Dear Friends,
I learned to crochet sitting hip-to-hip with my grandmother on the living room sofa. She kept her hands busy with needle and yarn fashioning snuggly masterpieces morning and night. Every time I visited, we’d get down to business with our projects — she with skill and precision, and me with my fingers tripping over my crochet hook. Even more important than what we created with our hands was the beautiful, loving connection we built in our hearts.
This love is what drew me to the LWR Quilt & Kit Ministry. Your quilt is God’s love wrapped around a refugee’s shoulders. Your School Kit accompanies a child into the classroom with the message, “There is hope and a future.” Your Personal Care Kit tells its recipient, “You are precious and cared for.”
These gifts of love echo around the world in ways only God can make possible.
I was recently at an Ingathering in Michigan, where they told me about a truck driver who had arrived at a past Ingathering to transport a shipment of quilts to our warehouse. When he learned what was in the boxes, he was blown away. Years ago, he said, when he was living in a refugee camp, he received an LWR Quilt when he had nothing else left. That day he got a chance to bless others in the same way. That’s not coincidence — that’s God perfect love.
I, too, have been a beneficiary of the deep love of our community. In October, I visited the quilters at Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. During my visit, they presented me with a gorgeous prayer quilt they had made just for me, to welcome me into my new role. What they didn’t know was that my grandmother had passed away just weeks before. To me, that quilt was love — I could feel my grandmother in its stitches and the comfort of our Holy God hemming me in.
When you put your faith in action, God knows just what to do with it.
I have enjoyed getting to know many of you personally over the last couple of months, and I am so grateful for the warm welcome you have extended to me. Melanie served this ministry and community with great passion and love, and I am committed to doing the same. Please contact me with questions, concerns or just to say hello at 800.597.5972.
In gratitude,
Janel
Photo caption: Janel Johnson-Momanyi, LWR Quilt & Kit Ministry Manager, had the unique opportunity to hand-deliver a quilt made by St. James Lutheran Church in Gettysburg, PA, to Esther Anthony and her son Asaya Erasto Liguda during a January 2020 distribution at Muhimbili National Hospital in Tanzania. Esther and Asaya are living at the hospital while Asaya completes treatment for leukemia. Photo by Clemence Eliah.
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