[title subtitle=”words Tonya McCoy
images courtesy Mandy Murray and Karen Seeds”][/title]
The ladies of the United Methodist Church in the small community of Vesta, Arkansas, lean over rolls of tan burlap placed across tables in the church’s dining hall. They’re crafting crosses, the symbol of ultimate giving, in order to raise money for charity. They call themselves “Girlfriends Walking with God,” and this phrase is proudly displayed on the bright green T-shirts they wear. Their small church with about fifty members is located seven miles north of Charleston, in Franklin County. Bales of hay dot the pastureland, and cows graze the fields in this rural farming area, which has an estimated population of 250. But these women prove it doesn’t take a large number of people to make a big difference. They’re a group of fifteen women whose ages range from eighteen to seventy.
One hundred miles away, in Vilonia, Arkansas, sixty-three-year-old Karen Seeds looks across the concrete slab that used to be her home. On April 27 of this year, a tornado tore through her house, leaving it in shambles, and just a couple of miles away, her church was destroyed. “It sounded like if you were waiting for a train to pass. You can hear it coming from a distance and then you can hear it getting closer and closer,” says Karen.
Her husband Gary looked out the window of their two-story log cabin and knew they’d better take cover in the basement. “He saw a weird shade of gray, slammed the door and tried to hold it. But the door upstairs popped open and there were leaves swirling around, there were things swirling around in the basement, and I kind of wondered if we were gonna get out of that basement alive.
“While we were in the basement we heard a ka-thud and basically that was our upstairs sliding over and dropping into the living room. So when we came up, my sofa had a claw-foot bathtub laying on it and my end table had a toilet sitting on it.”
Thankfully, Karen and her husband were safe. Their house, however, was wrecked. Karen says her pastor was one of the first people to stop by to check on them before heading to their church, the United Methodist Church in Vilonia.
Meanwhile, in Vesta, Girlfriends Walking with God went to work, crafting and selling burlap crosses as quickly as their hands could labor. “We had planned to be a part of the Christmas bazaar in Charleston at the community center in November… but then when that tornado happened, that’s when we decided proceeds from this particular project would go to tornado relief,” says thirty-five-year-old Mandy Murray.
Their craft was simple enough to make quickly. They’d found trendy cross hangers on Pinterest® and had originally just made them for each other to have just for fun. But now they were on a mission. They cut out a cross-shaped pattern, making copy after copy in burlap. They glued two sides together, stuffing it with plastic Walmart sacks in between. The patterned crosses were a hit, in black chevron as well as multi-colored chevron. They attached fabric rosettes and colored buttons and ribbons. They’ve even created Razorback themed crosses. You can’t get more Southern, or more specifically, Arkansan, than that. They didn’t have to buy many materials since some crafters of their group already had buttons, ribbons and even burlap. The ladies sold the crosses for $15 each, first by word of mouth, and then via Facebook and the Charleston Online Yard Sale website. Then they sent the money they earned to the United Methodist Church so that 100 percent of their donation would go to help Mayflower and Vilonia’s tornado relief.
About five months have passed since that disastrous storm, and Karen’s insurance is covering most of her home damages. The amount the church’s insurance will cover is still undetermined, but Vilonia church members are hopeful. Thanks to the caring hearts of people like Girlfriends Walking with God, Karen says an estimated $130,000 was raised to help tornado victims recover from the storm and to rebuild Vilonia’s church.
Karen says, “That’s probably the only thing that did get me through this. If we didn’t have faith that this was going to get better, that could get pretty depressing, and there are days when you just get frustrated, but this too will end. Life goes on and we’ll just pick up and carry on.”
Karen is resilient and she and her church are already soldiering on. Amazingly, even though Karen’s house is gone, she’s spending her time helping others in need. She is part of the organization United Methodist Women, which happens to be similar to Girlfriends Walking with God. In fact, her group is busy collecting things for their annual rummage sale. Karen says she received lots of help from neighbors and strangers alike after the storm, and now she’s ready to pay it forward.
The money the Vilonia group raised went towards backpacks full of school supplies for back to school this year, as well as Conway Cradle Care, which helps teen moms earn their high school diplomas, and an annual fundraising effort to buy books to be presented to Vilonia Kindergarten graduates.
Meanwhile, Girlfriends Walking with God has raised money through crafts, dinners, and collections to help our community, too. Just this year they’ve raised funds for the Lavaca Food Bank, the Ronald McDonald Room in Fort Smith, and the American Cancer Society.
Mandy, who’s proud to be a part of Girlfriends Walking with God, says it’s just their way of bringing the good of the church in Vesta to the outside world. “A lot of churches have become so involved with what’s inside the church and not taking their mission out in the communities, and so I think that’s why it’s important because we want to set an example. We’re not confined between these walls. We’re out and helping everyone else.”
You can hear the belief in charity in Mandy’s voice. She says the ladies are inspired to help the needy through the direction of Bible passages, such as those in Proverbs.
She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy. — Proverbs 31: 20
Honor her for all that her hands have done, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate. — Proverbs 31: 31
Mandy adds, “The Bible tells us we are supposed to fellowship with one another, and so that’s one of the things we get out of it when we come together. We have each other’s friendship and we know we can always count on each other. Because who’s to say? Tomorrow it might be one of us in need.
“We may not even know how the people we are helping are being blessed. We may never know that, but we know the reason that we’re doing it is the right reason, so that’s the blessing we get out of it.”
And though they may never know, they are certain what they’re doing matters, that it honors the Lord, and that those who receive help from Girlfriends Walking with God are sure to be uplifted by the help they receive. That is enough for these women from Vesta, whose faith means the world to them.
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If you’d like to order a burlap cross, or gift basket, or if you’d like any other information about Girlfriends Walking with God, contact Myra Keith at 479.461.3488. If you’d like to donate to help the Vilonia church’s rebuilding efforts, you can send a check to the Vilonia United Methodist Church, PO Box 460, Vilonia AR, 72173, or to the Vilonia Disaster Relief Alliance at PO Box 628, Vilonia AR, 72173.
