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Search The Fig Tree's stories of people who make a difference:

The Fig Tree is more than words on a page.  It is flesh and blood in our community, said the Rev. Kevin Dow, pastor of Highland Park United Methodist Church and Fig Tree board member, as he introduced speakers during The Fig Tree’s 2013 Benefit Breakfast March 13 and Lunch on March 15. 

 

Denise Attwood
Denise Attwood
Ganesh Himal Trading Co.

When my husband and I started our career in fair trade in 1984, we looked into many quizzical faces as we described how we wanted to create a fair-trade business that would partner with marginalized people in Nepal, provide them with fair wages and long-term trading relationships that would allow them what we all want:  the ability to have stability in their lives, to educate their children, to be able to make choices and to care for their communities.

Sometimes it’s hard to connect with the interested and concerned people.  Through The Fig Tree, we have been able to tell the region about the fair trade movement. The Fig Tree has written numerous informative, in depth articles about fair trade, not only on our business but on the many fair trade events and businesses in the area. 

The Fig Tree gives readers the tools to educate themselves on why and how they can become involved in this movement.  They have connected us to each other, to the community and the world. 

Those at The Fig Tree know the community so intimately that they can find stories that aren’t even formed and help bring them into bloom and to fruition.  Last fall, Mary Stamp called, asking what Ganesh Himal was up to.   I told of an idea I had a few days before but had not yet put together.  I told Mary that earlier in the year when I was in Nepal my was heart broken.  For years, our business has provided three-year scholarships so artisans could keep their children in school.  The faces of two girls who had received scholarships lit up as they told us about school, but they didn't know if they could continue.  I could see the potential of these girls.

Realizing to takes only $5 a month for scholarships for 160 girls, and anyone can give $5, I thought of starting the Power of Five.  I explained it to Mary.  Two weeks later The Fig Tree published a story: “Ganesh Himal launches scholarship project to support education for girls in Nepal.”  Mary described the plan of how $5 bookmarks would raise funds for scholarships. The Fig Tree spurred us into action, but before we could print bookmark.  Two weeks ago, I was in Nepal and delivered $7,300 for the scholarship fund.  Now the Power of 5 is on its way to providing girls with scholarships for all 10 years of school.

Because of The Fig Tree, there are fewer quizzical faces when I describe fair trade.  There are many more supporters of this movement in the Inland Northwest and there are 160 girls in Nepal whose futures are brighter.  That to me is connection. Listen to Denise on YouTube.

 

Jan Martinez
Jan Martinez Christ Kitchen

 

Mary Stamp started The Fig Tree working out of her home on a shoestring budget.  As I was beginning Christ Kitchen, she was my hero.  If she could do it, I might be able to do it, too. 

Before Christ Kitchen started, The Fig Tree covered Christ Clinic, a medical clinic for the working poor in Spokane, and people began learning about services for uninsured people.  In 1993, I began as a therapist at the clinic and saw isolated women from tough and hurting backgrounds. 

Connections were not a part of their lives.  We started a Bible study and a small job training project to bring women into connection.  In 1988, we started packaging pinto beans with two women from the clinic.  Over the last 15 years, we have grown to 38 women in poverty preparing 39 products we sell throughout the nation. 

The Fig Tree began covering our little progress as we started this business of selling beans so God could work at the big business of saving lives.  The Fig Tree has connected our ministry and products with the community.  People have discovered us.  It has covered our functions, our women’s transformations and our ministries’ growth.  Selling products supports our ministry.  Starting as a therapist, I had no idea how to sell beans.  

Christ Clinic and Christ Kitchen are grateful for The Fig Tree’s ability to see how it could help us, even before we could see it. Listen to Jan on Youtube. 

 

Peggie Trout
Peggie Troutt
Calvary Soup Kitchen

 

The Fig Tree has helped Calvary Soup Kitchen make connections since we have been in operation for three and a half years.  From the first article in 2010, we have been getting volunteers, referencing that they read about us in The Fig Tree and want to support us.  The Fig Tree wrote another article in January.

We’ve made connections with other church groups, auxiliaries, youth groups, young adults, women’s ministries and students from elementary through college.  Parents bring their children to teach them about serving in the community.    

I know much of the community reads The Fig Tree because when donations come in or people email me they still refer to The Fig Tree.  Calvary Soup Kitchen has gone from serving five meals on first Saturday to having served a total of more than 13,000 meals in the little house beside the church. 

Many thought that could not be done.  It takes faith and prayers to keep these ministries going.  We are thankful for The Fig Tree getting word out about faith-driven ministries. Listen to Peggy on YouTube.

 

John Osborn
John Osborn
Sierra Club and
Veterans Administration Medical Center

 

At one time, we published using typewriters, press type and light tables.  Technology has changed over time and opportunities to create that rough draft of history are more powerful now than before.  We underestimate the amount of work and labor of love that goes into a periodical that records news.

As a physician and conservationist, I recognize the moral foundation in caring for others and caring for creation.

The Fig Tree helps underscore moral connections in both areas—caring for people at the end of life and dealing with ethical conflicts that arise, or caring to restore the Spokane River and acting to remedy the enormous pollution burden in our river.  In my work, I have carried the Catholic bishop’s Pastoral Letter on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., going office to office, underscoring for policy makers the ethical underpinnings of decisions.   Often decisions on water and pollution are seen through the lenses of short-term economics or sheer political power.  A message of the Pastoral Letter—and The Fig Tree—is that decisions about water are also moral decisions.  Moral connections at the bedside and streamside are important. 

Along with making connections, The Fig Tree empowers with stories giving warning and caring. 

An article in March uplifts Patty Martin who faces struggles in a small farming town as she challenges data centers of large companies and diesel particulates from backup generators for the centers.  For The Fig Tree to tell that story was empowering to Patty, who is singlehandedly challenging air quality rules issued by the Department of Ecology that permitted the diesel generators.  Telling her story was an act of caring.  Listen to John on Youtube.

 

Lena Lopez Schindler
Lena Lopez- Schindler
St. John’s Episcopal Women’s League
and the Windfall Thrift Shop

 

I have learned about windfall and fruitfulness from working with the Windfall Thrift Shop, an outreach of the Cathedral of St. John.  

A windfall is the fruit a fruit-bearing tree or plant drops because of the wind.  People can pick it up for free or at a reduced cost.  It was considered a boon, a bonus, like the Old Testament instruction for farmers to leave margins of their fields for gleaners.  It’s about abundance and gracefulness.

Windfall is a store on South Perry started by St. John’s women, who were tired of raising money with monthly rummage sales and five-cent luncheons. In 1958, they opened the store to make money. We quickly outgrew the little windmill building and moved into our current space.  The Windfall has gone from all-volunteer run, to having some employees, to now being 75 percent volunteer run.

Last year when I was service league president, Spencer Grainger of Liberty Park Child Development Center called and offered a partnership. The clothing program for their pre-school and after-school families was hard to handle. He suggested giving us the clothing.  I thought, that’s a windfall.  Instead of just giving the clothing, we formed a voucher system so families can shop with dignity, using vouchers as money.

Two weeks after we formed the partnership, I saw Mary Stamp at the South Perry Farmers’ Market and said ‘I have a great idea for an article.” She agreed.  

The Fig Tree embodies the fruitfulness apparent in the world’s great religious traditions. If we pay attention, even in the busiest moments of our lives when we feel overwhelmed, there’s the grace of abundance we didn’t ask for or earn.  If we tap into that, we make incredible connections and have an incredible gift. 

Every time I pick up The Fig Tree, I have that experience. It’s a windfall of grace, a windfall of knowledge. Listen to Lena on YouTube.

 

Dick Boysen
Dick Boysen
Spokane Guild’s School

 

I’ve been reading The Fig Tree a long time, as director of the Spokane Guild’s School for 35 years.  By the time the copy we receive circulates at the school, it has many fingerprints on it.  That’s a testament to The Fig Tree, because there’s so much important and positive information in it.

The internet has affected newspaper sales but probably bad news reported has also had an effect, because there’s little good reporting in most U.S. newspapers.  The Fig Tree is a tribute to the people who have supported it all along.

The Guild’s School, a regional diagnostic and treatment center for children from birth to three with developmental disabilities, is 53 years old.  For the first 22 years, it was in and part of the outreach of Westminster Congregational United Church of Christ.

Recently Deidre Jacobson interviewed me for The Fig Tree and asked why I do this work.   For a long time, I would just say to people, “We’re doing God’s work,” with no further explanation.  Everyone understood it in their own way.  That’s what The Fig Tree is about. There’s room for interpretation.

I’ve always felt that given the right information, people want to do good.  Listen to Dick on YouTube.

 

Tony Stewart
Tony Stewart
Kootenai County Task Force for Human Relations

 

The Fig Tree provides an outstanding contribution to understanding and promoting social justice in our region.

Social justice encompasses the historical idea of creating a society based on the principles of equality, freedom, justice and fairness for all human beings. It is part of secular philosophy, as well as tenets of the world’s great religions.

The secular realm in democracy uses law to enshrine principles, while theologians and religious sects have not only embraced the constitutional principles, but also taken called for economic justice, and the idea that God demands each of us to help the poor and needy.

I see that long-standing mission every time I read The Fig Tree.  As I’ve observed over the years while reading this inspiring publication, it has eloquently covered the words and deeds of the interfaith community, informing us of the theology, good works, partnership and ways each of us can be part of those efforts.  The stories inspire us about individuals and organizations, especially civil rights groups.

I thank The Fig Tree for the many times it has covered the work of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, and the Human Rights Education Institute as we over time faced challenges.  It covers what we believe about democracy and social justice.

The Fig Tree has carved a path that covers the broadest definition of what it means to be a social justice activist.  Its enduring mission is to fill the vacuum in other publications and the media in general.

Mary has stayed on course and focused on what social justice is about, for individuals, institutions and organizations, not only here but throughout the world. Listen to Tony on YouTube.





Copyright © December 2013 - The Fig Tree