What is Project: Life?
Project: Life is for that girl. You know the one. Maybe that girl comes from a broken home. Maybe she's that girl who's lacking attention due to a busy family life. Maybe that girl is your next door neighbor. Whoever she is, she will one day be a woman. Maybe even a wife, a mother, a homemaker and she needs to be prepared. For many young girls, these titles come sooner than anticipated and without any preparation or training. Project: Life is an opportunity for them to learn. To go into their world, ready for the future---or at least capable of hemming their pants and cooking for themselves.
Project: Life is all education, establishing confidence and self worth, while participating in a time of fun and fellowship. Sort of a 'Girls Only' youth group with a bit of a catch (we'll come back to that). It seems the life of a domestic diva has lost its appeal. Many families are so busy nowadays, they don't have time to focus on training up a daughter--- cooking (yes, it can be fun!), sewing, crafting, et cetera. And sadly, a lot of families don't see the importance. Project: Life wants to renew that interest in our girls and teach them how exciting life as a woman can be!
Outreach + Outreach = Impact
Motivation. Snacks, music, girly stuff (think spa treatments!) should be enough to make these young ladies want to learn, right? Probably not. So to turn this outreach program into something more we'll need a little motivator. To teach these girls to sew and cook and craft would be excellent, but to enable to reach out via their new skills would make an impact in our own community and abroad. I'm certain the local shut-ins would love a hot meal put together by the girls. Meals on Wheels would appreciate another source of home-cooked items for their ministry. And Project Linus (http://www.projectlinus.org/) can always use more blankets. I would love to see dresses and wrap skirts sewn and sent to the girls and women of Guatemala, where many of our own have already seen a need.
Where to Begin:
Project: Life begins in our own neighborhood. There are girls in our community, our neighborhood, who have nothing to look forward to. There are girls who have wonderful home lives but enjoy a sense of purpose. There are those who need this program---who need us. Life Church needs to take this opportunity and run with it. To be there once a week, with open doors (and open arms) could be all these young women need.
My immediate vision for Project: Life includes two major goals. We are meeting on Wednesday evenings at 6:30pm. We're using this time to teach basic sewing skills to our group of young girls and women (these women will be mentors as we grow together!). We've been working on small projects to allow the girls to get a feel for their machines and gain some confidence. We will continue meeting on Wednesday nights to sew and cook but will be meeting a couple Sundays a month to do Impact Sewing. The girls had a lot of fun sewing hat/scarf sets for the Coat Drive and we'll definitely be making more for that cause. It has been a wonderful way to get an idea of how the girls respond to giving of themselves. The love it!
Our next goal is for Summer '09. We're planning a Dress Drive at Life Community. We would like to sew a couple hundred dresses and have them available for the community to come in and take what they need. Every little girl loves something new, something just for them that makes them feel beautiful. And maybe, just maybe, when they walk out that door with their new dresses, they'll see more than just a dress, they'll see the love of God working a in a practical way. Impact.
Where We're Going:
Project: Life has the potential to grow into a powerful, nationwide program. In the future, I'd love to have our sewing patterns and program overview available on the web for other faith communities to utilize. All of our patterns are free of copyright and drafted by me for use by our program. If other churches can use this type of program in their own neighorhoods to reach out, it's possible that we can win our girls back and watch them become the beautiful women of God they were intended to be.
REACH - - up - -out - - around ------------------------------------------this is life
“How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and strong, because someday in your life, you will have been all of these.”
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