In 1991 Kathie started a sewing school in our home with a vision to reach out to women and children and model from the Bible what a Proverbs 31 woman is as she taught them to sew. During these years it was Kathie’s heart desire to be used by God in the lives of each student, but she never imagined during the 10 years the school was growing that God was equipping and teaching her how to found and lead an international sewing ministry.

The summer of 2001 an amazing opportunity came to us through the Josh McDowell Ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ, International. Kathie and her husband Steve were asked to investigate the sewing programs and sewing needs of orphans in St. Petersburg, Russia, and to determine if anything could be done to develop or assist such programs. This opportunity came to us because of a lifetime friendship with Bob and Sherry Tiede who were leading the Josh McDowell ministry operations.

This Investigation taught us that there are over 124 orphanages in St. Petersburg and over 600,000 orphans in Russia. Most of these children are “abandoned to the state” as 95 percent have a living parent.¹ Estimates are as high as 200,000 street children living in St. Petersburg alone. Because nearly all of these children end up in illegal activities such as drugs and prostitution, we could see that sewing could give the children employable skills and a new hope.

Similar conditions exist in nearly every orphanage in any country. We have since visited the slums of Nairobi, Kenya, and seen the extreme poverty and orphanage conditions there. Our ministry friends and partners report similar conditions in Guatemala, India, China, the Filipinas, etc. – including, and unfortunately, even right here in the United States. Most orphanages have common needs – no money exists for machines, repairs and supplies. Often the only fabrics are cut up old clothing.

Developing a life skill can make a lifetime difference. Sewing can become an opportunity to earn money, to gain independence and develop an employable skill (seamstress, tailor, and apparel design). God began to show us how a sewing ministry could touch children, provide a way to introduce them to Christ, and disciple them in God’s ways – just like Kathie had been doing for the past 10 years in our home.

After completing our feasibility study and reporting our finding we began to pray earnestly for God’s leading about an outreach ministry through sewing. As a result Come and Sew Ministries International (CASMI) was founded in February of 2003. CASMI is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit ministry that relies on God’s provision to accomplish this work.

¹Abandoned to the State; Cruelty and Neglect in Russian Orphanages, Human Rights Watch, New York, NY, 1988 p.2

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