FULFILLING THE GREAT COMMISSION
BY SEWING & TELLING

• Collect wool scraps for hand hooked rugs and sell them to build hospitals and schools like the Grenfell Missions among the Inuits.
• Make and donate quilts for infants and children in orphanages. We recently had opportunity to see the colorful quilts made by quilters who put their skills to use in this way, and donate their quilts to Faith Intl. in Tacoma, Washington; a ministry that sends supplies to children in orphanages in such places as China, and Panama. Ask friends, neighbors, and family members to donate a sewing machine, quilt scraps, thread, and needles to your sewing circle, or to sponsor a quilt's shipping charges to a foreign orphanage.
• Have a quilting bee, raffle the quilt and send the money to your church missionaries.
• Make handmade quilts for your local hospice.
• Teach a quilting class to residents of a nursing home.
• Design a bible story wall hanging to decorate your home or church.
• Knit, crochet or quilt lap quilts for soldiers recovering from the battlefield, and donate these to your local Veterns Administration hospital.
• Rediscover the grief therapy in doing needlework or handwork in a sampler or quilt. When my mother was ill, I made a quilt, in the hours I sat by her bedside, following a heart attack. This quilt provides precious memories of my mother to our family today.
• Pray as you quilt,then give the prayer quilt to a shut in or sick person, believe it to be like the prayer clothes or aprons used in the bible for healing...(Acts 19:12)
• Some people make small dolls and donate them to the local public health clinics to be given to small children and to bring comfort after they receive their immunizations. Our daughters both were given cloth dolls of this sort, when they were toddlers.

My Favorite Anointed Christian Fiber Arts Web Sites

Quilts For AIDS Babies
Anointed Christian Fiber Arts & Design

Fiber Arts remains a powerful means through which to spread the gospel, just as it was during the "Temperance and Abolitionist Movements," in the United States. In the 1830's a Quaker family by the name of Coates were "Station #5" on the "Underground Railroad."

Deborah Coates was skillful with a needle, using her skills to help finance she and her husband's anti-slavery cause. But she didn't sell all of her quilts for the cause of the Abolutionist Movement. Apparently she kept one in the family for a "testimony" of God's love and grace.

Many years went by and when two grand-daughters could not agree on who should fall heir to the quilt, they cut the thing in half. It wasn't until a still more distant descendant received the quilt halves with the story of the secret that lay hidden in the seams, that the quilt was again sewn together, to reveal the form of a slave, pleading: "Deliver me from the oppression of man." Oppression hasn't ceased has it? We still see genocide in places like Bosnia, Kosovo, and various republics of Africa. Christian men and women of conscience can still pick up a needle, fellowship over a good old fashioned quilting bee, and raffle off their prize to send money to the church missionaries.

SEWING AS A MEANS OF SUPPORTING MISSIONS:

Over the years, many church groups have utilized cottage industries such as sewing, as a means of supporting gospel missions work. In this way, any age can participate, even retired people. A great number of churches have missionary sewing circles, making all sorts of items, such as baby quilts, diapers, rugs from scraps, etc. Some make banners and items for praise and worship and sell these to contribute to the church mission fund.

SEWING AS MEDITATION IN GOD'S WORD:

A hundred years ago s and even boys learned to sew from a tender young age. A sampler in their hands kept them busy and quiet, and served to help these home schooled children learn their alphabet, or a scripture from God's word. There are companies who specialize in Christian cross-stitch, or design and complete a project yourself. If it is difficult for you to do work that is "close-up," why not design a pattern for your precious grand-child to work on. If your family is are out of state, you could make a small inexpensive kit with a piece of needlepoint canvas, a needle and embroidery thread.

SEWING AS GRIEF THERAPY:

Years ago, people used to work needle point samplets as a practical means of overcoming grief. "The Tree of Life" was a popular theme for the comfort and hope that it brought to the mourner, that the loved one was in a far better place with Jesus. A bit of inspiring prose with a Christian theme or a scripture was often included, and as the person worked the piece, the goodness of God and His word could be meditated upon. A memorial stitched into a sampler to mourn the loss of a husband, a parent or child, allowed the individual to reflect on the times shared, and to work through ot to process this grief in a meaningful way. In the days following my mother's illness, as she lay hospitalized; I completed a "Grandmothers Garden," quilt top, that we enjoy today. My mothers garden was her family.

These carefully wrought quilts, and hand embroidered, or stitched linens have become cherished heirlooms, not just for the one who stitched them, but to the family that mourns her when she herself is gone, providing cherished memories, as well as a sense of heritage, and an interest in an art that can be used to the glory of God.