When Esthers Arise Inc. | Welland, Ontario | Community, Faith and Grassroots Marketplace
Imagine a woman in Welland who makes preserves. Good ones, from her grandmother’s method, and everyone who has tasted them has told her she should sell them.
She has looked into it. A stall at a market costs money she does not have spare, and she cannot know whether she will sell enough to cover it. So the jars stay in her kitchen, and the business that might have started never does.
That gap between a good product and a first customer is where most of those enterprises never formalize, not from a failure of the idea, but from the cost of finding out whether it works. The organization believes the cost of entering a traditional marketplace can be a barrier for someone who is still testing an idea.
Launch History of The Market
They officially launched the market on July 3, 2026, as a weekly Friday market. July was intentionally a weekly pilot/awareness period, allowing the company to test the concept, create awareness, engage vendors and connect with the community. After the July pilot, it transitioned to a monthly format: Esthers Every Last Friday Market, held on the last Friday of each month. This monthly format began after the July pilot and applies to the September, October and subsequent editions.
As part of its broader mission, When Esthers Arise Inc. runs Esthers Every Last Friday Market to create opportunities for women and emerging entrepreneurs, support families, and foster community connection.
When Esthers Arise removed the cost
Esthers Every Last Friday Market — September Edition at the Welland Farmers’ Market — has waived vendor fees throughout 2026. No fee, no barrier, no requirement to have proved anything first. Just a table, a location, and people walking past.
Four Pillars, One Community
The organization describes itself through four connected pillars, and the marketplace is only one of them.
The Friday Market is a gathering place where local goods, food and community spirit come together on the last Friday of each month at 70 Young Street. The Community Hub offers a space for women to pray, connect and support one another. Women’s Bible studies, prayer gatherings, devotional content and faith-based resources are available to all. Devotional and authorship work are integral to When Esthers Arise’s spiritual outreach and development.
Events and Booking cover themed Fridays celebrating elders, youth and the wider community, with direct access to the leadership team.
Morufat Ogunkoya — Founder / Spiritual Leader / Market Facilitator
Susan Okoye — Hospitality
Njeri Mugwe — Logistics
Cynthia Louis — Treasurer and Market Facilitator
Nadia Needham — Secretary and Market Facilitator
Alade Janet — Prayer Team Lead
Devotionals provides daily prayer journals and faith books.
The organization’s purpose is summarized in three phrases: empowering women, strengthening families, building community. Its motto — rise together, thrive as one — sits alongside the verse the name is drawn from, Esther 4:14: “for such a time as this.”
That grounding is worth understanding rather than skipping past, because it explains the economics.
For When Esthers Arise, the marketplace is more than a commercial space. It extends the organization’s broader mission to empower women, support emerging entrepreneurs, strengthen families, and build community. The marketplace puts that mission into practice by giving local entrepreneurs opportunities to showcase their products, connect with customers, and build confidence.
As a young and growing organization, When Esthers Arise continues to build a community of vendors, entrepreneurs, members, and supporters, and the marketplace continues to attract new participants.
When Esthers Arise provides women’s Bible studies, prayer gatherings, devotional content and faith-based resources, devotional work plays an integral role in the organization’s outreach and spiritual development.
When Esthers Arise Inc. operates Esthers Every Last Friday Market as one of its initiatives. as part of its broader mission to empower women, support emerging entrepreneurs, strengthen families, and foster meaningful community connections.
The Woman Who Started It
When Esthers Arise was founded by Morufat “MO” Adedoyin Ogunkoya, who leads the organization as Founder and Spiritual Leader.
Her description of the work is direct. She writes about creating an atmosphere of courage, audacity, and trust in God’s power, helping women reclaim their identity and break through life’s challenges through devotionals or retreats that lay strong spiritual foundations. Her focus on faith, purpose and restoration, she says, reflects a deep desire to see others walk in their God-given authority, just as Esther did — and to encourage others to rise, trusting God even when it feels like everything is falling apart.
Notably, from a community and economic development perspective, that conviction has translated into practical infrastructure. Encouragement is common. A 2026 vendor-fee waiver at ‘Every Last Friday Market’ is encouragement with a fixed address and operating hours.
A Team That Runs It
The leadership team is unusually well defined for a grassroots organization, and its composition reveals a group that has thought about how a market actually functions.
Cynthia Louis serves as Treasurer and Market Facilitator, described as a community builder dedicated to creating meaningful connections between local businesses and the people they serve. Nadia Needham is Secretary and Market Facilitator, committed to empowering local entrepreneurs and building a stronger, more connected Welland.
Alade Janet, based in Kemptville, leads the Prayer Team—a healthcare worker whose stated mission is to help people through giving and words of encouragement. Susan Okoye leads Servant’s Heart and facilitates the market, working to ensure ‘Esthers Every Last Friday Market’ celebrates local enterprise and human connection. Njeri Mugwe handles hospitality and logistics, dedicated to helping every vendor and visitor feel at home.
Rooted in Welland
The organization’s launch at the Welland Farmers’ Market drew civic recognition, with Mayor Frank Campion attending as a special guest alongside a live performance by Rob Repovs.
That matters for a community initiative. A market only works if the surrounding community treats it as part of the town’s rhythm rather than as an event happening nearby, and municipal presence at the outset signals exactly that.
The organization stays connected to its members through Facebook, Instagram, a WhatsApp broadcast channel carrying market news and prayer alerts, and an email list operated in compliance with Canadian anti-spam legislation.
What Comes Next
The need this addresses is growing.
Cost pressures have pushed more people toward supplementary income, and the informal economy of home bakers, crafters, preserve-makers and small food producers has expanded accordingly. Most of those enterprises never formalize, and the reason is almost always the same: the first fixed cost arrives before the first sale.
Removing that cost changes the arithmetic entirely. A vendor who can test a product for a Friday, then another Friday, learns what sells and what price the market will bear before committing anything. Some will conclude it is not for them. Others will find they have a business.
Either way, they will have found out — which is more than most people with a good idea ever get the chance to do.
Esthers Every Last Friday Market — September Edition, ten until six, at 70 Young Street. Esthers Every Last Friday Market is one initiative of When Esthers Arise Inc. that plays its role in community building, boosting When Esthers Arise Inc.’s organizational strengths.
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