Lifemax Foundation

BLANKETS FOR JESUS

The Story:

It was early February 2011. A group of ladies had gathered together for their annual fundraiser out at Wild Dunes, Isle of Palms, South Carolina. Diana Westmoreland had rented out the beach house, as she had done for over 25 years, as a Christian Outreach ministry for the local community, today all had gathered to make fleece blankets for those in need within the Charleston area, each had a label stitched onto it which read “JESUS LOVES YOU” as a group we prayed over them asking GOD to reveal where they needed to be placed.

Today was a little different, as the leaders of the group had decided to give away door prizes (a pair of fabric making scissors) to each of the ladies that had participated in making the Blankets. This had been inspired mainly due to accidentally forgetting the bag of scissors at a previous meeting, but with a wish that this might inspire the ladies to catch the vision and start their own Blanket Ministries in the future, out in the community and around the world.

Within the next week, one of the ladies from the group, Elise Botero, started receiving the Japanese News on her TV, what was so interesting is that the Botero family does not have any type of TV cable in their home. After about a week of watching the Japanese News, her husband asked her, “why are we watching the news about Japan?” She answered him and said “I dont know but I guess we are supposed to”.

On Friday, March 11th 2011 at 5am in the Botero’s house, the radio came on and the first story that Elise and her husband Phillip heard was of the earthquake and tsunami that had hit JAPAN, Elise said to Phillip “that must be why we have been receiving the Japanese News, GOD was tendering our hearts towards the people of JAPAN”.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, March 15th 2011, another lady from the group, Susan Pritchard, who lives in Summerville, upon watching the morning news, and watching the suffering of the Japanese people, felt God stirr her heart into action, remembering that she had recently received a pair of scissors at the Blanket Ministry, and knew without a shadow of doubt, that the next Blankets we made at the beach house would be despatched to JAPAN.

On Wednesday, March 16th 2011, at the next Blanket meeting Susan and Elise approached the group to discuss and pray about where GOD was leading them in this new area of need!

All prayed and began to fundraise together, one of the ladies that had started the BLANKETS for BABIES ministry, Darnel Eller, had recently moved to North Carolina, she also joined the effort , new labels were ordered that read ‘ JESUS LOVES YOU JAPAN’ – and the JESUS IN JAPAN PROJECT took off!!

The Blankets for Babies Ministry was coming to a close for the season, so Elise and Susan made arrangements to meet at SEACOAST CHURCH- Longpoint- Mt Pleasant, in one of the trailers, throughout the summer months, over forty ladies and their families, and a special thank you here to Phillip, Gabriel and Jordan, completed approximately, Five Hundred Blankets!

God had provided all the funds needed to make all the blankets , through donations, and now came our next challenge, this was – how do we get them shipped to Japan, also an address to ship them to?

More Prayers, well as Susan had said ” do your best and HE will do the rest”.

Over the weeks that followed God continued to connect all the dots, needless to say HE built our faith tremendously!!

In July 2011, we were excited to get word, that Missionaries would be relocating from Brazil to Japan and would be there at the end of August, finally we had our contact on the ground and an address to ship the blankets to.

Susan had approached Lifemax Inc., the company she is a part of, about the Blanket’s endeavour, and they were also interested in helping the hurting People’s of JAPAN, they already exported Mila, which is the most nutrient dense whole raw food on the planet, to Japan, at the same time Janelle, a friend of Elise, who works for Delta Airlines joined the effort, now it was time for the Blankets to be shipped!

At this time Susan and Elise would like to express our deepest gratitude to all the Forty Plus Ladies, from the Charleston area that gave of their time and talent in the making of the Blankets, to LIFEMAX INC, and the Lifemax Foundation Founders Jim and Sherri Wear for believing in US and our Mission, and ultimately paying for the Blankets to be shipped to Japan, Jarnelle and Delta Airlines, Nicole Ashby from FEDEX – MT Pleasant Office and the combined support of Paul Cauldwell, Brian Bilbro, Karen and Bill Gadol, Shan and Darren Britt, and the staff of IN HIGH COTTON – Historic Downtown Summerville.

The Blankets shipped and were airborne a few hours before Hurricaine Irene came into the Carolina’s, and touched down five days later in Japan, Andrew Klaus from Samaritan’s Purse – Japan (our contact on the ground in Japan) advised: that the Blankets had been received, and that the local Japanese People had been asking for Blankets, as the weather had started turning cold, this being the first cold season after the TSUNAMI, and supplies, especially Blankets, were understandably in short supply, and the shipment that had arrived from the United States were being received with grateful thanks!!!

This has been one of those GOD stories that just dosen’t stop. We all look forward to hearing the stories of the lives that are touched half way around the world, and quite a few lives that have been changed here in our own little Town!