Salvation Dolls join Shocco missions team

When the Shocco Springs mission team boarded the plane for Guatemala on Aug. 5, they had precious cargo traveling with them — but cargo they hoped they would be able to leave behind.

Dozens of Salvation Dolls, stitched, stuffed and created by Baptist Women, Sunday School teachers and children of First Baptist Church, Eulaton, flew with the team en route to a week of missions work and spreading the Word to those who had never heard it. So did dolls made by Alabama Campers on Mission volunteers.

At Eulaton, first through sixth grade children were involved in the project so they, too, could learn about missions and outreach right from their fellowship hall in Anniston, according to Eulaton Baptist’s Pat Yeatman. “We thought it would be a good lesson, a good project for them,” she said.

Over a four-week period, the adult-child assembly team worked to produce the dolls with adults handling the sewing and the gluing and the children doing everything else. Children cut the material with patterns provided them. They stuffed them, they made the Salvation Necklaces and once the adults had glued the yarn for hair, they had a “blast” creating hairstyles for all of them. “We had crew cuts to pigtails,” Yeatman said.

“Every night, we set up a table in the fellowship hall for a Bible lesson,” Yeatman said, and the children learned that the necklaces were made of Salvation beads and what each color meant. The stuffing was “taking God into your heart.” They discovered the doll has two sides — one with eyes closed, meaning before they accepted Christ; the other with eyes open, signifying the acceptance and understanding. They learned of the missions work itself and that the dolls were heading to underprivileged children, and it would be a blessing to them to have these dolls. But just as important, “it was a blessing to our children to be able to work to make them,” she said.

The Shocco Springs missions team is in Guatemala through the middle of August. Shocco staff asks that people pray for the team and the work being done on the trip. The team is reporting back to via Facebook. Check out Shocco’s Facebook page to see their progress. (Shocco)