By Paula Weinman
On Jan. 8, 2010, Janie Berry drove her 3-year-old granddaughter Camillah to the Tree of Life bookstore in Marion. They went to the Tree of Life every week, but tonight, Janie had something different on her mind.The night before, she and her husband had talked about business-how they never wanted to go into it. But now, Janie felt a call to start a business. She was certain this was God's call. That night, driving into Marion, she asked God for confirmation.
"I said, 'OK, Lord, you want me to open a business?'" Janie explained, laughing. "I said, 'Give me a name. If it doesn't have a name, it doesn't have life.'"
Janie heard God's reply in the children's section of the bookstore. Camillah asked Janie to look at a Bible she'd found. Janie opened to Jeremiah 18:2: "Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will give you my message."
Just like that, Janie's store had a name. Nine months later, The Potter's House of Marion was born.
Located between the Tree of Life bookstore and the Tire Barn in Marion, The Potter's House specializes in chocolates, ice cream and a colorful collection of fair-trade items. Janie takes pride in the fact that the fair-trade products are also environmentally friendly.
"Almost everything here is made out of something else," Janie said, motioning to quirky gourd ornaments on the walls and scarf displays not far from the table. She leaned over and lifted her earring with a finger. "These are made out of banana leaves."
She pointed out other products with similarly humble origins: baskets made of sea grass, flowers made of newspaper, shoulder bags made of coffee bean bags and old seat belts.
Janie talked about her trip to Africa, where she saw people picking up trash to transform into items like those she now sells.
"They would have a heyday in our trash cans. They remake things we throw away."
From the beginning, Janie has carefully selected the products sold in The Potter's House. Sometimes it takes longer to get them to the store than she expects.
(Photograph by Timothy P. Riethmiller)
"We needed chocolate," Janie recalled, cupping a mug of tea her in hands, "and the only chocolate I was interested in was South Bend chocolate, because they use fair-trade cocoa."
When she began researching South Bend Chocolate Company online, she found out that the company wasn't signing new contracts. She received the same message over the phone from the South Bend representative.
Janie wasn't deterred."If I can't get them by the Internet or by the phone, I'll send them something by mail," she said. "I sent them a big packet-I sent them our business plan, our pictures of how the store would look-anything you can think of."
Janie's persistence paid off. A few days after sending the packet, she finalized a contract with the company's president, Mark Tarner, to sell South Bend Chocolates.
The Potter's House's mission focus does not stop with what it sells. The store also ministers to the local community.
"We have a fair trade store to feed the hungry in third-world countries, and we wanted to come full-circle," said Janie. "We had people (in Marion) who were really upset with us, because they'd say, 'You're doing so much to help feed people overseas-what about the hungry people here?'"
Rather than getting defensive, Janie acted on those comments: 10 percent of The Potter's House's fair-trade profits now go to St. Martin's Community Center.
The Potter's House staff seeks to serve customers with kindness, courtesy and compassion. Janie has seen this everyday goal met in unexpected ways.
"My big word is peace," Janie said. "I don't tell people that, usually, but I've had people tell me that the reason they come in here is because when they do, they have this overwhelming sense of peace. And I think that's very awesome, even if they're not here to buy anything."
Janie told the story of a woman from another town-a story that starts rather like Janie's did on January 8, before the naming of The Potter's House. Like Janie, this woman was driving into Marion with something weighing on her mind-her father's funeral. And like Janie, this woman pulled into the parking lot of the Tire Barn and the Tree of Life, asking God for a sign.
"She asked God for peace," Janie related. "She said, 'Something told me I needed to pull in here.' She came in, and after a minute, she just starts bawling."
Janie was there to listen."She told me her story, and she told me, 'I have found peace here. God sent me here." Janie paused, still cradling the half-empty mug in her hands, and continued the story, the memory deepening the smile on her face.
"We had a carving of a girl's face on the wall. It was carved out of an oil drum. They had sort of cut the hair into strips, and twisted it-so she had the most beautiful, twisted hair."
The carving attracted the woman's attention, and Janie told her the staff had named it Amani.
"She asked me what it meant," said Janie, "and I told her, 'It means peace.'"
Janie sat back, laughing as she shared that the woman immediately bought the carving. It was clear she understood the woman's excitement. After all, the woman's story isn't incredibly different from the story of The Potter's House.
