Outreach at the Care Center/Assisted Living

Our Special Ministries chair (who joined our church last year) suggested making walker bags for area nursing homes as a way for us to reach out to communities beyond our own. We reached out to a couple neighboring towns and have a total request for over 100 walker bags. Also, everyone started going through their fabric stashes, asking others for fabric, and it started coming in steadily. Everyone is excited about how people want to help out, even if it was only providing fabric. It was suggested by another member that we try including residents in the local care center,  with cutting, sewing, pressing etc. and also as a way to include a member of our congregation that is living there, in the ministry of the church. Some were skeptical that this was a good idea, but we went ahead and figured this would be a good fellowship opportunity regardless of the outcome. It has been well received!! Mostly the residents who want to participate, cut out fabric, turn the bags right side out for pressing, and a resident who's 96 is our designated ironer, as she is swift and precise. We also have added small pillows, that will be donated to one of our local Baptist Churches for their annual mission trip to Ghana in January. They do umbilical hernia surgeries, and need the pillows for the children and adults who have these procedures done. It was a way for us to reach out and work with other churches in our community and encourage their ministries. This has been a blessing. We've only had 2 sessions, with another coming up next week. This last gathering, we had to meet in the assisted living portion of the Care Center, and there were women there who did not know we'd been at the Care facility, and joined us in fellowship, providing fabric from their quilting projects for pillows, and visitng with patrons from the Care Center, and church members. One of the new attendees from the assisted/independent side, stuffed and sewed up several pillows for us in short order, and agreed to stuff and stitch shut some others (at her leisure ;) ). It's only been a couple times, but the fellowship and conversation at the tables amongst the residents and church members has truly been a blessing. There is a change in attitude when you have a purpose, and even those who are struggling w/ memory, walking and other abilities, can still sit and feel like what they're doing has meaning. Some of the ladies made special requests when they saw fabrics they liked, and our SM chair made a bigger bag for a woman who has to carry an oxygen tank. Others who had pre planned activites that day on the assisted side, showed interest in helping the next time we gather. Both of our churches have had members in attendance with a total of 7 regular attendees, and as many if not more residents rotating in and out. We expect to grow attendance at this gathering, as we already moved to a bigger room the second time, with better wheel chair assessability.