I attend church in the inner city of Fort Worth. We minister to the needs of a very impoverished community by reaching out to the children there through after-school literacy programs, tutoring, hot meals, etc. In January of 2004, I was touched by one of the Moms who saw my scrapbooks and commented that she'd love to do something like that. But the cost - even if she did it the cheapest way possible - was too great. At that moment, I knew that I needed to provide a way to make it happen for her and other women like her.
I believe that every woman deserves the privilege of preserving her family's precious heritage....no matter how impoverished she may be. I decided to buy what I could afford to buy, and start on faith that more would come. I mentioned it in passing on ScrapShare - I didn't even ask for donations....I think I just mentioned that I was starting this ministry. Anyway.....people came out of the woodwork to donate to it!! One generous friend allowed me to place a $400 retail order, and she paid for the whole thing. I got lots of page refills, short cuts and adhesive with that order. Another friend sent 7 12x12 albums. Many others have sent Mrs G's stickers, die cuts, etc. Yet another sent pre-decorated pages and borders. I've been blown away by the generosity of my friends on the board!! Even so....keeping consumables like adhesive and pages in stock has been hard!!
The ministry has grown by leaps and bounds! In the summer of 2005, we moved the ministry from my home to the Fortress building, because we'd outgrown my house. The ladies come once a month for a scheduled crop, and several of them pop in during the month to get supplies or just to work on the albums on their own. My dear friend Kristi is as passionate and dedicated to this ministry as I am, and has been a huge blessing to it. It has been an amazingly rewarding experience! I love the women who come, and I am constantly touched by their devotion to their children. Some of the women are unwed teen mothers. Others are hard-working single Moms. Some are stay-at-home Moms with busy families who dedicate their talents and income to Fortress. Still others are students who are striving to get out of the cycle. They all have one thing in common - they love their families and want to preserve their memories!
You can find more info on ScrapShare by searching "Scrapbook Ministry" with my name. This ministry would not be possible without the generous donations of my online scrapbooking friends. It truly is a nation-wide effort, and we at Fortress are thankful a thousand times over.
Date(s): Fall 2004. Album by Stacy and Darren. 1 - 24 of 114 Total. 447 Visits.
1 Summer (on the right), is the wife of Jason, one of Fortress' ministers. She's working on their baby's album with the help of her friend, Laurie.
2 Brenda works on something different every time we meet. This time, it was pictures from a trip to Cancun.
3 Nikki is possibly one of the most artistic people I know. She created some really GREAT pages, then ripped them apart and redid them, because she didn't like the way they looked!
4 Lety and Nikki love using my Sizzix die cut machine.
5 Fierra is working on a baby album for her new son.
6 DeDe started and finished an album in ONE NIGHT - a book about her life. It was precious.
7 Kaki undertook the daunting task of organizing the stickers that have been donated.
8 Showing off some of our favorite pages. L to R: Erica, Fierra (hiding), Kristi, Lety, DeDe, Nikki.
9 Lety's favorite color is green, so she was THRILLED to find out she could have a green album!
10 Lety's daughter, Nivia.
11 Nikki was so happy to have a home for all of her accumulating supplies. No more WalMart bags!
12 Kristi is working on a Faith album for daughter Faith!
13 1-21-05 Tonight marks 6 months of our Scrapbook Ministry. YAY!! We had our biggest group ever.....13 scrappers in one room upstairs. I gave away 3 new albums (the rule is, everyone has to complete 15 pages before I give them an album), and 3 filled Memory Mate bags. I also gave Lety and Nikki album totes.
L to R: Nookie, Nikki, Lety, Katherine, Tanya, and Ligeia...and Dani at the bottom. Nookie, Lety, Ligeia and Lety's baby Nivia are spending the night tonight. There are two futons in the Crop Room. They're gonna crop til they drop, literally! YAY!
14 Katherine and Dani worked on their own albums tonight. Dani started a "Friends" album and Katherine started a Family Memories album. They were great about helping people bring in their supplies, and bringing us water to drink! Toward the end of the night, they kept us all singing. :)
15 THis is one of the pages that Ligeia made. She didn't bring photos, so she made layouts that she can add photos to later. She did a fantastic job! I'm so glad she came. (This was her first crop.)
16 This is Ligeia and her neice, Nivia. The purple layout in the preceding picture is reserved for photos of Nivia!
17 Darren baked brownies for us and brought them upstairs. What a great surprise! The girls nearly mobbed him. LOL!
18 As always, Kaki spent the night faithfully trying to organize the stickers that keep pouring in. Every time she walks through my door, I show her more boxes of stickers that have arrived. She swears that she totally enjoys it!
19 Another one of Ligea's awesome layouts. She's a natural!
20 This was Tanya's first night to crop. She hated this page at first, but I thought it was great. Then she added the sticker letters and decided she liked it! I'm gonna have to work on her, though. She doesn't want to journal her layouts because she's afraid her handwriting will ruin the pages. :(
21 Every time Kristi finishes a page, she says, "This is the best page I ever made!" LOL! She usually works on her daughter Faith's album, but tonight she started 2 NEW albums: her own family album, and a Disney cruise album for Kaki.
22 Jerica started working on her Urban Missions Conference/New York City album. She is hooked on the circle cutter! Isn't that a cool looking page? Very art nouveau. :)
23 Nookie has been scrapbooking for forEVER. She's even taken scrapbooks apart and redone them, just because she enjoys it so much.
24 Brenda hand-painted two beautiful thank you cards. As a group, we created and sent 20 thank you notes to some of the friends who have supported this ministry through donations of supplies. We still have many thank you notes to write. My friends across the country, who believe that every woman should have the means to record their precious family history and heritage, have been SO generous!
