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[December 01, 2012] 
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In 1946, Edna Ruth Byler, the wife of a
Mennonite Central Committee administrator, traveled to Puerto
Rico. While there she was overwhelmed with the poverty she
saw. She also saw people living there who had
amazing artistic talent, but they were being taken advantage of
by being forced to sell their works for next to nothing in order to
simply survive.
Byler began a movement of foreign artists to develop a plan for a fair trade organization. The
project became the Overseas Needlepoint and Crafts Project. This organization would open the door
for poverty-stricken artists to
sell their works at a fair market value, much higher than what they
had been earning. In 1952 the movement offered its
first sale of foreign-made products at the Mennonite World
Conference in Basel, Switzerland. In 1961 the first festival sale
in the United States took place at the Fairfield Mennonite
Church in Fairfield, Pa.
Over the years the program has evolved into
much more than Byler ever imagined it could be. One aspect of
the organization is called Ten Thousand Villages. The works
sold through this organization include everything from handcrafted
jewelry to furniture, woodcrafts such as bowls and statuary, and
Nativities.
The people at St. John United Church of
Christ support the work of Ten Thousand Villages, and they buy the
work of the artisans involved, including some very lovely
Nativities.
Here are some of the Nativities on display
last Sunday that were purchased from Ten Thousand Villages.
Pictures by Nila Smith |
