OAK RIDGE—Potatoes are great as a side dish, but JoAnn Hahs, member of First Baptist Church here, and her friend, Linda Freeman, have discovered a creative way to use potatoes for jewelry and to finance missions.
“We got the idea from a Family Conference offered by University Extension a few years ago,” Hahs said. “When the potatoes are cut and dried, they take on their own characteristics and they don’t wrinkle. We both thought it was an interesting concept and we have always been into craft things.”
Hahs said the necklaces and earrings are unique, but the best thing is that the profit goes to the El Salvador mission.
“Since we started giving the money to missions,” Hahs said, “we can’t make enough of the necklaces. We were especially blessed during October by selling 82. We started making them in March, but we didn’t keep track of how many we made until May. We’ve made more than 300.”
According to Hahs, making a necklace is a process.
“Each necklace takes 20-36 pieces of potato,” she said. “After each piece is dried, we match the pieces for a necklace and paint each nugget with 3-5 coats by holding it in our fingers. Then, we string it and complete the design. Since we do it in steps, it difficult to know how long each necklace takes, but we estimate about five hours.”
Hahs and her husband, Ron, recently returned from El Salvador with a team made up of three churches from the Cape Girardeau Baptist Association.
“We worked with the mother church Santa Catarina,” Hahs said. “This church has started three churches in El Salvador: Las Maria, La Nueva, and Apaneca. This is a Third World country and Santa Catarina is so mission minded. They are reaching out to others with no resources.”
Because of the lack of resources, the necklaces become even more important to these missions.
“On this trip,” Hahs reported, “we were able to present the church with $3,000 to help with the building of the worship sanctuary.”
The mission team did a lot of different activities on this trip and they worked with several of the churches.
“In Las Maria, we painted the interior and front of the church,” Hahs said. “We also worked with the children in VBS. Then, in La Nueva and Apaneca, we helped in worship.”
In addition, the team helped conduct a pastors’ conference for 26 pastors and 15 of their families.
“We helped the ladies study women of the Bible and do craft activities,” she said.
“The pastors were able to study and they also reached out and did evangelism in the neighborhood. It was a sacrifice for many of the pastors to come because they don’t have vehicles or resources to get to the conference center.”
In addition to El Salvador, Ron and JoAnn Hahs have gone on mission trips to Northern Illinois and Eastern Kentucky. Also, Ron Hahs is the feeding unit coordinator for Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief and JoAnn is head cook.
More information about ordering necklaces and earrings is available from JoAnn Hahs at (573) 266-3392 or Linda Freeman at (573) 266-3315.
BY VICKI STAMPS / contributing writer