That day, when Ashley Wright walked out to her mailbox and pulled out The Alabama Baptist, she knew there was something in there she was supposed to read.
“The kids that I take care of were asleep, so I just sat down and started reading right then,” Wright said.
A different group of kids caught her attention.
Wright, a member of Liberty Hill Baptist Church, Collinsville, in DeKalb Baptist Association, saw an article about some Cahaba Baptist Association churches making dresses and taking them to needy children in Nicaragua.
“Something just told me, ‘Hey, you need to contact them,’” she said.
So she did.
Wright called Uniontown Baptist member Abbey Green, and before she knew it, she and Liberty Hill Baptist’s Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) had committed to make 50 dresses for Cahaba Association’s Circle of Friends sewing ministry to take to Nicaragua.
“I wondered how my WMU would respond, how the idea would go over — there aren’t a lot of people in the church who like to sew,” Wright said. “But they thought it was a great idea.”
The women all bought fabric, and when they got together to work for the first time in November, before they knew it, they had cut out and started assembling more than 100 dresses.
“We were very, very pleased with that — we saw it as affirmation that it was something God had wanted us to do,” Wright said.
They met three times to finish the dresses up, and when Green and Debbie Hamilton, a member of Siloam Baptist Church, Marion, in Cahaba Association and founding member of Circle of Friends, came to pick them up in April, there were even more than 100.
“They sewed 169 dresses for us,” Green said, noting that she and Hamilton were stunned.
“Ashley contacted us after reading our article in The Alabama Baptist. She said that God spoke to her through the article,” Green said. “Debbie and I are so blessed that [The Alabama Baptist] chose us to share with others across the state how God has blessed our ministry so that others have recognized the importance of missions.”
While they were at Liberty Hill picking up the dresses, Green and Hamilton were able to share with the church about how Circle of Friends has grown and seen fruit since it first started a few years ago.
More than 10 churches have responded to articles about the ministry published in The Alabama Baptist and asked about helping with it.
Wright said getting involved with the project was a great missions boost for her WMU group and her church.
“It was just an amazing experience,” she said. “Everyone really came on board and got involved, and we feel like the Lord was in it.”
For more information, visit www.thealabamabaptist.org and search for “Abbey Green” or contact Green at abbeywgreen@gmail.com. (TAB)
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