FERGUSON – In Acts, Dorcas is described as “doing good, helping the poor and making clothes.” A group of ladies here from First Baptist Church has discovered how to extend that ministry by clothing poor children around the world.
“I read an article in Mission Mosaic about a ministry out of Alabama called ‘Hemmed in Prayer,’” Jane Oesch said, “and it really attracted my attention. I got excited about it and thought we might be able to get it started at our church when our women’s ministry had the celebrate spring day. Then, the tornado hit and the event was canceled.”
Two avid quilters, Evelyn Bunch and Ann Poore, also caught the vision.
“This ministry offers an opportunity for us to sew with a purpose,” Bunch said. “We gather and work and pray over each garment. Ann offered the use of her home for working during the summer since our church was damaged.”
The seamstresses of Ferguson are now a part of the Hemmed in Prayer network in all 50 states. Director Mary Beth Turberville reported that Hemmed in Prayer distributed 60,000 garments in 2010. Hemmed in Prayer delivers the clothes to the children by sending garments on mission trips with various groups.
“We started with a few hundred,” Turberville said, “and each year it has grown.”
The Ferguson ladies have committed to this for one year, meeting together and working on their own. They have a goal of adding 1,000 garments to the count.
Turberville is a nurse and the ministry began when she took her first mission trip to Nicaragua.
“I saw the need of the children for clothes among the families we treated and the orphanages,” she said. “God told me, ‘Mary Beth, this is MY business.’ I began making clothes, my friends started helping me and we’ve taught some willing people how to sew. This is worldwide not because of what I have done, but because of what God is doing.”
According to Turberville, the ministry has a special purpose.
“Our purpose is not to clothe the children of the world,” she said, “but, to pray for each one of them and to pray that they will come to know Christ. They have no other hope and we are weaving God into each child and family. They see that we love them because we are making something for them.”
The Ferguson ladies have an assembly line of four sewing machines set up by Poore’s husband, Dee, in the living room. They cut out garments in the dining room and package them individually by size (1-10) in zip-loc bags.
“We have several cut out,” Bunch said. “We do more than one pattern at a time. We match the material and appliqués that we choose with the appropriate size. We work together through the entire process.”
They are working with a host of volunteers around the world to send clothes to Haiti, Mexico, Africa, Central America and many other locations. For information on pattern packs and other ways to help, contact Mary Beth Turberville at hemmedinprayer1@aol.com.
VICKI STAMPS/contributing writer