Participants:
Series Code: TDY
Program Code: TDY220028A
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00:05 ♪ I want to spend my life mending broken people ♪ 00:15 ♪ I want to spend my life removing pain ♪ 00:26 ♪ Lord let my words heal a heart that hurts ♪ 00:36 ♪ I want to spend my life mending broken people ♪ 00:57 ♪ ♪ 01:07 Hello and welcome to 3ABN today. My name is Yvonne Shelton and 01:10 we are so thankful that you've chosen to join us as you do each 01:15 and every day. Today is going to be an inspiring program for you. 01:21 We have It's My Very Own International with us and so 01:27 you're going to love this program because you're going to 01:30 see how this ministry is a ministry that cares. James 1:27 01:37 says: Pure and undefiled religion before God and the 01:42 Father is this: To visit orphans and widows in their trouble and 01:47 to keep oneself unspotted from the world. This ministry is 01:52 about taking care of the children. So before we introduce 01:58 our guests let's hear some wonderful music from 02:00 Scott Michael Bennett. He's going to be singing 02:04 Love Never Fails. 02:06 ♪ ♪ 02:25 ♪ Love is not proud Love does not boast ♪ 02:29 ♪ Love after all Matters the most ♪ 02:36 ♪ Love does not run Love does not hide ♪ 02:44 ♪ Love does not keep Locked inside ♪ 02:52 ♪ Love is the river that flows through, love never fails you ♪ 03:03 ♪ Love will sustain Love will provide ♪ 03:10 ♪ Love will not cease At the end of time ♪ 03:17 ♪ And love will protect Love always hopes ♪ 03:24 ♪ And love still believes When you don't ♪ 03:33 ♪ Love is the arms that are holding you Love never fails you 03:45 When my heart won't make a sound When I can't turn back around ♪ 03:53 ♪ When the sky is falling down Nothing is greater than this ♪ 04:00 ♪ 'Cause love is right here Love is alive ♪ 04:12 ♪ Love is the way The truth, the life ♪ 04:18 ♪ Love is the river that flows through ♪ 04:22 ♪ Love is the arms that are holding you ♪ 04:26 ♪ And love is the place you will fly to, Love never fails you ♪ 04:36 ♪ No love never fails No love never fails you ♪ 04:55 Thank you, Scott Michael Bennett for that beautiful song. 04:59 Love Never Fails. And the love of Jesus never 05:03 fails and the ministry that we have with us today, It's My Very 05:07 Own International demonstrates the love of Jesus every day so 05:11 Thank you so much for being with us. We have Susan Schnell who is 05:17 the director of It's My Very Own International. Eda Stoll the 05:22 coordinator of the Greater Bangor, Maine chapter, Bill and 05:27 Gail Hicks the co-directors of the Central Florida and North 05:32 chapters. So welcome. Yay! We're so happy that you're with us and 05:37 we need to know more about this ministry. I just found out about 05:41 you and it's an amazing ministry Tell us Susan about It's My Very 05:46 Own. What is it and how did it start? 05:48 Yes so this ministry was started in 2005 by Barbara Nehar and her 05:54 husband Jack and Teresa her daughter. She had seen a news 05:59 program that emphasized how the methamphetamine problem in 06:05 America had just caused so many problems for children and that 06:10 children had to be taken out of their home because you know it's 06:15 just so dangerous with methamphetamine. And so they 06:18 have to be taken out of their home and they would come out of 06:21 their home with nothing. A trash bag maybe with a few things or 06:25 even nothing because with methamphetamine you have to 06:27 you know detox everything. So they had to be taken out of the 06:33 home and Barbara saw this and she was so impressed by it 06:37 that...Because she had a lot of fabric in her home and she was 06:41 like I can do something about this. And actually, God impressed 06:45 her that this is something that she could do with her fabric. 06:48 So she started making bags, bags like this. And as you can see 06:55 this bag we have a little Panda bear in here. And the Panda bear 07:00 we try if we can to match some of the things and the Panda bear 07:04 matches the pocket here. So in these bags we put a homemade 07:10 quilt like this. So it's homemade and it's personal to 07:15 the child. Because you know you could buy a blanket or whatever 07:19 but this just says, love. This says that someone took the time 07:23 to make this quilt and it's their very own. No one has one 07:30 like it. So we put a homemade quilt, we put books and toys and 07:34 personal care products. In the pocket you can see we have some 07:38 of the personal care products. This particular bag is for a 07:42 girl, infant girl to three years So in an infant bag, we also put 07:47 a bottle and a sippy cup and things like that. So we try and 07:54 match it to what the child's needs would be at that age group 07:58 And we also have a little tag on the bag that says This Bag 08:03 Belongs To: And then when they're removed from the home 08:08 the case worker or you know the foster parent can then put their 08:14 name on it. So it's just very personal to them. 08:16 That is so precious because the whole idea is they're losing so 08:22 much (Yes) and this gives them something that is their very own 08:27 (Yes) That is so beautiful and so caring. (Yes) What kind of 08:32 response do you get from the children? 08:34 You know, we don't actually most of the time see the children. 08:39 So because we work with the county usually the county, and 08:46 so we just provide the bags to them and they are the ones 08:50 giving them to the children. But occasionally we do have some 08:56 interaction or we hear back. I'll tell you a story. This is a 09:03 chapter in Appalachia. It's the Appalachian chapter. 09:05 Stacy Shanahan is the director there and she had the 09:09 opportunity to provide four bags to teens that were living with 09:15 their grandmother. And they were all special needs children and 09:21 she was able to really kind of make it unique for them. One 09:25 child was very interested in horses so she put a quilt in 09:30 that had horses on it. She put horses books in it. Another 09:34 child that was quite severely challenged, he liked fuzzy 09:40 things so she put in you know fuzzy blankets and more of the 09:45 stuffies or the stuffed animals and when he received his bag 09:50 and pulled out his blanket he said, Is this my very own? And 09:57 then he wrapped it up around him and just you know hugged himself 10:01 with it. So you know when we hear those stories it's just so 10:06 heartwarming. But even if we don't hear the stories you know 10:09 pray over the bags before we take them to Child Protective 10:14 Services or wherever we're taking them. And so we just know 10:21 that God is in this. That He blessed it and that He will... 10:28 there'll be something in there that child particularly wants. 10:31 That is so beautiful, that is really beautiful. So how do you 10:34 get...do people donate the stuffed animals. Like how do you 10:39 get the materials that go into this? 10:41 They do. We get donations. We also, purchase sometimes. There's 10:48 different ways that we can purchase. I purchase the off of 10:50 Facebook Marketplace. I don't know if I'm supposed to say that 10:54 but anyway...anyway I purchase them online. And a lot of times 10:59 when people hear what I'm using them for they just give them to 11:02 me. So we do accept gently used stuffed animals. We accept used 11:11 books and you know some of the items that go in here. 11:15 That is so beautiful. How great is the need for all of this? 11:18 It is so great and the pandemic has even increased the need. 11:24 Um so there's over 600,000 children in the foster care 11:30 system in America alone. So that's not counting anywhere 11:34 else. 11:35 Six hundred thousand?! 11:36 Six hundred thousand. Yeah. And so the need is great. It just is 11:41 so great. And you know they end up going and sitting in the 11:46 office while they're waiting to be placed. And so this just 11:51 eases a little bit of their pain while they're having to wait to 11:56 have something to look at. 11:58 That's beautiful. What about the books inside. Are they religious 12:03 books are they... what kind of books? 12:04 Well I will tell you that some places don't really allow 12:09 religious books. But I live in the Bible belt and they do so 12:14 we put either Bible stories or with the older teens, we might 12:21 put a New Testament. But we do put religious books in every bag 12:25 but in some places, I think maybe Eda you know in Maine it's 12:31 not so accepted. And so I do, when people start a new chapter 12:36 I do ask them to ask because we don't want the whole program 12:40 derailed because they don't allow religious books, so I do 12:44 request that they ask about it. So yeah. 12:50 And so these quilts are handmade at every chapter makes their own 12:56 quilts. (Yes) And we have someone from the Canada chapter 13:00 tells us about our Skype guest. 13:08 I will. Our skype guest is Julia and she is in Canada. She's been 13:13 also doing it from like 2005 I think or 2006. She's been doing 13:18 it for a long time. And she has really been involved in her 13:23 community. Her community has really stepped up, her local 13:26 community and her you know surrounding areas have really 13:31 stepped up and helped her make quilts. And they're actually 13:34 right now at a quilting retreat. And they're closed in with a 13:39 blizzard and they're just making quilts. Let's invite Jewel. 13:45 Hi Jewel, there you are Welcome. This is Jewel and Rosemary and 13:52 they're just going to tell a little bit about their program 13:54 and Rosemary I think you were going to tell little bit how you 13:58 even heard about it and how you got started. 14:01 Well I saw a newspaper article (skips in transmission) bags so 14:09 thought I can do that (skips) said I can help too. And so we 14:13 made bags for a little while and then when we realized that they 14:16 were quilts that went into them we started making quilts because 14:19 basically, that's what we wanted to do. And I'm blessed with a 14:23 group of friends who we meet once a week. So they came on 14:29 board too and so now we sew as much as we can for Bags of Love 14:34 It's what we want to do for the children and to help the purpose 14:39 which we believe in. 14:42 Thank you. That is beautiful. Jewel, how did you get started? 14:46 Well I got started by accident because I'm not a quilter and I 14:52 was a teacher's aide and I was busy doing things and an older 14:57 lady in our church was very involved in our community who is 15:02 now 98 and still involved in our Bags of Love. She strings every 15:06 single bag that you saw that Susan had with the string that 15:10 goes around the top. She's still the person who strings all of 15:14 our bags. I got involved because she plopped all these papers in 15:17 my lap. I took them to school let the grades 7, 8 and 9 go 15:21 through them and say what do you think guys? And they said Mrs. 15:26 Lien let's do this. So that was the beginning and when we got 15:30 like the group that's here today that we're doing our quilting 15:32 retreat with I just want to mention, these ladies have been 15:36 together for over 20 years as a quilting group and they all came 15:43 on board and have just been... When we need something like 15:48 running out of teen quilts and things like that, I just have to 15:51 ask and they fire them up. Whatever it is. This is just 15:54 a wonderful close group and there's more groups like them. 15:59 But we meet once in a while in places like this and just have a 16:02 good time. 16:05 That is so lovely. God is going to richly bless. In fact, I know 16:10 He already is richly blessing you for this and your whole team 16:14 And you're in a blizzard right now? 16:18 You know it just comes and goes and honestly, I heard and I 16:24 actually had prayer the night before and said that you know 16:27 honey, I feel weird about us coming in on this Tuesday to our 16:30 retreat because I have so much to unload for the girls to put 16:36 together and I'm worried about unloading in the snow. And I 16:41 woke up on Monday morning and I called all the girls and I said 16:42 I'm going to see if we can get into that bed and breakfast one 16:47 day earlier. We could. The doors opened up and we got here, got 16:50 unpacked and then the snow began I really wanted to send you guys 16:55 some pictures of it because it's even strange for us this time of 17:00 the year. But it was just sort of an unplanned event and the 17:05 people that were staying here that gave it to us, they even 17:08 gave us that night for free just because they said you know what 17:12 that was a very good idea that you came and I'm sure that your 17:16 prayers were answered. They said we're not even charging you for 17:19 that night. (Wow) So it's just neat how things come together. 17:24 Yes. Well we thank you so much for being with us and thank you 17:27 for all that you're doing for the cause of Christ because 17:31 that's what it all boils down to You're showing the love of Jesus 17:35 by making these quilts. So may God bless you and your team. 17:39 Thank you so much for being with us. 17:42 Your so welcome. 17:43 God bless. So Eda tell us about you and how you got started. 17:48 with It's My very own. 17:52 My Very Own. Well about 14 years ago I went to a women's retreat 17:57 and there was a lady there and she got up and spoke about this 18:03 new ministry. I'd never heard of it. (Eda Stoll) I was just 18:07 to quilt myself. She kind of left it here like you know for 18:14 people to look at during the weekend. I remember standing 18:18 there looking at the bag and the quilt and I thought, I could do 18:24 that. You know, I could do that. And time went on and you know 18:29 I worked, I had two kids at home I had an autistic kid and I had 18:35 a son that was in college and that's a lot. I was thinking 18:38 that's going to be a lot to do. And I kept sending up prayers to 18:43 God, Yeah you want me to do this Yeah about six months I did that 18:47 You know how you pray, Lord what do you want me to do? One day I 18:52 was driving to work and I was praying to the Lord and I said 18:56 you want me to do this? And He said to me, Just do it. And I 19:02 kind of heard a little voice, Just do it. And I said well wait 19:06 a minute Lord, I'm praying about this. I wanted to just pray. 19:13 That was easier. And It just said, Just do it. And I said all 19:19 right Lord I'll stand up and I'll do it. But I'm too busy. 19:22 You've got to bring whatever I need. It's your ball game. 19:26 I don't want to be more stressed Oop! more stressed so that's how 19:32 I began. Just like that and Susan and Arnold were our pastor 19:37 at the time. And I presented it to the church and the church was 19:42 good with it. So we started. That's 14 years ago and we're 19:48 still doing it and many, many blessings. God just opens doors 19:52 and you meet so many people and you bless the kids. You know we 19:57 don't always see the kids, like Susan said. But you do hear 20:01 stories once in a while and you make contacts with the DHS 20:08 workers that work with the children. And they tell you 20:12 things and they are happy because their job is not a fun 20:18 job to take those kids out with nothing. You know it's a need 20:22 if they're neglected or drugs or whatever the case that they need 20:28 to be removed for. You know it's not an easy job. But when they 20:33 come with a bag. You know because a lot of time in Maine 20:37 they do home visits and they don't want to remove the child. 20:40 They want them to be with their parents. But things have to 20:45 change. They have to be educated Some of them are educated to 20:51 just how to parent. You know society is not what it should be 20:56 So that's good for them too. They are happy, more than happy 21:03 to take things you know to give to the kids. 21:09 That kind of brings us to...I'm glad you said that Eda because 21:11 it brings us to...We have a video of a case worker that 21:16 describes what the bags mean to her. (Good) Let's watch. Show 21:20 that now. 21:21 (Jessy Boylston) It's very important as a caseworker to be 21:25 able to have access to It's My Very Own bag to provide 21:28 to a child. 21:30 When we're brought into the picture it's often very 21:32 turbulent and scary for the children. They have no idea 21:36 what's going on, why there family members can't take care 21:38 of them. To be able to give them something solid somebody out 21:47 there personally made, an item for me, they're thinking about 21:50 me, a quilt. They kind of hug it you know and being able to try 21:58 and mitigate some of that harm, that anger and that frustration. 22:03 It's really important to be able to provide that to them. 22:08 It makes a big difference. 22:11 Jessy watched a four-year-old find comfort from the bag he 22:14 received. 22:16 He had special needs. So he's a handful. Unfortunately most of 22:21 the caregivers weren't able to meet his needs so in receiving 22:25 his bag it kind of grounded him a little bit. He came from a 22:28 home where he also did not have many toys or just support from 22:34 his parents. So receiving that bag and the content of a stuffed 22:38 animal especially. He enjoyed wrapping himself in the quilt 22:41 Nine times he went to a different home and each move he 22:46 was able to take his bag with his belongings his comfort item 22:51 the stuffed animal. It meant the world to him to be able to have 22:55 that so... 22:57 Oh, that's precious, that is precious. It's got to tear the 23:02 case workers' hearts apart. Yes, to remove children from the 23:09 home and you know the children don't easily leave. Oh, that's 23:14 got to be heart-wrenching. 23:15 I heard from case workers... Occasionally we put a postcard 23:20 on the bag so that then the case worker can just mail it back. 23:24 Then we know. And occasionally they will write on here and I 23:29 had a couple of notes if you don't mind my sharing, (yes 23:32 please) from a case worker. This one it says, This bag of love 23:35 went to a very sad six-year-old girl. She is over-the-moon happy 23:40 now that she received your bag of love. And the caseworker 23:44 also texted me and she said this girl was so distraught that 23:48 like she wasn't even able to place her because she couldn't 23:53 even like deal with anything. And then when she gave her the 23:57 bag it just kind of settled her down. And she was able then to 24:01 process what they needed to do to place her in a home. So the 24:06 the caseworkers do appreciate it as well. 24:10 Yes, yes. It's got to be really difficult but it's so beautiful 24:15 that the children are getting something that they can take 24:18 that gives them some sense of continuity too. They're going 24:21 from this home to that home to perhaps another one and if they 24:25 have their own bag it just means something to them. 24:29 Bill and Gale tell us about how you got involved with It's My 24:34 Very Own. 24:36 (Bill and Gail Hix) Well we had been making bags actually for 24:40 Susan's chapter. We were snow birds and her parents were in 24:45 the same camp that we were in. And then one fall we had a bunch 24:51 of quilts to present to her and she said why don't you just keep 24:56 them and start your own chapter. So we thought about that and the 25:01 the responsibility and all but basically, we decided that we 25:05 would. And it took us six months Our church is very small. Very 25:12 few of us even sewed and so it took us six months in order to 25:16 get enough to be able to present them to DCF (Department of Child 25:20 and Families) to begin with. But Bill came up with a kit concept 25:29 that saved us. 25:30 Oh, tell us about it. 25:32 In order to help the ladies who were sewing I started cutting up 25:37 the pieces of quilts. And at one point we said if we could get 25:42 quilt clubs to help us we could give them the pieces, they sew 25:48 it together and give it back and maybe we can keep up that way. 25:51 We attended the Leesburg church There's about 50 people attend 25:56 so it's not a big group and there were just two or three 26:00 women that were sewing and it was hard for us to keep up. 26:04 So we came up with this, we call it the kit concept and what we 26:10 is we give a quilt club these packages here and there are four 26:20 different squares there are 16 of each and this is the backing 26:26 for the quilt and here is a pillow and the bag. The ladies 26:33 in the church are making the pillows and the bags. This is 26:38 what the quilt clubs return to us and they like the John Deere 26:49 and this would got to a boy five to eight years old and if you've 26:59 got a young lady she would probably prefer to have 27:03 something like this quilt. Now they're all seven-inch squares 27:08 and they all have 63 in it so there's one square left over 27:15 because there's 16 of each. But the quilt clubs sew these up for 27:18 us. We first gave this to American Sewing Guild who was 27:24 meeting at the Lady Lake church and the ladies thought yeah we 27:29 can do that so they sewed a bunch of them, made more in a 27:33 month than we had made in six months. We thought that's going 27:38 to work. But God always provides We went out on faith and He has 27:44 provided. We got a call from the Legacy Quilt Club which is in 27:48 the subdivision where we live and we said we heard about the 27:52 American Sewing Guild. Could you come show us this program? 27:55 So we took a kit. We took a finished product and said this 28:02 is what we do and we told them all about the program, about the 28:05 children and they were excited. Now they select a charity each 28:10 year and they will quilt or work whatever to help that charity. 28:18 So in 2016, we were the charity of their choice, 2017 came along 28:24 and they contacted us and they said We've decided to do you 28:29 again this year which we were very blessed. In 2018 Gail 28:33 approached them and said we really appreciate everything 28:37 you've done but if you want to choose another charity we would 28:42 understand. And they said well we don't feel like we're doing 28:46 it for charity. We feel like we're part of this program. 28:50 And the last five years this ladies' quilt group has made 195 28:57 quilts for us. 29:00 Ooo! Wow! 29:02 Recently we were contacted by the case worker that you just 29:06 saw and she is now working for YRCC (Youth Recovery Care 29:14 Program) and these are 12 to 17- year-old boys and girls that 29:19 have drug and alcohol problems and it's a 30-day in-patient 29:25 program. She said I've seen what these bags of love do for the 29:32 children and we would like you to provide them for us. And we 29:39 inquired about the program. They have 16 beds. They're in for 30 29:44 days and 16 times 12 is a bunch of quilts and that was more than 29:52 we could possible see, there's no way we could do that. So we 29:59 approached the church and Pastor Scott said It's God's program, 30:03 He'll provide. Gail says, If we do it, it'll work. I'm a little 30:10 more realistic. I said that's a lot of cuttin' up. I was the one 30:18 cutting squares up. Well the church voted, let's do this. 30:23 The next Tuesday we met and 23 church members showed up. The 30:31 pastor wishes he'd get that for prayer meeting. So they cut, we 30:37 packaged up an additional quilt clubs started calling us. We now 30:41 have six groups, The Hawthorne Quilters, The Arlington Ridge 30:46 Quilt Till You Wilt group, Quilting for Angels. Susan Woods 30:53 called us and said we could help you. So we are producing these. 30:59 There's no way we could possibly meet the demand without the 31:04 quilt clubs. We no longer make any quilts at our church. We 31:08 make kits. And we distribute these and the quilt clubs bring 31:13 these back and they're beautifully done. 31:16 That is beautiful. I think we have a video about that. (We do) 31:19 I am part of the Legacy Leesburg Quilt Group and we are very 31:24 lucky to have met up with Gail and Bill Hix from the It's My 31:29 Very Own chapter of central Florida. They have given us a 31:33 purpose and we have just been thrilled because when we receive 31:38 materials to create these quilts for the children they are 31:44 already combined into a perfectly organized kit. All the 31:49 pieces are labeled, they are counted out perfectly. They go 31:53 together perfectly and all that's left for us to do is to 31:57 sew and it's a beautiful partnership. 32:01 That is so great-involving the community in what you're doing 32:05 had multiple benefits, I'm sure because you also get to 32:09 introduce them to the gospel and all of that so that is 32:14 beautiful. So tell us, with these different groups, do you 32:19 have to know how to sew to get involved? Or do you learn on the 32:25 spot like how does that work? 32:27 These are all quilters, that's what they do is make quilts. 32:30 These ladies love to make...and they make some beautiful quilts. 32:33 So the least favorite part of a quilter they will tell you is 32:38 cutting up the pieces. 32:43 Sorry. When our group met you were asking if you had to know 32:45 how to sew. But when our group met we had different tables and 32:49 in the kit, there's the cord and the Velcro and the labels and 32:55 all of that so people who didn't know how to do anything else 32:59 assembled those bags for us that go into the kit. Other people 33:04 just stuff pillows. But there's a job for everybody. 33:08 And also like I don't know how to sew. And I've been involved 33:14 with a lot of different, It's My Very Own chapters because I move 33:19 quite a bit. So I move and so I'm like let's start a chapter 33:21 here. But I don't know how to sew but there's other things to 33:26 do as well. You know there are purchasers. Somebody needs to 33:31 be the one purchasing and organizing the items that go in 33:34 the bag. There's fundraising even you know. Fundraising or 33:42 talking to civic groups in your community to get the word out. 33:46 So there's really a lot to do that doesn't require sewing but 33:52 then of course you do have to have somebody that sews. But 33:57 also, I just want to point out with Bill and Gail being 34:01 involved. It's not just women. Men can get involved too. 34:05 Well, that's a good point, that's a good point. 34:09 In our church Ken and Joan DeWitt are two of our big 34:13 producers. She makes a lot of bags but Ken stuffs the pillows. 34:18 And Joan will sew them up, Ken will stuff them, give them back 34:24 to sew up hole that he used to stuff and they have kind of a 34:28 running contest between them. He says he can outstuff her. She 34:32 said she can outsew him. But it's a fun family thing for them 34:36 But men can get involved. 34:38 Yes, are you still doing a lot of the cutting or...? 34:41 Yes, I do a lot of the cutting. 34:43 (Okay) You do most of it still right? (Yes) 34:46 We do have events at church where other people come in 34:51 and a lot of the men cut. Because of the way we lay it out 34:54 we typically cut six or eight layers of fabric with a roller 34:59 blade and sometimes the men have enough strength to do those 35:04 cuttings. So men get involved. 35:06 See that's really good because you don't want people to think 35:10 that this is just women's program. This is for anybody and 35:14 everybody. I think churches can get involved you know and 35:18 contact the local quilting groups because that seems to 35:24 have really been an amazing source, a resource for you. 35:29 It's a blessing. 35:30 When you start you don't have anything. You have the desire to 35:36 do it. But you go around, you can make contacts with all the 35:40 quilt guilds and different churches you know and just 35:44 present it like you did. And you get such an outpouring of help. 35:50 You know. I haven't spoken to anybody because I don't have to. 35:56 Everybody knows me and it's just comes. You know it's good. 36:00 You know when you were talking earlier, Eda, about how you 36:03 spent like six months praying about it. That resonated with me 36:07 because so many people will just say well I have to pray about it 36:10 There's some things that you know that God has already 36:13 ordained for you to do. So it's kind of like we hide behind 36:17 that (two voices, not understandable) 36:19 (Yes, yes, yes) How can this be possible? 36:23 But the Lord's plan is for you to act, not just to think about 36:29 it. But as Danny says, the blessing's on the go. 36:32 So do something, do what you know that God is really telling 36:38 you to do. As He said Just do it. Just do it. 36:41 Yes, yes, yes. How has being involved in this program changed 36:46 each of your lives? How has it impacted you? 36:51 Well I know for me you know when I...Barbara always used to say 36:56 when a new chapter would start, she would say prepare to be 37:00 blessed. And we have just seen that. I know you all have, I 37:04 have. It just is amazing how God has blessed this ministry. When 37:11 I first started it in southeast Georgia you know I don't sew. 37:17 It was a small church. There was only two people that even sewed 37:23 there and they were kind of just getting started. And I was like 37:26 wow, okay, let's do this. But you know I was a little 37:30 concerned and at that time the quilt group wasn't real eager 37:34 to help us initially. But God brought a lady to our church 37:41 who was neighbors of some church members and they told her about 37:47 it. And she's a seamstress extraordinaire. Her name is 37:54 Antoinette and she started making bags. That's what she 37:58 first did. She started making bags. And then she's made now 38:04 herself well over 100 bags. I don't remember how many. And a 38:09 few other people started making bags. And then she actually had 38:13 a contact with the quilt guild and so she's involved now with 38:20 that quilt guild and she's making quilts and they're making 38:23 quilts. We coordinated with another community group at the 38:28 time and they provided like 40 quilts right when we needed them 38:32 because I was like okay we don't have any more quilts and they 38:36 provided. So God does provide. So that has been for me that's 38:41 how it's impacted me the most. Just that I see how God has even 38:46 before we ask God has answered our prayers. And in that church 38:51 we also had, we have still, I mean I'm no longer there, but 38:57 there was a man that was a branding expert and an artist 39:02 and he designed our logo. And there also was an attorney, 39:08 a lawyer there, and he did whatever you have to do to be 39:16 trademarked. So It's My Very Own is now trademarked and they did 39:20 it for free. You know, these are all volunteers. Nobody's paid. 39:25 I'm not paid, you know, none of us are paid. It's all volunteer. 39:29 And just to see how people step up it's amazing to me. That has 39:37 just really blessed me and inspired me. 39:39 That's beautiful. How about you Eda? 39:41 We started it and I told you I had two kids at home, was busy 39:48 About two years I lost my 22-year-old to a motorcycle 39:55 accident. And it was a pretty traumatic time. Susan was there 39:59 at the time and it was hard. When you lose a child you know 40:06 it just hits you. You can't do anything else? But I had the 40:15 bags of love and I sewed for other people. And my church 40:18 rallied around me at that time and really they tried to sew 40:23 They weren't sewers but they did what they could. They really 40:27 helped at that time. But giving, I say if you're going through a 40:32 hard time and just can't get out of your own way, do something 40:39 for somebody else. Go ahead. God will bless you because you're 40:43 thinking about somebody else. You're not thinking about 40:47 yourself. And I think, I know I was healed by doing for others. 40:53 You know. And I think that's God's design for us not to just 40:57 be self-centered. Because some people when they're in grief 41:00 they never come out of it. You know they can stay there for a 41:06 long time. And you know there is a process for grief. You know 41:09 you have to go through the process. I always said, If you 41:18 did all the grief all at once your heart would break and you'd 41:21 die. But when you grieve, you know, God has a plan for grief 41:25 too. You know a little at a time steps, it's always steps. And 41:33 doing for others. Even if you don't see that quilt going to 41:36 that child or just the contact of people wanting to help. (Yes) 41:44 It's healing. If you need healing give. 41:50 That's beautiful. God is good. (Yes) Thank you. 41:53 Thank you. What about you Gail? 41:55 Well I would say it's increased my faith because when we were 42:00 asked to go with the YRCC program it was overwhelming. 42:04 You know 16 a month was what we were facing. Thankfully they've 42:09 gotten a slow start. But then God just started working and we 42:14 were hearing from quilt clubs and people who were interested 42:18 in helping. Donations from people nobody even knew. Big 42:22 donations. And one of the big blessings is because you think 42:27 of the expense of it all. We got notification that somebody was 42:32 selling their whole quilt... They'd been collecting these 42:38 fabrics for years and they were just selling them at two dollars 42:42 a yard. And these were very nice designer fabrics, most of them, 42:48 and so we were able to buy 500 yards for a thousand dollars 42:57 which we've been using and we will be using for quite some 43:00 time. But there are just so many miracles that once we stepped 43:04 out on faith God just put in place one right after another. 43:08 So we bought 500 yards, told her about the program what 43:14 we were using 43:16 it for and she gave us 130 yards more. So we've seen God's 43:22 blessings and we are amazed by what happens? Just have faith. 43:28 That's the key. I think you know, so often we don't see what 43:36 the next step is. We don't know how we're going to get to the 43:39 next step. You know 3ABN is a faith-based ministry as well and 43:46 you don't know and you have to have a certain amount of money 43:49 to function. But you know that God's going to provide. If He's 43:53 told you to do it He's not going to just say, Okay, you're on 43:56 your own. You're just there. Without Him...He's going to make 44:04 it happen. The cattle on a thousand hills are His. 44:06 The silver and gold are His. So what you're telling us is 44:11 that you have all encountered this place of how are we going 44:16 get to this next step. But you trust God and you see that He 44:20 opens those doors. He opens those doors. So where do you 44:25 envision this ministry going? What is your vision for it? We 44:31 know that God...You have your own vision but God's going to 44:35 make it happen the way He wants it to. But where do you see it 44:38 going? 44:40 I would just love to see every county in the U.S. and the 44:44 provinces you know in Canada and across the world. I did get a 44:49 call from a lady in South Africa that had seen our previous 44:57 interview here. And she had seen it a while back but just didn't 45:04 do anything about it and just called me in the last few months 45:06 and said I'm ready to start. So I mean that was just amazing. 45:10 That's more than I could even really dream you know. But I 45:14 would just love to see it in every county so that any child 45:18 that is taken out of the home will have, yeah will have hope 45:23 and will have some things. So you know who knows, but that's 45:28 what I'd love to see, every county covered. 45:30 Yes, so how does one get started 45:33 So they can go to the website It's IMVO.org. They can go to 45:41 the website. They can order... I'm going to show you here. 45:43 They can order a getting started kit. What it has in it. I'll 45:49 just show you. It's just a box that I would mail to them and 45:53 in it, I have a quilt kit much like what they have. I have a 45:59 quilt kit, I have a bag kit. I have brochures that they can use 46:04 to tell people about it. And also, some labels to get them 46:11 started because sometimes labels is kind of the hardest to find 46:13 somebody to print them. So that can be a barrier to getting 46:19 started. And then there's also a manual in this and in the manual 46:24 it gives some quilt ideas and how to do it. It gives 46:29 instructions on how to make a bag. It also just gives basic 46:34 instructions on who to talk to and you know how to get started. 46:39 And once you know they've done this and talked to their county 46:44 DHS or the church. It doesn't have to be a church that starts 46:52 it. It can be you know...I just had a call recently from a lady 46:56 that she said just a group of women get together and sew and 47:00 she heard about it and she ordered a quilt, I mean ordered 47:04 a gain starting kit. So it can be anyone. But you do need 47:08 some support you know. But and then once they kind of get 47:13 established they can contact me and I'll put it on the website, 47:17 their chapter so that it's there and people can contact them. 47:22 And I welcome calls anytime. If people want to call me and ask 47:26 questions. 47:27 I think too Susan if they want to start one they can get on the 47:32 website and they can look for somebody who may be in the area 47:35 already doing it. 47:37 Already doing it, correct? 47:38 And that would help them or they can just go help, you know. 47:42 Right. Thank you for that because that is true. There's a 47:44 number of ways to get involved. You don't have to start one 47:47 yourself. You know, if maybe you just want to make quilts or 47:51 maybe you want to donate items. You can just do that you know. 47:55 If there's one local. And the website does list by state it 48:02 does list. In fact, we have a picture of the chapters across 48:07 U.S. and Canada. It doesn't show the particular county but it 48:11 does show in each state you know how many chapters that we have? 48:16 Is it represented by the blue or the grey. 48:20 Yes the blue so the blue shows that we have chapters in that 48:25 state. So you can see the white and the gray, we don't have 48:30 chapters there but... 48:33 Wow, that's amazing. So are you finding that it's growing 48:37 exponentially? 48:39 Not exponentially I wouldn't say but it is definitely growing. 48:42 I've had probably in the last few months I've had maybe four 48:49 or five start-up. And from the last 3ABN interview I had...the 48:55 one story that I told at the beginning about Stacy, she saw, 49:00 actually, she listened to it. It was on 3ABN Radio I guess. She 49:04 was listening to it and she had to stop her car...She was 49:08 driving. She had to stop her car and pull over and she was just 49:13 overwhelmed with like emotion but also like this is something 49:18 that I need to do. She doesn't sew either. So it was kind of 49:26 a...how can I do this? I don't even sew. But I had said in that 49:32 interview that I don't sew and so you know she was able to go 49:38 forth and start it and she worked with her community so she 49:41 has a community and a church supporting her. So yes you can 49:46 go on the website and see if there's a local chapter already 49:49 and see how you can help. Or you can contact me through the 49:53 website or call me and I can help you get started. 49:56 Susan@IMVO.org 49:57 And there's so many ways that you can help. So as you say I 50:00 can't sew a lick but we can contribute or donate and you 50:05 know because... 50:06 Do some shopping. Shampoos, the personal items like hair brushes 50:12 and stuff. You don't really... It's a lot of work too. If it's 50:18 spread out it's good. 50:20 I have a lady that she doesn't have a group in her area but she 50:24 sends...whenever I tell her, hey this group needs quilts, she 50:29 sends them quilts. So she just makes quilts and then she mails 50:34 them and she doesn't charge us, she pays for the shipping, she 50:36 said this is my ministry. 50:38 That's so good. We have another video that you've provided. Tell 50:42 us about that. 50:43 Yes, this is a chapter in Arizona and it just shows also 50:47 how they got involved in their community and what it has meant 50:52 to those that are participating in this chapter. 50:56 Good. Let's take a look. 50:59 (Betty Baerg) Pauline was 89 years old and she had listened 51:03 to a 3ABN program, listening to Barbara Naher talk about her 51:11 program, Bags of Love, and Pauline was sure we all needed 51:18 to start here. And I said Pauline that's a job, project, 51:23 that we'd never get it done. It would go on forever. We're going 51:26 have kids in foster care forever I didn't realize at the time 51:31 that really that is such a blessing for the church to have 51:34 a project that goes on forever. And you realize the Bible says 51:38 to care for those children. They feel so good about it because 51:44 it's work for Jesus. And they appreciate being able to 51:49 unburden their heart each week and have us pray for them and 51:55 remember that during the week and come back and hear good 51:59 things. It just gives people courage. Our group is like a 52:03 family. We meet together every Monday, nine to three, that's 52:08 the typical situation. We're in our 15th year and our total bags 52:12 so far given away is 3259. Bags of love. 52:18 That is so beautiful. (Isn't it) It is really beautiful. 52:23 Everybody can be a part of this. Everybody can take advantage of 52:28 this opportunity to help. We're going to take a short break. 52:31 Stay with us. We'll be right back. |
Revised 2022-08-10