Deliveries

"Tied to the value of the person is the principle of servanthood. We value what we freely serve." -- Douglas Groothuis

It's delivery time! Your love gifts of yarny goodness have been delivered - and just in the nick of time, with very, very cold weather hitting the Chicago area just after deliveries were made. Many, many people are already being kept warm because of you, Angels!

Last week I shipped out all of your yarny goodness to: The Red Scarf Project, Mother Bear Project, Christmas at Sea, and Afghans for Afghans. I delivered your toys and hats and scarves to Parenting ProGRESS (and they will be distributed TODAY at their annual Christmas party!). I also arranged for pick up for your love gifts for Cornerstone Community Outreach.

Then I got a call from Pastor Greg Mesimore - he had taken his car in for service, and the repair place had given him a VAN as a loaner for the day! Did I want to take everything over to the North Park Friendship Center? You bet I did! So Pastor Greg and I loaded up the van, AND my little car with help from Frank:

Then we headed over to the Friendship Center in the bitter cold, packed full of love!

Volunteers formed a human chain to unload your love gifts into the Center.

And Joanne Ekberg, Director of the Center (that's her on the left with Pastor Greg), said to tell you that she truly appreciates your generosity! Your yarny goodness was unpacked the same day we delivered it and volunteers started distributing it right away!

That left me with my delivery to Swedish Covenant Hospital - and on Monday Frank and I loaded up his car and my car and headed off in sub-zero temps and high winds to spread the love! You caused quite a stir at the hospital when we started bringing in all of your love gifts -- I was stopped by patients, visitors, staff, security guards, doctors, and nurses. EVERYONE wanted to know who made all the lovely baby things in the storage bags, and once I told them, they wanted to know the WHOLE story about you!

Joann Meigs, head of Maternal Health (that's her on the left), wanted me to be sure to tell you what an impact you have had, and continue to have, on the needy moms and their babies served by Swedish Covenant Hospital. She told me that sometimes she gives a new mom two baby blankets because she knows that the mom has nothing at all for her baby. With her assistant Joanne (on the right), she whisked those two carloads of love gifts right upstairs to the maternity ward and started distributing your yarny goodness right away! (And yes, that's me in the middle, with frozen ears and windblown hair with the worst haircut I've ever had in my life -- so please excuse the "scarecrow" look!)

I truly hope you are feeling warm all over knowing that your gorgeous handiwork is spreading love all over the world RIGHT NOW as you read this post! Thousands of people are being touched by your love gifts, and are thankful for YOU! I surely am! Take a deep breath, pat yourself on the back, and give a big ole GRIN as you imagine all those in need treasuring all that you made this year. YOU ARE AWESOME!

And I've gotten a box of more yarny goodness already! As Angel Helen Watson said when I talked with her yesterday, "That box is a seed for next year's yarny goodness! You should always start the new year in the way you want it to go -- and now we've got love gifts that will lead to even more love gifts in 2011!" I couldn't agree more! Stay tuned for photos of that yarny goodness!

Dedication Day

“Some people do a certain thing, and the way in which they do it hallows that thing forever afterwards. It may be the most commonplace thing, but after we have seen them do it, it becomes different. When the Lord does a thing through us, He always transfigures it.” -- Oswald Chambers

On Saturday, December, a group of hard-working Crafty Angels gathered at Edgebrook Covenant Church to set up all the yarny goodness the Angels had created over 2010 to be dedicated and blessed. Over the course of the afternoon, they transformed an empty chapel into a room full of love gifts ready to be purchased at our fundraiser:

Angels Doris Ahlsted, Phyllis Snodgrass and Jeannine Patt hard at work!

Early on Sunday morning, Angel Kathy Waldsmith joined Angel Sandy Rice and me in setting up goodies to get people in the mood to shop during our fundraiser during coffee hour after our worship service:

Angel Kathy "womanning" the groaning board of coffee hour!

I so wish you all could have been at church during worship -- you would have heard my little homily praising you to the heavens, and Pastor Greg praying over all of your love gifts! Since you probably weren't able to be there, click here to read all about it in our December newsletter!

I am so sorry that there are no photos of the fundraiser in progress! SO MANY people came and we were SO BUSY answering questions about you and making sales that I wasn't able to take pictures! it was like being in the center of a whirlwind!

Please know that many members of our congregation and their friends purchased a portion of your yarny goodness as Christmas gifts (or gifts for themselves!), and we raised an AWESOME total of $3,058! $100 of the total came from the raffle of the gorgeous afghan designed by Angel Birgit Yacoub and crocheted by Angel Linda Faubel. That $100 will be donated to A Just Harvest, to help purchase food on a night when Edgebrook Covenant volunteers are serving there. The rest of the funds will be used to buy yarn for you to use and to cover our costs for shipping your yarny goodness around the world.

Thank you, Angels, for being the wonderful women you are, for all your hardwork throughout 2011, and for your hearts for the people we serve. May God bless each and every one of you most richly!