Marlene Eagles says that “You can give without loving, but you can’t love without giving, and helping someone.”
It’s that kind of attitude that has given the members of the Cut and Sew for Missions team their passion for helping others.
Cut and Sew for Missions is comprised of several women from Faith Lutheran Church in Estevan. Each Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., they meet at the Faith on Fourth location on Fourth Street to create items that will be sent overseas for missions trips.
Eagles says they have a good group of women and they enjoy getting together each week. A lot of the fabric that they have is donated, particularly for their the latest initiative, which will see them send blankets, hats and jackets for newborns with a mission team heading to the African nation of Chad. Blair Daae from Torquay is among the members on the team.
“The Lutheran Brethren Church has been in Chad for many years,” said Eagles. “They have quite an establishment there, with a missionary centre and with the missionaries who work there. Over the years, the women’s ministry in North America has helped construct a hospital.
“So that’s kind of where we got the idea from was the women’s ministry. They’d make the hats and the jackets for the nursery, and the blankets. So they’ve been sending those for years.”
Eagles estimates they have about 150 blankets, 150 hats and numerous jackets.
Since the mission team was going to Chad, and taking items with them, the Cut and Sew group thought it would be good to provide some gifts.
Cut and Sew for Missions also showed their support for the local Operation Christmas Child campaign this year. Not only did they fill some shoeboxes, but they made 103 dresses, 101 backpacks, 59 pairs of boys’ shorts and 94 cloth reusable sanitary pads that can be later added to the shoeboxes.
Their next project will be to make reusable hygiene kits for an organization called Days for Girls International.
“It’s a good project because it’s women helping girls who really need it,” said Eagles. “When you hear the statistics of girls that drop out of school because of the cycle that all women have, it’s unfortunate.”
Days for Girls was created in 2008 by a woman from the U.S. who had been overseas and saw the need for such a service.
Eagles cited Uganda as an example where Days for Girls International has been beneficial. Prior to the organization arriving in the country, the dropout rate was 33 per cent. Now it is down to eight per cent.
“The girls have kits available that they can use, and stay in school, instead of being isolated from their families,” said Eagles.
They already have the fabric they need to make most of the items. Each kit includes a facecloth, soap, two pairs of panties, two shields and eight reusable and washable liners.
“The items for the kits have to be of good quality, because they are expecting them to last for at least three years,” said Eagles.
Faith Lutheran has a mission team going to Nicaragua in January and February 2017, and those Days for Girls kits will likely be sent out.
They have also been supportive of an organization named Britches for Boys, in which they have taken gently used t-shirts and transformed them into shorts.
“I think the reason we’re here is we all have a real heart for missions,” said Eagles. “The little bit that we can do to help somebody that is going to give them some hope in a desperate situation is just a good feeling.”
The Cut and Sew for Missions team is always welcoming new members, and Eagles said they accept people who enjoy sewing, regardless of whether they belong to Faith Lutheran Church.
