My First Little Dress for Africa

I love reading the Bible. I love the story in Exodus chapters 35 and 36. During this time the children of Israel were building and furnishing the tabernacle. The Lord commands Moses to take from the people "whosoever is of a willing heart let him bring it" and "every wise hearted among you shall come and make all that the Lord hath commanded".

"And they came, every one whose heart stirred him up, and every one whom his spirit made willing"

And all the people brought their jewels, linens, skins, silver, brass, gold and wood for the Lord's offering.

"And all the women that were wise hearted did spin with their hands"

The people brought in abundance and made so much that they soon had more than enough.

"And Moses gave commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp, saying, Let neither man nor woman make any more work for the offering of the sanctuary. So the people were restrained from bringing. For the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it, and too much."

I'd like to be a wise hearted woman with a spirit made willing. I know what it feels like, to have that burning desire to help others. I choose to keep that desire even though I am surrounded by wise hearted women who give so much and sometimes feel that what small things I can contribute are not needed. I know I want to be in the group that does too much rather than in the group that does nothing.

I've been looking for a small service project that I can do and that fits my personal desires and interests. I won't be traveling to any third world contries in the near future so that's out of the question. Of course there are plenty of service opportunites in my own back yard and I would love to be involved in a literacy project in my community but that takes me out of the home away from my family. I find it hard to commit to activites that take me away from home simply because I follow the schedules of my children and husband which sometimes requires a lot of flexibility. Unfortunately that makes me less reliable to outside commitments. So my project had to:
1 . include my children, especially Emily

2. fit into my schedule, which means it can be done any day and any hour

3. include a sewing machine (I guess I want to spin like the women in Exodus)

4. be simple, but have the potential to make a difference

This summer my mom introduced me to a project called Little Dresses for Africa and I think it may be the perfect fit.

"Little Dresses for Africa is a non-profit, Christian based organization which provides relief to the children of Africa. Simple dresses are made out of pillow cases and distributed through the orphanages in Central Africa to plant in the hearts of little girls that they are worthy".

"Knowing the history of the girls in Africa, and the difficult road that lay ahead, a small group of ladies returning from a short term mission trip to Malawi began to sew these simple dresses. It continues to grow as groups spring up across America. Dresses and donations have been received from all 50 states and over 65,000 dresses have been distributed in 14 countries of Africa".

As you can see the number of dresses being sent is tremendous. I don't know how many I will be able to make but I'm going to do with the hope that even one dress helps.

With Emily as my model and personal assistant we made our first dress. It's quite simple and took only a few minutes. Emily sat on my lap at the sewing machine and then pulled the thread as we sewed on a cute button. As I explained to her what I was doing she had lots of questions like, "Where does this girl live?", "When we will give her the dress?", What is her name?". It was a pretty cute conversation to have with her. I read of one woman who sent in 500 dresses and also some dolls. It reminded me of some dolls that I made with Karin when she was young. The body is an old-fashioned clothes pin, and fabric scraps and embroidery floss combine to make clothing and hair. We drew on little faces with permanent marker and the dolls were all the colors of the rainbow. I think that one doll would fit perfectly in a small pocket on the dress. I'll add a pocket to the next dress.

Somehow I hope my little dresses and dolls will make a difference for a girl and that the project will make a difference in me and my children.

The slogan on the web site of this project reads: "We're not just sending dresses, we're sending HOPE."

That message reminds me of a story I read and have never,ever forgotten in the November 2006 New Era. I can never read the story of Mariama Kallon and the meaning of a humanitarian kit in her life without crying.

http://lds.org/churchmagazines/NE_2006_1100_Nov_Complete_26951_eng.pdf