A dozen women from First Baptist Church Clinton, Missouri, practice missions around the world — one spool of thread at a time.
The Mission Action team from FBC produces sewn items to help supply physical, emotional and spiritual needs of the community as well as people across the globe.
“The items we make are just small gifts that meet a need and help open the door to pray with someone, invite them to church, introduce them to Jesus or just let them know they are loved,” said team leader Delaina Bullock.
Items change with the needs and everything is given without cost, including the plan of salvation and church information.
Mission Action produces quilts, turbans for cancer patients, walker and wheelchair bags, clothing protectors and bibs, cooling ties, medical monitor covers, tracheostomy covers, catheter bags, water bottle holders, T-shirt dresses (started for a Haitian student camp), fidget quilts for Alzheimer’s patients and children with special needs.
“We have sewn dolls to put into our Project Christmas Cheer boxes that go around the world — around 500 a couple of years ago,” noted Carolyn Varner, a long-time team member.
“If we see a need and think God is leading us, we try our best to meet it,” Bullock said.
Varner added that the “ministry is for anyone needing a helping hand [and] exists to show others the love of Jesus.”
Neither knows how long the ministry has existed.
Bullock said when she and her husband moved to the area in 1986 it was active, and she believes it has been going more than 40 years.
Passion to serve others
Pat Findley, FBC senior pastor, said the church has a passion to serve others and “Mission Action is an incredible example of that passion.”
“Not everyone can do everything, but everyone can do something,” Findley noted. “I don’t have the sewing skills of Mission Action ladies. But these ladies are using their talents to make things that minister to people in practical ways both here in Henry County and around the world.”
Every year the group gives away hundreds of items.
“This year it’s only April and we’ve already given away over 100,” Bullock said.
“Our items have been shipped overseas, taken by mission teams, taken to nursing homes and the local veterans home,” Varner added. “We have senior fairs and health fairs that we attend and give these items away. Even the police have some of the lap robes to help people who have been in accidents.”
Items also have gone to local hospitals, community organizations and directly to individuals.
“Basically, we give where we see a need,” Bullock explained.
She noted sewing skills are not necessary.
“If you can pray, count, cut, visit — or you just enjoy eating chocolate — we have a spot,” Bullock said.
Children, grandchildren, neighbors and friends join in to help.
“My granddaughters love coming to Mission Action when they are visiting,” Bullock said. “When my son was little, he would thread needles for some of the older ladies.”
Variety of ages
The group includes women of various ages. There have been some in their 90s who have sewn fabric blocks from their assisted care rooms.
Varner remembered a 97-year-old friend who participated by tagging “each item with a little note of blessing and steps to conversion (and) an address to contact or call if they would like help in knowing the Lord.”
The ministry goes beyond sewn goods and has supplied Christmas cheer plates of cooked items to the church’s homebound and nursing home members, as well as new toys to local children at Christmas.
Bullock described Mission Action as “just a group of ladies serving the Lord, doing things we love, praying the Lord uses our gifts to bring others to Him.”
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Michael Smith and originally published by the Pathway.
