Sewing and Harvesting

This week and next the ladies are learning to appliqué. It has been very interesting to see how they have dealt with learning a new technique as we have been working on Kindle cases for so many weeks now! Appliqué is quite different to any other skill we’ve been working on.

Margaret with her appliqued map of Uganda bag

Half the women, including Margaret (our kafulu, star/expert, who had some small sewing experience previous to joining Alli Wano) have picked up appliqué really easily and others have struggled. The idea is that we appliqué these cotton bags and get them to market as soon as we can because plastic shopping bags have recently been banned in Kampala. I wanted the ladies to pick up the skill quickly so we could start production. I’m keen for them to start earning money and so I started worrying:

• What if some of the ladies start to make money and others don’t?
• Will they resent the others?
• What if some just never get it?

But as I prayed about the situation I felt that God gave me a very clear answer:

John 4:35 “Do you think the work of harvesting will not begin until the summer ends four months from now? Look around you! Vast fields are ripening all around us and are ready now for the harvest.”

Through this verse I felt that God said to me:

• Some of the ladies are ready – let them go for it!
• Give others more time and they’ll get there
• It will motivate them to work hard if they see others getting money
• It’s not all about money (a point I’ll come back to in a second)

I also feel, although not directly from this scripture, that it would work well for each lady to have a specialism and therefore I’ve started to watch who is best at what, and who enjoys making which product.

It’s not all about money

As I observe the women at the workshop I realise that Alli Wano is so much more than a training school and business. Some of the ladies did not pick up the new technique straight away and that could be for many reasons – we’re all good at different things – but I realised the main reason was because they were having issues in their personal lives and so focusing on sewing was not their first priority.

One lady is having to move out of her marital home because of emotional abuse by her husband, one is waiting for her son to have a potentially life-changing operation this weekend, and another’s son is critically ill. And yet they keep coming. Coming to the workshop each week allows Arios, Oliver, Jane, Margaret, Catherine and Susan a space to vent frustrations from home, to share the ups and downs of life. That safe place is so much more important than whether or not they learn to sew. This is a space just for them, where they can be themselves and do something for them.

All the women would call themselves Christians of one denomination or another and now, as official training comes to an end I feel it’s time to invite them to go deeper on a spiritual level. So I’m devising a tailored (!) bible study for those who wish to come, to help them understand more of who Jesus is and more of His unconditional love for them.

As I step out in this new journey of faith if anyone has any resources they would recommend for women’s bible study/ministry please do let me know!