about proximity

Ruth Ann Doane shares her heart and a local ministry that meets the needs of women and children. 

Five years ago during Tulip Time a few Hope College students brought some friendship bracelets to our church which were through the ministry Threads of Hope.

We had about 2000 bracelets. Our church, Manna Fellowship, in downtown Holland, is open during Tulip Time as a hospitality center.

My daughter, who was seven at that time, decided that the bracelets inside the church were not being seen, so she grabbed a handful and went out in the front and started selling them. Suddenly she was selling so many of them that we had to send another kid out to help. Then, they were coming in with fists full of money so we sent out an adult to supervise. We then decided to put a table out and put the bracelets on that.

We sold about 1700.00 ($1.00 a bracelet) that year.

The next year our church was deciding what to do during Tulip Time so I asked if we could do the bracelets again. So that was the start of the ministry.

We continued to sell the bracelets at local events. We decided to expand a bit and got in contact with Better Way Imports and started selling some of their items that are fair trade. Better Way Imports only purchases items from organizations that help women out of sex trafficking and minister to their spiritual needs. So they sell purses from Freedom Set, lots of jewelry from Radiant Hope, and much more.

We gave the ministry a name and continue to sell the items to help these organizations. I partnered with a friend that used to attend our church, Anna Kalmbacher. Anna and her husband had been missionaries in Uganda. While she was there she did work with a Hospice House there. The women made necklaces from recycled magazines so she purchased them and was selling them. We started to get more items from her contacts in Uganda. She and her husband have adopted three children from Uganda and they recently started an organization called A Child’s Voice. It is an organization started for advocacy of orphans in Uganda.

We have continued to partner and expand MG2. We have done Kerstmarkt (a Christmas booth in Holland) for the last two years, we sell at our church during Tulip Time and do special events here and there.

We do receive some profit on certain items but we use those funds to help A Child’s Voice and other ministries that do not have as much assistance and support. We help an organization in Uganda called Shalom Ministries which works with local children ministering to them, helps educate families and girls to try and help keep them in school, and go into hospitals to help women with infants. Recently we donated some money to a friend of ours at church was heading to Nepal to help get girls out of sex trafficking. 

God is using us to help women and orphans around the world.

Ruth will be traveling to Threads of Hope in the Philippine’s soon to meet and encourage the bracelet makers. We hope she will share her newly gathered stories with us.

Manna Global Goods Ministries (MG2) Follow their work on facebook.

MG2 sells Fair Trade goods so that we can help the organizations from where the crafts came providing dignity and hope for Women and Children around the world.