About Us

 Threads of Blessing

A History

God's Grace allowing the voices of women to sing through their elegant textiles

 

Glory to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine:  Glory to him from generation to generation in the Church, and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever.  (Ephesians 3: 20-21)

 God’s vision for his people is too often obscure to us.  Slowly he leads and guides us into the reality of his purpose.  Such has been the grace-filled development of Threads of Blessing from 1995 until the present day.

 In the beginning – Making Something Grand for God in Honduras.

“And every skillful woman spun with her hands, and they all brought what they had spun in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen.”  (Exodus 35:25)

In 1995 Bishop Frade of Honduras visited St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in San Antonio, Texas. His visit impacted the women of St. Mark’s with a desire to “make something grand” for God and the people of Honduras.  A tapestry was designed, completed, and presented to Bishop Frade on a mission trip in 1996.

 On that same trip, the women of St. Mark’s took supplies to teach the women of two villages, Villanueva and Siguatepeque, Honduras, to embroider and complete their tapestries.  For some years, the women sold their beautifully embroidered work to foreign mission groups and returned some to St. Mark’s to be exhibited and sold in the United States.  All sale proceeds were returned directly to the women of Honduras.

For many of the women, this project was the first opportunity to earn money to support their families.    The sale of one tapestry provided for a family’s living expenses for a year.  In 1998 the tapestry project, then called Hands of Hope, expanded to include other groups in area churches. The work was exhibited in galleries in Texas and Washington, D.C.

Hands of Hope flourished.  Tapestries were designed for parishioners to develop at weekly gatherings. Purposed initially to make and sell them to fund their mission/outreach projects in Haiti, Honduras, and Mexico, over time, the ministry’s effect became an outward and visible sign of the inward and personal journeys of the women involved.  Hands of Hope then expanded their work to include commissions for church banners.

 Engaging in the creative endeavors of Hands of Hope led women to know themselves in new ways.  The group’s nurturing environment encouraged individual talents to sprout and grow, and the giftedness brought forth led to new directions in their lives.

 Just as a tapestry brings together various scraps of fabric to make a splendid whole, Hands of Hope brought women together and connected their lives in new ways.  Where abilities are celebrated, there is a sacredness in coming together, and there is grace in making a small contribution to a greater whole. When the members of the group each contribute their own unique ability, the result is spectacular.

Missions continued to be conducted in Haiti and Mexico and an orphanage in Mukono, Uganda.  The teams encouraged the women with the same understanding they, themselves, had learned and shared. By using their God-given talents with a needle and thread and coming together as a community, women in these developing countries were creating beauty that had the potential to support families.

 

A Vision for Uganda

 “Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of our righteousness. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.”  (2 Corinthians 9:10,12)

Hands of Hope held its first workshop in Uganda in 2005 with 30 women attending the Women’s Vocational Training Center (WVTC) in Goli, Nebbi Diocese, Uganda. 

However, involvement in the lives of the people of Uganda began much earlier for the Diocese of West Texas.  In 1996, Bishop James Folts was asked to host a bishop and his wife from Uganda.

 The invitation came through SOMA (Sharing of Ministries Abroad).  This organization conducts short-term missions around the world and in the United States at the invitation of a sitting bishop.

 Henry Luke Orombi was elected Bishop of the newly formed Nebbi Diocese in 1993.  Bishop Henry and his wife, Phoebe, came to San Antonio in July 1996 and spent a week in West Texas.

 Bishop Henry and Mama Phoebe visited and preached throughout our diocese, sharing their passion for Christ and their hopes for the people of Nebbi Diocese.  In addition, Phoebe presented plans she had received in a vision from God to establish a Women’s Center in northern Uganda that would serve as a training and education center for women.  It would provide the essential “three Rs,” which were denied many of her generation and vocational skills training.  The rate of illiteracy is approximately 97% among the women in this region of Uganda. 

 However, Mama Phoebe’s vision would not gain clarity until a diocesan delegation visited Nebbi Diocese in 1999. 

 In April 1999, Bishop Henry invited Bishop Jim Folts to bring a team to Nebbi to visit the people and validate our friendship. 

In November 1999, Bishop Jim and Sandy Folts, Betty Chumney, Director of World Mission for the Diocese of West Texas, the Reverend Ron Longero, and Garry and Helen Schnelzer traveled to Uganda and on to Nebbi Diocese.  During this stay, the Holy Spirit planted the truth in our hearts about the need and purpose for the Women’s Center. 

Mama Phoebe took us to visit several Literacy Groups, as they called themselves.  These groups were led by women who had been fortunate to receive an education – some with high school diplomas and others with university degrees. These were the leaders teaching other women how to tell time using a cardboard clock with moveable hands and read directions on a medical prescription (What is half a tablet?  What is a quarter?), amongst other topics.  They would tell of the harm they had caused themselves and their children by not understanding these instructions. 

 

Building the Women’s Vocational Training Center (WVTC)

 

“And I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good, and also the words that the king had spoken to me.  And they said, “Let us rise up and build.”  So they strengthened their hands for the good work.” (Nehemiah 2:18)

We determined to raise the necessary funds for the Women’s Vocational Training Center building on our return to West Texas.  We accomplished this through various events and efforts, perhaps the most important being the annual Mother’s Day Offering to which every church had the opportunity to contribute. 

The Center was built in phases beginning with the administration wing, followed by classrooms, dormitories, a guest house, kitchen, dining room, and an auditorium that can seat 250-300 people.  Following the completion of each segment, a delegation from West Texas went to Nebbi for the dedication. It took almost four years, but in December 2004, the Women’s Vocational Training Center was finally finished and ready for programs.  

 

Bringing Needlework to the WVTC

 

“Give her the reward she has earned,
                 and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.”
                                                            (Proverbs 31:31)

Ever since the initial visit in 1999, my husband, Garry, and I continued to visit  Nebbi on an annual basis, to visit the women, and most importantly, to watch and listen for God’s guidance.  In December 2004, as we walked out of St. Peter’s Cathedral in Nebbi, I fell into a hole and severely sprained my ankle. Walking was not an option.  While I received healing ministry from two South Korean missionary nurses at the clinic, the women from Nebbi came to visit.  Sitting on the front porch of the Bishop’s guest house, we would talk about our lives and what vocational skills they could develop at the WVTC to help support their families. 

I told them about Hands of Hope, the tapestry ministry developed by St. Mark’s Church, San Antonio, and the benefits to the women in two villages in Honduras.  With some doubt that they had the same skills with a needle and thread, they invited us to come the following year with a team. 

In 2005 Brenda and Tom Kingery, and Janet Fenton journeyed with us to Nebbi with bags filled with fabric, threads, scissors, needles, etc.  Brenda, the founder of Hands of Hope, is an artist of international repute (brendakingery.com). 

The week in Nebbi was a time of retreat for the five of us as we listened to 30 women sharing their stories, singing and praising God (there is always a drum and an eagerness to use it), and discovering a forgotten art form.  Brenda spent her days drawing designs for the women to embroider, and Janet and I helped them remember stitches and learn new ones. As the week progressed, their enthusiasm grew.  We came home with 25-30 small pieces which we felt were “sacred.”  They sold within days.

Their trust in us allowed them to wait 12 months to be paid for their work, which has continued to this day sixteen years later.  We keep a detailed catalog and photograph of each piece we bring back to the US so that as sales are made, we can be sure the funds go to the right woman.  We return 100% to each artist.

 Building Community

 “Again, I tell you, that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.  For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.”  (Matthew 18: 19-20)

 In  2006, discovering that another group had already registered their organization as Hands of Hope, we changed and secured our name as Threads of Blessing.  

 Our hopes and prayers for the women were not only focused on their needlework. We encouraged them to come together to share Scripture, to tell their stories, and share each other’s joys and concerns, thus creating a community – the same model Hands of Hope had used in Honduras and discovered for themselves in San Antonio. 

We suggested they come together every two weeks.  They told us their lives were too busy fetching water, cooking for their families, working their gardens, so we challenged them to meet at least once a month by the time we returned in 2006.  On our return, we found that many of them were meeting weekly and sometimes more often, having discovered the joy and comfort of friendship in the Lord with each other.    

As had happened amongst the Honduran women, engaging in the creative and nurturing environment led the Ugandan women to discover themselves in new ways.  As their self-confidence has grown in the last fifteen years, we have watched them create their own most successful micro-enterprise projects.

 From the 30 original women from one village in Uganda who trusted us in 2005, Threads of Blessing has grown to include more than 650 women in 13 dioceses spanning the entire country of Uganda.  Our annual conferences accommodate a maximum of 250 women for four nights at the WVTC in Goli, Nebbi.  Allocations are made concerning how many women each group can send, and scholarships are provided to cover transportation to and from their homes, plus four days of room and board.

 Mama Phoebe Orombi has been a dedicated supporter and an integral part of the ministry from the very beginning.  Each year a Biblical theme for the conference is chosen, and every morning as we gather, Mama Phoebe leads us in Bible study.  Her vision for the Women’s Center has always included being a place where women could learn to read the Bible for themselves. 

With much gratitude to the World Missions Department of the Diocese of West Texas, this will become a reality in 2021.  A two-year grant has been received that will pay the salary for two teachers each year.  Classes will run for six months with 25 students in each. Thus, each year, 100 women will have the opportunity to advance their education and understand the benefits of learning for their children.