Blogging, Fair Trade, and Jack

Tuesday morning. Jack was sick through the night. Maybe another stomach virus, which would be the second in a week. He has had a bit of a cold over the last 2 weeks so I took him and Sophie to the doctor yesterday after school. Jack will start another antibiotic to keep his cold under control. The good news is that Jack had blood drawn yesterday to see where his immune system is and his ANC counts have gone up since Thursday before his last chemo session to 2950. Over the weekend he was pretty lethargic and I was a bit concerned that his counts had bottomed out again. Just goes to show that what you see on the outside is not always representing what is going on inside. With his counts strong we will just wait it out and I expect his body should heal itself from this virus.
This week is Lectureship at ACU. I am so glad I was able to attend yesterday. I went to two classes, the first at 8:30am, was on blogging. This class was taught by Mike Cope, Kendall Ball, and Travis Stanley. It was a fun class. I knew it would be. I am so not technilogically savvy, so I learned a couple of new things that will be very useful. And I met some ladies whose names I knew from Mike's blog, but not their faces. That was alot of fun.
Mike asked me to tell the class about Jack's blog. I still get teary eyed thinking about all the blessings that have come from this. My family who are overseas know the same information as my family in town. Many people have lifted Jack's name to the Father who wouldn't have even known about Jack if it were not for the blog. And I have grown a love for writing which had never been there before. Thanks Sarah for making this all happen. When Jack was admitted to the hospital in Dallas for his tumor Sarah started this blog immediately as an information highway. What a blessing.
The next class I went to was "Justice in a cup of Joe" it was a class that about Fair Trade. If you are like me I wasn't real sure what Fair Trade was, it is a way of buying goods straight from the person who farms the product or the artisan who creates the good. Most people might be familiar with Fair Trade coffee if they are familiar with Fair Trade at all. Fair Trade coffee allows the growers to be fairly compensated for growing the coffee beans. There are normally 7 middle men in the process from the grower to us the buyer. This process cuts out the middle man and allows the grower to earn $1.26 dollars per pound for their coffee rather than the .20 cents that many make currently. It costs .46 cents per pound to make it so there is a deficit for the grower. Many growers have shut down their farms and because it is the only thing they have ever done they are poverty stricken. As Joyce H. said yesterday, when an American who lives in the USA loses a job it is a tragedy. But when one of these people lose their job it is a crisis as they don't have an education to fall back on or the opportunities that we have. I had shown up yesterday morning with my Starbuck's Venti Non-Fat Sugar-free Vanilla Latte (thanks to Lisa's gift card) and felt a bit conflicted about my non fair trade coffee. Today I have come to the conclusion that I will probably keep meeting my friends at Starbucks for coffee and buying non fair trade, but what I serve in my home, will be Fair Trade. Thanks to Mark Love for serving Fair Trade Coffee throughout some of the events at Lectureship, it was very yummy coffee.
At some point soon I will link and post about my very favorite fair trade ministry, Eternal Threads.
That was my very brief description on what seems like now as my 3 hour experience at Lectureship, as I have a very sweet sick child at home.
We have chemo on Thursday and I will post afterwards.
Blessings.

Comments

Sarah said…
I don't know that I "made anything happen" but when you see your dear friends in the midst of turmoil and heartache, each of us kicks into hyper-drive doing anything we know to do. I knew how to do blogs, email, and computer stuff! It has been an honor for me to be able to ease your burden of communication when it was needed, as well as turn over the reigns to you when you were able. God did the writing thing!
Unknown said…
Tammy,
Thanks for sharing your story in class. We had no idea who would show up or what our class makeup would be, but your experience with what blogging can offer helped make this real. The connections that are made using this technology are incredible, and I am glad we are finding ways to use it for God's glory and for his purposes.
Anonymous said…
Tammy,
I am so thankful for your "blogging" know how and your incredible ability to comunicate with us. We love your family and love watching God answer our prayers time after time. God is so faithful! Blessings, Jacki
stephc said…
I am so thankful that you feel blessed by your blog, because it has been such a blessing and inspiration to so many. Isn't wonderful when God can give us passion and ability in areas that we never imagined we would or could do. I guess that is the business God is in.
Candy said…
Tammy, it was my pleasure to meet you and put a real face with Derek, Jack and Sophie's mom. I am so glad that Mike had you share your experience with us in the class. I hope to run into you again very soon. Hey! Lectureship comes up again in September I hear!
Clint said…
Tammy may you and your family know the peace of God.

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