Isn’t it beautiful! It was a complete surprise on Christmas morning to get this. This is a kantha blanket, made from used saris by women at risk in Bangladesh. The company that sells these blankets is Hand and Cloth (handandcloth.org). Through making blankets for Hand and Cloth, these women can support themselves and their families with dignified work and they also hear the Word of God that tells them they have value simply because they are creations of God.

I have been hearing about the White Umbrella Campaign for over a week now, and I just decided to order the book. It’s about human trafficking here in the U.S. With a magazine article I began researching last fall (and just finished writing last week), I’ve been doing much reading on human trafficking statistics worldwide, and I have been staggered by the numbers here in the States.

Though I ordered the book, I’m not really looking forward to the reading of it. It will be, at best, UNcomfortable and quite probably heartbreaking. But I’m learning, more and more, that God is not all that concerned with my comfort. It’s not really good for my character or my heart. Comfortable hearts and settled lives have negative tendencies: being closed off, quick to judge, unwilling to stretch.

I will let you know what I think of the book. I have a few others I’ve read recently that I would also like to post about.

And, tomorrow, hopefully (my husband is overseas at the moment, and I’m holding down the fort with the six kids, teaching a two-week bread-making course, and trying to finish up a few writing deadlines), I’ll post a sweet, funny story about PJ, Jake, and a marble. And, then, of course, I also plan to write and post “Marriage advice, part 2”!