There are times when things happen in life and we are left feeling paralyzed by loss.
Loss of life that can never be replaced, and we grieve together and we pray, and we do all that we can to help.
Last night I received an alarming email from one of our Allume partners (and now also one of my friends) Kristi Griem, with Freeset. Here’s what it said….
Local Non-Profit Affected By UPS Cargo Plane Crash in Birmingham, AL
Freeset USA, a non-profit business, lost over 13,000 bags, with a retail value of $150,000, in this morning’s plane crash in Birmingham, AL. Freeset USA represents Freeset Bags & Apparel, a fair trade business offering employment to women trapped in Calcultta, India’s sex trade. The products were a complete loss and represented an entire fall inventory for online sales, fair trade stores, and conference events.
“Our prayers and thoughts are with the families of the pilots that passed away in this tragedy,” says Kristi Griem, President of Freeset USA. “We seek to honor them and their families in the face of this loss. We also are thinking about the women at Freeset, whose lives will be impacted from the loss of these bags, as it represents three months of work of our 200 staff and we have lost the bags sales that represent the wages we would have sent for them to be paid.”
Freeset is in business for freedom. Freedom from human trafficking. Freeset is a fair trade business and ministry that sells bags and t-shirts, made by women freed from human trafficking in Calcutta, India. The women are able to have a job with dignity, making products, instead of being the product. Every woman receives three times the wage they would receive in a regular job, learn to read and write, daycare for their children, have medical insurance and retirement benefits. Women were tricked, trapped, or traded and find themselves seemingly without a choice. Our goal is to change the economic scope of Sonagacchi, Calcutta’s largest red light district, to one of freedom, instead of the sex trade. Because Freeset is a fair trade business a simple ‘re order’ is not possible. The women are paid fair wages for their work and we are not a mass-producing, slave labor force.
First off, I stopped and prayed for the lives lost. Then I emailed Kristi back and prayed over her and over Freeset in the email. And then I sat here for about 5 minutes and thought, well….let’s just rally the troops.
And who are the troops you might ask?
Everyone I know. And everyone you know. And everyone they know too. And then probably those other people they know as well.
We have set up a Pure Charity account on behalf of Freeset so that we can “buy back” all of the lost bags. The total loss in sales is $150,000. And it’s not about bags lost, it’s about the 200 lives of people offered hope and freedom through Freeset who invested over 3 months to make them, it’s people who’s lives have been changed from making these bags. It’s for rescue, and new life, and promise and hope. It’s a really big deal, and a big number to try and hit….but God is so much bigger. And He cares about life and livlihood and companies like Freeset who rescue and offer new life!
Freeset has a bag amongst their awesome collection called the Hope Bag.
So won’t you join us to “Give Hope” to Freeset!
But instead of popping over to actually buy a bag that will be sent to you in the mail, we’re gonna buy back the bags that were lost in the plane crash in Birmingham and ensure that the 200 workers’ families in India won’t feel the loss. Ever.
The Hope Bag retails for $25, so while the truth is that any donation is awesome, it’d be super swell if you’d really “buy a bag” (a whole bag instead of just say, a handle of a bag) and donate a full $25 to replace a lost bag. Or buy lots of lost bags in $25 increments. Or buy a lost bag, and then hop over to Freeset’s site and buy a bag that will actually be sent to you in the mail too.
Really, I just think that we can use our voices for good…and when we all shout for Freedom and Justice and Hope at once…people hear, and I think they’ll even hear us shouting on their behalf all the way in India.
The Influence Network, The Declare Conference, and several of our Allume speakers and friends are joining us as we speak life over all of these families affected by the plane crash and do what we can to continue Freeset’s ability to continue operations and offer life-giving jobs to these women moving forward. So join us? Let’s make a difference? Let’s be abundance where there could be loss?! Let’s show the world that the people of Jesus are full of love and full of world-changers.
Buy back a lost bag from Freeset, and give hope to families in India!
Can’t see the link? Hop over HERE to Pure Charity’s Give Hope site.
And please, PLEASE continue to pray for the families who lost loved ones, the pilots of the UPS cargo plane that crashed. We can’t bring them back, but we can lift them up before Heaven and make a difference for the people still living who are affected by this tragedy. If you would like to join Freeset who is also leading a charge to donate to the pilots’ families, you can go HERE to be a part of that effort as well.
