Living Water Quilt Project
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English: How can I have this Living Water?
Русский: Как мне получить эту Живую Воду?

While studying the book of John found in the New Testament portion of the Bible, we were struck with the simple record in chapter 4 of what must have been a desperate woman living in the turbulent Middle East some 2,000 years ago. Her name was never recorded and in a way she has come to represent all women who may be confused, misunderstood and perhaps mistreated in our world today. Kathy owned a bustling quilt store in Eugene, Oregon and Clint helped her publish and market quilt pattern designs from the store. In November 2004 Kathy designed the Woman at the Well quilt pattern to tell the story of the woman. It is a simple, geometric design where each element of the block is an actual element of the woman's story.

The pattern and the narrative were first developed in English, but when our local church began planning for a mission trip to Merida Venezuela, Kathy volunteered to go on the trip and began to prepare 50 fabric packets to take and teach the art of quilting while sharing the profound truths revealing Jesus Christ in the pattern. Translation into Spanish was done by volunteers Sheila and Jose and 50 pattern packets of La mujer samaritana were printed.

Who knew what would await our intrepid small group as we stepped off the plane in late January 2005. Over the next several days Kathy was invited to teach in two churches and in two university (Universidad de los Andes) classes. More than 100 additional pattern packets needed to be printed in Merida and additional fabric was found to make 50 more kits.

The real success, however, were the many who were encouraged by the story of the woman's encounter with Jesus Christ and in the four women who gave their hearts to him at one of the teaching sessions! Quilting supplies and patterns were left for the local church to use in their outreach.

Since that time, a rough history follows:

April 2005 - Kathy presented the Woman's story and the mission experience at a Women's Tea in our local Eugene, Oregon church.

June 2005 - 25 rotary cutters, mats and rulers were sent to the local Merida Venezuela church as a gift from our local Oregon church for continuation of the mission.

November 2005 - Kathy presented the Woman's story and pattern to the local Salvation Army.

July 2006 - Kathy presented the Woman's story and the mission experience at a Women's Tea in a neighboring Veneta, Oregon church.

December 2006 - Holly, a former professional Spanish teacher completed translation of every detail of the pattern instructions and story.

March 2007 - The Woman at the Well again traveled to Venezuela with Kathy, Clint and 7 others of the local Eugene, OR church. Multiple quilting sessions were held in 3 different cities (Merida, San Cristobal, and Maracaibo). Woman came to the Lord and many believers were taught the method for using this as an outreach as the Lord chose to honor his name. Over 300 patterns and fabric kits were used or distributed. An exciting discovery was made: Marisela (shown above next to Kathy and holding the block she made into a pillow) had been sharing the materials left behind 2 years prior and for this trip had assembled 38 influential women of Merida to take the class at an art institute. Betty and Nancy of the Eugene, Oregon church helped Kathy teach this class.
Another exciting session was held one evening in a barrio of San Cristobal. A church had invited Kathy to teach at a local house and Kathy and Clint's itinerary allowed them to stay an extra day in the city while the rest of the group moved on to Maracaibo. We had been praying that the Lord would honor his name at the session and literally "rain" down his words to speak to the hearts of women there. When Kathy, Clint and translator Joel arrived at the house there were about 7 members of the church there but no one needing to hear the gospel for the first time. Clint and Joel went out on the street and began handing out the pattern and fabric packets and inviting women to come to the session. The invitations were kept up even during the session and over the course of the evening 8 women came in to share in the story. Clint was asked to say some closing remarks and he went over the plan of salvation and invited women to pray to the Lord. In talking to one woman later we discovered that she had accepted the Lord that night. Gloria al Dios. Gloria al Nombre!

March 2007 - The Woman at the Well is translated into Hungarian and taught as an outreach in Budapest, Hungary

May 2007 - Kathy runs a quilting session for 25 and a gives talk at a women's tea for 50 in Jackson, CA. The entire event is organized by Debbie of Pine Grove, CA

July 2007 - 140 patterns and packets are prepared and sent to Caracas Venezuela for Campus Crusade's Amazonas project. A group of students presented the gospel to villages in the state of Amazonas, Venezuela.

July 2007 - Woman at the Well block components are translated into the Zulu dialect and women in the Salem, OR area prepare packets to be taken to South Africa for an outreach.

July 2008 - Woman at the Well patterns and packets sent to Uganda's Lake Victoria with Kathy's daughter-in-law Jordie and son Dan. Also this month over 400 patterns and packets (10,000 fabric elements) were prepared by Kathy's church and shipped to Ukraine for the November 2008 introduction of the Woman at the Well in the Crimea area of Ukraine.

November 2008 - Kathy and Clint work with June Johnson sharing the project in Ukraine (Link here to view a Journal of the trip)

January 2012 - Kathy's sister-in-law Cynthia takes the project to Japan's tsunami-ravaged Fukushima region as part of rebuilding women's lives through the companionship of quilting.