It's 2011 and I am just now getting back to this blog??

Wow!

I honestly cannot believe how time flies. It amazes me that I have been so bad at blogging since my last post. Hopefully with this new year, new habits will be form which will result in new blog posts.

What is Matthew 25:40 Ministries been up to since the last post? Below are just a few highlights that will give you a brief idea.

2009 - The rest of 2009 was a bit slow where ministry was concerned. My family and I took some much needed time of relaxation and down time. We despirately needed it. I did make contacts with a church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee called "World Outreach Church" where Pink Cross was concerned. The ministry coordinator and I spoke on possibilities of getting other women involved with PCFactory by means of crocheting and knitting items for outreaches.

2010 - In the spring of 2010, I found a box of things I had started to make for Pink Cross before my break. I spent most of the spring and part of the summer finishing up those projects.

For example, there were 20+ make up bags that needed zippers and liners installed, partially finished scarves and hats. I was able to get those done and set them aside for the 2010 Christmas Box Outreach. I was also able to make key fob key chains and other smaller items for outreach use, too!

In June of 2010 my husband and I received the news that our family of 4 would be expanding! We are currently 7.5 weeks away from welcoming our third son into this world. As a result, the summer of 2010 was very slow moving as I was experiencing the lovely symptoms of the first trimester of pregnancy. I was able to finish up some of the projects mentioned before but nothing new was started.

Fall and Winter of 2010 I began to branch out and make contacts with local women's groups in order to share the mission and focus of The Pink Cross Foundation and PCFactory (the part of Matthew 25:40 Ministries which helps Pink Cross). My goal was to educate the women on the distruction and abuse the men and women of the industry experience DAILY and call them to action for the their sake. I have had the joy of speaking to Celebrate Recovery groups and women's sunday school groups at First Baptist Church of Manchester, Tennessee. The response from this church has been refreshing. I have been able to take full boxes into their church, have women gather around the boxes and pray blessings and annointing over the lives which the items inside would be delivered to. We have prayed for those who struggle with sex addiction as well. One women's group sponsered the Christmas Outreach by paying for the shipping to get all supplies out to California to be handed out. Still others have signed up for crochet clinics to learn patters for items we are currently producing such as amigurumi teddy bears, PCFactory hats, scarves and art journals. On the 27th of this month, we will have one more "sit and do" gathering where people will bring their incomplete PCFactory products to finish up so we can add to the inventory we currently have which will be shipped out at a moment's notice.

There have been other local business women who have helped out the Pink Cross and PCFactory as well this winter.

Thirty-One Gifts: At an open house on the 2nd of January, I met with a consultant who helped organize a special shipment out to California. The January special for Thirty-One Gifts were the small and medium thermal totes for $8.00 each and embroidery for just $1.50 on those items. That's $9.50 for each item which would have normally been around $17 each! Praise God! We sat and discussed fabric patterns, embroidery style and color and encouraging words/sayings that would convey the love of Christ, PCFactory and The Pink Cross to anyone who received one.

Creative Memories: At this same open house, a CM consultant helped me to pick out amazing printed papers, stickers, etc to be used to create handmade Valentine's Day cards for the girls. She also offered the use of any of her person tools and supplies to help with the completion of this project. Isn't that amazing?? She also offered to purchase the items at cost so that our ministry funds would be stretched that much further. The generousity just amazes me.

I've even had a teen here helping to make handmade gift bags for Christmas items such as hot cocoa, apple cider, body wash, lotions, etc.

What do I expect for 2011? That's a good question. 2010 was a good year but this year I am going to change things up a bit. I plan to let God lead the way this year. I believe that when we step in and do things on our own initiative, we hinder what God might have in store for us and our ministries. Though amazing things happened for us, though many stepped up to help, I regret that I probably jumped the gun on some projects and as a result, they probably weren't as amazing as they could have been.

Most importantly, I am going to begin keeping an inventory of items for Pink Cross to use in their outreaches. Instead of relying on my own plans, deadlines and abilities to get a certain projects done, I plan to create items and keep a rolling total of items available to send. I believe this will eleminate my prideful tendancies to overwork myself and others in order to get unrealistic goals accomplished. So many times I have felt defeated because I have fallen short on my own goals of what I have wanted to reach as far as numbers of items sent. II am allowing God to guide my time, project ideas, etc...I believe that the production will line up better with the need of Pink Cross automatically. When we "let go and let God," so many times I wonder why I hadn't done it sooner. That's my biggest goal for 2011. To let go and let God in more areas than just my ministry. After all, he is Elohim...our Creator. We were created FOR Him and HIS glory. We were not created for our own glory and our own prideful ego stroking.

Below are ways you can help me this year:

1. PLEASE please please pray that I am able to stick with my new way of running my ministry. Please pray that I let go and let God so that my efforts, supplies and help are maximized to the full potential. Pray favor over our funds. Pray that when we go to purchase supplies things are on sale. Pray that we are never in need of supplies or helping hands. Most of all, pray God is glorified by the works we perform and the lives changed by our efforts.

2. If you are interested in helping with crocheted or knitted items, please contact me to find out more information as to how you can help. All supplies are provided (yarn, etc)...all you need are the hooks/needles and time.

3. If you'd like to help with beauty products which will be placed inside handbags, make up bags and other gift bags, I'd be very much appreciative.

4. If you feel lead to sponser part or all of a shipment of supplies out to California please contact me! If you have information as to how we can ship at a lower rate, that would be great too! We spent $88 to get the 2010 Christmas Outreach supplies to California this year. It is NOT cheap!

5. If you'd like to donate directly to Pink Cross and help with their expenses, which are more than anyone really realizes I am sure, you may do so by donating on their website: www.thepinkcross.org Every outreach, convention, website, literature track, printed bible etc costs money and they need your help to make that possible.

Thank you for everything up to this point. I know you will be blessed if you decide to be involved.

God bless you and your families,

Andrea

My first circular knitting loom experience!

Ok so Shanon from Salina talked to me not long before I left Kansas and said that she bought a circular knitting loom set and successfully made really cute purses on it. She said it was quick and easy so I figured maybe I'd give it a try. After all it would save money (as knitting takes less yarn than crocheting - which is what I normally do) when doing projects for the Pink Cross Foundation. Though I didn't find it as quick to complete as she did, I did find it to be a whole lot of fun. I couldn't get the handles to work like she said she could either, so I made my own! Improvise! She is sending me the three that she has completed so I will post pictures of those when I receive them so we can see if I was even close on how it was suposed to turn out!

This purse is made with three different skeins of yarn: Red Hart's Pretty 'n Pink and White and Patrons Glittallic - White Twinkle. There are little flecks of silver in every so often in the knitted fabric.

This was my first try with the ribbon. It gave me the "I'm 5 years old and I'm carrying my Easter purse to church" vibe so I had to come up with something else! :) I did like using the ribbon as an alternative to the wooden or plastic handles, but this just wasn't doing it for me. For one I felt like the knitted cross was hidden too much and, like I said before, maybe was a bit immature. I think if I hadn't had the cross knitted on there, it might have been ok, but for this particular one, it just wasn't working for me.





This one is my last attempt. I literally worked on it all day and decided that all of the purses sent to California would probably be a little different anyway so this one will ultimately go even though I'm not 100% thrilled with it. FYI, this one (to the left) shows the colors more truely. I can't wait to get my camera back from my dad's house. It's in a box ready to be sent. These pictures are courtesy of my cell phone camera!

In the picture to the right, you can see the little cross charm in the middle of the pink cross. It gives it something I guess. There is no ribbon work on the back of the purse and all of the ribbon work is the same piece of ribbon.

Thanks for checking in today. I am very exhausted from fighting with this thing all day. Sometimes my creative juices are flowing and other times, well they just aren't. I was very happy with how the cross turned out, on a brighter note. That's my first time working on a circular loom and the first time changing colors while knitting! Go me!

Good night and God Bless!

I'm back online!

Alright everyone we are back home now after having been gone for almost a year! Jackson has started his new, old school and is loving it and the rest of us are just getting settled in. I think I have two more bags to unpack...I don't know maybe it's more like four. At any rate, were're almost there!

From November 2007 to today, I have handed out several Packs of Love packs. I have met many very interesting people during the past year and look forward to this coming year for sure. I also pray for God's protection and guidance for my outreaches. There have been months where I have gone without passing a single pack out dispite my eagerness to do so. I'm sure that's just God preparing my path and keeping me safe.

February of 2008, my boys and my sister's family outreached in downtown DC. We met a sweet man called Ariel. We got out of the vehicle down by the Vietnam Memorial and he was walking down the street by himself. I felt lead to speak with him for a moment and found out that he was originally from New York but had come across hard time. He was without his family and money. He told us he was working on getting employment and a home of his own. We gave him a Pack and went on about our evening. It was really sobering -- this man had such high spirits dispite his circumstances. I apparently had a few things to learn from this guy and God knew it!

During my time in Kansas, I met a man by the name of Tim. He had just arrived in Salina from St. Louis because he had made some enemies there and had to get away. He was traveling with his "girl" who was staying at a women's shelter while he was staying on the streets. He told me that he had only been with her a few months and that he had been married before. His wife had passed away and when that happend he found himself back on the streets. He expressed to me that his wife had been his "saving grace" because he was in prison when he married her. When he got out, she took him in and provided for him. Apparently they had a big house with all of the extras. She got sick and passed away and at that time, everything he had disappeared.

I know the streets probably make a person very...cynical. One constantly has to tkae care of himself and watch out for the other guy. Before I found him downtown on Sante Fe Street, I had gone to Burger King for lunch and something told me to get an extra meal, so of course I did. I gave it to him and he was thankful to have a warm meal as it was raining and cold. I told him what I had in the pack for him and he was confused as to why someone was just giving him things. He asked me if he could give me something in exchange for the pack but I told him that he didn't have to pay me for anything. I explain to him that I do it as my Christian outreach and that there were absolutely no strings attached and that he didn't have to do anything to repay me. He was thankful but remained a bit confused the duration of our time together.

Because of the big move from Kansas to Tennessee, I had to give up most of my Packs of Love inventory. I took an entire vanload of inventory to the local rescue mission

- 20+ bibles

- Three gallons of shampoo/conditioner and other travel-sized bottles

- 4-6 tarps

- various canned goods

- two huge totes of clothing

- over 45 bookbags

- over 100 tubes of toothpaste and toothbrushes

- 10 plastic cups

- blankets

- box of trash bags

Gosh I can't even name everything but needless to say I have some back tracking to do! I still had a very big inventory here in Tennessee but there are definately holes here and there. I know God will fill in the gaps though. He's faithful!

I have taken a couple of weeks for breaktime where Pink Cross is concerned. I finished up a blanket I was making for Shelley's approval after I arrived home. I'll let you know what she decides after she sees it in person. It is really beautiful but God will have to provide some serious yarn, time and shipping funds if these are going to work for next year's Christmas boxes. Below are the pictures I have of the blanket and hats.

The lighting is really bad - sorry about that. The actual colors are hot pink (Red Heart's "Pretty in Pink") and white. I am really happy with the way this pattern turned out. Shirley of Salina, Kansas gave me this pattern. She had used it for a different outreach and said it wears great. One thing's for sure, it looks great! I'm not sure if you can see it or not but the stitches are bubbled. The blanket has little pockets that really hold in the body heat.

When I sit on the couch with the blanket at my waist, the fringe covers my feet. Since I took this picture, I cut the fringe down to about two inches and it looks much better that way. Three strands of approximately five inch yarn is tied into every other stitch on the sides. It just finishes it off really nicely.

This is a picture of one of the white hats. We also do the opposite - pink hats with white crosses. The color on this picture is more accurate - same yarn used in the hat and the blanket. From July to December, we shipped out close to, if not more than 200 hats. To be honest, I have lost count! Hopefully this year we can get enough people involved to have a decent amount of people working on each of the different projects.

Well, my family is getting hungry. I hope you all have enjoyed this small peek into Matthew 25:40 Ministries. Please contact me if you feel lead to help out in either one of these areas or if you just want a bit more information.

By the way, if you talk to my husband, tell him thanks for getting me back up online! He has been so wonderful to me since our return home!

Andrea