those on YouTube, I'm gonna hold one up. There were these cards about the women, and it told their story. And then one day I was going into lunch and I happened to be right next to Bonnie, who is a Trades of Hope partner, and we sat together at lunch. I'm like, tell me about this company. It just seems amazing. And when she told me about the heart behind supporting women, women who have been oppressed or trafficked or living in poverty, I was like, wait, that's my heartbeat. Like, that's what I, those are the women I want to serve. And yes, I serve women in the United States, which a lot of us don't to the degree that these women, you know, in other countries experience these kinds of things. But my heart is to serve women and to see God lift women out of things like shame and loss and despair. And I'm like, you guys are doing this in a completely different way. My way is I bring scripture and I teach the Bible and I, you know, I think that's a really important way. But your way is like a hands-on, practical, you can now put food on your table. You can now keep your child. I I'm getting chills just talking about it because I got so excited. I was like, I want to sign up, sign me up, sign me up, whatever this is, I want to do it. So um, and I honestly haven't even had a chance to do anything with Trades of Hope, but I was like, I need to learn about this. So last week I had a conversation with Shelby, who was kind of mentoring me and teaching me a little bit what to do. I placed my first order, and no joke, 10 minutes before we got on this call, I got my first box. And I was like, oh my goodness, I feel like a kid at Christmas. I put the earrings on, but then I realized my headphones covered them. So I'm just gonna show you like my new favorite earrings. These, oh my goodness, so beautiful. And I love the little bags that everything comes in, like everything's not only is it beautiful, but everything is packaged beautifully and and high quality. And the cards, everything comes with a card about a story, about a person. So I I just was like, I want to talk to the woman who created this. It's amazing. And I also want to let the listeners know I'm gonna open a Trades of Hope link. And and so Christmas is coming. If you're like, I want to shop with purpose, I want to do, I want to buy something meaningful. I'm gonna buy gifts anyway. And trust me, you will find gifts of every kind. This is a way to buy things we're gonna buy anyway. But instead of going to TJ Maxx or Home Goods or Marshalls, those are my favorites, you can go online and know that what you're doing is literally changing somebody's life. So that was a lot. That was kind of my story, but I just am so excited about what you're doing. Um, and I would love for you to share, Gretchen. You know the stories. Like, is there a story or two you can share with us of a particular woman? You don't have to give her name, but just give us one or two stories.
SPEAKER_00:The one that always comes to mind first for me is uh a story about a woman, Gina. She was a very young mother in Haiti, and she happened to come to the workshop the day that I was there, and I had some other women with me, and we were doing a tour of um the facility, which was basically a big rented house, right? Where women are sitting and they're making beads and they're making jewelry and things. And the woman who runs that ministry, uh, it's called Papillon, is Shelly. And Shelly and I now have been friends for a long time. I so admire this woman. She starts telling, um, kind of on the side, kind of quietly, like, yeah, that woman's name is Gina. She's actually just starting here today. And she, we just say hello, we go into the other room, she starts telling us that Gina actually had been walking around the neighborhood, um, just outside of Port-au-Prince, and she had been knocking on doors, she was looking for an orphanage because she has this baby, Chris Nalie. Gina was starving. She looked very unhealthy and uh obviously had really been struggling. Uh, but she had her baby Krisna Lee. And Shelley tells us that Kristenal Lee was actually down in the daycare. So Krisna Lee was about nine to twelve months at that point. And Kristinal still looked good, but you can tell with the situation there. Gina was giving everything she could to Kristalie, and Gina couldn't go on like that. So she was literally wandering around because she had heard of an orphanage. Well, the guards at Shelly's gate went and got Shelly, said, Hey, there's this young woman walking around with this baby looking for an orphanage. Shelly goes out, tries to find her. She has to like walk around the neighborhood, ask around, sees Gina, offers her a job. She said, How about you try? Doesn't always work out, but how about you try and you come and you know, start tomorrow at uh in the workshop. And so that first day we were there, we were literally witnessing the beginning of this transformation that we've been able to watch over the years then. And um probably I had been there in between, but it was several years after that point, maybe three. And I said to Shelly, I'm like, so where's Gina? I haven't, you know, I haven't seen her in a year. Like, I want to see Gina. Let's go say hi, you know. And she's like, she's right there, Gretchen. I'm like, no, Shelley, remember that woman, Gina with the baby Chris Nally? And she's like, Gretchen, that's her. And she starts laughing. Gina starts laughing because she knows what's happening. This woman for one thing looked about eight years younger. She was looked healthy, she looked happy. She then goes on to tell me, no, Chris Male isn't here. Gina's sharing because she's at preschool down the road. And so, because at that point she was probably three years old or so when they start preschool pretty early in Haiti. And so I was just blown away. I mean, Gina and Shelly and I end up kind of giggling. I think I'm tearing up then too. Like I kind of am now, like just the transformation and the fact that this young woman is there. She's working with now friends. She's eating regular meals. She is, you know, like what a transformation. And I just feel so blessed that I was actually able to witness that from day one. I feel like that was such a gift. And, you know, because we hear the stories, we meet lots of other women, like Mosmeen on one of the cards that you held up earlier. Uh, she is a woman in India that uh Elizabeth has actually met. My daughter has met. I have yet to meet Mosmeen in person, but she is the same age as my daughter. And now Elizabeth is 30, but that was probably, she was probably 22, 23 or so when um they met in person. And um, you hear the story of Mosameen and her family, and you know, how desperate they were and how how little power Mosmeen had to change any circumstances for her and her family until she got this job at this workshop. Now she helps manage a good chunk of this workshop. And I think that's cool too, right? Like you have these entry-level positions where women can come in with no skills. And a lot of the goal of this workshop, yes, of course, it's to provide the safe house or the south safe working environment. It's to provide the living wage, it's also to elevate people wherever they choose to go whenever possible. So some women are happy just continuing to make jewelry, and that is totally fine. But other women, you know, they'll learn how to make jewelry and then they're like, well, wait, but what about that? What about those women who are doing like inventory quality control? Or what about those women who are working on computers and they're learning Microsoft you know, um programs? Or what about the women who are doing the pictures? Can I learn how to do pictures of the of the products? So you see these women and you get to hear the stories and experience how they can um, you know, make choices of how they want their lives to go. And an ice cream.
SPEAKER_02:Like I just want to cry because I feel like what you're you're taking somebody from a situation where they're hopeless to where they're actually dreaming, you know, like I I can dream. I it's not even just I can survive, but like maybe I can do something else, and that's just so beautiful and so powerful. So I don't I don't apologize for crying. Tears are good. Tears are good. Um of the things you talk about is that you say that poverty isn't just a lack of money, it's a lack of opportunity and a lack of voice. How have you seen that? How have you seen women first of all develop their voice a little bit like we were just talking about? But what role does that have in breaking the cycle of poverty when women can have a voice, when they can develop relationships with others? What how does that affect their lives?
SPEAKER_00:Well, you know, we have seen women be able to come out of abusive situations. And I mean, that happens here in the US, just you know, like other other countries. So women who now can earn the financial freedom that they to make decisions for themselves. That's that's always that works in every culture, right? But I think especially in some places, the the you know, I think sometimes it's hard for women who are here in the US who have kind of grown up in a privileged situation, at least speaking for myself. It takes some education to realize, well, that's not the norm. It is not the norm that women are or young girls or young women are taken seriously, get to decide much of anything. And it does change when they have the opportunity to have a job and earn some income. Um you know, I I've heard very specific stories of husbands that remained husbands, but their attitudes toward their wives definitely changed. Does that solve all problems? No. But for some it helps. It certainly helps. Um, we know for a fact that when women have jobs in many cultures, um, you know, in impoverished Indian cultures, let's say as an example, uh, child brides are still very much a thing, unfortunately, although it is illegal, it still happens in the slums and um, you know, some desperate places in India. Well, the the longer you're employed, just like the longer you can stay in school, it helps make sure that you're married at a later time in life and or employed. So if a mom can keep her girls in school, that also helps too, because then those girls can stay in school longer and their chances of getting married as a child are incredibly reduced. Um, also, you know, the same thing if a girl is 15 years old, if she can be working, she is not going to be pressed into getting married as quickly. Yeah, it just gives women options and otherwise they can be forced by their parents or society into certain situations. Um, we've heard of stories of women who have come out of the slums of small villages and were basically told to stay in their very small little homes, right? Don't even come out. Just you just stay in there. And um, some of these women had had lost their voices, like literally lost their voices. I am no psychologist, but I'm sure fear and um, you know, just depression in general. And you see these women transform and you get to hear the stories, and it is it's really a beautiful thing.
SPEAKER_02:It is so beautiful. I'm in the middle of a series called Scene. I'm writing a Bible study called Scene, and it's about women in scripture that were overlooked and undervalued and lived under oppression and lived who were ignored by society or by even sometimes their families. And I I talk often, you know, I like to give the historical context and the the background, and and they feel so far removed. Like that was back in the Bible in those days, and yet that's happening still around the world, not not necessarily so much in America, but in these other places where you have brought hope and freedom to women. Would you would you educate us a little bit more? Because I I do feel like we live in our little, well, at least I do, I'll speak for myself. I live in my little American bubble of like a nice house in a in a nice neighborhood. And I have no idea, although I have traveled at times and I've met with people in in other countries living in, you know, small shanties and cement block houses with dirt floors. But it feels like you go there and you have this compassion, and then you go home and you think about them once in a while, and then it like the the memory kind of fades. And how do we keep that in the forefront? And and for those who haven't had that opportunity to even witness that, like, can you just educate us a little bit about what it's like for women in other places in the world?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you know, I I'm lucky a lot of the women that I end up meeting with. I'm I'm picturing last time I was in Uganda sitting on the floor talking to these women because they're they sit on the floor at roll beats. So we're all on the floor, and I'm hearing their stories. By that point, a lot of times they have kind of broken out of that place where they were, right? And they're excited to tell me. Stories of where they were at and now what they're doing now. So, like these women are pretty awesome, you know? And that's always a big realization for me too. When you're meeting these women, you're like, wow, I grew up in a very middle class at the time I thought very boring family in the mid-Michigan, right? Now I feel like now I realize how privileged that was. But um how far they've come, you know, because just so many women around the world have not had access to education. If they did, it was up till like fifth grade in many cases. Very little say over how their life develops, where their life develops, where they live, how many children they have, how they spend their days. You know, there's still a big reality out there in the world where women spend their days fetching water in many different countries. And you hear this the statistics of that, and these women doing hard labor to fetch water. Well, you know, this woman is so much more capable than fetching water. And then hearing, you know, where these stories of where they came from. Um in Miss Florence's uh house when we were sitting on on the floor doing beads in Uganda. You know, one of the women is sharing how she was abused by her husband and basically ran away with her daughter, came to went to Kampala, happened to meet Miss Florence. Somebody said, You've got to go meet this woman. Miss Florence helps get her get into a home. And she was able to take me and show me her home. And really, the home was a little cement block room. It had a double bed that her and her daughter shared, it had a mosquito net, it had a jukebox, which that was really funny. And and she just shared with me like she's just so proud of herself. Like she's much safer in her mind, which is awesome. She, her daughter is in school. You and I would look at it as most people would and think, wow, they have nothing. On her, they have everything that's important. Is it everything they want? No, but they're working towards that. And she when she shared with me, she had a jukebox because she loves to dance. And I thought, oh my gosh, well, then of course all of us have to dance. So there's a lot of dancing going on. But like, yeah, and the fact that she's so happy she can make some bracelets and be able to create this life because without the opportunity, like she doesn't have any choices. I feel like I keep saying the same thing and I'm trying to find different ways to, but um, yeah, it's just so beautiful when a woman can make her own choices, when she can have that voice when she knows she's seen and that she's valued. Because I think that's the thing, too. If you are only around people who do not value you, it's hard for you to see that, right? To know that. But I've seen these women come into these communities, whether that's Miss Florence or um the group that we work with, with Musmin's group. Um, one of the things that all of these women talk about too is that now they're in a community of other women who support and love, speak truth and light into each other. And I mean, that's just beautiful in itself, right? They're creating their own communities so that they can be seen and heard and appreciated for what they do bring to the world.
SPEAKER_02:Yes. Yes. I I just I'm so in love with the mission of what you're doing. And you've you've brought together faith and entrepreneurship in this beautiful way. What are the challenges of running a business that is also founded on Christ and his work?
SPEAKER_00:Um, well, I would say that it's better now, but 15 years ago when we started, it was almost like people doubted it. They're like, well, how can you have a business and you say it's doing good? I think it's better now. People are more aware of how that can come together. But it definitely like we would get challenged by Christians more than anyone else. Like, how can you make money and say that it's doing good? Because it's a for-profit business. Yeah, it is a for-profit business on good years. There's profit. But first and foremost, it's about serving and helping other people and then trying to use Christian principles to run things and to treat things, treat people well, to make decisions that we believe are God-led and that are pleasing to God. How we do things to me is really important as it is to everyone in our organization. Um, and sometimes that means not making the easiest decisions. Sometimes it means making decisions that don't make a lot of sense per se. Um, but for us, it is about doing the right thing by other people. And the guidelines that we do that are, you know, our belief that this is God's business, this is God's mission, this is what we've been called to do. And um, you know, just asking for for guidance and prayer in that, um, even when things are tough, tough, because things are tough right now. Business is really slow. And I really do need to stop and think quite often over the past couple of years, like, wait, this is God's will. We're doing this, right? Yeah, it is. Yeah, it's it's not a hard answer, but sometimes it's hard to believe that we are still in God's will when things are tough, I guess. You know, like in the beginning in the beginning, the business went through the roof. And for the first seven and a half years, it just grew and grew and grew and grew. And then, you know, it started to decline. And then with COVID, there's been even more of a decline because the business, how we did the business, had to change somewhat. And um, you know, so really needing to stop and yeah, and choose to believe, yeah, we're still doing things to which we have been called in a way that we believe is truly pleasing to God. Um yeah, sometimes that's a little hard, but that's what keeps me going. Because if it was just about selling bracelets, I don't care about selling bracelets. Right, right.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I love it's really about the people, the people behind the work. How does it work as far as the artisans and like maybe give us the process of you know how the business part, the when somebody buys something from Trades of Hope, what what does that mean?
SPEAKER_00:Well, it depends on the group that we work with. Some are really grassroots, like they've contacted us. They've, you know, there's a woman in Cambodia. Uh, her mentor, her Christian mentor contacted us and said, Hey, this woman's in a really, really hard spot. Can she make something for you? She had been uh attacked with acid and she couldn't go outside and all of these things. Could she make something with you so she can earn an income? And then we work with her very one-on-one to develop something that we can purchase from her and then sell. Other are kind of these established fair trade groups that some of them in India were created by Mennonites like in the 40s. They've been around. They this isn't new to them. And so it's really fun actually to be work and be able to work with all these different groups all along the way. So um we decide what we're going to purchase, we pay for that. Um, we follow fair trade principles when we're doing that. So um many times we have to pay up front and um and then we get all the products here and then we sell them. So we've always paid a price that um it paid for the products ahead of time. So um that that's not a hardship on the group. Um, we also just don't negotiate very much. Um, like what they say is the price is the price. Now, so if if a if we send a design of a necklace and it comes in and it's really expensive, then we're like, oh, I don't think we can sell it. Like, I think that's gonna be rough. So we'll take some of the stones out of it or something like that. Like, usually we kind of negotiate with let's bring down the material cost then. Um, my favorite pieces are the ones that are very handmade that are, you know, we have like the earrings, some of the earrings that you bought today, the silver hoops, um, some of the bracelets that I have. They have little silver fingerprints. Oh, I love that bracelet too, yeah. Um, they have little silver fingerprints on them. So I I love the pieces that you can tell, like all the beaded work and stuff like that, that the money for that piece has gone into um a very a lot of labor, you know, when you're paying for something, there's a lot of labor in that.
SPEAKER_02:I was just gonna say I got a couple of those bracelets with the fingerprint. And I just think that's the coolest thing.
SPEAKER_00:Me too. I love that group. I was just saying to um some of our team yesterday, like um, we're kind of hoping to start working with them more and more again because it's the I just love that group so much. So they're out in the like a couple hours outside of Guatemala City in an area called Jalapa, and um just a really great um ministry ran by nuns um out in the middle of nowhere in a place where neglect and abuse runs pretty heavy due to the extreme poverty, a lot of alcoholism. So these um it's a home for children, but then as the girls get older, you know, they can go into the jewelry program if they once they hit a certain age, you know, they can start training to be an apprentice in there. And then once they're adults, they can earn money and um create jewelry that other people sell, kind of thing. So yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So that's really great. Cretin, you wrote a book called Our Voices Rising. And tell me a little bit the heart behind your book.
SPEAKER_00:Well, first and foremost, I love the idea of telling some of the stories of the women we have met, you know, the Florence, the most mean, Clara in Guatemala. And like all of these women just deserve to be celebrated and um shared. And one of the best things was showing them and sending them and taking them books, you know, like the cover has Florence and I walking in Kampala. So I and we asked permission. We showed each woman like this is what I'm wanting to print. This is a picture. Are you okay with that? And um, so but it was so fun to, you know, take them to in Guatemala. I took one to Clara and I showed her the picture of her in the book, and she knew it was coming, but it's still fun to see it in person, I think. Yeah. So um, yeah, and just to share this idea, because I I do think that is something that's still kind of novel, is this idea that, you know, how you spend your dollar, you can make the better world a better place with how you spend your dollar. So um trying to get that out into the world and knowing that you do have the capability of alleviating poverty, human trafficking, things like that, um, by positively and you know, affecting where you spend your dollar. Or we have the capability of getting something really, really cheap and possibly hurting somebody as well, is the is the flip side of that. Um, that's a little harder to see, actually, uh and to to know uh what's really happening, but um, but we do know there are positive ways with certain brands who are fair trade or big corporations. Um, there are brands that are out there doing things the right way and supporting them does help support women around the world for sure.
SPEAKER_02:Yes. Is there a passage of scripture that's kind of guided you or been a been something like a inspiration for you?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I think um I think the whole book of James is like a guideline on how to live your life. But when I start to doubt, you know, when things get harder, there are hard days, knowing that we are called to take care of orphans and widows in their time of need. I mean, it is black and white, right? James 1, 27. It is right there. And yeah, okay, how can we not do this? I think that it is God's will and it's God's heart. And um there are many different ways of doing good in the world, but I believe this is the one I'm definitely called to.
SPEAKER_02:Yes. So how can people um find you, find trades of hope besides the links? I will have links for everything in the show notes, but are there other ways that people can connect with you?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I uh am on Instagram and I'm trying to be very good about checking my direct messages. So uh DMing me on on Instagram, um, otherwise contacting through Trades of Hope is good too.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And then finally, just as we close up here, I know that there's listeners that are like, wow, Gretchen is making this huge difference in the world. Like, I want to make a difference and I don't even know where to start. What's a first step? What would you say to that woman who who just wants to be a positive force, who wants to make a difference in a God-glorifying way? What would you say to her?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I would say that typically women diminish themselves a little too much. I think that women need to know that they can be a light in any situation, and just being brave enough when God opens a door to go ahead and go through it and see what's next. But I think we have so much power in just showing love to those around us and yeah, being open to new possibilities of what God might have in store. Because if you would have told me in, you know, 2020 that someday you're gonna do all of these things and that you're gonna be blessed to be able to meet all these people. And I I that would have been crazy, right? But God just has such great plans if we're open to it and we're kind enough to ourselves to know that the possibilities are there because um women are awesome, like just so much light to be given and shared, and um and just by being kind to each other, seeing what's next.
SPEAKER_02:So, someone else says, Thank you so much for just taking the time to have this conversation about you. Welcome. Thank you for having me, Teresa. It was really fun talking to you. Thanks for hanging out with me today on Beauty and the Brooklyness. To find anything I mentioned on the episode, go to TeresaWhite.com slash listen to find all the showers. And you guys, I would love, love, love for you to check out the trades of hope. Because this is an opportunity for you to partner with me, with Gretchen, and with women all around the world to make a difference in their lives, to bring them up out of poverty, to give them a voice, to set them free. What an amazing business this is. And so you have to check out the products. They're just beautiful. One of the things I love is on the website you can shop by cards. So you can shop by like, I want to support women coming out of human trafficking. I want to support women coming out of extreme poverty. I want to support women who are trying to put their children through school. So there's that way to shop. There's also you can shop. Let's say you have a heart for Uganda. You say, I want to shop things that were made by women in Uganda. So there's all different ways to shop. Or you can just go in and look at absolutely everything. Give yourself some time because there is so much good stuff in there, especially at this time, there's a Christmas shop. And there are so, so many cute things. So I just wanted to let you know like that is something worth your time. Take a look at that trades of hope link. In closing, I want to leave you with this prayer from number six, 24 to 26. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you.
SPEAKER_01:The Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.