Raven & Lily

Russ and I had the opportunity to attend the Raven & Lily fundraiser and silent auction held in the beautiful back yard of Kirsten and Brandon Dickerson's house this past Saturday night. Under twinkling white lights, and amidst the DJ's hip tunes, around seventy-five guests gathered to celebrate the first-ever Los Angeles based event of Raven & Lily.

As taken from their website, Raven & Lily is a non-profit studio dedicated to empowering impoverished women through design partnerships and micro-enterprise opportunities. Essentially, it's all about serving and empowering women. You can read more about their incredible vision and mission via their blog and/or web-site http://www.ravenandlily.com/ or http://ravenandlily.wordpress.com/. The event was an opportunity to sell one-of-a-kind creations from the LA and India (Sneha) collections and to share the vision and mission of Raven & Lily with the Los Angeles community.

I became involved with R & L through a friend who invited me to one of the local volunteer parties and I've been hooked ever since. It's great way to spend an afternoon - - sharing community with other women, while also helping to make a difference. This group of women are so welcoming, creative, loving and cool and I feel really blessed to have found them here in LA and look forward to continuing my support through these volunteer parties and in other ways.

Raven & Lily is a remarkable organization that is truly organic and spirit lead. It is exciting to see how God is opening doors and helping to create strategic partnerships with women around the world. One very important guest at Saturday's launch event, was Nivedit (pronounced Ne-vade-it like "you-made-it"). She is a woman from India who, together with her husband, Edwin, are leading efforts throughout the state of Garhwal to share the message of Jesus and serve the under served. The women whom she works with created and sewed many of the items for sale on Saturday (you can find more on the website too). Russ and I were impressed with Nivedit's strong faith and her giving heart. We will continue to pray for her and her husband as they pioneer this uncharted territory in India.

We encourage you to check out the Raven & Lily web-site and buy a gift or make a donation. Every single dollar will go directly to women in need. All of the merchandise is handmade and takes a long time to make, which is why it may cost a little more than something from PB or Crate & Barrel but guess what, it's all about a fair wage and empowering women. I look at it like I'm giving money to a great cause and that the item I purchase is icing on the cake! Not to mention, the merchandise is really really beautiful.

Some of the handmade items from India!

This was an exciting event and our eyes were opened to the service opportunities that are out there. For now, we look forward to serving through prayer and we hope you can remember Raven & Lily and Nivedit and Edwin in your prayers too.