After graduating from Baylor University’s Truett Seminary, Shannon Williams did indeed become a missionary like she always wanted to, just not in the traditional sense. As director of the Fair Trade Market, part of Mission Waco Mission World, she promotes her passion of handcrafted wares made by artisans around the world through fair trade practices. But she does her work with a mission, by the personal creed she developed in seminary: Sharing the love of God one relationship at a time.
WACOAN writer Susan Bean Aycock sat down with Williams recently to talk about fair trade, the art of making, cultivating worldwide friendships and doing missionary work in your own backyard.
Where did you grow up?
I was born in Zachary, Louisiana, but within a year my parents moved us to southwest Mississippi, to a little town called Meadville that had 365 people. My dad was a forest ranger with the National Forestry Service and my mom worked for a plant nursery. I graduated high school in Meadville in ‘96 and did my first two years of college at Copiah-Lincoln Community College in Wesson, Mississippi, where I got an associate’s degree in art and architecture. That helped me get scholarships in academics, visual art, vocal performance and religion to William Carey University (WCU)
in Hattiesburg.
What were your college years like?
I thought I was going to be a missionary and that’s a big part of my story. I switched majors from art and architecture to religion and history, which is what I got my bachelor’s degree in. In college, I served as a summer missionary in ‘98 in inner-city Des Moines, Iowa, which very much shaped my later life. My second year, I traveled around western Montana doing Vacation Bible Schools and working with kids in rural settings. My third year, I spent the summer in Israel on an archeological dig — that’s where my religion degree really took root seeing the places of the Bible in person.
So you were going to be a missionary. . .
But I was like, ‘Lord, I don’t know what to do after I graduate college.’ One day there was a message on my answering machine from my philosophy professor. He’s like, ‘Shannon, I want to nominate you for the Mississippi Baptist Cooperative Scholarship.’ And I said, ‘Well, when’s the application due?’ He was like, ‘Five o’clock today.’ So I went to his office and filled out the application and asked him, ‘Where do you think I should go?’ He said, ‘I think Truett Seminary would be a good fit for you.’ For some reason, I thought Truett was in Atlanta. Did not know it was at Baylor University in Waco. Went back to my apartment and looked it up, and I thought, wow, what a cool school. It really promoted women in religion and was very inclusive, which is very important to me. Again, I’m thinking, I want to be a missionary, 100%. I did indeed receive the Mississippi Baptist Cooperative Scholarship, a full scholarship to Truett Seminary
on academics.
What was your experience at Truett Seminary?
I was challenged a lot and it really opened my eyes to the realization that I didn’t want to be in the politics of a church. I wanted to work in a nonprofit, but was still thinking I wanted to be a missionary — OK, what does that look like? One professor challenged us the very first day of my very first year to come up with a mission statement and live by it. Mine is ‘Sharing the love of God one relationship at a time.’ I bring that up because that’s how I do things here at Mission Waco. Jimmy Dorell (co-founder and president emeritus of Mission Waco Mission World) was my professor my last year at Truett.
How did Jimmy Dorrell challenge you as a seminary student?
He challenged everybody to get outside of the church and do three hours of Waco ‘night life.’ I chose to go to a tattoo parlor and I actually got a piercing that night (the upper cartilage piercing on her left ear). He said, ‘I didn’t tell you to do that!’ I volunteered at the hospital for my Urban Ministry class and did stints in the emergency room, the morgue — different places where we saw hurting people — and realized that there’s more to ministry than just what’s within the church walls. Jimmy helped me to realize that I could do mission work right here in Waco.
What led you to Mission Waco?
When I graduated [from Truett Seminary with a Master of Divinity in 2003], I really felt led to talk to Jimmy about an internship, and ended up interning for Mission Waco for 15 months. I started with the children’s program, worked through social services and administration, and went back to the children’s ministry. They had just gotten a grant for the Kids’ Cafe, and managing it was the only paid position available at the time.
In the mornings, I worked downtown as a web developer, and then Mission Waco found out that I could do websites and I became their webmaster in 2007. They needed somebody to come do the books and admin tasks for the new World Cup Cafe (opened in 2006), and I just said yeah, that’s something I can do.
In the afternoons, I would feed from 40 to 60 kid at Kids’ Cafe. Who knew I would go through seven years of post-secondary education to be a lunch lady, you know? But it was a time of loving on the kids and being in their lives, helping form what they would be like later. There were just all those little seeds to sow.
How did the Fair Trade Market get its start?
We were established in 2006 as part of the World Cup Cafe. First there were a couple of shelves in the cafe, then the shelves moved into the hallway. In 2013 Jimmy asked me to step down from the children’s program and direct the Fair Trade Market full time in its own
larger space.
So what all do you do in your job as director of the Fair Trade Market?
Oh my goodness. I get to buy and curate really cool pieces from fair trade companies. I get to teach all kinds of different classes. I have four amazing volunteers and two student workers that I get to supervise. All of them have different giftings, and it’s all about trying to see where can I empower them to empower themselves. I get to talk to student groups from fourth grade to senior adults about what fair trade is; we call them ‘learnings.’ I probably do 34 learnings a summer with people of all ages. I’ve helped get several fair trade shops started in other places. We do pop-ups. I love the idea of how we can be good stewards with our own money, good stewards with our nonprofit’s money and still do good somewhere else in the world.
Your art and crafting workshops are wildly popular — how did they get started?
I was still teaching art classes to kids during the summer and after school, and I thought, there’s nothing for adults. There’s nothing that just allows adults to play. I had gotten my certification in art therapy to help treat anxiety disorders. I’m not an art therapist, but I was using some of those skills with the kids with behavioral issues. It really got me thinking about adults; I feel like we get stifled in our creativity. I wanted to have classes where you could learn something, not just learn a craft but something tied into my passion for fair trade. I started researching different art forms that I could teach.
That first year we offered classes — 2018 — it just so happened that for World Fair Trade Day, a company called Matr Boomie (an ethical fair trade gift shop selling handmade crafts from India) was holding a block printing contest and sending out block printing kits around the nation. Our group had all ages, from 8 to senior adults, and I talked about India and how the blocks were made, then we took photos and posted them. Well, we won the best block printing party in the nation, partly, I think, because of the learning aspect along with the art. That got me to thinking, man, that was cool — let’s try something else.
I started researching other art forms, because of the nine principles of fair trade, one of them is cultural identity, where you’re celebrating not just the art but the way that people make things and what they use them for. I wanted people to not only appreciate the art but also the process. We started with about four classes that year, and then we did a couple more classes in 2019. In 2020 and ‘21, Covid hit. But we started back up in 2022. In 2024 we did 12 classes; in 2025 we did two classes in some months; and in 2026 we’ll have nine months that have two classes — 21 in all.
Art as therapy has a personal significance to you, doesn’t it?
I was diagnosed with OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder) when I was 5 and perfectionism has been a struggle all my life. I was diagnosed with anxiety disorder at 22 and depression at 34. I have to create something a couple times a week as part of my mental health. That’s part of my continuing therapy.
Do you personally teach all the workshops?
I teach the majority. If there’s somebody that I know that I can learn from, either we co-teach it or they teach it. Christy Town, an amazing watercolorist, taught a couple of classes. Nicole Wiscombe, who’s a social worker but also a textile artist, has taught crochet and knitting. Suzi Ickles is a calligrapher who has taught brush lettering and origami classes.
You said adults can be reluctant to try creating because they think they’re not artistic. Can you speak to that?
I think everybody’s good at something, and everybody’s creative in something — from arranging flowers to making a cake to taking photographs or a thousand other areas. I also want to break the stigma between fine artists and makers. I was trained in fine art but I’m also a maker. People shy away from ‘granny crafts’ sometimes because they think they’re not really art, but I think it takes just as much talent to make a beaded bracelet as it does to paint an oil painting. Even now, I feel like a lot of people don’t like to say they’re makers, because they they feel like their creation is less than a mural painter’s. All art takes inspiration and talent.
What about your personal life? I know you had a couple of rough years there.
I married my husband Jeremy in 2019 and over half the people at our wedding I knew through World Cup. Then in 2023, just as I was starting my new round of classes, Jeremy had a massive stroke at 41 and that kind of derailed everything. Later that year, my father passed away and then I had some medical issues. So ‘23 was just kind of a bust.
Jeremy went from [violin] teaching to being on disability and mostly in a wheelchair now. He’s able to still play, but not play like he loved to. He had to learn how to access the world differently and that was a big shock for me too. He had worked for Mission Waco and had just left for another position when he had the stroke, so we went down to my one income. That’s definitely changed our lifestyle. After my dad died my mom moved to Waco and that’s been cool to see her go from living in rural Mississippi to being an ‘urbanite’
in Waco.
Yours is the only Verified Fair Trade Market in Central Texas, right?
We are. We’re fair-trade-certified through the Fair Trade Federation, which is part of the bigger World Fair Trade Organization. We’re also ‘Good Market Certified in America,’ which is not only fair trade but also ethically-made goods. That includes organic materials, fair wages and good working conditions with no child labor. Fair trade really fits the mission of Mission Waco in empowering people. We’re not just giving money to somebody and then leaving them on their own. When we help create economy for artisans, we help them empower themselves.
What are people looking for when they come into the store?
There’s a lady on disability that comes in every month; her name is Carla. She always buys something small. I want to make sure everybody feels welcome here, even if they’re shopping for the smallest things. One day I asked her, ‘Miss Carla, why do you come here?’ And she said, ‘Well, I’m not able to travel or go a lot of places. I come here so I can see the things from around the world, how pretty and unique they are. It kind of allows me to travel without leaving Waco.’
One time, she picked up a necklace that was made by a Kenyan artist named Simon, who works with a group called Venture Imports. And she said, ‘Shannon, do you know this person? Can you thank him for bringing the beauty of Kenya to me in Waco?’ And I said, ‘I know Jenny who knows Simon, so let me send him a message through her.’ And he wrote back through Jenny, to say, ‘I send it with love.’ Now, how cool is that?
What are some of the store’s best-sellers?
Hearts made from kisii stone from Nairobi, Kenya. Bolga sea-grass baskets from Rwanda and Uganda. A third thing that sells really well is Mr. Ellie Pooh products. A vet went to Sri Lanka to help with their Indian elephant population, saw a need for people to have a way to make an income and figured out how to make paper using dried elephant dung. It’s so fun to talk about that in my kids’ classes and see their reactions about how you turn poop into paper.
I want to know something about each piece, not only what person made it but their ethnic group and the story behind the piece. I think people like to come in and challenge me, ‘Well, what’s this? Where’s this from?’ And it’s funny, because I can usually answer those questions.
Tell me a story behind one of the fair trade companies you work with.
Starfish is one of the very first companies we worked with and they helped build the bedrock of who we are. My mentor Kathy Allison has a friend who was a missionary in China, and one of her friends started Starfish in Beijing. Starfish sponsors women’s cooperatives making beaded jewelry. Their cooperatives are all in red light districts for women to be able to come out of sex trafficking. They first start with sorting the beads, then they start making necklaces and bracelets and earrings. Then they learn some marketing skills, then they get computer classes and graduate. The company name is based on the story of a boy being asked why he’s throwing beached starfish back into the ocean when there are so many it can’t possibly make a difference. And the boy said, ‘It makes a difference to this one.’
At last count, I think Starfish has had 356 women come out of sex trafficking over 14 years. Doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s not about the numbers. It’s about their quality of life and where they now: They’re married and have children, have their own businesses and documentation. The women never show their faces in the company’s testimonies, but theirs are stories
of redemption.
Tell me a little bit about how current economics have affected the store’s purchasing power.
I started paying attention to economic trends and world geopolitics, and in February 2025 saw that tariffs were coming. I went to the [Mission Waco] Board and asked if I could purchase for most of the year. They thought that was a good idea and it did work well for us. But getting ready for Christmas, we needed to restock some things. One of those was hand-knitted dinosaurs we buy from a fair trade company in China. Our shipment was $650 but we ended up paying $548 on top of that for tariffs. We had great sales until Covid; it took a big chunk of our buying power, but I pivoted and put everything online that year and rebuilt the entire website. Online purchases now help supplement the sales slump.
So do you ship orders from online purchases?
We get probably four to five orders a month from other states and the last time I counted, we’ve shipped to 43 states. So that was kind of a benefit of Covid, in that it forced me to rework our website from just information-based to commerce-based.
What do you do for fun?
I’m a huge movie buff. I always say that when — if — I ever retire I’d love to be a movie critic. I love to embroider and I’m very much a textile artist. I’ve joined the Calligraphy Guild of Waco, learning penmanship and handwriting. I’m in a book club and am just starting to learn mahjong. I’d like to start a mahjong group here at World Cup for people of all ages and backgrounds.
What’s the best part of your job?
The people! I love people and I’m a big extrovert. I get to talk to people on a daily basis. I get to teach. I get to just play as part of my job. We have creative time from 2 to 4 on Wednesdays where you can bring any kind of art medium and just play.
What do people get when they buy fair trade?
You can buy a scarf anywhere, but with a fair trade purchase you’re buying into people’s lives around the world. It’s not just a scarf with no name. We know the artisans’ names, where they live. We know how our purchases go back to help them. That’s how we know our neighbor, loving on people that we may never see or meet. You don’t have to be a Christian to be part of fair trade, but as a Christian I feel like that’s how I’m showing that love of God and loving on people.
Fair Trade Market is located at 1321 N. 15th St. at Colcord, behind the World Cup Cafe. For more information on classes, call 254 757-1748 or visit worldcupfairtrade.org.
