A MISSIONS IDEA

A past post begins with the label "Community Baptist Church" on a family quilt. 

Actually, there were a lot of quilts sent us growing up, but the church label I remember is one I actually saw as an adult, I realized. A supporting church's missionary circle, deciding to make Joyce their quilting project, had written her and asked what colors she liked, so it had been no accident she had been able to cover her bed with her favorite hues of purple, pink, and teal.

The time Joyce was here in Okinawa caring for her elderly parents, that lavender covering kept her warm in the downstairs apartment. Actually, I don't remember how many years I saw that blanket. TOO many years, I used to think. But today, she told me how personal a gift it was. Crowell Community had made that patchwork bedspread just for her! That was a special, special quilt. I rather wish everyone who worked on it could've heard Joyce.

Several things happened in my mind then:

1. Perhaps Joyce's reluctance to discard old gifts springs from an appreciation and regard  for, an unconscious desire to honor, the giver. It made me smile.

2. Are missions ideas attractions to put before the church about foreign work, or are missions ideas meant to encourage everyone to support each other in love to follow Jesus' command to go into all the world?

Do these ideas make God smile?