Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Sewing (02/22/07)
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TITLE: Grandma's Ministry | Previous Challenge Entry
By Deborah Torok
02/27/07 -
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“Grandma, why is it that you have spent every night, year after year making these quilts. Your eyes are so tired and your hands so worn.” I asked as I sat myself down.
She sat back in her chair looked out ahead of her as if going to another place and another time. “Rebecca, it was during the great depression that my church group decided to go out into the city and help those less fortunate than us. It was there that I saw children standing on street corners with cups begging for soup and bread. Mothers holding their babies weeping not knowing where the next meal would come from. The men were all gone looking for work. As the months went on winter came and I saw the same children standing on the street corners with torn mittens, ripped sweaters and old stockings. There fingers wet from putting them into their mouths trying to keep them warm. One child by the name of Anthony came to me. His words cut through my inner soul. Lady, he said, do have a blanket for my momma. She’s real sick and can’t get out of bed. She has no blanket to keep her warm and her cough keeps getting worse. I asked him to take me to her and what I saw put me to shame. There was a woman with matted hair laying on nothing but a piece of wood with a small pillow atop it. There were mice squeaking about the place and the cupboards were half open and bare. The only light that shined into the one room apartment was from a small window in a corner of the room. It was at that moment that I made a vow to the Lord that I would make quilts for those less fortunate and those that God brought across my path would never have to go cold again. I also vowed to make enough quilts to sell so I could provide food for those who are hungry. God has blessed these hands and eyes over the years to do just that. It is my prayer that on the day the Lord calls me home to be with him that you will take over what I have started.”
Tears welled up in my eyes as guilt came over me.
“Grandma, I never realized this. Why didn’t you tell us why you were doing this?” I asked.
“I didn’t want you to do this because you thought you had to. I knew one day the Lord would put it in your heart to inquire and on that day I knew he would also convict your heart to want to do this for Him, not me.”
“Grandma, I do want to do the Lord’s work. Will you show me how to quilt? Although Grandma there is one thing that I don’t understand. Why do you make quilts of so many colors and designs instead of blankets?” I asked while wiping a tear away.
“God quilted us together very meticulously. Not one of us is the same as another. Our prints our uniquely our own. That is the same way I make my quilts. Not two of them are ever the same. They are all made with God’s love and are unique in their own ways. Come closer here and I will show just how to make a quilt.”
On that night my Grandmother and I made a quilt and every night after we made quilts until the Lord took my Grandma home. Now I sit in the same dimly lit room carrying on the work that the Lord has given me, to make quilts for those in need.
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