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Whenever Jan Stravers came home from the mission field, she brought crafts made by the Philipino women she worked with to sell to the churches she visited. In fact, the crafts were from family businesses that the Christian Reformed Church missionary and her husband had helped to start, and her supporting churches were among their main clients. "When we would go on home service and speak to churches, I would bring baskets and wall hangings and knit things that the ladies made," she says. "I did really well at selling because I told them I know the people who made this—and it's keeping their families alive."

In the 10 years that the Straverses worked as missionaries in the Philippines, they saw how small businesses can provide food, education, clothing, and a hope for the future to the poor in developing countries. So, after retiring from the mission field 10 years ago, Jan Stravers jumped at the chance to run International Arts and Gifts, a South Holland, Illinois, store selling handmade products made by artisans in the developing world.

Stravers is not alone. Slowly, the idea has been catching on among Christians that fair trade is a unique way of supporting missions and providing jobs to the world's poor. Fair trade is a rapidly growing industry where companies like the Mennonite-run Ten Thousand Villages work directly with artisans in the developing world, offering better prices for handmade arts, crafts, and clothing. To be certified by the Fair Trade Federation, workers must earn enough to support their families, pay for education, and food. Fair-trade products must also be environmentally friendly and created under safe conditions, and the Western stores must commit to building long-term relationships with the workers. The idea is to treat workers with dignity by providing steady work.

Coffee dominates the fair-trade market, according to the Fair Trade Federation's 2003 report on fair-trade trends. It's also the killer app for Christian involvement: a growing number of churches and denominations are switching to fairly traded coffee as a way to help missions and raise funds. World Relief, an arm of the National Association of Evangelicals, along with Catholic Relief Services, Lutheran World Relief, and the U.S. Agency for International Development, is educating Nicaraguan farmers in such matters as soil conservation techniques, as well as providing low-cost seeds and equipment. The United States Agency for International Development provided $1 million for the program, in which 8,000 farmers were able to increase their income by 50 percent.

World Relief also works with churches and individual buyers in North America to sell the coffee. Churches then buy the coffee wholesale and often will sell it and use the profits to support missions. World Relief plans to sell 31,000 pounds of coffee this year.

Fair-trade coffee has dramatically helped Central American coffee growers, who are suffering from a one-two punch of low prices and drought. At the end of the 1980s, coffee growers received $1.20 per pound, according to the International Coffee Organization, but now coffee sells for 42 cents per pound—one cent less that the cost of production. USAID estimates that coffee producers in Central American last year lost about $1.5 billion, with 600,000 coffee workers losing their jobs. However, under the World Relief program and similar efforts, coffee growers receive $1.26 per pound.

Pura Vida has used the fair-trade principle since Chris Dearnley and John Sage founded the coffee company in 1998. The Seattle-based company mainly buys coffee from farmers in Costa Rica for sale to North American churches and individuals. As Harvard Business School graduates, Dearnley and Sage formed the company in order to fund ministry. Today, Pura Vida Partners, the non-profit organization into which profits are invested, operates several children's ministries in Costa Rica.

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November (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47