Dr. Diane Bridges on helping parents to cope
Threads of Love
“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I consecrated you.” Jeremiah 1:5
Threads of Love is a Christian sewing ministry meeting the needs of tiny premature infants or for families who experience an infant death or stillbirth. When a parent is faced with this tragedy, the Social Work, Obstetrical, and Religious & Spiritual Care team provide a package containing a crocheted or knitted cap, day gown, booties, “lovie” doll and a culturally sensitive prayer for healing.
The ministry started in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and has chapters all across the United States. Trillium Health Centre is the first institution in Canada to offer this resource in partnership with Threads of Love.
Volunteers from a local church gather one afternoon each month to work. Tiny ribbon rosettes, intricately embroidered stitches, seed pearls and gossamer fabrics are the raw materials used by the ladies to create the precious gifts which so sensitively and gently say “You are loved.”
In a past article for a local newspaper Patricia Paddley wrote:
“There is a sense of something almost sacred about the garments they make in purest white, palest pink or delicate blue. The smallest of the gowns, measuring no more than six inches in length, could be used to dress a tiny doll, booties would fit a small finger, knitted bonnets a small orange....Love dolls, crafted from toddler socks, are designed to be worn next to a mother’s skin to pick up her scent, and then placed in an incubator to comfort a struggling newborn.”
To date Threads of Love has donated over 1,000 items to Trillium Health Centre, but over the past year the funding started to become very difficult for the ladies from the church. When I realized this, I approached the local organizer and my vice president to see if we could partner. Spiritual & Religious Care would provide the financial resources from our budget and the ladies could keep sewing. What an affirmation from both perspectives of the value of this ministry.
We wanted to respect the intent
of the spiritual foundation of
the Threads of Love mission
so we sought permission from Sissy
Davis, the American National Head
in Baton Rouge, to enter into this
covenant. With whole-hearted enthusiasm
the permission was given. This
is the first time Threads of
Love has been sponsored by
a hospital’s spiritual & religious
care programme.
I encourage all my colleagues to click onto www.threadsoflove.org to learn more about this amazing outreach to families in crisis.
Dr.
Diane Bridges received her doctor of
ministry degree from the University
of Toronto, St. Michael's College.
She is the director of spiritual & religious
care at the Trillium Health Centre
in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, one
of Canada's top 100 employers, and
is a member of CAPPE/ACPEP and the
APC. She has authored a number of articles
on bereavement and grief recovery.
Her passion is the healing ministries.
Do you have thoughts about spiritual development
you’d like to share with your colleagues?
Send an e-mail of any length to info@PlainViews.org.
|
.gif){kind=spacer}
.gif){kind=spacer}
.gif){kind=spacer}