Toots and the Mission Trip

Our granddaughter, Toots, spent the night with us last night to enjoy our company and go to church this morning. She is rather excited about church today because the children's worship program is going on a mission trip in our city. They are going to one of the nursing homes to sing, present cards, and talk with the people. As she was talking about how fun the trip would be, she confused the name and referred to going to the "funeral" home. I guess that would qualify as a mission field, but a little late for the dearly departed.

From a Burden of Material to Blessings of Quilts

We have missed 4 days this week due to the ice storm. I should do my homework (like I expect of the children) but instead, I have been making quilts for an orphanage in the Philippines. It's an interesting story of how someone's burden became the blessing of so many. One of my teacher friends had a "ton" of material to get "rid of" after her grandmother passed. While talking about it to me one day, I told her that I would be able to use some at our church for costumes. Long story short, she was able to bring three loads of the material to my house. Besides using it at school for bulletin board covers, at church for the stage at Children's Worship, and for costumes, I was able to send three shipments to a mission called Gifts for the Nations which uses/sends materials all over the world. And now several ladies from our church are making quilts from the last of the material for an orphanage in the Philippines. And a local nursing home has ladies ready to tie the quilts. The blessings keep growing and blessing more.

Day By Day By Night By Night By Day By Night

When I woke up this morning, it occurred to me that life is just passing by, marked by minutes, hours, nights and days, projects, assignments, holidays, work. For some reason this morning it seemed to me that there is no purpose in life. We do the same things over and over again, never completing. Is this what life is suppose to be? The sad part is that while I am doing mission work on the home front, I still see life just passing by. Is it me? Do I need an attitude adjustment? Am I still suffering the effects of the allergy? Am I like my Chia pet--great expectations but short lived?

Reflections of the Year Past and Resolutions of the Year Present

Ok, so the title is not original, but I'm tired and can't think. It seems as if 2010 has zoomed past me and at times dragged me along with it. I had many deadlines to meet, goals to accomplish, work to be done, and on and on. I guess it would behoove me to make a list of those things accomplished for my own sake, for motivation to do even more in 2011. So here goes in no particular order:

• Babysat my granddaughter on our days off from school, including most of the summer. We had lots of fun, learned a lot, and enjoyed our time.
• Welcomed a new grandson into the world. He is so cute. He loves to stick out his tongue, and he is only 8 months old. Looking forward to many new adventures.
• Enjoyed time with our step-grandsons (I hate that word step!) playing, eating, roasting hot dogs and marshmallows, watching football, and just spending time together.
• Enjoyed time with my three children, their mates, and grandchildren, but always wishing it were more time.
• With a great group of people, we sewed and shipped 1001 diapers for the Northwest Haiti Christian Mission. This is the most we have ever done. PTL
• Went on a mission trip to South Dakota to help build the addition to their church. In just 3 1/2 days the project went from a hole in the ground to complete roof.
• Went on a mission trip to Honduras where Lorraine and I helped with their sewing program. I took oversized and unwanted clothes and showed them how to make backpacks, bags, skirts from jeans, save items from the clothes and much more. I was so thrilled to be doing mission work in my area of skill.
• Worked Vacation Bible School which is always a fun activity to be with the children.
• Continued with Beginner Bible Bowl kids at our monthly competitions and the Nationals. The young ones keep you hopping and all was good!
• Attended the National Missionary Convention to renew our desire to work in missions, pick up new ideas, and make new contacts. It's better than a family reunion.
• Accepted the challenge and read through the Bible in one year along with 80+ others from our church.
• Continued with our small group for the third year. As a group we sent Children's Spanish Bibles to a project in Honduras, sold Christmas wreaths for project money, worked at SOS in town, sponsored a child for the year, and purchased Christmas for an extended family. We love getting together and especially eating.
• Finished agonizing physical therapy on my hip, and had a root canal. Yippee!
• Continued with our Sign Language Interpreters at church.
• Became Marty's nurse after he had shoulder surgery. I was creative on ways to make his recovery easier such as elastic bands to hold his phone and TV remote while he recovered in his recliner.
• Continued to serve on the Missions Team, collect food for the CARES program, and substitute at the Senior Dinners.
• Attended the graduation, honors dinner, and parties for my nephew, Kyle, who graduated second in his class. Way to go, Kyle!!
• Continued another year as teacher of fourth graders. I have a great class this year:)
• Celebrated 60 years of life and 38 years of marriage to my life partner, Marty. Looking forward to many more years of life and marriage.

As I have listed these accomplishments, it has been cathartic as well as encouraging to me. I see that I need to get busy on a whole new list of things to accomplish in the year 2011. God, I'm ready to serve.

Black Friday Yields Bounty of Flannel

We did it! My husband and I stood in line, in the freezing cold, to buy flannel material for the construction of Diapers for Haiti for 2011. We found the flannel aisle first and quickly began snatching the thickest bolts off the racks. When hubby pulled our number for the cutting line, we were the second one in order. We piled two shopping carts completely full and headed to the cutting table. Several of the bolts were full and did not have to be measured which saved us time. Bolt by bolt the lady unrolled and measured, handed the piles to us to fold and put back in the carts. This process continued till every piece was accounted for and recorded. There were many customers with smiles on their faces and full carts also, but there were others who had only a few things to cut and were indeed miffed at the long wait. If I could have told them the reason for our large load, perhaps they would have understood. Several people asked us what we were going to do with the material so we were able to share our ministry. At the end of 90 minutes, we pushed our carts out of the store, having saved $1,886, and racking up 425 yards!!

Sewing Diapers for Haiti

We are sewing diapers this week for a mission in Haiti. It's not hard. We show up and sew, cut, clip threads, turn and so on. During our work last night we had time to fellowship, share stories, and laugh. The two and one half hours flew by. Fuzz up our noses and on our clothes was a great reminder that we accomplished much in just one evening. By Thursday evening our labors will have produced enough diapers to bless many mothers and babies. Thank you, God, for this mission project and for the faithful servants who do Your work.

Update on the Bible Bowl Yard Sale

Well, the sale was great. At least for me. I was able to buy about 30 books for my school library at a low price. My students will be thrilled with the new books. I also found books for my granddaughter, and she has already enjoyed them the first time through. I also found two plastic chests with three drawers each. Once they are cleaned up, they will be a great addition at school for additional storage. I found cookie cutters, Christmas decorations, plastic containers with paper clips and push pins, a staple gun that works, a small basket for cards, and other containers. Once I clean them, I will be so thrilled to have them at school. BUT, my job at the sale was to help people find and buy items. I'm good at that. And I helped sell many items, especially the wooden entrance door with leaded glass. I knew it was perfect for my neighbors so I called them to come look. The husband was not sure until I told him it would look perfect in their gazebo. He bought it.

I Hate Yard Sales! Well, Most of the Time

I mean, I hate doing a yard sale. I'd rather give the stuff away. But I am working one of those sales today. Our Bible Bowl teams are hosting a yard sale to earn money for our season. It's a ton of work, but worth it for us and all those people who were able to unload their stuff on us. All the shoes that are wearable will be pulled aside to be sent to Honduras, to a mission we support. Sometimes other items are pulled out to be distributed to other groups in more need than just our fund raiser. So all in all, every minute is worthy of our time and your.

How Many Bibles Do You Have?

That is a good question and probably one we don't consider. We are so blessed with the Bibles we have, all the versions, various sizes, as well as study guides. I know of a place where they are desperate for the Bible, to hold, to read, to study, to share. Our small group has taken on the challenge to buy and send Bibles to that place--Honduras. The challenge is not the money required to purchase the books, but the way to get them to Honduras inexpensively and quickly. Our small group has purchased a dozen study Bibles and have a way to send them. We hope to be able to purchase and send many more. Soon!! The B-I-B-L-E, yes, that's the book for me, I stand alone on the Word of God, the B-I-B-L-E!

Ask and You Shall Receive

Our small group from church is awesome. I requested money to buy children's Bibles in Spanish for Honduras, and each member reached deep in his/her pocket and pulled out lots of cash. We will be ordering the Bibles online, and soon, those books will be in the hands of the little ones who never had a Bible before.

Dressed Down But Up for the Wedding

Yesterday was the wedding of two dear friends of ours. They were introduced to and got to know one another on mission trips from our church. I'm not sure when they fell in love, but if you can fall in love with someone on a mission trip, it must be love. For the wedding, my husband had this great idea. He suggested to all who have been on a mission trip with Justin and Barb over the past few years should wear some article of clothing from one of the trips. Wow! It was great. We saw two different kinds of shirts from the Indian reservation this summer, shirts from the Mexican trip, ladies hats from Barbados, sandals from Mexico and Barbados, shirt from Haiti diaper mission, sombrero, tool belt, sewing supplies, and shirts, shorts, and headbands from working in the heat in Barbados. The bride and groom loved it!! Both said they wish they had thought of it and worn something similar as their wedding attire. Thanks hubby for the close connection we felt to them through our outfits. May God allow us to go on many more trips with them.

May I Be Excused?

I heard that the bathrooms are not completed in my school. I wonder if they will be green like those at a school in Honduras. I wonder if they will be large enough like the other one in Honduras. As it stands, both Honduran bathrooms are better than what we have. LOL

School, The Ultimate Mission Trip

I'm sitting here with mixed emotions--school is about ready to begin for another year. I have had an awesome summer with the following:

• mission trip to South Dakota to help build an addition to the church on an Indian reservation
• National Beginner Bible Bowl tournament in Cincy with our 4 awesome players
• a week of Vacation Bible School
• mission trip to Honduras to teach sewing to the ladies
• sewing 254 diapers for the mission in Haiti with a large team of workers
• babysitting my granddaughter

I need to change my thinking and my focus about school. Instead of dreading it, I need to consider it another mission trip, another opportunity to witness and nurture the children and staff. That's what I will do:) No funds are needed, just prayer that I am the best ambassador I can be to all who see.

Potential Hip and Knee Replacements

As I grow older, many things on the body begin to wear out. I'm having some difficulties with one hip and both knees. While on a mission trip to South Dakota, I checked out this animal for a possible donation. His joints worked magnificently, and he doesn't need them any more.

More Honduran School News.

While visiting the school in Honduras, I took some shots of the "centers" developed by the teacher for the students' use. The pictures are of Science and Math centers. All of the centers were perched on a narrow shelf across the back of the room with each clearly labeled. I marveled at them. From the items contained within each, I assume the teacher had to find/buy his own. But I should not judge what it takes to instruct the children. I know that my students would be so bored with the items while the Honduran children are so blessed.

Time For School in Honduras

We have so much! When I boxed up my room to make way for the renovations of our building, I had over 70 large boxes of books and supplies. I dread having to unbox and shelve all my stuff when we finally get into our upgraded school buildings. But check out these photos of a school in Honduras. And two bathrooms were sufficient for the whole school.

Lawn Care the Honduran Way

In any neighborhood in our state one can find meticulously manicured lawns, the pride of the owners. In Honduras it is a little bit different. You can see in the one picture the lawn before cutting. The other one is of a boy using the "mower", a machete to cut the lawn. And the young man was wearing flip flops.

And Sew It Goes

What a night! Severe thunderstorms! Tornado warning! No power! Power back on! Power flickering! Heavy rains! But at the appointed time the faithful servants began arriving to begin our mission of sewing diapers for Haiti. We had 9 sewing machines whirring that beautiful sound, 8 ladies and 1 man operating the machines, one 5 year old who worked diligently cutting wash cloths apart, restacking, cutting threads on diapers, carrying items to sewers, and counting diapers and me, cutting elastic, clipping and turning diapers. What an awesome sight. What a way to allow God to use our talents to serve Him in this mission. Thanks to all who served. Looking forward to doing it again tonight.

Sewing Diapers for Haiti

It's that time again! We are ready to sew diapers for the Northwest Haiti Christian Mission's birthing center. The mothers come to the center to give birth at no cost, increasing the changes for a safe birth and a live baby. While at the center, the staff witnesses to the mothers, telling them about Christ, their Savior. When the mothers leave, they are given a diaper bag with several cloth diapers, a blanket or two, wash cloths, a couple of shirts, etc. Without the diapers the babies wear dirty rags or nothing. So come help us make diapers to cover those precious bottoms and further witness to the families. (Laurie, this is not the post for your blog. I have a little more to say on the subject.)

Sewing Ideas for Honduras

I would like to share a little of what Lorraine and I were able to do during the mission trip to Honduras. With limited strength abilities, we were not able to do the construction of the walls, painting the clinic, throwing rocks down the hill, or digging out the ditch, but we were able to share our gift of sewing with several of the ladies. His Eyes for Honduras mission receives large amounts of clothing from the USA to be used in many ways to further the mission. Unfortunately, "gringo guilt" sets in and we Americans send clothing that is too large (4X), winter coats, sweaters, etc. The mission has all these bags of clothing that is not usable as is. Our goal was to teach the ladies how to alter, reconstruct, create something new, and save buttons, zippers, belts, ribbing, and straps for later use. I showed the ladies how to make purses and tote bags from jeans and bib overalls, braided rugs from strips of torn blue jeans, a skirt from jeans, drawstring backpack from two legs of jeans, decorative pillowcase from pajama shirt, and a small purse from the leg of dress slacks with a man's tie for a handle. Lorraine showed them how to make a smaller sized tee shirt by cutting XL shirt, reusing ribbing from other shirts, and constructing the new one. The ladies were so thrilled to be able to do this. They were able to make the shirts with one easy lesson and the language barrier. The mounds of clothing will yield them many new shirts in the correct sizes. We were able to teach alterations of hems, sleeves, darts, and removing turtleneck collars. The ladies were quick learners and were able to whip out items so easily. One of the ladies came back the next day with a drawstring purse she had made out of a decorated woman's shirt. Such talent!! We were asked if we could just stay in Honduras to teach more sewing. When the answer was no, they asked us to come back soon. The Lord willing, I think that can be arranged.