The answer is really three-fold:
1. Believe it or not, it is like stress relief to hear the soft hum of my sewing machine.
2. Crafting is my hobby (aside from shopping)
3. God told me to.
Yes-you read that correctly. No-I am not one of those bible-thumpin' crazies, but I do believe the Lord will answer when you ask a question.
So let me take you back a few years. In March of 2012, I travelled to Haiti for the first time. It was an interesting story of how I ended up there. (Maybe I will pour my heart out and tell the story here someday.) That trip was the first of many. So my first trip was fully funded from very generous donations from friends and family. My second trip was funded again from donations. When I agreed to a third trip, my heart began to wonder. I wondered if asking for donations was the right thing to do. You see I fully believe that some people are "funders" of the work of the Lord and some are "doers" of the work of the Lord. Both are needed!!! And I didn't want to take away that opportunity for those generous people to give, but I also didn't want to take advantage of the relationships I had with people both so close to me and people I barely even knew. I needed to make sure that I was doing this the correct way.
(This is me wondering.....)
But we do not have the money to fund these trips.
What will I do if I don't ask for donations?
Then as I thought and thought even more, I realized that this was not my problem to solve.
This was my opportunity to ask God what he wants me to do.
So I went to God in prayer asking how we were going to fund these trips. I asked and I waited. I waited for an answer like many of us do. I waited. I waited. I waited.
Then one day while I was working on a Pinterest project (follow me!), God spoke to me!
Now when I say he spoke to me-I didn't hear a voice from the skies. It was not an audible voice at all. It was a thought. A thought that God placed inside of me to answer the question I had asked him weeks ago.
The thought?
I CAN SEW!
God's gifts come in a wide range of talents and passions. I am filled with gifts from God, but the one he was urging me to use in this instance was my ability to craft. Yes, God cares about crafting! It was a talent He placed in me.
I had been crafting and sewing for years. I would give items as gifts or just give items away to people so I could make something else. Now I had a purpose for my crafting. I could sell these items to fund my trips!
Well, Paul and I have not been to Haiti since last November. I would leave today if I had the chance! I miss that place. I miss my friends. I miss the smells. I miss the sounds. I miss the commotion and I miss the peace. We don't know what God has planned for us in the "NOW" but we know that God has given us a heart for missions. He has given us a purpose--to help others better their lives. We also know that if an opportunity were to come before us today, we do not have the funds to say YES. Therefore, I sew. I craft. I sell.
All the monies raised from selling my hand-crafted items goes into a fund specifically set aside for missions. We couldn't do this without the help of each and every one of you and so I thank you for your contributions.
Wondering how you can help? Go to your facebook account and "Like" Crafted for Hope. Then tell all your friends to do the same thing.
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