Why?

All of my business form applications are sitting next to me as I type...tomorrow I will submit them and see how it goes. I have dreamed of starting a business for YEARS now, and finally it seems to be taking tangible shape. Why start another import business when there are so many already here in Santa Cruz? For one, there are no fair trade import stores here that I have found. None. Not one! Yet as more of us become aware of the working conditions in other countries, there is a growing itch in our conscience as we buy imported goods. The label says "Made in India." Who actually HAND CARVED this beautiful piece? Who spent hours embroidering this cloth? Under what conditions? How much did they get paid? Can they support their families with these earnings? Do they enjoy their work? What is their life like? What are their faces like? These are the questions we are starting to ask, and I long to sell products that provide real answers and a confident peace of mind with each purchase.

Walking through the streets of Delhi, India, I had a constant choice. Elderly beggars with quivering hands, lepers with seeping wounds, filthy little toddlers already keen on the ways of the street, lonely cripples calling out from tattered cloths along the roadway... Do I ignore them and look straight ahead as I push my way through, or acknowledge their humanity as fellow souls created in the image of God with value and dignity? It was an endless battle throughout my years of traveling through Asia, but again and again I found that as I looked each man, woman, boy or girl in the face with love, my heart grew more joyful and full. Jesus was there, and He was calling me to follow Him on the path of faith and love.

Tribe of One is part of my present journey down this path.