no stamping...
But I have been productive. Very productive.
The church where I attend has a women's organization that is service oriented. One of my friends was in charge a humanitarian project that would help lepers' children in India. A few Saturdays ago, I went to hear Becky Douglas speak about her non-profit organization that sets out to improve the lives of the poor lepers in India. She was an inspiring speaker.
In a nut shell, this is how Becky Douglas started helping those on the other side of the world. Her eldest daughter was bi-polar. After many years of battle, she lost the fight (infered it was suicide). Becky and her husband went to their daughter's dorm room to pack it up and made an amazing discovery. This young adult woman had been taking some of her monthly money for college and was sponsoring a child in an Indian orphanage. The family asked friends and loved ones to please donate money to this orphanage instead of sending flowers to the funeral. So much money had been donated, the orphanage asked Becky Douglas to be on their board of trustees. Well, she had to find out what this was all about and so she went to India.
In the orphanage, the children were clean and taken care of. But between the hotel room and orphanage, Becky witnessed extreme poverty, pain, sickness and hopelessness. She went back home, sat around her kitchen table with 3 other friends and told them what she had witnessed. As a group, they formed an organization to help those in need. Lepers are considered lower than dogs in the Indian Caste system. Others believe that they are cursed of God b/c of their affliction. They suffer terribly.
Becky Douglas went on to tell us about
Rising Star Outreach and the inroads they have made to improve the lives those with leprosy and their families. In fact, a documentary on PBS will be broadcast this month in some areas. Check your local PBS listings for "Breaking the Curse with Daryn Kagan."
At the end of her talk, Becky told us this...
That even in America, you can find suffering and pain and hopelessness. Not everyone can go and take care of those in other countries. But WE CAN all help others who live around us. She said, "I know that there are shelters here. I know that there are nursing homes/assisted living places here in Michigan. There are poor and needy." Then she encouraged and challenged us to go and do and take care of those in our immediate area. She said "No act of Love is wasted." It was a moving presentation to say the least.
Afterwards, we went to work on some things for the new school. I could go on and on about the new school and micro-loan programs and about how Becky Douglas found someone to help her inside of India. But you can read about it on their website.
Our group of women donated hundreds of vitamins for the kids and clean, new underwear. Both of which were sorted and bagged. Also, hundreds of canvas bags were donated. Women decorated these bags with paint, stamps, stencils, ribbons and buttons.
And that is what I have been doing....decorating new bags that weren't finished or blank...and now I'm "embellishing" bags that need some extra touches. I have painted over 60 in the last week. It's been a nice break to stamping. Perhaps that is why my phone/dsl line went dead last week. I was supposed to get hooked on something else for a while.
These are just a few of the bags that I painted.
