A Project to Help a Friend and Her Ministry

Last year the women in our family did a lot of crocheting. My mom, two sisters, two daughters, as well as a couple of friends made a lot of scarves as we were learning new crocheting stitches. I even learned how to make fingerless gloves and hats. (I love fingerless gloves for driving and Kay had made me some. Lydia decided she wanted some and I wanted to learn how to make them). We bought a ton of yarn on sale and clearance with big dreams of giving gifts. There was one store going out of business and I think we bought all of the yarn she had when it went to the lowest price!

My friend, Christy, is a full-time missionary in New Mexico at Broken Arrow Bible Ranch. She heard me talk often about the things we were making. One day in passing, she mentioned that those would make good Christmas gifts for the Indian girls she ministers to during the week. I had wondered how I would ever use all of this yarn that we bought on clearance! There are only so many hats, gloves and scarves a person (and her family) need or want, right?

Long story short, my mom and I have decided to use up all the yarn we have by making hats for these 1st-6th grade girls. I am so excited to be able to help Christy in some way in her ministry. This is a practical, fun way for me and my whole family to get involved in missions.

We have researched hat patterns for a while online and experimented with several patterns. We have found a certain pattern that we like best, but are still making several different kinds. We are using many different kinds of yarn and the hats are a rainbow of colors because we are using the yarn we have in our "stashes." It is fun to see a new hat emerge!

Since Lydia is still a beginner, her personal goal is just to finish one hat. Mom and I are doing most of them. My older sister wants to help so badly, but is having wrist trouble (had an MRI today on it) and has been told to NOT crochet until the problem is resolved. Leah will be helping me as she can. She and Lydia both do well in crocheting; Leah's just very busy.

I will have to post some pictures of the different hats me make. Some are big, some are small. Some are floppier than others. Almost all of them have pom-poms at the top because we think the kids will like those.

We were making our own pom-poms on top, but mine were not looking like I wanted them to. So last week I bought a pom-pom maker on sale at Hobby Lobby. I just today was able to try it out and I love it! So easy to use and makes them very symmetrical! I love it and am going to encourage my mom to get one, too.

We have already talked about our next missions' project: scarves for Serbia (my dad goes there) and Burma (Wade's dad goes there). It gets cold both places and the people there would love to have something personal and colorful. That will be our 2010 project.

It is so fulfilling to make these for someone else. Just making scarves and hats to make them, hoping I would have someone to give them to (like last Christmas) was fun, but this is WAY better! I am hoping Christy will send us pictures of the kids receiving them. Hint, hint!

May God further our tiny efforts. May the kids see the love of Christ in our little service project. We will show them the gospel by our actions; Christy will tell them the words of the gospel.