Thursday, December 10, 2009

Happy endings

You've probably heard I write Christian fiction, mostly romance, so I love happy endings. This week we've been saying farewell to our students -- just until January. The beginner sewing group has been so much fun. I love watching women who've never sewn suddenly grasp this wonderful new skill and get so excited. Many of our woman have never had any physical proof of their worth. When we hand out certificates, we see the broadest grins you can imagine. They are proud of themselves -- and rightly so!
Sherrill joined us on Tuesdays this past session -- and wow, what a great help! She has really made a difference with the beginners. They love her, as you can see!
Amy is still working with her bead group. They're such sweet women, and they are very loyal to Amy. She's been going to many different places to sell the women's jewelry, and the response has been fabulous!
Despite Indira's saucy smile, it's not all fun around the Refugee Sewing Society. Well . . . okay . . . it is all fun. But we work hard, too.
Sharon has been teaching the women to create sets of cloth diapers.She is getting some awesome sewing out of our ladies. They're making diapers, inserts, and liners. Today, Rabha made her first diaper. She was so proud of her accomplishment.
Jasoda shows another of our lovely creations. We're making uniform skirts for Muslim girls! Our Somali and Sudanese women told us about their inability to find long skirts for their daughters. Ta-dah! We made nine skirts in girls' size 14 today, and that's just for starters.
We're also having fun making fabric jewelry bags. We have two customers who are ordering from us, and we look forward to all that sewing. The women love to make jewelry bags. They tell me the bags are relaxing to sew. Great!
We've also been sewing sheets for daycare mats. That's going to be a wonderful new outreach for us. In case you're wondering why we all love working with these women, I'm adding a little photo grouping I shot this afternoon. Hinde is so expressive, and she always has BIG stories to tell. She keeps us laughing every day.Wow, I'm going to miss my friends! We'll have registration on January 18, and it seems like years away. Please keep all of us in your prayers, and check in with the blog now and then. Just because we're out of class doesn't mean it's all over. Nope, we've got a trunk show on Saturday, a wedding on Sunday, a tea party on Tuesday . . .

1 comment:

Carla Gade said...

How wonderful to see all these happy faces! You can just see the pride these women have from learning their new skills and being so productive. It must be such a blessing working with them all.