Today’s Scripture: Galatians 5:19-25; John 14:27

Reflection by Jeri Arent

As many of you may know, I am a retired librarian. I worked for Columbus Metropolitan Library and enjoyed my 30 years there as a reference librarian who helped library patrons find information and materials they wanted. ( I love to “look things up” ) After I retired, I wanted to continue helping people but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do as a volunteer.  I led tours of a historic house in Worthington as a volunteer at the Worthington Historical Society, but I wanted to do more to help people less fortunate than I.

I had always wanted to sew and had a fascination with quilts and quilt making, but I had not taken the time to learn how to make a quilt.  I admired quilts and comforters, and was amazed by them, but I was not sure I could do that kind of sewing.

Judy Hartzler and I often chatted about quilts and quilt making when we worked together at the library. Many years before I retired, Judy had invited me to a quilt auction at the Ohio MCC Relief Sale in Kidron, Ohio.  I had never heard of MCC or had any idea what they did. I enjoyed the auction, watching quilts and comforters being auctioned off, sometimes for very high prices and all to be given away. It was amazing to me.

After I retired, Judy invited me to come to her church and help with a group that made comforters.  She asked me to come to help set up quilt frames for a knotting party.

All this was a mystery to me having never set up a quilt frame nor knotted a comforter.  As a total novice, I wondered how I would fit in.

Well, I was overwhelmed by the warmth and welcome of this group.  I also was impressed by how hard they worked and learning about the beautiful comforters they made to give away! The best part was, I had found a way to give to others and learn to sew a comforter top as well. Enjoying the get togethers of this group, the sewing and chatting, lead me to attend church here, and so here I am, 10 or more years later, speaking at our comforter blessing this year.

Each year, we place comforters on the pews and appreciate their warmth and fabric, celebrating that people worldwide will receive these bright, puffy tokens of our distant love.   The label we attach tells them that this comforter was made with love by Columbus Mennonite Church.

These comforters will travel to the MCC Headquarters in Ohio in Kidron in Wayne County, where they are compressed into airtight bags to be shipped around the world.  In 2024, 53,601 comforters were distributed by MCC from all over the United States.

MCC is a global nonprofit organization of many denominations that strive to share God’s love through relief and peace making.

Besides comforters, MCC distributes hygiene kits, many hundreds of pounds of canned meat, and my favorite, school kits because I loved school supplies when I was a kid.

This year our church is sending 250 comforters from our church to join others from all over the United States to be distributed. These 250 add to more than 3000 comforters Piecemakers have sent to MCC over the years. Knotters knotted comforter number 3000 at our knotting party this year.

But, as is often said by members of our group, this is not a numbers contest.  This is a labor of love for others who don’t have a comfortable home to live in or a peaceful place to sleep. It all becomes real when I see a photo of a smiling young boy holding two comforters that his family received from MCC when they were living in the basement of a bombed-out building.

Reflection by Addy Steiner

Good morning! I’m Addy Steiner and today I’m going to talk about my experience of Piecemakers! But first I’m going to tell you a story about what it is like at Piecemakers. I am just getting out of the car on a Friday morning and arriving here at church. I go up the stairs and into the fellowship hall. There are already frames set up with people around them talking and laughing while working on a colorful comforter! To my left I see Judy at a few tables with a big roll of batting beside her. When I look a little farther back I might see a few people with sewing machines, towards the corner I might see Ellen working at a table trimming and doing quality control. Then in the library I find Marlene working on putting fabric squares together, as well as someone ironing a backing or cutting more squares. Everywhere else I can see frames with beautiful comforters in them! I can hear sewing machines running and people greeting each other. I smell a treat sitting on the table to the left waiting to be eaten! Now it is time to get to work!

I really enjoy going to Piecemakers because I think it is cool that we make comforters for people around the world who are going through a hard time. When I hear stories about hard things happening around the world like violence, famine, or a natural disaster it makes me feel sad and scared and I feel bad for the people in that situation. I think being a part of Piecemakers is a way that I can help them and show them that I am thinking of them. If I was in a place like the ones I hear stories about, I think I would be really happy to get a colorful comforter like the ones we make at Piecemakers. I think it would comfort me and make me feel like someone is thinking of me.

Making comforters is fun because I like being around the people that are there. They help me understand what they do to help make comforters and they are also kind to me.

One thing I especially like to do is piece together scrappy comforter tops which are comforters that don’t have a specific pattern, the designer just puts similar squares together and it always looks good! I also enjoy seeing what those comforters look like when they are done. This one is an example of one that my Mom and I pieced together!

In closing, I invite you to imagine you are beside me in the fellowship hall at Piecemakers. How do you think you would feel? 

I feel peaceful. I am also not afraid there and I don’t think about my heart being troubled. Maybe everyone puts a little bit of their peace into the comforters. I hope that when someone opens up one of these comforters they feel like we’re thinking about them and it brings them a little bit of comfort in a hard time. When I see all the comforters set out on the pews I feel proud, accomplished, happy, and glad to be a part of Piecemakers!

Reflection by Joyce Wyse

Today is a day that we always look forward to if you make comforters. You like to see all of them and know how many there are, and are amazed at how much fun it is, just to see them. And I can’t imagine the fun of getting one if you really didn’t have anything.

When I was growing up my mother went to sewing all the time and they made comforters and quilts and sometimes they made clothing that they sent overseas.

And I didn’t appreciate that very much because we had all that we needed and I didn’t know what it was like to really really need something on my bed to keep warm. I knew we had a closet full of comforters and – so big WHOOP.

It took a while for me to realize that lots of people don’t have anything to cover up with at night. And they also don’t have a thermostat to turn way up and make their houses warm.

And it took me a long time to understand that that was a lot of people, not just a few, and that we were pretty privileged in this country to have more than we needed of many, many things.

And I’m grateful for the emphasis in this church of thinking of other people’s needs and trying to do what we can to take care of them.

I always look forward to this Sunday when we have the quilts on the pews and wish that we had absolutely no more space for them at all. We’re close to that but there are little tiny inches between comforters I see that we could squeeze them together more.

And maybe some of you that don’t need to go to work anymore would like to come and join us, know that you are welcome. We are always happy to have more people come and join us.