Opportunity to Be A Blessing

As we all know, this time of pandemic has been one that has brought great need in a various number of ways. All across the country, we have seen the need grow more and more for medical masks. As this need arose, Gateway jumped at the opportunity to help through our partnership with Sew Quilt Share. This group of ladies typically meets monthly to support the mission of Gateway Church by sewing baby quilts for the Women’s Resource Center and feminine products to support Mission Possible and schoolgirls in Haiti. But when the requests came in for medical masks around mid-March, Sandra Tietje, the leader of the group, and the ladies made the decision to take on the challenge. After the pattern was decided upon, everyone got to work in a big way. We have collected and distributed approximately 2,300 masks to several different health care organizations, individuals, and one of our ministry partners in Hamtramck, MI.

S & A are World Outreach Global Workers, living just outside of Detroit. Their ministry is centered around planting churches among Muslims in South Asia and metro-Detroit. On April 16, we received a request from S for 500 masks to give to Muslim families in Hamtramck. The request, at first, seemed a bit overwhelming, but the moment it was communicated to the ladies sewing, they were nothing but supportive and started pumping them out. Within four days, we had more than enough masks to send to S in Hamtramck and ended up sending a total of 567 masks to distribute. At first, S’s plan was simply to set up times to hand out these masks to Muslim families in the community, a general way to love their neighbors. But when the first man showed up to receive a mask, he asked, “Why are you doing this?” This gave S the opportunity to share the Gospel message of Jesus with him, and then he continued to do so with everyone who came along to receive a mask - hundreds of people! The need for the masks in Muslim communities is rather frightening, as many just disregard the coronavirus and all forms of social distancing, claiming that Allah will protect them. This made the opportunity for S to share the love of Christ with many families very encouraging.

Through the medical mask ministry, we have received many different forms of encouragement from local healthcare organizations, individuals in our community, and even a thank you from our denomination for our outreach efforts. While we appreciate the encouragement, we recognize that none of the glory belongs to us. God has worked through the Sew Quilt Share ladies, through S & A in Hamtramck, and through Gateway Church. We are humbled and thankful that He would use these ministries in ways that bring glory to Himself. Please remember that if you are in need during this time, we want to help you! And if you want to help, we have opportunities for that too! Visit our website to sign up to offer or receive help.