Sewing in the Dark

I guess we are fortunate here to have electricity, but the power goes out so often that sometimes it feels as though there isn’t any! It goes out all day long for 10 minutes to 6 hours at a time. So it was interesting to spend al day yesterday in the sewing school here in the compound in a long bare room with 25 foot-pedal sewing machines, each operated by a sweet young widow or woman in distress. The room was lit at times, but was mostly dark because the power was out. Thank goodness for those foot-operated machines! 

By early afternoon I was starting to get unbearably hot and could feel the little drips of swaet rolling down my back turning into a river. They finally took a break from class for lunch. But before lunch all the girls gathered cross-legged on the floor and covered their heads with their saris. They began to sing together and sang three worship songs, two women recited Bible verses from memory. One teacher prayed and wept and all the women prayed along with her. It was very moving.

I had an interpreter off and on throughout the day, but both of them kept disappearing. So I stood in the front of the class with the teacher and when there were no words all we could do was smile.

We also drew lots of pictures and showed each other things with fabric. I demonstrated ruffled trim and pleated skirts that looked similar to the school uniform skirts they were making.

The day before we drove to visit another school which is run by a graduate of the House of Hope school. There we taught a short Bible study and my friend Gloria gave them bracelets with the “wordless book” colors. Through the translator she shared the story of the gospel and handed out Bibles. Eight girls raised their hands to become believers and we prayed for the whole group. The hard part was next when individally they came and shared their stories of miscarriage and forced abortions, and sick or dead husbands. They asked us to pray for them and as we did they wept and wept. Again, it was very touching and kind of unreal.

The pictures here are of the girls receiving Bibles, showing us their work, and a girl working on a sari at the House of Hope school.

 

I don’t have any monkey pictures yet, but perhaps I will get lucky one of these days!