Threads of Blessing

A Testimony from Beatrice in Uganda

noreply@blogger.com (Helen) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 19:04:00 +0000

I want to thank God abundantly. I didn't know I would be alive at this time. When the message came that you were here, I was in bed. I am a widow. My husband died in 2000. We have five children with two in secondary school. It is difficult to pay school fees. When the children came home I was sick (HIV positive). I didn't know who would help them when I died. My mother also lives with us and I care for her.

When I received the payment, I found good things through our friends in West Texas. They took time and taught us to sew and God gave me strength to do the work. Through the help I have been getting from the hospital, I have been advised to take medication.

I love my life and I love my God. I love him for blessing and sustaining me. When the first gift came I did not believe my eyes. I thought it was a lie. I have a son in Senior 6 and another child in Senior 4. My son was not able to graduate as there were school fees owing. I was able to pay the balance and it opened a way for my son.

With the second gift I was able to get the school results for my second child and buy land for them. How to build a house was a problem. With this third gift I can now continue with building our house. Even the youngest child is receiving education and I am able to help my mother. I am gifted by God, but only this embroidery is able to help me. I want to give glory to God and ask that he continue to bless you.

noreply@blogger.com (Helen) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:15:00 +0000

In 1995, at the invitation of the Bishop of Honduras, a mission team from St. Mark's Episcopal Church in San Antonio, Texas, conducted a workshop in the town of Villanueva. The team brought supplies to teach the women embroidery, applique, and design techniques. With the great success of this first workshop and the sale of the work produced, several more workshops were held in Siguatepeque.

Threads of Blessing has continued to organize workshops in Honduras, Mexico and Uganda teaching the skills and providing materials and opportunities for women to create fine art textiles that visually record their culture.

The workshops are designed to encourage women to gather as a community; learn organizational skills; and help develop personal esteem.

Women who have benefited from attending a workshop have called the proceeds from their work "blessings" or "gifts." They have used these funds to pay school fees for their children, provide seed for crops, and build homes (mud brick and thatch) for their families. They are also able to provide medical care for themselves, and support for orphaned children in their care as the result of HIV/AIDS, poverty or war.

The finished products are marketed by Threads of Blessing throughout the United States as pillows, bags, on clothing, or simply as pieces of embroidery. All proceeds are returned directly to the individual women who created them.

Introduction to Threads of Blessing

noreply@blogger.com (Helen) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 15:17:00 +0000

Threads of Blessing ...

(previously known as Hands of Hope), is an international ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas. We are an inter-generational group of ecumenical women who support and nurture the creative process.

By using each member’s unique talents, Threads of Blessing creates original pieces of textile art. Using appliquéd fabrics and hand embroidery, Threads of Blessing produces fine art banners, wall hangings and clerical stoles designed by group members.

Members work together to create and sell the ministry’s own embellished works of art. The proceeds are then used to support the mission aspects of Threads of Blessing in emerging countries.

noreply@blogger.com (Helen) — Sat, 30 May 2009 16:28:00 +0000

Threads of Blessing ...

Members work together to create and sell the ministry’s own embellished works of art. The proceeds are then used to support the mission aspects of Threads of Blessing in emerging countries.

Designed, appliquéd and embroidered

by members of Threads of Blessing