JERRY FINK
MANAGING EDITOR
The ladies of North Fork Baptist Church are sowing the seeds of kindness.
“We want to help our community,” said Sandra Peterson. “God has helped us, and we want to help others. We want to glorify God by really helping our community and others in need.”
They help by sewing. Sewing for the young and old – from kids in stressful situations to the elderly suffering from Alzheimer’s.
For the kids, they sew bags for toys and other personal belongings. For those with Alzheimer’s they sew bibs.
Besides bags and bibs, they create blankets and other items for those in the community who can use a little help in a time of need – destitute families and countless others, including missionaries who pass along the kindness to their own flocks.
“We are pretty much a sewing club,” Peterson said.
The club, which has a dozen or so members, meets two Tuesdays a month to perform their selfless work, using material and supplies that are for the most part donated.
They use their own sewing machines.
“We get quite a bit done for just meeting twice a month,” Peterson said.
The sewing group is called Women On Mission.
And they have a mission that essentially evolved from the May 20, 2013 tornado that killed 24 people, injured 212 and destroyed an entire neighborhood in Moore.
“We worked with Baptist Disaster Relief,” Peterson said. “We have no active disaster relief from here, so that’s how we got into doing these things.”
They donate sewn items to nursing homes and to home health care groups.
The Eufaula Police Department keeps several of the bags on hand, filled with a blanket, a toy and other items for children who find themselves in a stressful situation.
“Kids like to have something to hang onto when they are in those situations,” Peterson said.
Kids without families also receive gifts.
“A lady with our church worked for an orphanage. We made quilts galore for her,” said Maxine Austin, one of the club’s volunteers.
The volunteers have contributed its items to the McIntosh County Sheriff ’s Department; to shut-ins and women’s shelters, the Department of Human Services and to CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate).
“We have found the community needs our help, so we show God’s love by helping out the community,” Peterson said.
She said it’s hard to think that there are so many poor and needy people.
“But there are a lot of families who need help,” she said.
