The Fourth Year of Our Beginners Sewing Class is in the Books!
Hello, everyone!
This is my first time writing a blog post, and because so much time has passed since I’ve shared anything on Facebook about the sewing class, I have much to share and thought it would be better to blog about it (with the help of my loving husband).
I think the last time that I shared something about the sewing class was before the birth of our sweet Seba. Even though Sebastian is an easy baby, life became a bit more busy, but the sewing class never stopped! I had only stopped sharing about what has been going on.
Even before this past year’s sewing class began, the Lord let me know that this class would be special - and not that the classes from years prior were not special - but this year’s class was going to be different spiritually.
This has been our 4th year of providing the Beginner’s Sewing Program to women in our community and others in Managua.
To be completely honest with you, I didn’t place much importance on the need to share about the King of Kings with my students in the first year of our sewing class. Yes, I spoke about Him, but He was not the most important thing that we provided in the class; the priority was to help the women develop a skill to support their households economically. This isn’t wrong, of course, and I love helping them in this way, but I know that there really is nothing that can satisfy us more than the love of God; no amount of money, no skill we can learn…nothing can fulfill us like He can.
“But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”
John 4:14
God started giving us more of a desire to speak to the women about the real reason this class even exists and I began to have more confidence in sharing with them. But I didn’t see much fruit coming from what I was sharing.
I remember how strongly we felt the need to share the Gospel with our students in the class before we began this year and how He had told me that we would see fruit from our labor. I think that in the past years of teaching the sewing class I was desiring to share something with the women that I myself was still needing to learn personally. I had given my heart to the Lord, but He wanted my life so that He could reach others through me, and this year He was able to do so and is still doing so.
“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.”
John 12:24
I will probably share more about what God has been doing in me at a later date, but needless to say, that is when my words began to have power and I began to see fruit in some of the women in the sewing class. Even if it is only one, it is important to God, but it was more than one of the women and I continue praying for them.
I finished this year with seven women, and all seven were quick and eager learners. A few of them were also hungry for more of the Lord, and each Saturday during the sewing class I remembered what the real purpose of the class is.
God had provided them with a way to learn a completely new skill which none of them ever imagined being able to learn without having to spend a good bit of money.
The majority of the women in this year’s class had never finished high school and one of them did not even finish elementary school, so each Saturday I would feel the Holy Spirit remind me to tell them how valuable they are and that the reason they were selected to be in this class is because God saw great ability in them even before they could see it.
Two of my students attend the Bible Study that my wonderful husband leads on Sunday’s, and actually it’s the first year that some of my students have decided to hear more than the little I can share with them during our Saturday sewing class. God has certainly done great things in these two women and it has been such a joy to see their lives being transformed!
I want to share one testimony with you that really touched my heart:
One Saturday, the Lord made me feel the need to focus my attention and time on one of my students who had somewhat placed God in the background of her life due to hurts she had experienced from religion. My awesome assistant Elizabeth took over the class for me while I spent the day ministering to this student, and it was an amazing moment with her as she definitely felt the love of God.
She wept as she told me she had not cried in a long time and had never felt the loving presence of God in that way!
A few weeks later this same student called me on a Friday to let me know that she wasn’t able to make it to sewing class because she had to go back to the dentist to resolve an issue with a wisdom tooth. The tooth had been removed a week earlier, but it wasn’t removed completely, and pieces of the tooth were left behind causing severe irritation, inflammation, and it was impeding her ability to eat.
I prayed for her healing that day by phone and the next day she showed up to class with a smile on her face telling me that God had healed her and that she no longer had any pain or swelling! The coolest part is after waking up the next morning after our prayer, she could no longer find the pieces of tooth that were left behind in her gums! The Lord had even taken care of that for her! All glory is for Him!
She has not yet attended our Bible Study or gone to any other church, but I am still praying for her.
If you could join me in praying for her, that would be amazing! Her name is Edith. Actually, if you could also pray with me that God would continue to speak to all of my students about His love for them and His plan for their lives, that would be even better!
That’s all I have to share for now, but I cannot finish without giving a HUGE ‘thank you’ to all of you beautiful people who make this class possible! I not only have the blessing of teaching women how to sew, but I am also able to share about the unconditional and never-failing love of the Father with them!
Thank you so much!
Jessica
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