The Crescent and the Cross… the unitarian Islamic deity (Allah) and our trinitarian Christian deity (Yahweh). In my previous entry I mentioned that there are profound theological differences, and differences historically and in outworking, between the Islamic Allah and the God whom Christians worship. Yet Christianity and Islam are both called Abrahamic faiths. So what is it that they have in common if there is supposedly common ground that they share?

As the late Dr Francis Schaeffer pointed out (and other notable theologians too, of course) our knowledge of God is incomplete, but what we do know of Him can be true. We know Him truly, but not exhaustibly. We can know Him only inasmuch as He has chosen to reveal Himself to us. Christians believe His fullest revelation is in His Son, our lord Jesus Christ. However, all mankind has a certain knowledge of Him - internal knowledge (an instinctive awareness of divinity that we are born with, and a conscience) and external knowledge (evidence from His creation, and from history) - and this knowledge is of the only one God, the One who IS. This applies to all mankind, which includes Muslims.

So it would appear that Muslims, along with all others who acknowledge a Creator God and make claims to worship this God, do inasmuch as they have knowledge of Him. I have listened to a number of Muslims speak of God in certain ways that I know to be true of His character. We appear to be referring to the same God as we each know Him, and where there is agreement, there is a degree of commonality.

However, the Muslim knowledge of God is seriously altered from the Christian knowledge of Him by the information that Muhammad provided for them. Their knowledge of God took a turning and headed off down another path. Their knowledge, as provided by much of Muhammad’s elaborations in the Qu’ran, has taken them away from the Christian knowledge of God. In this departure they increasingly lose sight of the Christian triune God, and the one whom they worship (whom they call Allah) takes on more and more the appearance and essence of what is called in Biblical language, an idol.

But isn’t it just that we have different perceptions of the same Supreme Being? Well, here is an analogy for you to consider. Take the situation in which you and I believe that we might know someone in common. I describe this person according to my knowledge and experience of him, and you look somewhat surprised. Yes, many of those characteristic do fit, you say, but didn’t I know that he has a son as well? Nope, I didn’t know that. In fact I am quite sure that he doesn’t because he never married nor had any such relationship with anyone. Oh, and did I know that he also has written a book? Yes, I knew he had written a book and that it was about the warring tribes of the sixth century. You look at me strangely. No it wasn’t anything to do with warring tribes of the sixth century, but to do with his son and many other things as well. Then we begin to realize there are a great many other significant things that don’t quite stack up. You tell me that this person is very keen to befriend and help others, and I think that is most odd because I found him to be totally impersonal and very severe. We are both absolutely certain of our facts and so may start to wonder if we are actually talking about the same person… perhaps we had made a mistake about that, and it is two different people we are talking about. In fact, given two laws of logic, the Law of Non Contradiction and the Law of the Excluded Middle, the most logical and rational conclusion we can come to is that we are speaking of two entirely different persons.

There are so many major differences between the Islamic Allah and the Christian knowledge and experience of God, Yahweh.
~ Allah says he has no son, even in the figurative sense; Yahweh claims that He does.
~ Allah says that Jesus didn’t die, yet Jesus died;
~ Allah says that one of Noah’s sons died in the flood; Yahweh says that Noah’s three sons were saved in the flood;
~ Allah says that Jesus made clay birds that could fly when He was a child; this is not in the New Testament, but in later myth books;
~ Allah says that Jesus spoke as an infant; this is not in the New Testament, but in later myth books;
~ Allah does not seem to know what mainstream Christianity believed as far as the Trinity is concerned. The closest that the Qur’an comes to a Trinity is God, Jesus and Mary. Nowhere can you find the true concept of the Trinity in the Qur’an - Father, Son (Word) and Holy Spirit.
~ The Qur’an has no concept of the incarnation of the Word of God in Jesus’ human body; the Qur’an says in essence that Jesus could not have been God because He ate and slept. Well, Christians have always believed that Jesus was 100% human and needed sleep and food. Why didn’t Allah understand what Christians believed? Yahweh would have understood.
~ How do we reconcile the fact that Allah allowed Muhammad to have many, many wives when in the Old Testament, Yahweh said not to multiply wives?
~ How do we reconcile the fact that Allah allows divorce after Yahweh said He hates divorce, taking into consideration what Jesus said about divorce in the New Testament?

I could go on and on with this one.

However, many Muslims believe that they are worshipping God, that being the Only God, the Supreme Being, the Creator of all, whose name is Allah - and that it is the Christians who have the distorted view of Him. But would this be good enough for God? We could all probably make up a religion and make it similar to the teachings of the Bible and say that the revelations of this new religion came from God. Would that make it so? How similar to the Bible would I have to be in order to get some believers? How different in the teachings from the Bible would it take for me to be accused of being a fraud? It is very important to note that in the days of Muhammad the Jews accused him of being a fraud - and they knew their Scriptures.

It is noteworthy that Mohammed, when preaching to the Meccans, was not seen as introducing a new god to them, but merely proclaiming that one of their many gods, the one who was already called Allah, was the greatest and only god. The Meccans did not accuse Mohammed of preaching a different god from the one that they knew and so embraced “Allah” without difficulty. Muhammad was very cleverly backing for a win and a place. While reigning in the beliefs of his own pagan polytheistic Arab brothers who already worshipped the god called Allah (who incidentally had three daughters in pre-Islamic times), he was linking the name of Allah (Arabic for “God”, as we know) to the religious histories of Judaism and Christianity as a way to claim them also for Islam and seek the conversion of Jew and Christian as well. Thus he gave his Arab brothers their history by identifying them as the descendents of Ishmael whose father was Abraham, generating Islam as a religion based on corrupted, often Gnostic, versions of Scripture while claiming to have issued from Abraham. Interestingly, the Qur’an does not actually say that Ishmael was offered for sacrifice instead of Isaac, but this is taught to Muslims all the same. The Jews and Christians at the time saw through this deception and would have none of it, spurning Islam as false doctrine. Thus they mocked him, which angered him greatly. This appropriation is a cunning strategy of Islamic apologetics and one to which the naive and unsuspecting will fall victim in their thinking. For this reason there is a very real need not to allow any confusion of the Islamic unitarian Allah with the Christian trinitarian God.

My ultimate concern is that in agreeing that Muslims and Christians worship the same God (in the fullness of their respective and differing knowledge of God) and making allowances for Allah being just the Islamic view of the same God, we then subsequently deny our lord and saviour, Jesus Christ. Islam denies the deity of Jesus. There is no getting away from that single fact. On this point Allah and Yahweh irrevocably part company in terms of everything we know and subsequently experience of them. You may worship one or the other, but not both together as these two understandings of God are an eternity apart.

We all are blessed by His common grace, no matter what we believe, and show forth something of His image in which we are made. Muslims will also show good fruit, the outworking of His common grace which is there in all of us. They know Him in some measure, but not in the fullness of the revelation and relationship that we have of Him in Christ and through the grace of the Holy Spirit. I can see Muslims worshipping something of God, but in their deception (for Muhammad certainly deceived them with the teachings of the Qur’an) they have taken a false path, one that leads to a parody of God, that which is their Islamic Allah. I have talked with some very spiritual Muslimahs, ones who worship Allah as portrayed in the early Mecca surahs, and their knowledge is more like our God, Yahweh. But without Christ they have no experience of an intimate relationship, and their knowledge and worship is stifled as a result. Their worship is not of the One who can give them that relationship, who has revealed Himself in that fullness. They strenuously deny that as it would be utterly blasphemous and apostate to do otherwise. They cannot worship Christ, and yet Jesus said that He and the Father are one (John 10.30) The Apostle John had a very important warning for the followers of Christ. We must not ignore this Scripture.

Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your house or welcome him. Anyone who welcomes him shares in his wicked work.
(2 John 1: 9-11)

Check out this paper for more theology: Does Islam really serve the same God as Christians?

The Crescent and the Cross… the unitarian Islamic deity (Allah) and our trinitarian Christian deity (Yahweh). Some will have you believe that these deities are one-and-the-same, while others see the danger in referring to them both as though they are one. Are Muslims and Christians talking about the same Being, or do they each have someone different in mind?

I have already chatted about this subject here and here, but have tripped over more discussion on the subject elsewhere and this seems a good as time as any to highlight a concern that is coming to light.

Back in October 2007 a letter was written, signed by 138 representative Muslim leaders, calling on two “Abrahamic faiths” (Islam and Christianity) to love God and neighbours together. A similarly large number of Christian theologians, ministry leaders, and prominent pastors signed the response letter issued by the Yale Center for Faith and Culture.

The Christian signatories said that they “share the sentiments” of the Muslim leaders who pointed out that Muslims and Christians make up over half of the world’s population and therefore true peace cannot occur as long as conflict persists between the two religious communities. And the Christian signatories asked:
1. that Muslims forgive Christians for their past sins – such as the Crusades and excesses of the “war on terrors” – as taught by Jesus Christ who said to “First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out your neighbor’s eye” (Matthew 7:5).
2. that an interfaith dialogue takes place that moves beyond “polite” ecumenical talks between selected leaders, and wrote that leaders of both faiths should hold dialogues to build relations that will “reshape” the two communities to “genuinely reflect our common love for God and for one another.”

However, some very important fundamental issues are being ignored. They were picked up by Dr R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, one Christian theologian who did not sign the response letter. Source. He was disturbed by the Christians’ request for forgiveness of sins committed against Muslims, including the Crusades and excesses in the war on terror.

“I am sure that all kinds of sin went on with the Crusades on both sides,” he said. “But I am not going to apologize for the Crusades because I am very thankful that the Muslim effort to reach a conquest of Europe was unsuccessful. Otherwise, we would be speaking Arabic on this program right now and we would be talking about the Muslim continent of Europe and potentially even of North America.”

The war on terror, he also noted, is the responsibility of the United States so he was “not sure” why Christians are apologizing for that as a sin against Muslims.
“I don’t think that is the right way to put it,” Mohler said. “I don’t think we associate the United States of America with the Christian church. For whom are we apologizing and for what are we apologizing?”

Dr Mohler explained that Muslims also believe in Jesus but only as a prophet, not as the son of God. Christians must distinguish what kind of God they believe in when responding to the Muslim letter, which emphasized love for a common God.

“We don’t believe that Jesus Christ is our hero. We don’t believe that Jesus Christ is merely our prophet. He is Prophet and Priest and King. He is the incarnate Son of God. He is the second person of the Trinity. He is the Lord over all. Any minimization of that is a huge problem.”

“This is the God who very clearly identifies Himself and says, ‘I am this and I am not anything else.’ If you disagree about the identity of Jesus Christ, then you disagree about the identity of God. The most important issues about the dialogue with Muslims is that Christians are very clear about the Gospel. It is not enough just to say, ‘we renounce violence.’ It is important, but it is not enough.”

“Now, I want to be very clear: we should have nothing against a conversation. But I don’t think this is the way to get into the conversation,” Mohler clarified. “My concern is that when Christians enter the conversation with Muslims we must enter the conversation as Christians,” he said. “I think when you address a letter to Muslims and refer to God in their terminology then there is a big problem…when Christians enter a conversation, we have to show up as Christians.”

I am in absolute agreement with Dr Mohler. This is certainly not being picky. The Muslim perception of God is that which is described in their Qur’an. The Islamic Allah does not love Christians. He loves only Muslims, and he instructs them to slaughter those who will not submit to him and become Muslims (Surah 9). There is no love there for any neighbour who is not Muslim. When Islamic clerics speak of God, it becomes very confusing when Christians suppose they are speaking of God of Judeo-Christian scriptures, Yahweh. We know that the word Allah is the Arabic word for God, meaning the Supreme being and Creator of all. When Arabic Christians speak of Yahweh, they use their word Allah. But when Muslims speak of Allah, they are referring to the one who is portrayed in the Qur’an… and he is nothing like Yahweh, the God whom Christians worship.

At the heart of the Muslim letter was the “common ground” that believers of both faiths share – love for God and love for neighbours. My concern are the unanswered questions… What common ground? How much common ground do we actually have? When speaking of God, who exactly do we actually mean - the unitarian Islamic Allah, or the trinitarian Christian Yahweh? They are most definitely not the same, there being profound differences theologically, historically, and in their outworking. Until this issue is made crystal clear, then both parties are talking past each other and no real dialogue, that to which each side is truly accountable, can ever properly take place.

We have not forgotten you, those of you to whom Colonel Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (1881-1938) were referring when he said these very moving words in 1934…

Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives: You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehemets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours: you, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries, wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.

We will not forget you, not any of you, and what you did for the rest of us.

~ requiescat in pace ~

Judah’s Journal is three years old today! I had not given a thought three years ago to that I would still be writing stuff for an online diary in three year’s time, but neither did it occur to me that I might have stopped by then too. There were no great plans or ambitions. It was just a fun thing to do. Time passes, and here we are… still going strong.

A year ago there had been 157 entries, 382 comments, and visits from over 70 different countries representing over 40 different languages. A new statistics program was installed but has not been working properly. However, I can claim there to be an additional 44 entries and 100 comments. My output has slowed a little, and it does come in waves, like little energy surges. Determined by appearances alone, Wikipedia calls these episodes of “blogstipation”, assuming a state of inability to think of any topic to blog about, and leading to irregular, strained blog entries. Such a condition may be followed by a sudden unblockage caused by a “blenema”, or interesting event, and occasionally a rush of subsequent entries known as “blogorrhea”.

But to say that of Judah’s Journal is perhaps being a little hypochondriacal and rather extravagent. I have never really been stuck for things to write about, but more often than not, overwhelmed by the amount of what there is to be said instead. As a primarily Christian blog, there is much to report in this post-Christian era which is fast becoming what was predicted by the late Dr Francis Schaeffer, an anti-Christian era. Thus there is much to say, and none of it likely to be popular at that. But popularity is not that important to me. What is far more important is Truth, and understanding that it is indeed objectively knowable inspite of what fashionable postmodern thought would have us believe. The truth is that which corresponds to reality, and although we may all have a perspective on reality, perspectives do not change the facts and substance of reality itself. In the end it is how we respond to reality that will determine what becomes of us, now and way beyond now. Most of us live in states of varying degrees of denial. Reality is not changed by any degree of denial. It takes courage to face the truth, and this Age is largely a cowardly one. I don’t expect to be popular for saying such a thing, but neither do I consider myself answerable to anyone other than He who claimed to be the Truth Himself.

Nope, no hypochondiasis here. No blogstipation with rebounding blogorrhea. Just whatever bubbles up and froths forth, digital tappings upon my keyboard, on whichever of those days that distractions don’t detain me. So launching into a fourth year of cruising cyberspace, off goes I in Judah’s Journal.

“…to create an awareness on a global level of this world-class orchestra” is what he said. The words of our new, and oh so young, Finnish music director (Pietari Inkinen) who has been described as exciting, so talented, and particularly brilliant. With such glorious aclaim, I wonder what precautions are required to keep a sense of balance so necessary for one who must stand on a podium with both his back and feet so close to a sheer drop off the edge of the stage. But I do have to admit that he is certainly good - indeed quite exceptionally good. Our national orchestra has never played better, and world-class is indeed what it is.

Being way too early the other night we diverted two blocks to our favourite secondhand bookstore for a pre-concert browse. One has to be careful not to lose track of the time in there, and that was certainly true when I unearthed a pristine copy (printed in China - what a surprise!) of the complete short stories of one Katherine Mansfield. Wellington’s child, famous daughter of our beautiful harbour capital, she spent a full first five years on this soil before being swept back to Mother England and further abroad, thereafter disparaging of her native beginnings other than what of the culture could contribute to her literary works. With the pristine printed-in-China copy underarm anyway, we set off in time to be wowed by the wizardry of the wand, that curious little stick that draws out of the strings, brass and woodwind, all the magic there is to be heard in the music.

From our usual place three rows from the front, a little below eye-level with the ankles of the first violins, we can watch with awe the deft fingerplay, closeup facial expressions and other such fascinating detail. Humans are a funny lot. Who would have thought to compose music where first and second violins play in unison but one semitone distant from each other? It did little for me, and neither for most according to the scant enthusiasm in the applause to follow. It would have been interesting to hear an honest opinion from various players as to what they really thought of Rautavaara’s “A Tapestry of Life” and whether they would even be bothered with doing it again. The British cellist, Natalie Clein, is certainly clever on her strings and the sounds, set in order by Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, were exquisitely wonderful. But the facial expressions were agonizing. So much pained emotion! One hardly knew where to look, as though watching was a kind of voyeurism and such intimacy with the music should surely be kept just a little more private than given a full frontal display. Then our young conductor himself, so energetic and enthusiastic that my heart was left in my mouth, praying he would not poke himself in the eye - or up the nose - with his own baton. But it was as he said “…to create an awareness on a global level of this world-class orchestra” and surely, with each new performance, this certainly deserves to be done. On this occasion Mahler’s “Titan” was spectacular!

How does one keep humble when so much praise is heaped on one’s head? I can suggest one certain technique that sure works for me, and that is to brave the questions of the morning newspaper’s Five Minute Quiz. It would seem that unless one has a headful of Hollywood nonsense, the who’s-sleeping-with-who-this-time-around logs, then one is fated to swallow a dose of the humbles. An average score of three out of ten is hardly star quality, and I must admit to being a failure in all this Real Life. So much is going on out there, and I know so little. Fortunately my cat comes to the rescue. Her insistence that breakfast is the most important meal of the day eventually overrides my resolve to stay bedridden until my brain catches up with these important world events. Thank goodness for small mercies - a quiz score that indicates such a hopeless case, and the incessant mewing of a hungry cat. I can recommend both for a good sense of proportion. However, those who read what else I write here will know that is far from my first recommendation. As the broadcasters say… we can expect normal transmission to be resumed shortly.

This is a story that inspired me as a teenager, and challenged me to make something worthwhile of that which was not ideal. As a quilter, I have since heard the saying “when life throws you scraps, make a quilt from them”, and there is a similar one that goes “if life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” But the story of the oyster and the pearl especially captured my imagination.

The beautifully lustrous pearl is the response of the little oyster to an irritation, that caused by a foreign object such as a fragment of shell, or an unwelcome parasite, being accidentally trapped inside the oyster’s shell. Most of the time the oyster cannot expel the foreign particle, so to reduce the pain caused by the foreign body it surrounds it with nacre, a silvery calcium carbonate substance that the oyster normally discharges to line its shell. After several years, layers of nacre form around the irritant, making the irritant less painful. This way the oyster creates a rainbow-like iridescent pearl.

There is a wealth of symbolism that has become attached to the oyster’s little pearl. I remember being told that pearls represent tears, or pain and suffering. One hears of the “gates of heaven” being called the “pearly gates”, probably from the description in the Bible where it is written that “The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate being made from a single pearl.” (Revelations 21:21). Jesus is quoted as saying “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.” (Matthew 13:45,46). The parable is typically taken to mean that heavenly riches are far greater than the full total of all worldly riches. And some have come to regard Jesus as this pearl of great price, being our Saviour, saying as He does of Himself “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.” (John 10:9).

I have always loved pearls. They show me how something that represents tears, that was caused by pain and suffering, can be the eventual transformation of that hurt into something beautiful and truly precious. I am not surprised then, that the gates of heaven are said to be made from a single pearl. And so I am also inspired to do what is necessary to make goodness and righteousness come from those things that have caused me to hurt as well.

In medieval theology, it was held that love literally set the universe in motion. Love was seen as the principal force behind human life. This idea is reflected in the title of the popular song “Love Makes the World Go ‘Round” (Perry Como, 1958). When it comes to the giving of gifts, “passing it forward” is a practice based on this same idea. Although I enjoy receiving a gift as much as anyone, rather than have someone give me something in return for what I have given them, my preference by far is that they “pass it forward” by being generous to another instead. I don’t have everything, and not all I might want, but I do have most that I need. In fact, I really have far more than I need.

Digging into my box of UFOs and WIPs is an attempt to deal with my “stuff”. I love making quilts, but I question my need to keep all I make. I don’t need them all. OK, I see all you folks jumping up and down, hands in the air, calling out “Me! Me! Send them to me!” I’m laughing at you. Do you really need them too? Oh sure! Of course you do! Hahaha! There are also some who don’t ask, and they really do need.

Every so often I find myself beginning to feel oppressed by the accumulation of material things. Then I know it is time to go through my possessions and seriously question whether it is good for me to keep it or not, or if it might be better to give it away, pass it forward, especially to where a better home could be found for it, where there is much more of a need - a genuine need.

For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

(1 Timothy 6:7-10; 17-19)

Who wants to pierce themselves with many griefs?

How much better it is to free oneself of the burden of too much stuff, be generous towards others, and lay up treasure of a very different kind. I’m off to clear out another closet. How about you?

The Christian worldview prescribes a horizon that is further afield than that of a secular or naturalist one. If I were to stand on the beach and look out to sea, on a clear day I may be able to catch sight of the fishing boats in the distance out there. But if I stand on the cliffs behind me, I can see not only the fishing boats but more of the ocean beyond them as well. Someone who subscribes to a secular view may deny the existence of what goes beyond their own perceived horizon, but the Christian knows that the end of this temporal life is not the true horizon at all. The naturalist worldview is confined to what is known by nature, denying the supernatural. The Christian worldview accepts that we have a spiritual life that continues far into eternity beyond. Read more on this here and here too.

I have often referred to myself as a passionate quilter. When suggested that I could make this hobby and interest into a business, I found myself thinking that I am already in business - but not in the way that one normally thinks. I make my quilts for leisure, pleasure, treasure and good measure. It is a relaxing pastime and hobby, one that gives expression to creativity and artistry, and certainly provides pleasure. The treasure is the finished quilt. But there is more to it than that.

One day I costed one of my quilts and found that the materials alone came to considerably more than what one might pay for a pure wool blanket. Add in the number of hours to make it, at even the minimum wage, then unless one especially wanted a quilt with the artistry involved, it would not be a cost effective way of procuring warmth. The choice could be one quilt or at least five wool blankets, probably more. There is a price below which a sale demeans the item, the workmanship that went into it, and the labour of the one who laboured. I decided not to offer my quilts for sale.

There is a wellknown saying that goes “It is more blessed to give than receive.” Value cannot always be measured in monetary terms alone. A gift that has special meaning is often treasured beyond the monetary value of the item as appraised by some objective criterion. There is treasure in the gift, plus more accrued to it by the one receiving the gift, and even more again by the blessing received by the giver. The accumulation is treasure indeed.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
(Matthew 6:19-21)

The Christian worldview accepts that every action and every outcome must sooner or later be measured against an ultimate norm for its ultimate value. This kind of treasure is not stored in this temporal world but is weighed for good measure in the eternal one that continues beyond. Good deeds in themselves will not secure anyone’s salvation, and so it needs to be said that salvation is itself a gift ~ from God through our faith in Christ. Check it out. But wherever you invest your treasure, there indeed will your heart be too.

An Opportunity to Create Treasure

A friend posted the following to her blog today, and I would also like to pass the message on:

As you know, I always encourage readers of this blog to share their talents and skills with others, and today’s post is about sewing for others, and in this case, almost literally sewing a sunset by volunteering to sew for people who are experiencing those final sunset days of life. A couple of days ago, I received a request from someone who manages volunteers for a hospice in Mississippi. She was looking for volunteers to sew for her hospice patients and was asking me for resources. I will be sewing for this hospice, Odyssey Healthcare (www.odsyhealth.com) as well as continuing to sew for Mission of Hope (www.missionofhope.org). I would like to encourage you to sew simple projects for this hospice, or perhaps one like it in your area. Although my dad was never put on hospice care before he died, I had the opportunity to watch the hospice staff as they visited other patients in the nursing home, and I was always impressed with their unique ability to bring smiles to people who were in situations where all they wanted to do was cry. I think that people who are directly involved in hospice work must be very special people indeed.

Anyone who sews, knits, crochets, or quilts can volunteer to donate simple projects. Blankets, pillows, pillowcases, adult bibs, crafts, and quilts are all acceptable. Apparently, there are no restrictions and any donations will be used, with nothing going to waste.

If you should decide to volunteer to sew, knit, quilt, or crochet for this worthy cause, here is the contact information

TClark@odsyhealth.com or 228-297-5976 (NB. This is a USA phone number)

(I would suggest that initial contact be made via e-mail or phone because there are a few guidelines that must be followed.)

The mailing address is : Tiffany Clark, Manager of Volunteer Services, Odyssey Healthcare, 9414 Three Rivers Road, Suite 3, Gulfport, MS 39503

I hope that some of the readers of this blog will consider sharing sewing, quilting, crocheting, or knitting skills, even if it’s just one time. You might play a small part in making someone’s final sunset just a little bit easier, and after they have passed through that final sunset, the blanket or pillow that you made might bring some comfort to the family left behind. At first, they might see through tears, but eventually, they will be able to look at a project that someone sewed or quilted, and remember happier times with their loved ones. The tears may still come, but with each passing day, it may become just a little bit easier to smile through those tears. Wouldn’t it be a great feeling to know that perhaps by creating just one simple project, you might play a part in bringing a small measure of comfort to someone?

Source: Sewing Sunsets of Life

If you listen to quilters chatting among themselves you will often hear them talking about their UFOs and sometimes also calling them WIPs. No, these are not those weird sightings in the sky that have the scoffers irritating the convinced observers, and vice versa. These are those projects that were started and then stopped, put away, sometimes forgotten, but often causing little twinges of conscience when their numbers begin to mount up - as they invariably tend to do. They are the Un Finished Objects, the Works In Progress.

Like most quilters, I also have some UFOs and WIPs. Just lately I have got up the courage to face them again, and to work through each one to completion. I managed three last month, all full-size bed quilts. Today I hauled out another one - the one in the photo here - and discovered why it was I had put it down in the first place. The top and bottom borders were cut just a little too short, one whole inch short either end. It is an appliqué quilt, which means those flowerpots of flowers, those vines and leaves, are all cut from different fabrics and sewn to the fabric underneath. The vines are sewn with the very finest of silk thread such that the tiny stitches can barely be seen, and the leaves, flowers and the pot are sewn more boldly with a buttonhole stitch and thick variegated coloured cottons to make them more obvious. A lot of work has gone into it already, and I can remember now how dismayed I was to find I had cut those end borders too short. But these things happen occasionally, and there is usually a way to recover if one doesn’t give up. I had put it away because “out of sight, out of mind” and I didn’t want to be reminded of my heartbreaking mistake. How much easier it is to walk away from things, rather than to face them and work through them. Making quilts can be pretty much like “real life” in that way.

Seeing it again today, a remedy jumped out at me! It will involve going back and unpicking just a few inches of the vine on either end, shortening the piece further, and stitching a new square of background fabric into each corner such that it will look as though it was really meant to be that way all along. Now why hadn’t I seen that “fix” in the first place? I was too disappointed, I guess. But now it seems all so obvious.

There is a little more appliqué work to do to the top border, then the “fix”, then something more to each corner - the vine carried around to join full circle, more leaves and flowers. I know how I will finish it off - with a wool batting, straight machine “in the ditch” quilting, hand quilting around the appliqué parts, and tied by tiny contrasting coloured buttons sewn through all layers in the centre of each flower. It promises to look really good when all done. And now I am off with new energy and purpose. This WIP is soon to be a UFO no longer.

A Quilt Gallery has recently been added to Judah’s Site on this page here. As my number of UFOs reduce, you may expect this gallery to grow. There is not a great pile of them, but I am not saying anything about those other secret things every quilter knows about… the fabric stash. That has to be for another day.

Meanwhile, the quilter’s motto: If life gives you scraps, make a quilt from them.