Fig Paper Company

I asked one of my closest friends, Angie, to write this blog about Fig Paper. I wanted to hear it from someone else's perspective. You see, Fig Paper is very dear to my heart. And it's a project I've been working on for awhile. But honestly, I have doubt as a constant companion. I want to walk confidently in this vision the Lord has given me, but I also sometimes feel like I'm just a dreamer and my head is up in the clouds. And I second guess everything. I asked Angie to write this because I couldn't form actual words to communicate what this is. I'm thankful for what she wrote. Sometimes you need the right word at the right time, even by her putting together this blog post....it has encouraged my heart to "Be strong and do the work."......

From Angie:
When I walked into the A New Thing Marketplace last year tears welled up in my eyes. “I can see it now,” I thought. I had heard about this vision for months and had watched Marcie labor through the brainstorming process, endless planning and crunch time-last minute tasks. It struck me that I was just now seeing what she had seen the entire time. I knew the Marketplace was going to be awesome, because Marcie only does things that are awesome. But, when I walked into the building and saw this gathering of people who had come to share their stories I was more than impressed, I was overwhelmed. Because it was clear to me in that moment this was not of her.

 

Turns out, the Marketplace was only the beginning....

As I wrote last year on this blog, Marcie hears from the Lord. And she listens. So, it’s really nothing unusual for Marcie to call up one day out of the blue and be like, “Hey, I was praying this morning and the Lord told me to start a non profit paper making business based in Ethiopia that will create a sustainable income for women there and will weave together a lasting bond of sisterhood between Ethiopian and American women as Gospel partners.” That is the newest vision the Lord has given Marcie, but it didn’t really come together like that. Not all of it in one moment. It was like this, “Hey, I think the Lord wants me to learn how to make paper.”

Not only does Marcie hear from the Lord and listen, but she also waits. If you only knew how much waiting the Lord has required of this woman. But she has been given a gift of great faith, so that when God tells her that she needs to learn to make paper, she takes that one instruction and follows it. And He leads her down an unbelievable road of answers revealed, until one day she can finally see it… Fig Paper Company.

 

Now she is able to look back at the path that brought her here and marvel at The Lord’s providence in orchestrating this plan of Fig Paper Company. In preparation for writing this story I asked Marcie to send me a bulleted list of the events she sees that led to the development of Fig. I can think of no better way for you to see how this process unfolded than to simply copy and paste her thoughts here because this is how the Lord speaks to us, through scripture we are soaking in, notes we scribble in journals, unlikely meetings, seemingly insignificant conversations, and (oh yeah) mission trips to Ethiopia: 

I have filled in a little to provide context, but here's Marcie's list:

2013:

• God kept this verse before me… 1 Thes. 4:11 "make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you”
• Hosted a Spring sale at my house, which ended up leading to A New Thing Fall marketplace

2014:

• trip to Ethiopia with Indigenous Outreach International
• made connection with caregivers there, specifically the mom of the boy we sponsor through Indeginous Outreach Interntational’s TLC program
• flying home from Ethiopia, began dreaming of a way to connect women
• kept feeling the weight of the Mother Theresa quote "If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other”
• Commit to pray about whatever the Lord is stirring within
• March 26 journal entry "research making homemade paper" 
• March 30: The Lord gives me this verse: 1 Chron. 28:9-10 "Be strong and do the work" 
• Go to Thistle Farms and hear about social enterprise
• Begin really dreaming about what could happen if we could connect to each other through a shared trade. Wrote this in April: "Women/Mommas/Life givers who advocate for each other....one collective voice...when our sisters suffer, we suffer. When they rejoice we rejoice. Let's empower women to care for their children, to lay down their lives/open their hearts to the full potential of their created beings!”
• 4-15-14: I made a list of people I needed to meet with
• Design/start up: Talked with Courtney (who is now helping Marcie with design and paper making with Fig). She randomly sits next to me at a dinner we attended together. I ask her if she knows how to make paper. She says no. The next week her teacher told her "Courtney, I really think you need to learn how to make paper. I know a woman in Nashville who teaches workshops." Courtney let me know.
• All we know is we are learning to make paper. Our dream is to be able to take this craft to women associated with the TLC program in Ethiopia. We have made many plans, but it is the Lord who is directing us
• Side note: I used to own a stationery business, somehow I think that could have been the groundwork for this....maybe I've been preparing for years for this and I didn't even know?

Can I just say - I love the “side note." It’s just a little afterthought - "Oh yeah, and I used to own a stationery business." La de da... 

Here’s the official purpose of Fig Paper Company, as stated in their business plan…

We are a developing social enterprise that seeks to connect women through shared trade to mutually benefit the communities in which they live. Our goal is to help provide a sustainable income by working to develop consumer products that can be sold to a global market. This social enterprise exists to connect women around the world, women who advocate for each other, who can share in the joys and hardships of life. We seek to provide jobs, dignity and purpose. As they work with their hands to make paper, package products, ship packages, or take orders they are giving to their communities and providing encouragement to each other.

 

These are pictures of Marcie and Courtney making the first pieces of Fig Paper. Imagine if these images captured Ethiopian women, strong and doing the work. 

 

This is where it all comes together. This year a portion of the proceeds from each vendor's booth, the Marketplace ticket sales, and profits from the Fig Paper Company booth will all go to support this newly developing social enterprise! I know you want to be a part of this, quite literally from the ground up. Courtney and Marcie (and sometimes her little five year old boy!) are busy as bees making paper to sell at the Marketplace. It's beautiful paper. 

 

And it's beautiful because of the hands that craft it and the God who set those hands in motion for this work.

That's the beauty of the A New Thing Marketplace, too. Every piece of merchandise sold represents a person and the beauty of his/her story. The dollars (YOUR dollars!) that purchase these goods will go on and on to bring new life where it is needed most. Fig Paper Company is a perfect representation of the heartbeat of the Marketplace. All things new. Taking what was or might be wasted or discarded, raising its value, making a new creation. The Gospel story told by a simple piece of paper.