Quilts of Love
Back in the fall, our church staff went down to visit My Father’s Hands ministry in Camden to see their work first hand...
Back in the fall, our church staff went down to visit My Father’s Hands ministry in Camden to see their work first hand. At one point we were stopped at a red light, and Bill Antinore pointed to a girl on the adjacent corner, “She’s not asking them for directions . . . & she’s not waiting for the bus.” As we drove by I was stunned. The girl standing on the corner wasn’t Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. She could have been me; wearing jeans & a navy blue sweatshirt, brown hair in a ponytail. Bill turned around & said, “These girls are today’s lepers.” My heart broke. I thought: I don’t have to go to Africa to work with lepers. She’s standing right there.
Jesus spent quite a bit of His time in the company of tax collectors, prostitutes, and others that His society considered outcasts. In an attempt to live out His gospel, we hosted an event called Quilts of Love. We had 30 women come together to create five very different, very beautiful quilts. Each had four patches: three Bible verses, and a note from the women who worked on the quilt. Each quilt was then prayed over, asking the Lord to make Himself known to the woman who would receive it.
It was a beautiful day of community and fellowship, as we all worked together to show God’s love in a very creative & unique way.
When the quilts were delivered to Brenda Antinore, I had the opportunity to meet two of the prostitutes she was working hard to get off the streets. As I sat talking with them, my spirit ached for them. They were both coming down off crack & were in desperate need of a long sleep and hot shower.
They described the place where they live: a drug house that just got hit by some ‘stick-em-up boys’ (thugs that hold up drug houses to steal all the cash). One of the girls had been raped the night before, and the other hasn’t seen her 4 year-old twin boys in over two years. Both had been disowned by their respective family.
After they ate breakfast, one of them, Helena, said to me, “Why would you come down here and do this for us?” I told her that it was only by God’s grace I wasn’t in her shoes and that I wanted her to know how much He loves her. That she matters to Him. Her friend let me paint her fingernails and pray for them.
As we were leaving, I stood on the curb with them as Brenda had to physically hold Helena upright. I began to wonder if Jesus did that for Mary Magdalene. I am so thankful to serve a Master who made friends with prostitutes and touched lepers. The religious elite were not for Him . . . He had very little time for their rubbish. But the sinners . . . that’s where His heart was! (and still is.)
In June I saw Brenda, and with tears in her eyes she told me that she had given out the first of our quilts. The recipient: Helena, the same girl that I had met that day in Camden! She is now at a Christian rehab in Florida, learning how through God’s power she can be free from the bondage of drugs and a life of prostitution. She has been given a new life through God’s redeeming grace and has been greatly blessed through the creativity and love shown by the women of Fellowship.
Back in the fall, our church staff went down to visit My Father’s Hands ministry in Camden to see their work first hand. At one point we were stopped at a red light, and Bill Antinore pointed to a girl on the adjacent corner, “She’s not asking them for directions . . . & she’s not waiting for the bus.” As we drove by I was stunned. The girl standing on the corner wasn’t Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. She could have been me; wearing jeans & a navy blue sweatshirt, brown hair in a ponytail. Bill turned around & said, “These girls are today’s lepers.” My heart broke. I thought: I don’t have to go to Africa to work with lepers. She’s standing right there.Jesus spent quite a bit of His time in the company of tax collectors, prostitutes, and others that His society considered outcasts. In an attempt to live out His gospel, we hosted an event called Quilts of Love. We had 30 women come together to create five very different, very beautiful quilts. Each had four patches: three Bible verses, and a note from the women who worked on the quilt. Each quilt was then prayed over, asking the Lord to make Himself known to the woman who would receive it. It was a beautiful day of community and fellowship, as we all worked together to show God’s love in a very creative & unique way.
When the quilts were delivered to Brenda Antinore, I had the opportunity to meet two of the prostitutes she was working hard to get off the streets. As I sat talking with them, my spirit ached for them. They were both coming down off crack & were in desperate need of a long sleep and hot shower.They described the place where they live: a drug house that just got hit by some ‘stick-em-up boys’ (thugs that hold up drug houses to steal all the cash). One of the girls had been raped the night before, and the other hasn’t seen her 4 year-old twin boys in over two years. Both had been disowned by their respective family.
After they ate breakfast, one of them, Helena, said to me, “Why would you come down here and do this for us?” I told her that it was only by God’s grace I wasn’t in her shoes and that I wanted her to know how much He loves her. That she matters to Him. Her friend let me paint her fingernails and pray for them. As we were leaving, I stood on the curb with them as Brenda had to physically hold Helena upright. I began to wonder if Jesus did that for Mary Magdalene. I am so thankful to serve a Master who made friends with prostitutes and touched lepers. The religious elite were not for Him . . . He had very little time for their rubbish. But the sinners . . . that’s where His heart was! (and still is.)
In June I saw Brenda, and with tears in her eyes she told me that she had given out the first of our quilts. The recipient: Helena, the same girl that I had met that day in Camden! She is now at a Christian rehab in Florida, learning how through God’s power she can be free from the bondage of drugs and a life of prostitution. She has been given a new life through God’s redeeming grace and has been greatly blessed through the creativity and love shown by the women of Fellowship.