Dress for Change! Challenge

A friend posted a link to this challenge on Facebook, and so I want to extend the challenge to you!

Dress for Change: Register Today!

So here's the rundown:

• We all have PLENTY of clothes in our closets to wear, even on days when it feels like we have NOTHING to wear;
• MANY little girls around the world, really don't have much to wear, which often keeps them from being able to attend school;
• Sheyanne Root, a high school senior at Burns High School, has made "Dress for Change" her senior project;
• Donate $5 and join the challenge!
• Commit to wear one black dress for one week:  April 1-7; and
• For each person who participates, Sheyanne will make a dress and send it to Little Dresses for Africa.

I will try my very best to be creative with my accessories (can we say Noonday?!) and blog each day to share my experience.  I actually have 2 Noonday Collection trunk shows and my daughter's 2nd Birthday party during that week!!  I've never done anything like this before, so can I be honest and tell you that I almost let fear keep me from saying YES, but more and more I'm refusing to be held captive by fear, so I'm committing to this in front of God and everybody.  Will you join me?  If so, hop on over to the website and register, and also leave a comment for me here!!

Exciting News!

I may be stating the obvious here, especially if you've known me for a while, but can I just say it anyway?

Our trip to Ethiopia last January wrecked me.

Seeing poverty so close up, so unfiltered and uncensored, opened my eyes in a way that showed me I would never be the same.  For several months after we returned, I was overwhelmed and sad.  I knew the Lord had called me to respond, but I didn't know how.  Slowly throughout the summer and fall, He began to show me some small practical ways I could respond, but I always knew there was something more consistent He wanted me to invest my time in.

As I continued to pray about it, I began to see Noonday Collection everywhere I turned it seemed.  I would see people posting about it on Facebook or on blogs; I even ended up listening to a podcast Jennie Allen did with the founder of Noonday, Jessica Honegger.  And it was really through that podcast that I started to think, "Maybe I could be an ambassador for Noonday Collection."  What's funny is that I actually sent the podcast to a friend first and told her SHE should do it!  But the Lord had other plans for her and I began to quickly realize that Noonday might be something He might be calling me to.

Long story short, I contacted Noonday, interviewed with Jessica and now am an ambassador for Noonday Collection!  If you're not familiar with it, Noonday sells handcrafted jewelry, accessories, home and gift items made by artisans from around the world.  By providing a market for these items, Noonday is helping provide a pathway out of poverty for the artisans.  I've learned through When Helping Hurts that simply giving money for charitable purposes has its limitations, but work instills dignity and a lasting solution.  AND, in addition to helping create a pathway out of poverty, Noonday also helps support adoption.  Adoptive families can host trunk shows and a portion of the proceeds will be given directly to the family to help fund their adoption.  Are you starting to get why I fell in love with Noonday?   Helping alleviate poverty AND supporting adoption?  Sign me up!!

The name "Noonday" comes from Isaiah 58:10, which says,

and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. (NIV)

The other night I read Isaiah 58 in the ESV.  This is how verse 10 is translated:

if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.

When I saw poverty a year ago, my life felt gloomy - knowing something needed to be done, but not knowing what to do was a dark time for me.  But now, instead of darkness there is light; instead of gloom, there is Noonday.  And I am one thankful girl.

Here are some ways you can support Noonday Collection and our mission to help provide a pathway out of poverty:

1) Purchase items online.  Think about how you can use your purchasing power to make a difference in this world.

2) Host a trunk show with a Noonday Ambassador.  Invite your friends, neighbors and family to a night filled with fashion, fun and purpose!

3) Host an adoption fundraiser trunk show either for yourself or a family you know who is adopting.  

Click the button below to contact me!