From the ELCA
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The Second Sunday after
Pentecost
(June 13, 2004 - Proper 6)
HER OWN EARLY MEMORIES of poverty, abuse and neglect led Lea Lakeside-Scott to create a program that reaches lonely and troubled children and provides them with unconditional love and affirmation. Through its grants program, Women of the ELCA supports the Hope Dolls Resale Store and Craft Center in Portland, Oregon, Lakeside-Scott’s dream.
Girls in a juvenile detention center clean and dress discarded dolls. Women in correctional facilities and other volunteers make clothing for the dolls. Once restored, the dolls are given to at-risk children in the community.
The Hope Dolls Resale Store and Craft Center doesn’t stop there. Incarcerated women assist with fund-raising and grant writing. Area teens spend time with at-risk youngsters. Women, including the Oregon Synodical Women’s Organization of Women of the ELCA, collect donations. The Women of the ELCA grant goes to a mentoring program of the Hope Dolls project. Through this mentoring program, at-risk teens will realize their importance not only to themselves, but also to their families and communities.
The Resale Store portion of Hope Dolls helps in another way. Joy, a single mother, struggled to recover her self-esteem after an abusive marriage. After receiving a donation of clothing, Joy wrote, “Thank you for giving me the opportunity to again feel both proud of my appearance and competition in the job market.”
The Hope Dolls Resale Store and Craft Center brings restoration and wholeness to those who have been forgotten and overlooked. For that, and God’s unconditional love that inspires these acts in us, we join with the psalmist and rejoice, shouting for joy!
(Inspired by Psalm 32)
