What started out as a group of five women quickly grew to a group of twelve once word spread that a free tailoring training program was established in that new little church in Kamuli. The teacher had to put a stop to the size of the group – more people wanted to join – simply for manageability purposes. Yet they are already talking of when the “next” group begins.
Ms. Shelby and the women’s group of Beaverdam Baptist Church wanted to be part of lifting a group of women out of spiritual and economic poverty and establishing them in Christ. Tailoring skills training was an excellent way to do that. The numerous opportunities to draw parallels between the kind of ordered creativity that goes into tailoring and the ordered creativity of the Creation story helps evangelism make sense to pre-Christians.
The provision of sewing machines and the essentials needed for teaching and practice, as well as the salary for the teacher, enables the ladies to gather four afternoons each week. They come to Calvary Chapel Kamuli – a church planted by friends Augustine and Joel – to spend time with their teacher. They begin with a bit of theory and end with a lot of hands-on practice. I had the opportunity to sit in on parts of the training and saw that this teacher was doing a lovely job and the ladies are progressing well.
We seem to have found just the right combination of teacher, church, and community to successfully achieve the goal of helping these ladies become productive members of their community, their country, and the body of Christ. I pray we can continue to support and encourage any number of groups wanting to learn work skills through the church here.
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| Rose measures and cuts her sample shirtpocket. |
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| Sewing paper is the first step to learning the craft. |
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| She models the paper sewn shirt. |