Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Angel to Angel

Thank you so much to all the Blanket Angels who lovingly created the beautiful blankets for the angels at the Angel House foster care group home!!! 

 
They loved the blankets and were excited to have their own personal blanket to cozy up with! It means so much to them when people show they care in tangible ways.

God worked through you to even get the right designs for the different taste preferences!!

Angel House, Inc 

Thursday, October 20, 2011

The Privilege of Participating

Greetings to all you Blanket Angels!

Thank you for your faithfulness in prayer and your faithfulness to in preparing the fleece, setting up our project stations and especially with such good and joy filled hearts.

Each one of you is such a blessing!






As a reminder:


Beginning today, please join us in the Magnolia Room (in the W building),
where “Fleece Central” operate throughout all 3 days of LoveLoud.






When: Thursday October 20th and Friday October 21st from 8:30am to 8:30pm, and Saturday October 22 nd from 8:30am to 3pm



Once again, we have been so blessed with the wonderful fellowship and new friendships formed among all you volunteers. 1 Peter 1:3-4 sums it up:


"His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness
through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.  Through them (His power, glory & goodness) He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that WE MAY PARTICIPATE in His divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires."




Please join me in prayer:



Thank you, Lord, for allowing us the PRIVILEGE OF PARTICIPATING in your
divine nature; for the privilege of sharing your precious promises with those who don't know you or your promises; and for giving us the avenue of fleece blankets as an expression and demonstration of your tender thoughts toward us.

Lord, we earnestly and sincerely ask you for a harvest of souls; that blinded eyes will be opened; that stopped up ears will be unstopped; that your glory and goodness toward us will be lifted up and that all will be drawn to you.



Lord, we thank you for working out all the details - how many blankets; who
receives the blankets; who prepares and who delivers (Closed in truck for ginormous delivery to Clarkston!); and again Lord, the flock of bleating sheep sounding ELECTRIC Shears (blade sharpening & replacement blade discounts!)


Lord, we thank you for the leadership of FBCW. Reward them as only you can with spiritual blessings that money cannot buy and the world cannot corrupt.


Father, we pray


1) You will bring volunteers to complete the cutting, tying and delivery of all these blankets


2) You will supply the extra funds to complete the project


3) You will keep every LoveLoud volunteer safe


4) That everything be for your honor and your glory


5) That the words of our mouth and the meditations of our heart will be pleasing in your sight, Oh Lord, our Strength and our Redeemer.


IN THE MIGHTY, STRONG, HOLY NAME OF JESUS.


Amen

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

And a Child Shall Lead Them

This story was messaged to us over night and too sweet not to share.

"I wanted to tell you what my 2nd grade SS class did yesterday. 

Inspired by Fleece for the Flocks, I went to Hancock's and got the fleece for one blanket. My 2nd-graders tied the knots yesterday. I wish you could have heard them praying over the blanket. They truly felt in their hearts what it would be like to be given this blanket. Their prayers were so sincere as they prayed for protection of the blanket that it wouldn't be lost or stolen, that it would make the recipient happy, that they would be blessed! It was so precious. I love getting to watch the Lord work in the hearts of our precious children!"



Join us in 
TWO MORE DAYS!.

Bring your children, your neighbors, family and friends.

For an hour, for a blanket, for the day.  We will be fringing, tying, signing cards and praying over hundreds of fleece blankets and would love for you and yours to share in the blessing.

Don't forget, we will have many opportunities to personally deliver these loving bundles to our neighbors throughout the Atlanta area.

Can't be there personally?   Please share this opportunity with your family, friends & neighbors.  Message them, tweet about it,  post a message to you wall!  No excuses, EVERYONE can participate in some way!

Be a Blessing!!...and "Let Your Love GROW………" I Thess 3:12


For less than $10 you can wrap your neighbor in home-spun blessings of love and hope through the simple gift of a hand-knotted blanket.   Message us for details in making a tax deductible donation for this year’s blanket projects including some of the following:







Of Mice, Cookies, Blessings and Blankets


In the past few years I have had the delight of spending copious amounts of time teaching, playing and learning a plethora of games geared for the 5 and under crowd. I have viewed hours of commercial free 'G' rated entertainment and read countless volumes of children's literature. In the course of my emergence into 'Parenthood: 2001', I've had the occasion to be profoundly moved into action by a simple but profound truth.

"If you give a mouse a cookie..."

You see, last summer my granddaughters school sent a lengthy list of suggested reading material to share with our child before school started in the fall. Several classics were well represented: 'Harold and the Purple Crayon', 'Madeline', 'Caps for Sale' the 'Curious George' series, and 'Corduroy' was actually required...really!

One series included on the list was the "If You Give..." books by Laure Joffe Numeroff. The original story in the set is called


The story goes something like this,

"If you give a mouse a cookie,
he's going to ask for a glass of milk.

When you give him the milk,
he'll probably ask you for a straw.

When he's finished, he'll ask for a napkin.
Then he'll want to look in the in the mirror to make sure he doesn't have a milk mustache.

When he looks in the mirror....."


I think you get the picture....quite the shaggy dog story.

I don't want to spoil the ending but ultimately the story ends up back at the beginning,

with the mouse seeing the refrigerator, which causes him to want more milk aaaand...

"chances are if he ask for a glass of milk....
he's going to want a cookie to go with it"

The story goes full circle and ultimately whoever befriends this mouse might be 
exhausted AND exasperated by days end...

and this mouse...
he could become a full time job!

I can sooo relate.

How many times do I encounter a situation, a group or person in need and
  • turn the other way
  • claim no time, money or leading to help
  • pretend my bad ear didn't get the whole message
  • just decide it was not my business, my problem or better yet, not my area of giftedness?
The needs are everywhere, we run into them at every turn.

If we...

Volunteer at a local shelter, hospice, nursing home, Sunday School, a blanket ministry (you fill in the blank)

Should we donate....

Time, Talent, Money or Possessions

We might...

Get to know...really know our neighbors....maybe even those that are not so easy to know much less like.

We are not called to do the easy things, but the hard ones. Matthew 5: 43-48

If we consciously look for opportunities to share all that we have, all that HE has given us...
chances are very good MORE will be needed or expected.

Wow! This little bit of helping could turn into a whole lot of....dare I say it?

WORK!!

Work that might cut into our well deserved down time with family, friends or...TV!

"Come on" we say, "this is for someone else to do...it's their calling...their ministry....their thing"

As my insightful daughter in love Elizabeth often points out,

"Who can truly say we deserve anything?"

You know what...We Don't!  Not ONE thing!

and...

Jesus said,


"I have food to eat you know nothing about."
The disciples were puzzled.
"Who could have brought him food?"

Jesus said, "The food that keeps me going is that I do the will of the One who sent me, finishing the work he started. As you look around right now, wouldn't you say that in about four months it will be time to harvest? Well, I'm telling you to open your eyes and take a good look at what's right in front of you. These Samaritan fields are ripe. It's harvest time!

"The Harvester isn't waiting. He's taking his pay, gathering in this grain that's ripe for eternal life. Now the Sower is arm in arm with the Harvester, triumphant. That's the truth of the saying, 'This one sows, that one harvests.' I sent you to harvest a field you never worked. Without lifting a finger, you have walked in on a field worked long and hard by others."  John 4:32-38


All too often harvesting requires us to 'give a mouse a cookie'.

God used this powerful little parable to make me realize it's time to step up and step out.

My prayer is that we open up, earnestly seek God,  ask Him to send every mouse, moose, pig or neighbor for us to love as He loves each one of us.  May we be up to our eyeballs in the blessed harvest God has prepared.

How bout you?

You in on giving that mouse a cookie?


Portions of the preceding post were copied from one written about a month before the first 15 hand tied fleece blanket were made and delivered, nearly 3 years ago.  Besides numbers, not too much has changed, except perhaps a greater desire to "Give a..." 


For less than $10 you can wrap your neighbor in home-spun blessings of love and
hope through the simple gift of a hand-knotted blanket.   Message us for details in
making a tax deductible donation for this year’s blanket projects including some of the following:







Sunday, October 9, 2011

LoveLoud 2011 - "Let Your Love GROW………" I Thess 3:12



Hey all you BLANKET ANGELS!!!

Join us Sunday evening October 9th for the LoveLoud 2011 Rally at FBCW!  
We will begin at 6:00pm in the W Building with breakouts beginning at 6:50. Fleece for the Flock will meet in the  Magnolia room sides A & B, where we will fill you in on details for this years 3 day LoveLoud event Thursday October 20  thru Saturday 22 2011.  
 
If you can not attend ANY of the days or have another LoveLoud project, please share this opportunity with your family, friends & neighbors.  Message them, post a message to you wall!

As we have said so many times before, EVERYONE can participate in this project.  You and yours can cut, tie, roll, pray over, sign cards and most importantly HAND deliver each hand tied blanket to someone in need of a God hug wrapped in fleece!

We expect to cut, tie & personally deliver upwards of 1000 blankets this year over a 3 day period.  We need ALL hands on deck!

Be a Blessing!!...and "Let Your Love GROW………" I Thess 3:12

tammy

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Upcoming Projects - Ways to lend hands and heart!

Below is a list of some of the projects Fleece for the Flock has committed to for the remainder of 2010.

Angel House

Living Water for Girls

Bethany Place  Home for Women and Children

The Cherokee Family Violence Center

2 groups of our Appalachian Neighbors in West Virginia

Children from 3 to 18 of the Clarkston, Georgia International Community

The projected blankets needed is nearly 2,000.


Various businesses, Bible study groups, churches and independent donors are stepping up to help fill the needs. We have some precious benefactors, who much like the widow Christ spoke of in the Bible, regularly deliver fleece or some of of their meager wages to see that others may know the joy and love they experienced as earlier FFF blanket recipient.   Please pray, do all that you can to support and share our mission as we seek to obtain nearly the 6000 yards of material needed for these upcoming projects.


Our hope and prayer is that each of you will partner with us in meeting these needs.  Many of these opportunities are physically in the Atlanta area.  We welcome everyone who can, to attend the various upcoming blanket making events, tie some knots, write notes, encourage and pray for the hundreds to be blessed by these home-spun bundles of love and hope.

Save the Dates!


LoveLoud Weekend: About 8 weeks from now you are encouraged to join Mary, me and about 3,000 of our neighbors as we spend 3 days loving loudly on our Northwest Georgia community.  Beginning Thursday October 21st and through Saturday the 23rd, (starting at 8am each day) you find us 'womaning' Blanket Central at FBCW.  If you have never tied a blanket or attended one of our 'Flock' parties this is an excellent opportunity for hands on experience.  Not only will we be making blankets, writing encouraging notes and praying over all, there will be multiple opportunities to actually deliver and love on our blanket recipients.  All of the more than 700 blankets tied these three days will be given out during the same time.  Please join us that weekend if you can and prepare to be blessed!


2010 Heavenly Harvest Hoedown: Our 2010 HHH is set for Saturday, November 13th from 8am to 5pm at the First Baptist Church of Woodstock, Georgia.  This year's HHH will focus on the almost 1,300 blankets and scarves needed for Christmas delivery to the youth of the Clarkston Georgia International Community, our Appalachian neighbors in West Virginia and the women and children of a local battered women's shelter.  Come share bountiful blessings with neighbors near and far.  Hope to see you there!




"What I'm interested in seeing you do is:
   sharing your food with the hungry,
   inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
   putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
   being available to your own families.
Do this and the lights will turn on,
   and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way.
   The God of glory will secure your passage.
Then when you pray, God will answer.
   You'll call out for help and I'll say, 'Here I am.'  

If you are generous with the hungry
   and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out,
Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness,
   your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.
I will always show you where to go.
   I'll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—
   firm muscles, strong bones.
You'll be like a well-watered garden,
   a gurgling spring that never runs dry.
You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew,
   rebuild the foundations from out of your past.
You'll be known as those who can fix anything,
   restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate,
   make the community livable again. "
                                                  Isaiah 58: 7-9 and 10-12

Friday, July 23, 2010

So a Few More May Know

In the past few weeks volunteers have put heart in hand
to cut and tie 102 fleece blankets for area

We tried to give you a taste of the incredible joy and excitement encountered while delivering blankets.
 
The morning after giving the children blankets,
groups of kids stumbled out of their cabin wrapped in their fleece treasures.


One nine year old boy asked his counselor if she had seen and read the card we attach to each blanket, without prompting the little guy proceeded to read the card to her.


‘This blanket is an expression of God’s love for you. Know that while we may not know each one of you by name and face, our God does. Many folks met and tied each knot of love just for YOU. We pray that it will bring you much comfort. When life gets tough, wrap yourself in this blanket and remember – You Are Loved!


In all the world, there is only one you.
You have a laugh, a smile, a heart that no one else can duplicate or replace.
That’s because you are a Special Creation of God!

He formed you with His hands and loves you with all His heart.
You are a blessing to those around you
and these are very good reasons to Thank God.
We join all the host of heaven in celebrating your birth

Love,
The Shepherds and Sheep of
Fleece for the Flock”

“God not only loves you very much but also has put His hand on you for something special”
1 Thessalonians 1:4



Because you cared enough to send more fleece, tie many knots of love and bow in prayer, a few more lambs may more fully know how precious they truly are in God eyes.



Thank Ewe all!!



**Special thanks to Gretchen,
official camp photographer for the great photo's of awesome memories. **