100 years of bold service

by Women of the ELCA

Bethlehem Lutheran Church, St. Cloud, Minn., celebrated Bold Women’s Day, Feb. 26, by honoring its 100-year-old quilting group, Mission Quilters.

Bold Women’s Day—observed annually on the fourth Sunday of February—celebrates all Lutheran women who have acted or are acting boldly on their faith in Jesus Christ.

In 1917, Esther Circle answered the call to prep bandages for the Red Cross during World War I. The group valued their time together, decided they were making a difference and wanted to do more. So, they began making quilts for mission projects.

The church held a reception to recognize what is now called Mission Quilters in its centennial year of service.

For 70 years, Mission Quilters has partnered with Lutheran World Relief making quilts, clothing, health kits, school kits, and at one point, homemade soap.

In addition to their partnership with LWR, each year 10 percent of their quilts are donated to local groups that need them and families identified by the church office.

 In their 100^th year of service, the quilters have set a goal of completing 1,000 quilts in 2017.

To do that, they are working longer hours and more days and inviting new hands to join them doing God’s work. No experience is necessary.

Story submitted by Cheryl Skalbeck; photo of quilters (Betty Wacker, left, and Sandra Carpenter) by Christopher Kiewel. Also pictured, Esther Circle, the first ladies aid group at Bethlehem, 1917.

	A bold night was had by all In other Bold Women’s Day highlights, the women at Bethany Lutheran Church, Ruskin, Neb., wrote letters to state legislators encouraging them to pass a bill to enforce stricter penalties on human sex traffickers and those who retain their services. Before that, they read “Advocacy, prayer and kindness,” an article in the January/February issue of Gather magazine about preventing human trafficking, according to Ann Schultz, who submitted the information. The group also filled purses with feminine hygiene products, personal hygiene items, gloves, socks and other items that were provided to a local homeless shelter. They prayed, sang, watched a Lutheran World Relief video and closed with the Lord’s Prayer. “A very bold night was had by all,” Ann said.