There are several things that I really love and it is super fun and exciting when those things collide. Sister Bridge is a collision of many favorites: I love the nations and missions, I love beautiful material, purses, natural looking jewelry, and quilts, and I love sisters in Christ standing together and helping one another out!
There are such amazing ministries and devoted missionaries out there who are living among the poor, the least of these, widows, and orphans. I love sponsorship, adoption, and mission trips…but there’s always need, therefore there’s always more room for great ideas! And I’ve had the desire for a long time to be a representative or “middle-woman” you could say between these ministries/missionaries with good ideas and the people they are helping and everyone here in my small circle of friends and family. I’ve always wanted to be a voice, and I just had to “die” to it. All the talking, blogging, song-writing, singing, wanting to do something…God definitely wanted me to lay it down and stop worshipping the desire to be useful. And laid down it was.
When all of a sudden this summer I had the opportunities fall in my lap to start connecting with these ministries that gave a skill and an income to at-risk women in three countries, I was surprised! But the timing was right. It is such a joy to just enjoy this, and let God build the house. I want to be really clear that Sister Bridge is nothing more than an idea and I needed a quick noun to say “the people that get the inventory and organize selling it to people in the U.S., connecting women to women all around the world!” You can simply go through Sister Bridge to help these women in Cambodia, Indonesia, and Swaziland…OR you can go online yourself and purchase things! (The Cambodia one, not yet, but hopefully soon we can help them make a website/shipping availability).
As I said, all we are doing is getting the inventory here and keeping track of the money getting back to the ministries. NO ONE profits from this except for the women themselves, and these organizations reaching out to them are fantastic. If you are interested in the 3 ministries and want links to their websites, just check out Facebook.com/SisterBridge. We have items to sell especially in this time of year when people are shopping for Christmas gifts; not sure what inventory we will keep after that. We can give you everything you need to have a party or just bring to your small group, bunco, girls night out, whatever. The items are gorgeous, incredibly reasonable in price (most things are under $20), and original…not to mention the point here: partnership with women who are so much like us who simply do not have the same opportunity for their needs to be met.
I pray Sister Bridge can truly be a bridge between “us” and “them”, connecting us until we really do live with equality on our minds and compassion in our hearts. This desire to make a difference, or “do something”, is a journey of our own hearts and minds changing. There is no quick leap. And living how we live, surrounded by this constant slurring of our needs and wants, sometimes it feels impossible to ever cross that bridge! I don’t believe in just “doing something”; His sheep must know His voice. If helping women in this tangible way is something you’d like to do this season, just contact me and we can help make it happen.
Lin, this is SO exciting! I remember you telling me about this awesome idea months and months ago. What an amazing thing to see it come to fruition. So should I link to the FB page on my blog?
Yes! Looking forward to talking to you hopefully this week! 🙂 I send you an inbox msg in FB.