Ms. Mary Makes Little Girls Feel Beautiful

Mary Beatty, age 88, plugged up her sewing machine and started sewing dresses for little girls she had heard about living in Uganda, Africa. She said on cold days she would sit in front of her big window and watch the snowfall as she carefully stitched dresses for girls in a faraway hot land. It just warmed her heart through and through. There was always a prayer for the children these colorful dresses would find.

She sewed the entire winter, some days making three little dresses a day. When March rolled around, fifty completed darling dresses were ready. Now, how would she get these dresses so far away to Uganda, Africa?

Ms. Mary read about a four-year-old child, Barbara, living in a village in Uganda who was caring for her dying mother alone in a tiny mud hut. Little Barbara's mother died in the child's arms. Now who would care for this courageous child? She was found by Equipping With Truth Ministries and now is cared for in their children's home. Ms. Mary thought there must be a dress for this precious child and many others, if only she could find a way to get them to Uganda.

In April, Ms. Mary delivered fifty neatly packed brightly colored dresses to Rusty McLelland, co-founder of Equipping With Truth Ministries. He assured her that these dresses would be delivered on their next visit to Uganda. In May, Rusty and Betty Jo boarded a plane with eight mission team members, and fifty dresses packed tightly in suitcases on their way to Uganda.

They landed in a hot land where many people suffer from poverty. As they approached EWT's children's home (Jireh), their van was met with their Ugandan friends singing and cheering wildly, waving tree branches, and women making their distinctive African happy sounds. The joy of Jesus was real and love was spoken loudly by these amazing Ugandan Christians. One of the team members noted, "Some of the happiest faces I've known. So much joy from those with so little."

EWT has been in Northern Uganda for 7 years sharing God's love with these Ugandan people. Their lives have experienced much change as many have received their most precious and rare gift, a Bible. EWT has sponsored 15 wells that are providing clean water for villagers. Now women and children no longer walk three miles every day carrying jugs of water on their heads. EWT is also helping the people farm with a cash crop, ginger. There is also an orphanage called Jireh Children's Home (Uganda has two million orphans), and a growing child sponsorship program as well as a village school.

It is now time for the Ugandan people to show their grateful hearts to their friends who return each year. They have practiced the music and the Bible skits many times. Now they joyfully present what they have learned and thank their Christian friends from so far away for the message and hope of Jesus Christ.

Back in Newton, North Carolina, Ms. Mary prayed and waited, hoping some of the Ugandan girls would soon be wearing the dresses her hands had stitched on those cold days. Then came pictures on her phone from one of her friends who was on the mission trip. Unbelievable! Pictures of beautiful girls proudly wearing the dresses Ms. Mary had sewn . . . and yes, there in Jireh Children's home was little Barbara wearing one of those dresses.  

We want to thank Mary and all the other wonderful women who have worked so hard to make dresses for our little girls in Uganda. You will never know how much you have blessed these precious children.