Pillow by Pillow, Planting Seeds of Faith

COURT HOUSE – “We’re just planting the seeds of God.” That is how Doreen Verity describes the DoJo Sewing Ministry she and friend Joe Fiedler started over two years ago as they sew pillows for breast cancer patients, and make hygiene kits and pillowcase dresses for girls in Haiti.
As members of The Lighthouse Church of Cape May County, the duo have put skills they learned as teens to use in the “Sewing for Jesus” mission.
“My family experienced a lot of trials and difficulties for four years,” Verity said. “My husband suffered a heart attack. I had to have rotator cuff surgery. My grandson passed away suddenly at age 18, and my dear friend was diagnosed with breast cancer. I didn’t want to get out of bed. I felt pretty worthless.
“My friend knew I sewed as a teenager, and when she called me about her diagnosis, she asked me to make her a pillow for under her arm,” she added. “She described what she needed and that night I made two different styles.”
Those first two in May 2016 became 10, 20 and more, Verity recalled, as other patients saw the pillows and asked for one.
“I felt the Lord had to be in this some way,” she said, “so we started putting Bible tracts (a folder telling a Bible story) on them and a wordless pin (a pin with beads to show the plan of salvation),” she continued.
A doctor friend taught her a surgical baseball stitch, which made a nicer product. Another helped them achieve non-profit status.
As word spread and orders grew, Verity realized she needed a helper. Another friend said her husband liked to sew and suggested Verity involve him.
“I’m so old we didn’t have TV when I was a kid,” joked Fiedler, of Villas, “so my mother taught us how to embroider as we sat listening to the radio. I was about 14 when I sewed for the first time and made a pair of pedal pushers (similar to capris). They weren’t very good because the size wasn’t right, but the sewing was OK.”
As a ministry partner, Verity said Fiedler is “better than I am in matching colors” and they bounce around ideas of how they can improve their products or expand.
When it came time to buying a new truck, Verity likes to tell others that Fielder bought a sewing machine instead.
“I’ve lost track of how many pillows we’ve made, but more than a thousand,” she said.
The pillows are similar to the neck cushions sold for sleeping on airplanes. They cushion the spot where chemo ports are placed in the upper chest, soften the tightness of a seat belt across the chest and help raise an arm up for relief.
Fabric colors vary so the cushions can be used by males or females.
Verity, and her friend who is cancer-free, take them to area hospitals and doctors’ offices.
Her only requirement is they be given free, and carry a Bible tract and wordless pin.
The wordless pins are made by Alicia Bodine, of Goshen, who wanted to participate in a ministry but is mostly housebound caring for a 16-year-old daughter with Angelman Syndrome (an incurable genetic disorder causing developmental disabilities and nerve-related symptoms).
“When I talked to Doreen about wanting to help with a ministry, she said I could help her out with this,” Bodine recalled. “It’s something I can do while I’m watching my daughter, and I’ve even gotten other members of my family to help.”
In addition, Bodine cuts the patterns for Verity and Fiedler to sew.
Although Fiedler helps his daughter at a daycare facility, he spends at least two hours daily sewing.
Their mission has expanded beyond the chemo pillows as well, with Fiedler making dresses from pillowcases that have been sent to Haiti when various church groups or friends travel there during the year on mission trips.
“Haiti is one of the poorest countries,” Verity noted.
She will travel to Haiti later this month. There, she plans to teach some of the women to sew. Along with the dresses, she will take hygiene kits they’ve made to give to young girls who would have to miss school during their monthly menstrual cycle because they didn’t have the proper products.
“To see a child smile wearing a pillowcase dress, or a teen able to go to school and not miss it because of her period, the blessing is beyond words,” Verity said. “Making chemo-comfy pillows to give a small comfort to a breast cancer patient with the Gospel tract, these are blessings we can’t begin to express.
“Before we sew, we pray, and it puts us in the right spiritual mind,” she added. “As we create Jesus’ blessings with thoughts of the people who will receive our creations, ideas just fly between our heads and it is a fabulous feeling of blessed.”
To contact Karen Knight, email kknight@cmcherald.com.