Refugees Work in Successful Sewing Ministry

Peh Poh carefully guided the fabric for a skirt through the sewing machine in the sewing room at Shawnee Park Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Near her, Paw Naw was using the ironing board to smooth wrinkles in the colorful fabric she was using for an apron. Mu Chi, across the room, was sorting through pieces of cloth she would sew into a blouse.

All three are part of a ministry called called Noonday Sun, based on Psalm 37:6: “He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.”

The ministry mostly sells its products in the church and private homes, but they will take their wares to other places.

Recently, for instance, they had a successful Christmas sale in the atrium of the Grand Rapids office of the Christian Reformed Church.

“We couldn’t have dreamed that this would take off as it has,” said Janet Borgdorff, one of the women from who helped to begin this ministry that meets every Thursday morning at the church.

The sewing ministry includes five refugees from Thailand. Most knew how to sew before becoming part of the group.

But Peh Poh, the seamstress working on the skirt, didn’t really know how to operate a sewing machine when the ministry began more than a year ago.

Now she is very adept at the work, says Borgdorff.

“At first she only ironed and now she is one our best seamstresses,” says Borgdorff, adding that Peh Poh may have been ready for sewing because she was already a weaver who has a loom in her house.

Asked what she thinks of the ministry and the chance to work for pay on Thursday mornings, Peh Poh smiled and nodded, indicating she liked it.

Poh and the others get $10 an hour for the work they do each week. Money to pay the women comes from sales of their goods. Besides skirts, aprons and blouses, they sew napkins and dresses, stockings and a range of other things.

Some of the women have other jobs; some don’t.

Not all of the women who sew for Noonday Sun are members of Shawnee Park CRC. But the ministry grew out of the church’s sponsorship of four families over the years.

The ministry itself began after the Borgdorff and other women learned about Open Arms,  a non-profit clothing and sewing goods manufacturer in Austin, Texas, that employs refugee women.

Open Arms began by using old T-shirts and other remnants to make scarves and other goods to sell.

“We loved this idea of using donated materials and decided we wanted to have something like the Open Arms ministry here,” said Greta Hoekstra.
 
They also, in a small way, wanted to create a work environment unlike that in factories and other places where some refugees work. “We wanted a place of work that shows a better side of this country,” says Hoekstra.

The women sew, iron and do other work in a brightly lit room that was once used as a Sunday school room. Folded pieces of donated fabric fill shelves.

Finished dresses, blouses, skirts and other items are hung in a corner. And a white board greets the seamstresses from Thailand when they arrive for work, listing the items they are to sew that day.

Everyone pitches in. The women from the church design the items and help to cut fabric and take on other tasks as well. They all -- those who founded the ministry and the women from Thailand -- work together smoothly in an atmosphere punctuated by the clicking sound the sewing machines.

“We’re not a big group, but it is amazing how fun it is, and for us to be doing a little good at the same time,” said Jackie Bloem, another of the women who founded the ministry.