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The Blessing Basket Project® -- "I'm simply paying forward the love others have invested in me"One of the greatest inspirations in life is seeing someone rise to bless others out of their own difficult and painful situation. That was the action Theresa Wilson took when hard times found her. And that really is how the Blessing Basket Project® began. Recently, I spoke with the project founder Theresa, gleaning information about this stirring idea that is changing the lives of so many living in impoverished conditions around the world. Theresa began by explaining that the trial with which she was faced and how the Body of Christ rallied around her made it possible to bring blessing out of sadness. In February of 1999, I was blindsided when my husband of 13 years left me and our two young children for a woman he met on the internet. In the days, weeks and months that followed, friends from church drowned me in cards and letters of support. One day, I gathered them all up and put them in a basket someone had given me. Calling it my "Blessing Basket"; it was a daily source of inspiration for me. Slowly but surely, the love others had shown began to weave me back together.
But it wasn't enough - all of the baskets I had were from an importer, and they said "made in china" on the bottom. I had no idea who was making the baskets. Growing up poor myself in the Midwest on a farm - I wanted to use the idea to change the world. Knowing people in the third world could weave, I decided I would pay more than any company in the world for baskets, in an effort to change the weaver's life. I communicated my idea around the globe by email, and overnight we heard from 12 countries. Within 2 weeks, we were up to 25 countries. So with no shortage of weavers, I began to screen the people who contacted me to determine who I could trust, and we just began to order baskets and sell them. We caught the attention of Washington University in St. Louis, and with the help of a team of masters students, we won the bootstrap category of a business competition called the "Olin Cup" for our unique approach to solving a problem. One of the judges for the competition was Robert Skandalaris. His family foundation then gave us an amazing grant, and today, the Skandalaris Family Foundation is our Founding Sponsor. With the help and support of volunteers, The Skandalaris Family Foundation, wonderful retail locations and a great (but small) staff, The Blessing Basket Project® is active in 5 countries! We have about 3,000 people who weave for us. We have 2 countries in the development stage, and 15 countries on the waiting list. So far, we have returned more than $120,000 in wages back to impoverished countries around the world. The lesson learned here: never be found sleeping - for you never know what love will do. You see, the people who helped me in my time of need were not found sleeping like those in the garden of Gethsemane. They were there, loving on me. And those seeds of love are now being spread around the world, changing untold numbers of lives! I'm simply paying forward the love others have invested in me. (MORE . . .)
When you thought about actually "doing" what was in your heart and considered all of the intricate facets of the project you would have to pull together, what kept you from becoming overwhelmed and helped you to follow through with your idea?
Tell us about what that means to you when these basket artisans receive payment and are helped and changed by the project? Every time, we see video or photographs of our people receiving their prosperity wages, it nearly moves me to tears. Some dance, shout and sing. Others refuse to stand out of respect for the amount of money we are giving them. I have attached a letter from a couple of our weavers, and I think you too will understand the unbelievable feeling that comes from changing someone's life when you purchase one of our Baskets. Today, we also provide work for 35 adults with disabilities who prepare the tags for all of the Blessing Baskets®. It is my dream to, one day, be able to travel to our countries and put the money in their hands myself! Your ministry just recently was able to open a school in Africa; tell us about that! Now THAT was so cool! We built a school in Nyariga, Ghana, for girls. Previously, the girls had to study under the village tree because they had no school. That led to many girls dropping out or not attending because it was difficult to study under those conditions! But thanks to one of our retailers, who gave back all of their profits, we sent $11,000 to the village, and now the little girls have a wonderful school building. The other photo shows them picking up rocks out of the school yard of their newly completed school building, which is still being painted. How cool is that to ensure these little girls have a decent place to learn? The government of Ghana was so impressed; their education department has agreed to furnish the school for the village! WOO HOO! What can others do to become involved and pass on the blessing? Surprisingly, the most important thing ISN'T purchasing a basket. The biggest thing your readers can do for us right now is recommend stores in their area that might be interested in carrying Blessing Baskets®. Simply email us the name of the store -- baskets@blessingbasket.org -- and any contact information you have, and WE will do the rest. We will only be able to create sustainable jobs for these weavers if we start moving tens of thousands of baskets a year. That starts with getting stores all over the country. We already have 49 stores who are strong partners with us - but it isn't enough. The next thing you can do is become a part of our Mukisa Circle™ program. Mukisa means Blessing in Uganda, Africa. A "Blessing Circle" is a home-based sales program - but instead of anyone making any money, 20% of all the sales of the baskets go to a charity of the host's choice, and the rest goes to The Blessing Basket Project so we can get the funds where they need to go. It's a GREAT way to create ripples of love all over the place! For more on Mukisa Circle™ contact the administrator of that program Denise Kruger at denise@blessingbasket.org We also ask that you spread the word - send our website to your friends -- and of course, you can purchase baskets on our website. Every basket sold represents someone's life! So start changing a life today! What would you say to someone who may have a "flicker" of an idea of a way to touch others...and bless them, but who might feel that their idea isn't very significant? First of all, who says it's not significant? YOU?? Sometimes, we are our own worst critics. Give your idea, what I call, the "ugly baby" test. You know, get some friends together who you know will tell you what you NEED to hear, not what you WANT to hear and spin the idea by them. I do this all the time - and I tell my close circle of friends, "Don't let me show my baby to the rest of the world if it's ugly!" Be ready for real criticism; if you aren't, keep your idea to yourself until you are really committed to the fact your idea may not be perfect yet and may need to be molded, shaped and changed a bit. The only way a dream will become a reality is to talk about it. When you give your dream a voice, you give it power. Today, I challenge you to go tell someone about your dream and ask them to hold you accountable to accomplish it. Cover yourself in prayer and step out! We cover a lot of this in the Mukisa Circle™ program as well! As you look back at the beginnings of this project to what it's become today, what are you feeling? Humbled. Very, very humbled! My husband Bryan and I realize we are nobody special, and why we were being given this unbelievable task is beyond us. It is very, very humbling. This project has become a success due to hard work from about 20 of the most beautiful volunteers in the world! They are with us every step of the way. Our liaisons that help us in the countries are amazing, and of course, the work of the weavers is just incredible. God has had our back the entire way and given us a great staff with Kerri Harbers, Ann Ross and Denise Kruger. Did I mention I was humbled? For more information on The Blessing Basket Project®, visit the website: www.blessingbasket.org or follow the link below.
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Soon, I began to be asked to speak to women's groups about overcoming trial and hardship, and I would speak from my "blessing basket." Everywhere I spoke, the women wanted one. So I trademarked the name and crafted a card talking about how when you put your blessings in the basket, you will begin to see the hand of God in your life like never before. Soon women were calling from all over, leaving messages about how their walk with God had changed, and their lives were changing with this simple idea. (Photo courtesy of: Steve Henkel/Storytellingandcakes.com)
First of all, I'm a very type "A" personality. I have a problem of doing and THEN thinking! Had I actually THOUGHT this through first, I think I would have been scared out of my skin! However, without a doubt, my daily motivation remains the faces and the stories of the people whose lives we are changing! I remember the day we received a VERY unexpected $10,000 bill from UPS for shipping in 600 small baskets from Bangladesh. It hit us like a Mac truck- we had expected something like $3,000 for the shipment. I was flooded with guilt as I realized not only had I quit my well paying job - but this dream of mine just sent my family into debt! At that moment, I was ready to quit. I thought to my self, "There is no WAY I can do this…WHAT was I THINKING?" I decided to send an email to all of our contacts and say the idea just wasn't going to work - the sacrifices were too big. As I reached for my computer, staring back at me was the photograph of the women sitting under the tree, weaving orange baskets in Bangladesh. They were so beautiful, their eyes hopeful. I realized: how am I going to tell THEM that it just got too hard?!! After a meeting with my new husband Bryan, we decided to put the balance owed on a credit card, and we haven't looked back since. God has always been there and always managed to help us make ends meet. 
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