Women from our church and friends completed their 11th year of creating dresses for the international Dress a Girl Around the World mission on Saturday, March 7 — it was a morning of celebration, respect, pride, and satisfaction for — once again — a job well done!

Judith Hill, with help from Linda Webster, gathered the women in our church’s sanctuary and blessed the dresses before they were packed in suitcases and sent out to young girls living in poverty throughout the world.

When the packing was finished, Judith proudly announced to the group that, through February and into March, 461 dresses had been completed. The goal for this year had been 405 dresses — one more than last year’s total!

Since our women began sewing dresses for Dress a Girl in 2016, they now have completed 3,740 dresses!

For the blessing, Judith had all of the women sit in front of the altar and embrace each other’s hands. She then offered this blessing: “Loving and Holy God, we give you thanks for the gift of our hands. Give us the grace to see our hands as you see them as instruments of love, grace, and life. May the sewing these hands have done bring joy to your heart as it does ours. Use our hands to carry out your works of mercy and love. May the dresses our hands have sewn bring blessing to those they wrap in love and safety to those upon they rest.”

Judith then told the group, “I am so blessed to know you all in this little circle. You can’t get rid of this feeling of being blessed.”

One of the women responded, “I’m so grateful to be part of this.”

Before the blessing, Linda read from Matthew 26: “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these, you did for me.”

That told the story of what these dedicated and caring women have done.

At the end of the blessing, all of the dresses were counted and packed in suitcases to be delivered to the assistant regional ambassador for Dress a Girl. Judith explained that when the dresses reach their final destination and after being packed, the suitcases are used as bassinets.

After the packing was complete, Judith greeted each of the women with a hug and a long-stemmed rose.

Judith announced that instead of meeting for just one month a year for creating dresses, the women will now meet on the third Saturday of each month, April and May, September through November, and January through March.

The CEUMC mission lives on with an even stronger commitment to love and caring!