"People can buy Christmas presents, but this (local shop) is helping people all over the world," said Beverly Hartgrove, who runs the Ten Thousand Villages Shop offered annually at Oxford Presbyterian Church (OPC). "We are shopping, but helping others at the same time."

Ten Thousand Villages offers home decor, accessories and gift items made by artisans around the world. A founding member of the World Fair Trade Organization, the Ten Thousand Villages organization ensures that artisans receive a fair price for their work, while offering shoppers an opportunity to buy unique handcrafted items. According to http://www.tenthousandvillages.com, every purchase directly impacts the life and community of its maker in a developing country.

This year, the shop at OPC will be open on Saturdays and Sundays through Dec. 17 from 10 a.m. to noon. In addition, the shop will be open on Friday, Dec. 1, from 5 to 8 p.m., during which time children's author Iris Gray Dowling of Cochranville will be on hand to sign copies of her books, which are available to purchase in the shop.

Dowling's latest picture book is titled "Open Your Eyes (Discover the Cecropia Moth)." Her other books have offered nature stories, school and church program ideas and puppet skits. She also wrote "History of Churches and Worship Groups in the Oxford Area" and "Mission Stories," which details true stories from people in the Upper Oxford and Cochranville areas who served as missionaries.

The shop is located on the second floor of the church, which can be accessed by the stairs or an elevator. "It's a double Sunday school room - rooms 205 and 207," explained Hartgrove. "We set up a whole slew of tables all around the walls and in the middle. And we have bookcases that we put on the tables. We try and make it attractive. It's like a boutique."

Along with the Ten Thousand Villages merchandise, the shop features items from the Presbyterian Coffee Project. "(We offer) equal exchange coffee and tea from Costa Rica and Guatemala, chocolate bars and Palestinian oil that comes to us through Coffee Project," noted Hartgrove.

Other items offered for sale include gifts from Women of the Cloud Forest, which includes jewelry, balsa wood birds, balsa sculptures and ornaments made in Nicaragua, Nepal, Ecuador and Peru.

"This is our 19th year of having the shop," said Hartgrove, noting that the sale items come from Ten Thousand Villages Mechanicsburg. "They order for us and bring us the stuff on consignment. Anything we don't sell they take back."

She added that the church receives a small percentage of the shop's proceeds.

Oxford Presbyterian Church is located at 6 Pine St., Oxford. For more information about the Ten Thousand Villages Shop, visit http://www.facebook.com/OxfordPresbyterian or call the church office at 610-932-9640.