COURTESY PHOTO
Women work on linens in a church in Honduras.

Quiet murmurs can be heard outside the fellowship hall of the church. The voices grow in volume, and laughter can be heard amid the conversation.

As we step closer and peer through the door, we see a group of women gathered around a table. They are diligent in their work, hands busy pushing needles down through the fabric, pulling the white thread tight.

Obediently following the drawn pattern, together, they create beautiful embroidery. As they share their faithful work with one another, they also share their lives.

Round the tables, they encourage one another with the Word of God, applying these teachings to the circumstances they face. These women take joy in the work of their hands, knowing the linens they design will beautifully set the table of the Lord. They pray over their handiwork and over the people in the churches, both familiar and far, who will use their linens for years to come.

With God’s grace, the work of God’s Grace Linens continues in three congregations in the capital city of Tegucigalpa, Honduras: La Anunciación Episcopal Church, San Pedro cerca del Río Episcopal Church, and San Juan Evangelista, and others throughout the country.

Through this microenterprise, the Lord is impacting the lives and the families of those who participate. Workshops and teachings offered through the Episcopal Diocese of Honduras allow them to learn to tithe and give back to their churches as well as save for themselves. With the goal of becoming self-sustaining as a diocese, the churches of Honduras, under the leadership of Bishop Lloyd Allen and Canon to the Ordinary Connie Sanchez, have established this and other microenterprises across the country.

Bishop Allen and Canon Sanchez visited the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida’s Annual Convention in January in Winter Park. From the convention stage, Bishop Allen discussed the vision and work the Lord is doing amid our companion diocese. He also highlighted the work of the sewing co-ops, including clergy shirts and the altar linens from God’s Grace Linens.

After this message, laity and clergy from the convention flocked to the tables with enthusiasm, a blur of people purchasing linens and placing orders. Through the support of the people at the Diocesan Annual Convention as well as the Diocesan Annual Altar Guild meeting held shortly thereafter, God’s Grace Linens earned a profit of more than $900. This will go far in a country of extreme poverty, where a day’s wage is counted in a few dollars.

Thank you, members of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida, including the Honduras Commission and the Diocesan Altar Guild, for your financial and prayerful support of the work of God’s Grace Linens. By honoring these women with the purchase of their products, you are making a difference in many lives and churches of our companion Diocese of Honduras.

Orders may be placed through the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida or directly through the Episcopal Diocese of Honduras. Please contact Canon Sanchez at csanchezhn@gmail.com, visit the God’s Grace Linens website at www.godsgracelinens.net or call Susan Garrison at 386-717-8352 for more information.

“I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:3-6).

Susan Garrison is a member of St. Barnabas’ Episcopal Church in DeLand.