Advent-ure Day 3: Sew What?

In John chapter 6, we read about the dramatic story of Jesus feeding the five thousand.  We can see
these verses:
11 And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted.
12 So when they were filled, He said to His disciples, "Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost."

This is a powerful illustration of Christ's sufficiency and His ability to provide for us - He proclaimed His truth using a variety of creative means.  Writing for Crosswalk.com, Proverbs 31 speaker and writer Amy Carroll used this story to point out how God uses everything in our lives for His glory.  She writes;

It wasn't enough for Jesus to feed the people until they were full. He wanted every last crumb collected.

There's nothing that escapes the notice of God. Everything matters to Him. Not only does it matter, but if you are His child, He promises that every part of your life will be used for your good and His glory.

We can be confident today that God is at working in our lives: if Jesus is your Savior, you have entered in to a life of adventure and anticipation, recognizing His hand and His capacity to work all things for His purposes.  And, we can be careful to testify to what He has done, being devoted to proclaim His love and truth.

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Welcome to Day 3 of our 25-day Christmas Advent-ure, entitled, Sing Unto the Lord!  It's Day 3 on our Advent Guide, available through FaithRadio.org.   Each day through the 25th has a corresponding Christmas song and short Scripture passage; Day 2 was Angels We Have Heard on High, and the day before that, it was Angels From the Realms of Glory.

The angels had a dynamic message to proclaim, and they appeared to shepherds to declare the coming of Christ to earth.  Day 3 also follows that proclamation theme, exploring the various events in the Christmas narrative.  It's the First Noel, which, in its multiple verses, deals with the angels appearing to the shepherds, the wise men, and considers how we can respond in worship to Christ.

The theme Scripture passage corresponding to the carol is this, from Luke chapter 2, from the message the angels brought:
11 For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
12 And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger."

The message was loud and clear, a powerful statement: a Savior has come, the long-awaited Messiah, the Christ, the one who had been anticipated by Israel - God's people - and prophesied in the Scriptures.

There are two ladies in Birmingham, both named Linda, who acknowledged their readiness to see God do great things - they had a sense of anticipation, and it turns out that He would use a simple ministry, recreating or repurposing old t-shirts, in order to impact people in need throughout the world. They are Linda Johnson and Linda Jacobson, and according to a Baptist Press article written by Grace Thornton of The Alabama Baptist:

Since it started last year, Johnson, Jacobson and fellow volunteers with the We Sew Love ministry at Huffman Baptist Church, Birmingham, has sent hundreds of clothing items made from old T-shirts to children in Uganda, Zambia, Haiti and other places around the world.

They've made crib pads for children's homes. They've made burial gowns for children who pass away in hospice facilities.

And with about 40 volunteers and nearly an entire wing of the church dedicated to the ministry, they're only getting bigger.

"God has provided, and it's growing by leaps and bounds," Johnson said.

It started when Linda Jacobson was visiting her daughter in California, who asked her to make some t-shirts into clothing items.  She then made some items for a granddaughter locally.  Next, according to the story, "Not too long after that, she met a missionary from Birmingham who serves in Haiti at a hospice center for children."  The missionary directly asked Linda to provide, as the story says, "as many as they could get."

A local ministry started bringing Linda clothing that had been set aside. She said, "I was overburdened with all the T-shirts at my house...Then my daughter Stacey mentioned that this kind of sewing could be an opportunity for the women at Huffman Baptist Church during their summer break. She invited me to bring all my supplies and let the women help."

It certainly took off from there.  The article says that now:

Every Wednesday and Thursday like clockwork -- and other days of the week here and there too -- women gather for Bible study, then head over to the sewing suite to work on T-shirt clothes.

What they do has spread by word of mouth, and people bring them bags and bags of T-shirts. Volunteers -- both men and women -- wash and dry the shirts in a dedicated laundry room or in their homes, then move them into the harvesting room.

In that room, they cut the T-shirts into different pieces like neckbands, pockets, bodices, hem bands and hemmed sleeves -- pieces that save them time when they're putting the dresses together.

They've found ways to make nearly every inch of a T-shirt usable. Nothing goes to waste.

The story says that:

Johnson said We Sew Love has become bigger than they ever imagined. She says it's given her and so many others new purpose in ministry.

"This has gone beyond what one Baptist church can do," she said. "And as much as people want to learn to do this, we would love to teach them."

This is a clear case of creativity meeting willingness to serve.  You have a group of ladies who have discovered a purpose in reaching out to needy people in the name of the Lord - it no doubt bonds them together and enables them to be involved in a valuable ministry.  And who would have thought it?  But, it's clearly an inspired idea, and the need certainly became apparent.

We can be challenged to think of how God might want to use us to serve.  While our proclamation of the gospel does involve speaking God's truth, but there are other ways to ministry to people - those involved in We Sew Love are using their hands to make a powerful statement about Christ's love.  And, as one of the ladies points out, some of the participants don't even sew!  But there is plenty to do - in just that one ministries.  Think about all the Kingdom opportunities that are available for us to be involved in.

I also think about how God uses everything in our lives; there is no waste. Chuck Swindoll has said, and it's found on his website: "What others mean to you as evil God promises to use for good. He wastes nothing."  Amy Carroll, writing at Crosswalk.com, states: "It comforts me that God doesn't waste anything. Every piece - broken, incomplete or whole - in the collections of our lives is made beautiful and significant in His hands."  Jason Gray, who wrote and recorded the song, Nothing is Wasted, said to New Release Today:

I thought of the ramifications of that in my own experience, that there isn’t anything wasted. That’s something I’m grateful for. No matter what we go through, whether it's difficulties we’ve experienced, ways people have hurt us, or even ways we’ve hurt others and our own failures, there isn’t anything beyond the redemptive reach of God. There isn’t anything that He can’t take and redeem and turn around and cause to serve His plan—the story that He wants to tell.

The ladies of Huffman Baptist are using things cast aside for the glory of God - to help meet the clothing needs of women.  We can be confident that God is working for our good, according to Romans 8:28, and that He will take the circumstances and experiences of our lives, even the negative ones, all that we want to cast aside, and bring forth His purpose, so that we might learn and grow more into the image of Christ.  And, as we see Him work, we can proclaim His goodness and faithfulness.