here am i Lord use me

[marie2]

Ladies, i have spent the day praying about this post. the Lord has blessed me in a way that i feel he wants me to share this with all of you. i worked for 10 years running a sewing room/ seamstress for a sporting goods store. when my husband retired he ask me to quit and be at home with him and so i did. i kept telling the Lord, " here i am with a lot of free time and i want to use it to serve you, but i don't have that many skills, please show me how you would have me to serve you". i felt like the Lord wanted me to make quilts for the homeless and needy, but as a quilter i knew it takes months to do a quilt. so i started thinking about how to do them on my sewing machine and of cource how we could afford it. Ladies this is how God brought it all about.
when i told my sister-n-law about what i felt God wanted me to do she suggested i call all of the local hotels and motels and ask about buying used blankets, and comforters. i sat down with the phone and phone book and prayed over them and then i started calling. one hotel after another donated them for free (answered prayer). i patched cigarette burns and tears in the comforters and cut down and hemmed the king and super king size comforters into full sizes. then sewed together the scrapes and made more. i sewed together big pieces of material into quilt tops and sewed them to the blankets. we were blessed to put out 150 last year. this year, we also got donations of bed dust ruffles, sheets,, towells washcloths and mattress pads. a quilt top sewn on to a mattress pad is a very warm quilt. the Lord has blessed us again this year, we have already put out 146 already and winter hasn't even started. Now i have always been one who never tells anyone about what i do for the Lord, but i feel like the Lord has been telling me with this brutaly cold winter they are predicting that maybe other women might want to do this in there cities. and i feel more like he is doing this for me not vice-versa, because i love him so much and long to serve him. it is a true blessing to me. i found out that most hotels and motels throw these things away in dumpsters because they don't know what else to do with them. homeless shelters are extremely pleased with donations of towells and sheets as well as quilts. if anyone wants to know anything what so ever about this please let me know, they are predicting a hard winter, and i am praying for God to move hearts in every city to provide warmth for those in need. also the salvation army gets these things out there to low income families. iwish i could afford to travel all over and pick up donations and deliver them but i can't. So i'm praying for the Lord to recruit ladies in every city. please pray with me.

[Betty]

Even those of us without skills can work for God. We keep quart size zip lock bags in the car with can meat and crackers with peanut butter, easy open fruit and cookies with a Christian tract to give out to those who are begging for food on the side of the road. Sure there those who are not really hungry but twice we gave out food and the person was so hungry they opened the fruit and ate it right then and there.
betty

[caligal]

What a wonderful idea!!

[marie2]

Originally Posted by Betty

Even those of us without skills can work for God. We keep quart size zip lock bags in the car with can meat and crackers with peanut butter, easy open fruit and cookies with a Christian tract to give out to those who are begging for food on the side of the road. Sure there those who are not really hungry but twice we gave out food and the person was so hungry they opened the fruit and ate it right then and there.
betty

Organizing and distributing is a wonderful skill! good job. there is nothing worse than being hungry. God bless you for your compassion and thoughtfulness!

[marie2]

Originally Posted by caligal

What a wonderful idea!!

Yes, caligal, God has some wonderful ideas, without him i would be helpless and hopeless.

[Betty]

Marie,

One thing a Church I visited did was to make small quilts (lap quilts) with Bible verses on the squares to give to people in the hospital. One person who's husband was terminal kept that blanket with him at all times the weeks he had it before he died and he was never a sentimental or a man of faith.

Another Church bought teddy bears and sewed a hankie with a Bible verse on it and sewed it to the bear to give out.
betty

[marie2]

Originally Posted by Betty

Marie,

One thing a Church I visited did was to make small quilts (lap quilts) with Bible verses on the squares to give to people in the hospital. One person who's husband was terminal kept that blanket with him at all times the weeks he had it before he died and he was never a sentimental or a man of faith.

Another Church bought teddy bears and sewed a hankie with a Bible verse on it and sewed it to the bear to give out.
betty

oh Betty, that's is so neat! you know i forgot to put in my post, that i take a permanent marker (fine line) and in the left hand corner of the quilt i write John 3:16 and in the right hand corner i write john 14:6. when i first started making them , i prayed Lord, how can i use these as a witness for you and he put that in my mind. i was So nervous when i wrote the post, i forgot. those lap quilts are a Great idea and especially the bible verses. and the hankie's and teddy bears too. thank you for sharing that.

[Betty]

Your Welcome. Happy to share it especially with someone who can do something with ideas.
Betty

[BlessedAssurance]

Marie, I think that's an amazing idea. My brain is buzzing now.

[marie2]

Originally Posted by BlessedAssurance

Marie, I think that's an amazing idea. My brain is buzzing now.

BlessedAssurance, praise God! that is what i was praying that my post would do,

[I Believe!!!]

Yeah! Awesome idea! I'm going to talk to my ladies group about that this week! Thanks for your post! :-) You did good!

[marie2]

Originally Posted by I Believe!!!

Yeah! Awesome idea! I'm going to talk to my ladies group about that this week! Thanks for your post! :-) You did good!

I believe, God is so Good, all i did was ask him to use me and he did. i give all of the glory to him!

[Nightelf]

I love your ideas!!!

While I was working at the jail, I wondered how to share my faith since the jailers aren't allowed to talk to the prisoners except for necessary stuff like "would you like some lunch" etc. and absolutely NO "proseletyzing" allowed.

The jail has a Bible that we can give to a prisoner if they ask, so I took a yellow hilighter pen and hilighted John 3:16, and other salvation verses in Romans, then dog-eared those pages. That way, if they didn't know the Gospel already, it would be hard to miss it while they flipped through it looking for comfort.

[marie2]

nightelf,
that is wonderful!! what an awesome witness! i can only imagine how many will enter heaven because of your willingness to serve, and right where it is needed so badly. Good job!!

[Reason&Hope]

marie2, your post is so inspiring! Our pastor this week was preaching on "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth" and he spoke about Jesus being our LORD. Are we obeying Him, following His lead for each day?

You were obviously out of your comfort zone when calling the hotels, but you obeyed and did it any way, and see how much the Lord has blessed not only all the recipients, and the people at the hotels who feel that they're helping others, but you as well!

[marie2]

reason&hope, i praise God everyday for giving me some small something i can do for him. as you said, the hotels and motels said they always felt so bad throwing those things in the garbage but just didn't know what else to do with them. i do believe they felt blessed by being a big part in helping those in need. i always tell them "i pray that God truly blesses you for this", and i do pray that. i grew up very poor and many times cold and i know how it feels.

[ninesixteen]

Marie, you are awesome. What a wonderful thing you are doing for those who need a nice warm blanket in this cold weather. I wish I had any type of sewing skills to do something like this, but I am sew challenged. But you have inspired me, I am going to write a list of things that I may be able to do using the gifts that God gave me.

[marie2]

Originally Posted by ninesixteen

Marie, you are awesome. What a wonderful thing you are doing for those who need a nice warm blanket in this cold weather. I wish I had any type of sewing skills to do something like this, but I am sew challenged. But you have inspired me, I am going to write a list of things that I may be able to do using the gifts that God gave me.

ninesixteen, thank you, it took me alot of years to even consider sewing a skill, lol.i guess i let my friends convince me of that, because it's about the only thing i'm good at, lol. but as you say i guess it's more of a gift isn't it, i like that. i know that God will use your many gifts to serve him in wonderful ways. sounds like your loving, willing heart is one of them.