and the winner is...

Mindy!!!  yay!  Mindy won this beautiful journal that was my giveaway on the Noonday blog train. 

Mindy, let me know your mailing address so that i can mail this darling journal to you. I will order it and have it shipped directly to you.  My email address is annettelvs2sing@yahoo.com . Congrats again! 

I heart India! I heart Noonday Collection!

Hi ya'll,

What better way to launch my blog with posting about two things close to my heart...India and Noonday Collection.  I heart India!  I heart Noonday Collection!

In a future post, i will share with you about how i got involved with Noonday Collection. So please come back, pretty please with sugar on top?  But for this post i want to share with you about a special tie that Noonday has with India, this beautiful journal, which is also my giveway.



Jones Design Journal

I work for a non-profit Christian organization that sends out workers to other countries. A few months ago i found out that one of our workers has a ministry in India called Ergon. The Indian women at Ergon make unique products which provide a job and income, and the Jones Design journal is one of their products.  How cool is that?? 

I emailed our worker and told her that i wanted to giveaway this journal and asked her for a story about her ladies at Ergon.  She asked if she could highlight one lady in particular, Zareena.  So here is Zareena's story:

She has been with Ergon since we started in Jaipur.  She is a mother of eight children that live together in a small, three room concrete home that's covered with a tin ceiling.  Well, most of it is.  Part of it is just open air, and it's all dirt floor.  Her husband works as a day laborer setting up tents for function and weddings.  He doesn't make enough to feed everyone.  Her oldest son is about 22 and is married. His wife came from another state and does not speak the same language as everyone else!  The son was working as a (house) painter, but he was side swiped by a motorcycle while he was walking on the road, and it injured his right arm to the point that he cannot paint anymore, permanently.  So he's trying to pick up what work he can with one good arm, but it's hard.  HIs wife had a small one year old baby girl, but the rains came and the baby got sick on Tuesday, and died early Friday morning one week.  A strong fever and infection took hold, and they didn't realize how serious it was.  It was so very sad. This happened about a month ago.  Then the next week, Zareena's second son died.  He had been abusive of alcohol and had recently suffered from tuberculosis.  The whole family was grieving these two losses.  Her third child, a girl, is married to a son who's family lives far away, but she's come back home with her baby because her mother-in-law beats her and starves her and won't give her clothing, soap, water to drink, anything.  Her husband won't do anything, because it was an arranged marriage and he doesn't care anything about her.  So she is back home now until her in-laws or husband demand she comes back.  We're praying that doesn't happen.

In the midst of all this tragedy and hardship, living hand to mouth sometimes, not always, Zareena has developed a deep faith in Christ.  She has been listening to stories from the Bible for over two years now.  Of all the six ladies that began with us, she came with an openness to Christ from the beginning, almost a desperation for some kind of hope in her life.  She listened and believed and has gained joy and hope through the stories of Jesus, how he loves the women and cares for them, how he can heal, and provide, like in the feeding of the 5000.  She loves the stories so much, and when you ask her how she's doing, she'll say that God is good.  Sometimes, her life gets the best of her, and she is overwhelmed with grief, and we just cry together when things are hard.  But she always wants to pray, and lay it before her good Heavenly Father, and feels peace with that.  She has been bringing her second daughter with her to hear the stories, and to learn the Bible.

We pay her as much as we can, and personally, I help her more than any of the other ladies because she needs it the most.  But we can't solve all their problems and create dependency.  Her steady work with Ergon is a blessing which they can count on, but things will probably always be hard for them.  I'm just so thankful that she has reached out and accepted the gift that God has offered her in Jesus, and because of that, she has something to HOPE in and look forward to!  Praise GOD! :)


I don't know about ya'll but i just got gooose bumpy's!  I heart her story!  I heart that we at Noonday Collection are a part of Zarina's life!  And i heart that you can be a part of her life as well, even if it's just praying for her.  She is just one of the many faces whose lives are changed because of your purchases through Noonday Collection.

As mentioned earlier in the post, i want to give this journal to one of you.  And for the rest of ya, i hope sharing Zarina's story will intice you to purchase this journal for yourself or someone else.  Which in turn, might intice you to purchase other items from Noonday!  We all win here!!  :)

Just post a comment to enter to win.  You will have until Monday September 16th.  Come back to my blog to find out who the winner is.  

Oh, and in case you missed it, here is yesterdays blog post  www.raindropsonrosesblog.wordpress.com.  don't forget to check out tomorrow's blog www.thefairtradefashionistas.wordpress.com.  Enjoy!

Thanks ya'll for reading my launch post on my blog.  Come on back now, ya hear!!