Bomen Women & The Fellowship of the Cloth

Bomen Women & The Fellowship of the Cloth
Cloth connections open face to face fellowship at Bondeko Mennonite Church in Kinshasa (May 2012) -- photo by Nancy Myers

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

CCC @ MCUSA CONBENTION 2011 PITTSBURGH, PA

CONVENTION DAY ONE

Monday 4 July

After a long days of driving on either Sunday or Monday, all the CCC crew arrived. Tim Lind remained at home due an illness in the family, so Nina's first task was scrambling for translators for Marie-Jeanne and Gaston. Just before the evening worship they met Steve Wiebe-Johnson who served as their worship host. When they finally found their way back to the CCC booth after worship, Nina had encountered Jeanette Krabill, the angel of francais, who has been a beautiful and helpful presence in our booth ever since.

The Sunday travel group had been working all day, without air conditioning, setting up the Congo Cloth Connection booth and folding fabric for display. It is gorgeous!





When Nina and Nancy and Marie-Jeanne arrived they added a sewing table and sewing machine and poster of dress design from Congo so that the “dress shop corner” was ready to go!





When the Exhibit Hall opened at 8:45 pm, the booth was flooded with people, full of delight, interest.



Ervin Stutsman, executive director of MCUSA, was one of the first to come and stitch on the “Every Stitch a Prayer” quilt.



Youth really enjoyed dropping in to make bookmarks out of Congo cloth.



Over $800 of donations were given in exchange for many yards of cloth. And Marie-Jeanne began to take orders for custom made items.


CONVENTION DAY TWO

Tuesday 5 July

The booth was open from 11 am to 11 pm with volunteers taking shifts. Steady interest generated over $2000 in donations!

Louise Matthew of the Lion and Lamb Peace Arts Center of Bluffton College ordered five skirts and head scarves from Marie-Jeanne. They use these cross cultural clothes to teach about diversity and peacemaking. What fun it was to see the variety of fabrics and skirt designs Marie-Jeanne created! Several girls came through and were willing to model them for us. And some lovely ladies, as well…





Sylvia Shirk was Marie-Jeanne’s interpreter for the Mennonite Women Dinner. This gave her a chance to hear some excellent preaching by Meghan Good and Eli Soto Albrecht, in translation. They she was ready to keep sewing until 11 pm. She is a wonder!



I had some time to work on the prayer cards that are part of “Every Stitch a Prayer.” I had made some cards by sewing and praying on Congo cloth. Suzanne Lind took them to Congo. Cisca Ibanda shared them with a group of women from all three Mennonite groups in Kinshasa, and they sent their prayer requests back.





On Tuesday evening I was able to sew and pray again, this time with particular women in mind. I prayed for a son who had rebelled against his family, for a daughter who had been ill for 37 years, for a son that could not find work and a son who cut off all communication with family. I will send back my own requests: for my son who is looking for work, for my daughter who is looking for the right relationships, for health and blessing from my only granddaughter who just learned to walk. Ah! We are the same. We are sisters, even from afar. This kind of connection, and all the connections in our booth, were the dreams of this church to church relationships project. Thanks be to God!


We have had lots of help quilting the "Every Stitch a Prayer" quilt for the auction on Thursday.