Dear friends of Holy Sews,
We usually have a month-long supply drive for Holy Sews, called April Showers… Until this year.
Instead of asking for supplies for April Showers, we turned it around. We showered our community with face masks. We made sure that our mission and budget stayed intact. We kept just enough donations coming in to balance our gifts.
Holy Sews is going strong! We have an unbelievable number of volunteers! Sewing volunteers are working double overtime, and our mask making volunteers are doing the same!
In late March, Holy Sews received numerous requests to sew face masks and donate them to local health care facilities. I consulted physician friends who urged me to hold off. In addition, I knew in my heart that Holy Sews has a specific mission–to clothe the body of Christ in the most vulnerable form. The fabric that we have in our closets is purchased with funds donated specifically for sewing burial layettes. Consequently, our board of directors released a statement that we would not be sewing masks.
Just before the statement was released, our New York chapter was given a mask pattern by a local hospital with an urgent plea to make masks. On the exact same day, our DFW chapter was asked by a labor and delivery nurse to “please focus on the layettes.” It was a painful realization for me: Mothers are experiencing stillbirth ALONE due to visitation restrictions.
Knowing the juxtaposition of these stories, I knew that our statement was “technically” correct, but it did NOT ease the conflict in my heart. I felt quite guilty.
Then it happened. A physician friend sent a pattern to me, a design that was approved by the hospital–one with shop towels as the primary material. Challenge accepted.
The Lord doesn’t call the equipped. He equips the called. Over and over I’ve seen this happen. We ALWAYS have enough for right now.
Here we are. Stuck in the middle with Coronavirus. As I said in an interview. I just make it up as I go along. In other words, I’m trusting The Spirit to guide me. It is never wrong.
What we’ve done is simply spearheaded a community effort to provide local hospitals with a functional face mask that can be used for those who are coming to the hospital and arrive without a face mask.
I also know that the fear of this virus is causing people to forget that other medical emergencies are STILL HAPPENING. Of course, I’m talking about stillbirth.
Even with loved ones near, isolation and fear are overwhelming. I cannot imagine going through that LITERALLY ALONE, because loved ones are not allowed into the hospital AT ALL.
It’s ONE thing. It is a way of fighting this pandemic from a different angle, that angle is called compassion.
Help is needed desperately by those who are in the trenches, fighting the invisible enemy. The needs are different, but these needs are most definitely the prayers that healthcare professionals are uttering over and over.
I’m asking you all to join me in this “Odyssey of Trust.” No one knows what tomorrow holds. Let’s just trust that The Spirit is already there and will hold us up as long as we trust and follow where it leads, and that we will have enough for every single “right now,” that we will face in the future.
Blessings,
Regina Binz
