I’m so proud of my best friend Kristi Griem. She has just released her first ebook, Sustainability!
Kristi and I were hired around the same time at WMU (Woman’s Missionary Union). We were good friends, but our friendship deepened after spending a week in Nashville with over 6000 teens girls at the National Acteens Convention in the summer of 2003.
Kristi and I roomed together that year. The hotel where we stayed had parking at a city parking deck. Long story short…I parked in the wrong parking space and the car was towed. After looking for the car for an hour, we realized it had been towed. Kristi and I borrowed a church van and took a trip into the ghetto of Nashville after midnight to retrieve the car. We had to get the car that night, because I was to be at a ministry location first thing in the morning to coordinate hundreds of teenage girls and their leaders. The after midnight adventure in the ghetto will never be forgotten.
At the conference, I can remember trying to get through the crowd of girls to get to where I needed to be. Kristi in her Panamaninan outfit and no fear attitude took my hand and pulled me through the crowd. Since that week, we have been taking turns pushing and pulling one another in a God given friendship of love, support, accountability, and even sustainability through life’s ups and downs and the birthing of four babies and lots of dreams. I thank my God for Kristi.
Kristi is the best of friends. I could go on and on about Kristi…
Kristi’s ebook was birthed from her experience growing up on the missions field in Panama and time coordinating production of fair trade products with both internationals and missionaries. In the book, Kristi shares her heart for reaching the nations and providing sustainable.
Kristi hopes that Sustainability will be a valuable resource to people or churches who are working with artisans, looking to work with artisans, and/or looking to have platforms/businesses for (hand-made) products globally. Having worked with personnel in the fair trade, hand-made product industry for over ten years, Kristi has seen the need for a resource that includes tangible ways to assist with the complexities that the industry brings. Some areas that are discussed in Sustainability are:
- Fair Trade
- Product Development
- Banking/Accounting
- Marketing
- Shipping and logistics
