Posted 4:24 pm Saturday, January 09, 2010
‘Sewing Angels' Aid Parental Care Ministries
By PATRICK S. BUTLER
Religion Editor
When she was growing up in Clarksville, Annette Childress studied missions to Africa in the Girl's Auxiliary of the First Baptist Church. The plight of African children touched her and she longed to be a missionary to Nigeria and share the love of Jesus.
Religion Editor
When she was growing up in Clarksville, Annette Childress studied missions to Africa in the Girl's Auxiliary of the First Baptist Church. The plight of African children touched her and she longed to be a missionary to Nigeria and share the love of Jesus.
She chose a 30-year teaching career instead but never forgot the children who stirred her heart. Through a mutual friend, Mrs. Childress heard about the ministry of Mark and Monica Barret of Tyler's Parental Care Ministries. The retired and upbeat schoolteacher saw her chance to finally fulfill a lifetime's desire.
She contacted the Barrets and got some pictures of the Ugandan orphans next to their new bunk beds. A friend, Barbie Baker, suggested pillow cases for the children at Christmas. That was at the end of October.
"The Barrets liked Barbie's idea of colored pillowcases for the children because, 'the kids loved bright colors,'" Mrs. Childress said. "And many of them never had a pillow before."
The project would turn into a Christmas surprise for the orphans, so went the idea. There was just one thing: Mrs. Childress couldn't really sew and more than 200 pillowcases would need to be made so each child could have one.
The task appeared daunting. It was also November and Thanksgiving and the Christmas season were fast approaching.
"I've sewn some in the past, but I didn't think I could do this," she said. "And I thought, 'No one is going to be able to pull away from all their plans and do this.' All I could do is trust God that he would make a way somehow."
The answer came with what came to be called the "Sewing Angels" -- Barbie Baker, Floy Barber, Elva Lee Waits, Jeanette Bilnoski, Luginia Davis, Carolyn Thompson, Jean Bright, Pauline Conley, Pat Carothers, Barbara Patterson, Pat Curry and Lynn Johnson -- who stepped forward to take charge and push the project through.
HARD AT WORK: The Sewing Angels, of Longview, worked for a week to sew 222 pillowcases to donate to Parental Care Ministries, which provided the pillowcases, as well as new pillows, to Ugandan orphans for Christmas.
The women, all members of Mobberly Baptist Church, came to the cloth cutting tables set up in Barber's home. The Angels shopped, bought material, designed, cut, stitched and sewed 222 bright, patterned pillowcases for poor children in Uganda.
And they did it all in a single week.
"They worked so hard all day long for two days in Floy's home with sewing machines, ironing boards and bolts of material everywhere," Mrs. Childress said. "Floy had it all organized and the whole house became a sewing room. The kitchen, the living room, everywhere. You couldn't eat at her kitchen table.
"They worked so hard all day long for two days in Floy's home with sewing machines, ironing boards and bolts of material everywhere," Mrs. Childress said. "Floy had it all organized and the whole house became a sewing room. The kitchen, the living room, everywhere. You couldn't eat at her kitchen table.
"The first day they made112 pillowcases. These ladies were with it."
The material used was "high quality" she said, and came from a department store that was featuring 75 percent off its stock of brightly colored sheets,
"We felt that was not an accident," said Mrs. Childress. "It was God getting this project the best material for the lowest price."
When the purchased material ran out, the Angels went shopping. An offering of $400 from two of the church's Sunday School classes, which covered the costs of buying all the material for the pillowcases.
"We found children's patterned sheets with dinosaurs, fire trucks, teddy bears and zoo animals on them at a discount store, so the cost was low," Mrs. Childress said. "These ladies didn't waste a bit of material. They expertly made every cut exactly what was needed."
The result was 222 pillowcases that the Barrets stuffed into bags and hand carried to the kids in the keeping of Parental Care Ministries. The pillows were purchased in Uganda and a pillowcase from the Sewing Angles put over them.
The pillowcases were a hit.
"Mark wrote and said the children couldn't believe that they were allowed to choose the pillow and pillowcase of their choice," Mrs. Childress said. "When they realized they could take the one they liked best, they were overjoyed."
"Mark wrote and said the children couldn't believe that they were allowed to choose the pillow and pillowcase of their choice," Mrs. Childress said. "When they realized they could take the one they liked best, they were overjoyed."
So goes the saga of the Sewing Angles.
Their fine sewing work was finished. But an added blessing for Mrs. Childress made its way to her. Mark and Monica Barret took along a coloring book she and her husband Mike had put together to help young children learn about God.
Their fine sewing work was finished. But an added blessing for Mrs. Childress made its way to her. Mark and Monica Barret took along a coloring book she and her husband Mike had put together to help young children learn about God.
"Our minister had asked me to come up with children's curriculum for a mission trip to Honduras in April to share with children in schools," she said. "I didn't know what to do, but in the middle of the night, I woke up felt the Holy Spirit was leading me to present the Gospel in a form of a coloring book.
"Now, we have a 16-page coloring book in English, Spanish, Slovene, and getting it translate into Romanian. We pray over them as they go out the door."
Churches outside Texas are ordering the coloring books and whatever country they are used in, is when the book is translated into that language, Mrs. Childress said.
Her life-long dream of being a missionary to children is coming true, she said, with the help of the Sewing Angles of Longview and the Barrets of Tyler.
"I've always wanted to do something with eternal value," Mrs. Childress said. "We can't all go overseas to Africa, but there is something we can do to help support the people who do."
