My Not-So Crafty Story

Why would you say ‘not-so crafty’? Well, see, because my story is about other people to be crafty. A few years ago, I took over the promotion for a worldwide charity collection at our small church. We filled shoe boxes, you know the cardboard boxes you get when you buy a pair of shoes. We filled them with toys and clothes and some hygiene items for children in other countries. Then, the non-profit organization Samaritan’s Purse would collect and ship them, seriously all over the world, from anywhere in Africa, Central and South America, through India and Russia. The recipients are children between the ages of 2 and 14, often living in orphanages. Some of the ones who live in small and remote villages are the main caretakers of their families. For many of these children it will be the only gift they will ever receive in their lives, the only not hand-me-down items but brand new and picked out just for them.

So, what does that have to do with Fiskars and Scissors?

A couple of years ago, my sister and I started sewing and crocheting dresses, shirts, or skirts for Barbies and other dolls. Last year, my other sister joined in with small blankets and baby doll clothes. One of our church ladies had some brand new cloth napkins, she was never going to use. So, we made nice bags out of them. But we also started to include a pattern, some material, and a small sewing kit. We thought this would give the young teenage girls a possible start on making their own doll clothes first, and then hopefully it will go further somehow and eventually, they’ll be able to make a living with this skill.

Okay, but you still haven’t really told me what it has to do with scissors!

I’m sure you’ve heard the saying ‘you get what you paid for’. So, have you ever tried to cut fabric with low quality scissors? Or with tiny scissors? Or with scissors meant for other materials like paper? If you have, you know the struggle. It is close to impossible to get a good cut. And once you’ve tried good quality scissors, you will never go back to any other ones. And on that same note – you would really not want to do that to someone else and have them struggle. It takes all the joy out of a project when you don’t have the right tools or low quality tools that don’t do a good job. On the other hand, when you get to use the perfect tool for the job, you will get it done faster and better and you will enjoy the process.

To conclude what I am trying to tell you: Scissors are truly an essential in our shoe boxes. Yet, they are hard to come by when we ask our church families. It’s easy enough to collect soap bars and wash clothes, crayons and notebooks. But good quality scissors are far and few between. In 2014, we packed 14 shoeboxes in our congregation then of about 25 people. We collect the money for shipping, which was then $7 per box, separately. That year, we had to the penny exactly what we needed. For the following years, we changed our approach and started a year round collection of the items to fill the boxes with. That meant, we never really knew exactly how many boxes we would have. In 2019, we collected 56 boxes and all the shipping money which was now $9 per box. We even collected $6 per child who would receive a box. Those $6 allowed them to be able to attend a 12 week Bible Study program called ‘The Greatest Journey’. Fast forward to 2020 – you know that year that seems like we have missed a few months. Our year-long monthly collection was shortened to about a 2 ½ month collection time. Our church still only had about 40 regular attenders, and our shoe box goal was 100 boxes. Of course, this goal was set late in 2019, when things where still as knew them. But God is in the business of working miracles: we filled 132 boxes, collected all the shipping, and the Greatest Journey costs were covered as well.

About 70 of those boxes had small sewing kits in it. I know, not all boxes had scissors and for sure none of them contained true quality scissors. It is not easy sometimes to decide to bless many children with many boxes, or rather fewer children but with higher quality items in their gifts?

All of us crafters, no matter the craft and no matter the age, love our crafts. They are hobbies to most of us. We love passing these crafts on – I learned knitting from my Mom as a young child. I taught my husband how to be a true ‘knit wit’. My daughter loves sewing, and so does my granddaughter. (We are still working on the patience for knitting with them.) The impact we have by teaching others a skill is something we most likely won’t ever completely see. Some will continue it as a hobby, some will use it but in a way we would have never thought of, and some will be able to feed their families with it.