In October I and a group of 12 Harmony MOPS moms went to the MOPS convention aka MomCon for those who haven't been in MOPS for as long as I. It was an incredible weekend. Seriously, inspiring, convicting, encouraging, practical, exhausting ... I loved it. I was able to go with some family, great friends, and some girls who have become great friends. Being with Joy and Aunt Candy and the other ladies I'm not biologically connected to for 3 days and learning next to them was really a gift and a blessing.
As our weekend was nearing an end Joy and I were finishing up our shopping - they had an amazing resource area full of great stuff - we were in the MOPS area buying pens and other supplies for our group. While waiting in line and browsing we saw a display of scarves and being Kelly girls were drawn in by the beautiful colors and patterns and the unique qualities each of these scarves had. No two were alike. We were looking them over and chatting about them when a lady dressed in a bright red sari came up behind us filming the display on her phone. She asked if we liked the scarves and we both said yes and seeing the filming going on asked her to tell us about them. She then said that moms from the new groups of Indian (like India the country - think Slumdog Millionaire) MOPS were making the scarves and she had brought enough scarves to sell so that they would be able to fund a website that would market MOPS India and sell their creations to help support the women in the group and the families they represented. Wow! This was the only thing like that in the MOPSshop. She asked if we would like to take what she had left and sell them and send her the money later. Wow! again. We both said we'd love to help, but how would that work. This is the when the American mentor to this beautiful Indian woman stepped in saying, she thinks that all American's are trustworthy and helpful and would never take advantage - but even though I'm sure you two are very nice, we know that isn't true, can you come back here and we will talk about it a bit more and I'll explain what is going on and help you figure out if you can help or not. Smart lady.
Now I must add, we wandered in to shop after having just heard Jen Hatmaker talk about doing not just talking about the love of Christ. Getting involved and getting your hands dirty to help people around the world. Stop living in your safe bubble and raising your children to be safe and happy and start raising brave disciples of Jesus Christ. Brave moms have brave kids. Wow! Do something, do something, do something.
So to say I was convicted and inspired and trying to digest all that at the very moment we stepped behind the curtain would be an understatement. I want my kids to be brave and I want to be used by Jesus to help people, I just didn't know how. I walked into that room not knowing how to help anyone, everyone I know is like me. Raising safe and happy kids and worrying that I haven't given them enough discipline, opportunities ... you know all that rich in the world, but poor in the work stuff Americans drown in.
Behind the curtain of the MOPSshop i learned of a group of women, so poor and broken in spirit they are without hope and trapped in their situations. They are in a culture where they are not valued, in fact daughters are a burden. A baby girl represents half your earnings to be used in a dowry to pay someone to marry her, so a daughter is met with grief and fear for many families. A son is celebrated and seen as a gift. This is what is leading to so much sex trafficking and infanticide in India. The thought of that broke my heart. I thought of my own daughter and the joy she has been bringing us since the day she was born and my heart was sad that not every little girl is welcomed into her family. We should all be welcomed, cherished, valued. This view of girls seems to grow with them and their is very little value of a woman in the culture, she is valued by bringing a dowry, sons, and work into a home, but as a person has little worth. Enter the woman in the beautiful red sari.
She is very respected and valued in her family and community and as you can probably guess she is not poor but she has a burden for the poor women living around her. She must have heard Jen Hatmakers message before I did, because she decided to do something. She met with a group of 80 women, much like her, who wanted change in India and they decided to start MOPS groups in their homes. In the last six months 80 MOPS groups has grown into 6,000. Each time a group outgrew the home they met in, about 15 moms, they started a new group. That is 75,000 women who for the first time are being poured into instead of being taken from. 75,000 women who are finding their value to Jesus. 75,000 moms who are changing their view of themselves and changing their families. 75,000 women who want to do more than meet as a MOPS group, they want to work together to make change in their community and home. What would you do if you were one of these women? I'm not sure what I would do, but these women have begun to make scarves.
They are selling these scarves to start a website to market their scarves and maybe other items to sell to support their families and change their family, community, and hopefully culture. More money means less girls in the sex trade and fewer girls falling victim to infanticide. Maybe you can guess what happened next ... Joy and I looked at each other and said we are in - we want to help, but first we have a couple calls to make.
We had to see if we could sell the scarves at an open house that a group in our area has each year. The Missional Mamas are a group of moms who wanted to do something and so they find a variety of goods to sell and send the money raised to support all the different groups who are creating the products. There is jewelry, tshirts, scarves, clothing, bags, hair accessories ... the list is long, but the causes are great. Sex trafficking, poverty, dirty water, abused and neglected women and children, ... there is a world of problems out there, but this group of ladies found a way to do something. They gladly welcomed our scarves into the mix and encouraged our desire to help. The next call was a little harder to make, the hubbies. We needed to put some money in to make it happen, that always requires a bit of discussion since neither of us have unlimited spending. After Joy and I individually cried on the phones while telling Grant and Curtis the story of the Indian scarves and the women and girls behind them, they both said you need to do it and were willing to back it up with their wallets. Wow! We wrote a check and walked out with 100 scarves, feeling a bit crazy, but really excited to be able to get involved.
So here is where you come in, we need to sell these scarves to send the money to the MOPS India group. We are doing something small, but it is what we can do. Who knows what God will do with this step, we could sell no scarves or we could sell out. I just knew that listening to the story, which I've only scratched the surface of sharing here, and looking at Joy we had to do something, and we did. Do you want to buy a scarf?
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