thepiano-hasbeen-drinking:

14. Swan Dance
from the ballet ‘Swan Lake’
P. Tchaikovsky
First Part

thepiano-hasbeen-drinking:

14. Swan Dance
from the ballet ‘Swan Lake’
P. Tchaikovsky
First Part

elyssaschroeder:

Sewing Ministry

Two mornings a week I go to a sewing ministry for at-risk women, which is just another way of saying that there’s a business that employs women who are abused, neglected, or have no way of providing for their families to make manufactured goods and sell to a partner company  in the US. They make blankets, pillows, table runners, quilts, etc. Most of the women have abusive alcoholic husbands who drink away their salaries and leave taking care of the children and household to the woman.  Others are widows, an extremely marginalized segment of Indian society, and some are handicapped or have a spouse who is handicapped and not able to find work. If you couldn’t see it for yourself, you would never believe that women who live in such desperate circumstances day after day with little hope of significant change could be so full of life.

The first thing we do every morning is shake everyone’s hand and then we sit on mats on the floor and have prayer. Not all of the women are Christians, but everyone respects this time of coming to the Lord in worship and praise. They sing in Tamil and even though I don’t understand a single word of it I love listening and watching them. One woman reads a psalm in Tamil and then someone who speaks English will read it in English. Then one woman leads in prayer. If someone has a specific prayer request or needs help all of the women know and they all contend for each other. The feelof community is so powerful.

My first day they greeted me and stumbled over my name (most of them call me Elijah – seriously), and the first few weeks were hard as we struggled through some pretty major language barriers. By week three, a woman told me that my dress was not nice (it needed to be ironed) and that I should wear earrings – their way of saying they were comfortable with me and cared. Sometimes, they show love in funny ways. Since then I’ve been involved in their practical jokes, been able to pray for healing, and had a woman hand feed me food she brought from home. This past week I was told by three separate people that I should dye my hair black, had to eat a pickled cherry that someone gave me, and was scolded for not matching my earrings to my dress. But, I was also given flowers everyday to put in my hair, one of the women earnestly told me that she loved me, a chance to pray for a hurting leg, and people trusted me with their scissors (a way bigger deal than it sounds).

I do what they do – cut, paste, trace, whatever’s needed. We work alongside each other. There was one day when I was cutting shapes that would later be sewn onto hand towels, and one of the women showed me how to cut about five times. The shape had been traced; all I had to do was cut on the line. I was doing it just fine, but she kept taking it away from me and showing me how to do it “properly”. The first thought that went through my head was one of frustration at her bossiness and maybe the words, “I have a Bachelor’s Degree. I’m pretty sure I can cut a piece of fabric”. Later, I was thinking back through my day and I realized that the frustration that I was feeling wasn’t rightly placed. That woman’s job, her ability to take care of her family, depends on her attention to how well she cuts out shapes. She is going to do whatever she can to make sure that happens, even if it’s showing some random white girl how to cut.

This gets to the heart of cross-cultural ministry – it’s all about humility. The ability to put aside what you think is important (in this case my want to prove that I knew how to cut a stupid piece of fabric) and focus on what is really at hand. How can you bring the Kingdom of God into everyday situations, even ones that frustrate and confuse you? How can you support and uplift the people around you without bringing the underlying agenda of your culture?  I don’t know yet, but maybe, possibly, solely it’s through GRACE, and an intention to really listen, not only to words but to actions and commands. Because really how can a 22 year old, recent college graduate, be able to speak anything into these women’s lives without grace and humility? I don’t have anything to prove – I have everything to learn.

They’re faced with impossible situations where they constantly have to be strong, but all you see when you look at them are Daughters of Hope.

PS: We do have a lot of fun when we can understand each other, and I’ve learned some pretty awesome things from them such as AC will make your hair fall out, you can’t take medicine for PMS because it’ll hurt your uterus, one way of avoiding typhoid is to cut all your hair off, and many more. They’ve are constantly asking me about the 50 million mosquito bites have on the vast majority of my skin. They bring food from home to share most days, and it’s incredibly rude for me not to take what’s offered so I’ve eaten a great many number of things that I had no idea where some good, some bad and most recently I skillfully avoided having to eat fish pickle.  

This picture is of Ashley and I matching old saris to use in a line of sari quilts!

For more information: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Daughters-of-Hope/261001657268527

masamagic:

Books VS Women

hushlittleghostlings:

(via (Inside A Black Apple): Dressing Room)

teachingliteracy:

by ~tartantoes