FREDERICKSBURG, Va.—A collaboration between five Anglo women from suburban Washington and about a dozen Latin American immigrants in Fredericksburg, Va., has resulted in the distribution of nearly 100 blankets to the homeless and other needy groups.
Members of a Women on Mission group at Westwood Baptist Church in Springfield, Va., traveled to Fredericksburg to teach Latino women—Latinas—how to make fleece blankets. The Westwood group taught the Latinas to cut and tie the blankets, and together they crafted nearly 100 of them.
Blankets made by the women were distributed to the needy in the Fredericksburg area.
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Judi Kern, leader of Westwood’s Women on Mission group, said she hoped to create an environment in which the two groups would build relationships despite language, culture and other barriers.
“I could feel the comfort level rising as our time together went along, and we became just another group of women working together on a project,” said Kern. “It didn’t matter that we spoke different languages.”
Rather than keeping the blankets for themselves, the Latinas distributed them at a weekly ministry of Fredericksburg Baptist Church which serves a mixture of chronically homeless individuals, resettled refugees, senior adults on fixed incomes, mentally-challenged group home residents, and single parents and children. Blankets left over were donated to a domestic violence shelter.
A Latina applies newly-learned skills to craft a blanket.
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“The [Latino] group all knew that the blankets were going to be given away, and they were excited to have an opportunity to help others, to give back to their community,” said Aida Kent of LUCHA Ministries, coordinator of the project.
LUCHA Ministries, a Fredericksburg-based non-profit affiliated with the Virginia Baptist Mission Board and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, serves Spanish-speaking immigrants with limited English skills. One of its aims is to ensure immigrants have access to programs and resources in their community. An important component is to provide immigrants opportunities for community involvement and service, which helps them feel they belong in their adopted country.
“So many times, there is competition for scarce resources in the community we serve,” said Jeanne Anderson, minister with missions at Fredericksburg Baptist. “I've often heard comments about ‘people from different countries taking our jobs’ and I was a bit fearful of how the gesture would be received.”
As the Latinas moved among the crowd at the weekly ministry and offered the blankets, there were smiles and conversation as it dawned on the people gathered that these women had hand-made the blankets for them.
“For a few moments, the stress of competition or the fear of differences was at rest. It gives me hope that even in a stressed economy with limited resources and with further stresses caused by homelessness or illegal immigrant status, we are still after all images of God able to recognize the image of God in one another,” said Anderson.
“Mission groups today are involved in projects that are a far cry from those of the past,” said Sue Smith, executive director of LUCHA. “Committed, creative leaders are bringing together diverse groups of people to address community concerns and needs. Mission is less about an us/them model and more about empowerment, collaboration and working together with our brothers and sisters in Christ, despite differences in language, culture, and even theology.”
Robert Dilday ([email protected]) is managing editor of the Religious Herald.