Lately

A few cool things I've gotten to do lately:

1. Attend a 1-year welcome home anniversary party for Karina Nasekos, daughter of Matthew and Sheila Nasekos who God brought into their family through adoption. Karina spent most of her 13 years in a Ukrainian orphanage, and is now a daughter of the Nasekos, a fellow member at First Pres. in Jackson, an advocate with her parents for orphaned and abandoned children, and a joy to all who know her. What a blessed event to celebrate! Check out the Nasekos Family blog to learn more about Karina and her amazing story!

2. Talk to the ladies of Peru Paper on skype last Saturday. Oscar had a meeting with them all to update them on the business and to celebrate Valentine's Day and he called in from his computer. Here's a picture from the call. I loved getting to "see" the ladies and talk with them.

One half of the room- L to R: Monica, Marleny, Teresa, Azucena, Jackeline (and her son)

3. I saw The Blind Side, and I LOVED IT! If you get the chance, go see it. It's a great story about adoption, sports, a family living out their faith, and Michael Oher overcoming some pretty big obstacles among other things. Plus, it was funny and the acting was great. I highly recommend it. It's nominated for an Oscar Best Picture and for Sandra Bullock for Leading Actress. I hope the movie wins both awards!

Peru Paper Card Giveaway!

Peru Paper Company cards are currently listed on the Sweeps4Bloggers website! I sent some cards in for review, and three Spring Boxed Sets are going to be given away. The lady who runs the site, Valerie, wrote an amazing review of the products and company. Here's a little of what she said:

"Peru Paper is based in an impoverished neighborhood in Trujillo, Peru and gives women the opportunity to earn a livable wage in an area where unemployment and opportunities are scarce. And… the women don’t need to kiss their children goodbye and head off to a factory to work. Peru Paper allows them to work from home as their family schedules permit. The paper is made and the cards are assembled in their own homes! You can read more about these women and see photographs of the paper and card making process on their website....

The women put the cards together precisely. Mine look just like the ones in the picture. The texture of the brightly colored handmade paper is gorgeous. The boxed set would make a great gift as is or you can keep the cards for yourself and make 8 lucky recipients happy."

Check out the entire review here, and enter to win the cards yourself! She posted the instructions with the review, but basically, you write what your favorite card or aspect of the business is and post it to her review, and then you can have bonus entries by following Peru Paper (and Valerie) on facebook and twitter, and joining our newsletter. Let your friends know as well! This is a great way to spread the word about Peru Paper Company! There are other cool things being given away on the website as well...in fact, I might enter to win some of those. (Jason was looking at it last night and kept commenting on all the things he'd like to win.."oohh, a percolator.")
And one last thing, I found out about this through HARO (Help A Reporter Out). EVERYONE in small business (and most everyone else) should check this out and be on their lists. Amazing the exposure you can get through them. Thanks to Marianna at HALO Business advisers for letting me know about HARO!

Thinking About Haiti

My heart and mind have been full this week with images of Haiti and the devastation there. I wish I could hop on a plane and go down and help. I can't do that (nor do I think I'd be a whole lot of help- I can't speak the language, and I'm not a trained relief or medical professional), so I thought I could help by donating a portion of the sales of Peru Paper Co. this week towards relief work in Haiti. Here's our latest email update, explaining a little more (click on the picture to get a full-size view.)A portion of our sales will go to Food for the Hungry's relief efforts in Haiti. You can also click on the link to the right to make a donation to them or read more about their work. In that email, I reference the generosity of many towards the people of Peru after the earthquake there in 2007. To read some about that, visit my friend Clara's blog. She visited the affected areas a few times after the earthquake.

Also, there have been sad public statements displaying bad theology by some regarding the reasons for the earthquake (Russell Moore tweeted that "Pat Robertson's reported comments on Haiti are embarrassing, unhelpful, and counter-gospel. Jesus loves Haiti.") In light of this, I'd encourage you to read Al Mohler's article "Does God Hate Haiti?". And please, be in prayer for Haiti, and be generous in your giving towards credible relief agencies (I can let you know more if you're interested) so that those working can have the necessary resources to help those in need.

Great Deal on Christmas Cards

Check out the latest edition of Peru Paper Company's email updates. There's a great sale on Christmas cards to make room for new inventory coming in!

How Many Cards to Make a Kitchen?

One of the highlights of my recent trip to Peru was the Christmas party with the ladies of Peru Paper. We had hot chocolate and paneton (a cake they eat around Christmastime in Peru) and gave out Christmas baskets full of food and celebrated a great year of growth in the company. The women brought their families, so we had a great group.

Peru Paper women and families.

The party was held at Deisy's house in the Arévalo community. While she was making the hot chocolate for everyone, I walked into her kitchen and noticed it looked different from the last time I was there (over a year ago). I asked her if she'd made changes and she said "Yes, the tile on the floor and the walls are new, as well as the counters and the stove. I saved up my money from making cards and with that money, my husband and I put all this in." Oscar looked at me in amazement and said "that's an impact! You have to tell people in the States how this business is changing lives."

Deisy's kitchen now- Oscar and Monica look on while she makes hot chocolate.

At this point, I tried to remember back to what Deisy's house looked like before. I pulled up some old photos from other times we'd been in her house and I realized that previously, all the walls in her home were exposed adobe and brick; the floors were unfinished concrete or dirt; and there were only old, falling apart small tables, not counters, in her kitchen. I could hardly believe it, that employment with Peru Paper Company could bring about something so drastic as a kitchen floor. Now, most of the floors and walls in the house are finished, and the kitchen has tile and counters!

Deisy's kitchen before- check out the walls, counter, and floors.

I left the party thinking how blessed I am to do work that I love that is making a very real difference in the lives of many women in Peru. It's not every day you get to see in real life the truth we sing in Joy to the World that "He comes to make His blessings flow far as the curse is found." No matter which gifts I open on Christmas day, I've already gotten more than I could have asked for this Christmas.

Christmas Gifts That Make a Difference

Here's the latest email update from Peru Paper Co. For the larger version, click here. Sign up to receive our updates on our website.

Peru Paper Email Update

Read it for yourself here! Sign up to receive the Peru Paper email updates at our website, www.perupaper.com.

Greetings from Trujillo

I made it to Trujillo on Sunday evening, and it has been wonderful to see everyone and catch up with them. There's a lot going on for Lenin and Elva's wedding, which has been great fun. Here's a picture with Elva on Sunday night after arriving.
I also had the chance to meet with some of the women who work with Peru Paper Company. It was a joy to see them again, and also to see that more women had been hired to work! There were some new faces there I'd never seen before. Your Peru Paper card purchases help provide employment to these amazing women. Watch this video I took yesterday!

Peru Mission Newsletter

Many thanks go to the folks at Peru Mission for their mention of Peru Paper Co. in the most recent email update. See an online version here.

Cyber Monday Special

Running a business will teach you a lot...like I recently learned about Cyber Monday specials. So, because we're running a "cyber" business of sorts and in honor of Cyber Monday, all orders at Peru Paper Co. today, Monday, Nov. 30th, will receive 12% off their entire order by using the coupon code CYBERMON at checkout. So if you've been thinking about ordering cards, today's the day to do it!

Email update

With the help of the folks on the Halo Business Team and FoxWebCo, I recent sent out an email newsletter for Peru Paper Co. See it here. Sign up to receive them on our website here.

Making a Card

I'm always amazed at the process to make one of the cards for Peru Paper. It's a fairly involved process, and the women do an incredible job to make these pieces of art. Read more below, then visit the website, www.perupaper.com to learn more and get your own!

Making a Peru Paper Co. Card

The women sort through paper that would otherwise be thrown out, choosing which pieces are best to be turned into handmade paper. This is paper that is collected from offices or from individuals who save their paper for us to recycle.

The paper is then torn it into very small pieces and soaked in water for a few days until it turns into a pulp.

The pulp is put into a tub of water and dye is added. Sometimes other things like flower petals or sugar cane fibers are added to give the paper special texture.

The pulp is sifted through a screen, and fabric is stretched over the screen on top of the pulp.

The screen is turned over and the excess water is absorbed off of the fabric.

The fabric is taken off the screen and hung to dry on a clothesline or laid in the sand with the wet paper attached.

Once the paper dries, it is peeled off the fabric. It can then be used to make designs for the cards.

The women hand-make all of the cards, cutting or tearing out each piece and crafting them into beautiful designs. The designs are then glued to card stock, packaged in a bag, and sent to the US! It takes about two weeks total from start to finish to have a finished card!

It's finally here!!!

I've been talking for a LONG time about a website for the cards, and www.perupaper.com is finally up and running! Check out Peru Paper Co. I love it! A big thanks to Marianna, Andy, and Laura at Halo Business Consulting and FoxWebCo for all their hard work to get this up and running. Also thanks to my family and Jason for tons of encouragement and support. It was a lot of work and I needed all their help!

Mission Market

I'm going to be at the Mission Market at Broadmoor Baptist this Saturday (think Mistletoe, but at a church and to raise money for a missions project). If you're in Jackson, you should come!! I'm going to be one of the vendors, with a booth for Peru Paper Company, selling lots of cards- Christmas, birthday, baby, thank you, general cards....they'll all be there. So come by and see us! Tickets are $5 to get in to shop, and there's a lunch that is $5 for adults and $2 for kids. There will be over 40 vendors, a bake shop, a children's consignment sale, and various workshops throughout the day. All the money raised will go towards a missions project in Togo, West Africa, making it even more worth coming out. It's from 9-3 and should be lots of fun. Stop by and see me!! Check out the website here for more info.

Also, check out the new logo for Peru Paper Company! I love it. We're gearing up for a website launch on October 20th, so be on the lookout for that! Also, there's a facebook fan page for Peru Paper. You can join by clicking on the link to the right of the blog and joining the group!

Peru Paper Company

I haven't blogged in a while, and it's been even longer since I've mentioned anything about the cards, but that isn't because we haven't been working on them! LOTS is being done, with some very exciting changes coming soon, including new designs...

BABY

CHRISTMAS

GENERAL- perfect for thank yous, birthdays, etc.

...a new name....Peru Paper Company...with a new logo, seen below on the back of a card (thanks to Marianna, Jason, and Oscar for their input on the wording and layout of the back of the cards):

...and the biggest news being a website that is well under construction and should be up and running in about a month. From there, you'll be able to view the cards, place orders and pay online, and they will be delivered to your front door soon after your order is placed! But, just because the website isn't up yet, doesn't mean you can't order cards yet. Get in touch me (the new business email is grace@perupaper.com), and you can purchase cards, including the beautiful new designs, some of which are featured above.

Many thanks to Andy and Marianna with Fox Webco and Halo Business Advisors for their excitement about this project and the countless hours they've put into this project with me. I'm ecstatic about the launch of this website and will keep you updated about all that's going on. Lots of thanks also goes to Oscar Rodriguez, my Peruvian colleague and friend who is managing the business side of things in Peru. He's the one who organizes the ladies to get the new designs made, the cards produced quickly and at a high standard, and who gets the cards to me. The last order was about 2,000 cards, all handmade, and it was to my front door all the way from Peru in about 2 1/2 weeks from when I placed the order with him. That's not an easy accomplishment.

Stay tuned for more announcements in the coming weeks!