Five-Talent Stories - Anne Finch
During our 5 Talent worship experience we invited the people of Aldersgate to share some of their God Story.
Anne Finch: When I was a child growing up in rural South Carolina, my dad became very ill. I remember standing by the window, praying to God that if He would just heal my dad, I would become a missionary. Eventually, he recovered but I never fulfilled my promise to God. I graduated from high school and college, and in 1967 I moved to Durham to attend graduate school at Duke.
While I was a student at Duke, I started doing volunteer work along with other Duke students at Edgemont Community Clinic which was located in east Durham. It served primarily a low-income community. This promise that I had made to God weighed heavily on my mind, and my volunteer work at the clinic reminded me that I still had an unfulfilled promise.
Finally in 1972 at the age of 26, I took a leave of absence from my position at the Durham VA Medical Center. I organized a medical mission team from Duke, bought a new extra-long Ford van, filled it full of donated medical supplies, and the three of us drove to Guatemala, Central America. We drove 2,832 miles from sunup to sundown without GPS or cell phones.
In Guatemala, I worked for three months in remote areas helping to deliver babies and caring for children battling the diseases caused by malnutrition and contaminated water. I knew that I had to find a way to uphold my part of the bargain that I had made with God.
I chose Guatemala because it has one of the highest rates of chronic malnutrition in the world. Forty-nine percent of children under the age of 5 suffer from chronic malnutrition, which can result in stunted growth and an increase in illnesses, and morbidity.
One of the places that I volunteered was at a Belgium Catholic Mission in Jocatan, near the Honduras border. I lived with the nuns and worked in the lab and the clinic. One day a nurse handed me a very frail little boy. She motioned for me to hold him tight and then she bowed her head.
On that day, this little boy died in my arms, and my life was changed forever. I knew at that moment that I had found God’s purpose for me on this earth, to help the children in Guatemala.
By the Grace of God and his guidance, I realized I needed to find a way to help increase the standard of living for the people. That was the basis of teaching women a skill that they could use to help support their families.
On a mission trip to Guatemala in 1987, we attended a meeting with a group of women at a local church and asked them if you could have anything, what would you want? They answered in unison, “A sewing machine.” After the meeting Rosario borrowed a jeep, and we traveled down a dusty road to town and purchased the first Singer foot pedal sewing machine.
Now there are four sewing schools and over 1,000 graduates. 120 students have signed up to attend classes that begin January 12th.
These women have found HOPE in a sewing machine. They are able to learn a skill that they can use to help support their families. The sewing mission promotes women’s empowerment, self-esteem, and self-confidence, and provides an avenue for fellowship. For those of us involved from afar, we continue to experience a spiritual bond that only God can provide.
THANK YOU ALDERSGATE. TO GOD BE THE GLORY.
