A Unified Mission

Our WMF is a small group of five to seven women who meet monthly on Saturday, and serving the Lord Jesus through sewing is our primary goal. Together, we make blankets and quilts to share with our missionaries, communities, and neighbors.

We decided to try a new project this year: making mittens out of old sweaters and lining them with fleece. This was a bit challenging, and our seam rippers never left our sides! We set a lofty goal of 100 pairs of mittens, with the plan of sending them to our mission in Alaska and sharing some with a local mission for the homeless.

We joined forces with ladies from another church’s sewing group. Between the two groups, we sewed on a weekly basis on a Wednesday or Thursday after school, sometimes twice a week for a period of two months. The other church group had sewn these mittens the year before and taught us how to make them, sharing the pattern and getting us started.

The mittens are made from wool sweaters, wool coats, or wool scarves, and lined with fleece. After using up all the wool from our closets, we started searching the thrift stores, buying anything that was available— not always wool or even partly wool. We ended up using any sweater that was tightly woven.

We did accomplish our goal, and with God’s help, we exceeded it by making 140 pairs of beautiful and very warm mittens. In the process, we met some new friends.

Something else happened by changing our usual routine: other people from our church joined us. One young man was very interested in learning how “sweater mittens were put together,” and three kids from our kids’ club and youth group joined us. Some of these young people had never sewn before, so we started them off with the basics: how to thread a needle and knot it off, or how to sew on buttons (each mitten had a button to secure the cuff). Praise God that he gave us an opportunity to share with the younger people, and in the process of sharing about sewing, we had the opportunity to share about Jesus. We always include a Scripture verse with each homemade craft, and the mittens had Isaiah 41:13 on them: “For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, do not fear; I will help you.”

In keeping with our desire to serve God through our sewing, we would love to offer our assistance to any WMF group that would like to make mittens. If you are interested in having a couple of us come or at least visit with us about the project, contact us through our church, Christian Free Lutheran in Wheatland, Iowa. Call 563-374-1002.

—Betsy Von Muenster, Christian Free Lutheran, Wheatland, Iowa.