Selling the goodies!

Perhaps our most exciting times involve market events. Generous churches, women's groups, and businesses invite The Refugee Sewing Society to sell our wares. Most recently, PureFUN in Lawrenceville welcomed us.

PureFUN is the daycare supply company owned by our partners and friends, Todd and Carol Harrison. Brenna, who works for them, originated the idea for a trunk show. Last Saturday, we loaded women into our cars and took them to the PureFUN headquarters. Carol (above in the white vest) helped explain how the business works. We took them on a tour of the building, and then shoppers began to arrive. Todd (below) and Carol manned the check-out table. The women were curious, as always, about American ways. Our new friends at Discovery Point daycare had already purchased 40 mat sheets from us. They came to the trunk show and bought a big stack of doll clothes and many other items. Thank you so much!
I love taking pictures of our customers with the women who have made the items they purchased. That's fun for everyone!
Amazin' Amy Cornett, our bead group teacher, has been zipping from one market event to another. I have loved watching her blossom into an eloquent public speaker. She spoke recently to the Windy Hill Women's Club. She does a beautiful job of setting up displays. Women attending Amy's events enjoy looking through the gorgeous jewelry, bags and other items before making their purchases. Amy also spoke in Augusta at the annual associational WMU meeting. The WMU (Women's Missionary Union) dates back to the 1800s and is a primary source of missions education and support in Southern Baptist churches.We love the WMU!

This group also let Amy set up shop.If you would like to help the ministry of The Refugee Sewing Society by inviting us to your home, church, business, or other venue, please contact us at ulu4tea@gmail.com.

Kickin' up our heels!

Today we had The Refugee Sewing Society Christmas party at our house -- complete with singing, dancing, eating, and getting paid lots of money!

Sharon (the cloth diaper lady) borrowed a 15-passenger van, and Sherrill (super volunteer for the beginner sewing class) drove her car filled with women. If you're going to kick up your heels, you should first kick off your shoes. After all the women had arrived, we ushered them through the buffet line.
No meat, no eggs -- the theme song of the day. The volunteers had all worked hard to make sure that none of the foods contained either ingredient that is taboo for our Muslims and vegetarian Hindus.All the women were beautifully dressed! Look at Netra in her turquoise sari.Kuresho wore a long beaded band from Somalia. Her hijab had sparkles on it.
Hinde brought Yusuf, who was an absolute angel the whole time.
Buddha wore this gorgeous salwa from Nepal.
Rabha looked as beautiful as ever.The women took their places at our very long table. We had placed nativity scenes of all types as centerpieces.After we ate, the singing and dancing began. What fun!Some of the older women did a dance I had seen at their Teej celebration.
All the volunteers decided to join in! Sharon was groovin' to the beat.
Or maybe not!
Sherrill did some fancy moves.Though the singers were Bhutanese, it was fun to see others dancing, too. Rabha from Sudan enjoyed dancing with Jasoda.
Even the ol' teacher burned up the dance floor!I also had the joy of telling the women about the birth of Jesus and His amazing love -- and sacrifice -- for all of us. After that, we gave each woman a small gift bag filled with soaps, toothbrushes, gloves, and other pretty things.

Thanks to Carol's careful calculations, we paid the women for several weeks' work at the end of the party. It's always fun to hear their squeals of joy and get such big thank-you hugs. We also had the huge joy of providing 7 women in the advanced class with brand new sewing machines. We were able to buy them for $50 right after Thanksgiving. We offered the women the opportunity to purchase them from us for $25.

Thank you for your many donations of fabric, yarn, beads, and so many other wonderful items. We also appreciate those of you who have given money. Because of you, we were able to put a sewing machine into each of these homes. Two of the advanced class women already owned machines, so now all nine are equipped.

Your prayers, volunteer hours, and other gifts of time, treasure, and talent mean so much to us. May God bless us every one!

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 . . .

The Refugee Spirit

Today something rather amazing happened.

For several weeks, I had been working with a young woman from Bhutan who is in our yarn group. A gentleman wanted a 6 foot long red scarf with black lettering that read Steve the Chimneysweep. He had asked for a black border around the edge of the scarf.

This order had been placed many months ago, but I had not found anyone capable of creating -- or even willing to attempt -- such a masterpiece. Then Pabitra stepped forward and said she would like to crochet the scarf. She is a lovely, intelligent young lady, and she speaks almost perfect English.

Sharon Koerber and I enjoyed working with Pabitra as she planned out the lettering and calculated how much yarn was needed for the project. Sharon bought the yarn, and I wrote out the instructions on the back of the customer's business card.

Today Pabitra arrived with the completed scarf. As she unrolled her creation, my eyes went wide and my heart nearly stopped beating. Pabitra had painstakingly crocheted the entire set of instructions from the back of the business card. The scarf read Red cotton scarf black letters black edge Steve the Chimneysweep. What to do? What to say?

Pabitra was rightly proud of her work, and I was amazed at the careful effort she had put into the scarf. But this was definitely not what our customer had ordered. Not only that, but the cost of the yarn had already eaten a large chunk of the money Steve the Chimneysweep had offered to pay for the scarf.

I couldn't make words come out of my mouth. I had no idea what to say. So I just started praying, "Lord please tell me what to say to Pabitra!"

The words began to come. I told Pabitra the scarf was beautiful. I said there was a problem, and I explained it carefully. She said, "But I did exactly what you told me to do." I said, "Yes, you did. You crocheted exactly what I wrote. And you did a wonderful job."

After the momentary shock (hers and mine), we came up with a solution. Pabitra will keep the part of the scarf that reads Steve the Chimneysweep and add a long section of red crochet with black edging -- and NO letters.

I will keep the rest of the scarf. Red cotton scarf black letters black edge is a concrete visual aid illustrating the incredible difficulty of communication between people who speak different languages -- no matter how fluent. But it's more than that. You see, as we were discussing what to do, Pabitra said, "I will do this, because I want to please the man who ordered this scarf. That is my main interest. I want that man to be happy with his scarf."

I have no idea how many hours Pabitra spent crocheting all those instructions on that scarf. But she was not defeated by news that might have left others weeping and wailing. I have decided that we will pay her the full price of the scarf, not deducting anything for the yarn.

Pabitra is a perfect ambassador for the refugee women we serve here in Georgia. She is indomitable. She is determined. She has the spirit of a survivor. Whether it's ethnic cleansing or a set of confusing instructions, she will not be defeated. Ever.

I am honored and humbled to be surrounded by such women.