Ohio church sews quilts of love for Congo ill

Nancy Byrd and the congregation at Christ United Methodist Church, Kettering, Ohio, know how it feels to be wrapped up in a “God-size” dream and see it come true.
The church raised $117,000 and helped tip the scales to buy a new plane for an aviation ministry in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. But money wasn’t enough; they wanted something more personal.
An idea formed in Byrd’s heart of a way that each person in the Ohio church could actually touch someone in the Congo. Touch a piece of cloth, touch a person was how Byrd explains it.
At a special service in May, every woman, man and child in church that day held a nine-inch square of cloth in his or her hands and prayed over it. Those cloths were sewn into quilts that will be shipped to the Congo to bring comfort to sick and suffering people.
“These small pieces of cloth will emerge into a symbol of the family of Christ Church personally touching the lives of our brothers and sisters so many miles away … personally sending the extravagant love and healing power of Christ from this place to our brothers and sisters in the Congo,” Byrd said as the congregation held the pieces of cloth in their hands and prayed.

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