The Children Of The Needy

I learned something fun tonight that I thought I’d share with you.  Afghans for Afghanistan (A4A) is an organization I have sent clothing to for years.   They just received a request from a hospital in Kabul for infant socks and hats.  Unfortunately the time frame is quite short.  To get the items to the hospital by winter, A4A needs to receive them by July 3 at the latest.

When I took a break from the cute little baby hat I had started knitting to say Evening Prayer, I was shocked at how perfect it was!  The first prayer was Psalm 72, which many believe speak prophetically of Jesus’ Kingship.  Listen to these verses:

May He defend the poor of the people and save the children of the needy.

For He shall save the poor when they cry, and the needy who are helpless.

He will have pity on the weak, and save the lives of the poor.

 Afghanistan has one of the highest child mortality rates in the world, mainly because of the combination of cold winters and poverty. Many babies don’t survive their first 48 hours.  Studies have proven that giving these new moms a warm wool hat for their baby can literally save the newborn’s life.  Can you imagine being so poor that your baby dies because you don’t have a hat?  It’s so sad!

Theresa of Avila wrote these words:  “Christ has no Body now but yours.  No hands, no feet on earth but yours.  Yours are the eyes through which He looks compassion on this world.  Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good.  Yours are the hands through which He blesses all the world.”

Remember how much Jesus loved the children?  He rebuked His disciples for keeping them away, and He took them in His arms and blessed them.  How much He must love the children of Afghanistan!

Do you knit or crochet?  (A4A doesn’t accept store bought, used, or sewn items.  It makes the customs forms more complicated.)  Want to let Jesus use your hands and help Him bless His precious children?  Here is the link to A4A’s main website with all the information.  Now back to my knitting!  Chirp, chirp!

 

 

 

Chirp, Chirp, I’m Back!

Hello!  Sorry I’ve been so quiet lately.  Everything I thought of writing just seemed not to fit.  Any little spiritual bits from my reading seemed  too personal or too difficult to explain because it was so specifically related to things I haven’t shared here.  As for the rest, well here are some examples:

I could have told you about my adventures being a mighty T-Rex.  My niece and I have been tracking and hunting the herbivores.  I’m very sad to say that Grandma keeps being eaten.  Grandpa always seems to survive for some reason.  But did you really need to learn that  broth is actually “carrion juice” and dinosaurs can shoot beams out of their claws that paralyze their prey?

I could have told you about a slug funeral.  Rest in peace, Graham Cracker.  I’m very sorry I stepped on you!

I could have told you about the first sweater I ever knit for myself.  I was working on it during Lent, which turned out to be quite appropriate.  Just about everything went wrong and had to be re-done, and the still-not-finished sweater doesn’t fit!  The lace is pretty, though.

I could have told you about the absolutely enormous centipede that jumped out of the Church laundry bag and scared the heck out of me while I was working on the altar linens.

You see what I mean?  The Easter season just didn’t seem the right time for carnage and hunting, eating grandparents, slug funerals, giant bugs, and knitting failures!

By the way, I’m babysitting Wednesday night.  I suspect that the T-Rex’s will be on the prowl again.  Fortunately both Grandma and Grandpa will be safely out of the house that night, so they will both survive.  I hope!

 

One Picture Can Change Your Life

One day a message was sent through one of my charity crafting email groups.  A woman asked if any of us would be willing to make some wool sweaters, socks, and mittens for an orphanage in Moldova.  She and a group of other adoptive parents would hand deliver the items to the children on one of their next trips.

This project interested me, but they only wanted wool clothing because of the extra warmth it provided.  I am allergic to wool.  Even a tiny bit in a sweater makes me itch like crazy, unless none of it touches my skin. 

Although I was not going to participate, I was curious.  She had included some links to news articles about this orphanage so I went to read them.

Moldova is a small country next to Romania.  It used to be part of the USSR.  The poverty is pretty extreme and the winters can be brutal.  Families adopting from this particular orphanage were horrified at the conditions the children were living in.  They kids would sleep in a pile on the floor, trying to keep each other warm during the cold winter nights.  They often woke up with frost bite or chilblains on their hands and feet.  That’s why the group especially wanted socks and mittens for the children to wear while they slept.

One article had a picture I will never forget.  It was a child in this orphanage.  He (or she, I couldn’t tell) was around six or seven maybe.  He was skin and bones, and looked like he was so weak he could hardly hold up his head.  His eyes were blank, and yet somehow still full of suffering.  Then I saw his hands.  Those little bony hands were covered with red open sores.  The article said the sores were from the cold.

When I saw those poor little hands, something inside me changed forever.  I didn’t care anymore what the wool might do to my hands.  I HAD to do something for these children.  I HAD TO DO IT.  I immediately found an online yarn store and bought some wool yarn.

Ever since then, most of my knitting has been with wool or wool blend yarns.  Surprisingly, it doesn’t bother my hands as much as I had feared.  I think it’s because the most sensitive parts of my hands seldom rest on the yarn while I am knitting.  Plus I use lots of lotion and wear long sleeves whenever possible.  Over the years I’ve learned some brands of yarn and breeds of sheep that cause me more trouble so I avoid them.

I do love all the sweet preemie items, and God bless the people who help children in difficult situations. But people who are desperately cold are the ones who own my heart.  It doesn’t matter where or who they are.  Over the last 10+ years I have been blessed by opportunities to help people of all ages all over the world.  Kazakhstan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Russia, Moldova, Ukraine, Mongolia, Romania, the mountains of Guatemala, Africa (yes there are cold places in Africa!) the Arctic, North Dakota, New York, Syria, and our local homeless.

Did you ever hear the song  “Hollow Eyes” by the Christian music group Petra?   The lilies of the field may not toil or spin, (Matthew 6:28) but the lyrics below explain why this Sparrow knits:

The least of these is hungry

The least of these is sick

The least of these needs clothing

The least of these needs drink

The least of these knows sorrow

The least of these knows grief

The least of these has suffered pain

And Jesus is His name.

The Wonders Of The Internet

After making that baby blanket for my sister, I didn’t crochet much for years.  Then we got the internet.  I discovered there were thousands of people out there who crochet, knit, and sew for charities.  My Grandma would have loved it — all those babies!

The first charity that caught my eye made items for preemies.  That interested me because I was a premature baby.  Some of the things they asked for were little 12″ square blankets, hats that would fit a lemon, (!)  tiny cardigans and booties.  Sadly, they also provided burial outfits for the little ones who did not survive.

Other charities gave things full term babies.  Did you know there are places in the USA where the nurses wrap the newborns in NEWSPAPERS because the family doesn’t have enough clothing or blankets to keep the baby warm on the way home from the hospital?

I also found groups that give out “lapghans” and toys to children in hospitals, and others who work with traumatized children or those being put in emergency foster care.  In scary situations, a little love can make a huge difference to a child.

I got quite busy crocheting for these charities.  I joined some email lists and other groups.  Then I taught myself to knit.  For some reason I find knitting to be more relaxing than crochet.  It’s easier on my wrists, too.  I like being able to do both.

In my next post I will tell about a message sent through one charity email list that changed my life.

My Grandma’s Crochet Hook

My Grandma taught me to crochet.  She loved to make baby blankets and sweaters.  If there weren’t enough family babies on the way, she made them for her friends and their families.  Sometime she made them for strangers!  I remember once she made a lovely set for a young pregnant cashier she saw at the grocery store.

One day she gave me a hook and some yarn and taught me to crochet chains.  I probably made miles of chain while I watched her work.  When I was ten, she helped me make my first “real” project:  a blanket for my baby sister.  I barely got it done in time!

When my Grandma passed away, I was given her crochet hooks.  (She kept them in an old plastic baby bottle.  How appropriate!)  They are very special to me.  My favorite is a small red hook that she used with the thinner baby yarns.  She literally wore the finish off of it!

Now I actually knit more than I crochet, but I keep that little red hook with my knitting.  It is always either in my knitting bag or in the drawer next to where I sit.  I use it often to fix dropped stitches, etc.

I’ve noticed lately that the finish is wearing off some of my most used knitting needles.  I guess I am following in my Grandma’s footsteps.