South Taranaki has lost an inspiration in Betty Oldfield. She had so much compassion for all children in Her family, extended family and Mission field. She was always knitting or crocheting blankets, slippers, hats, etc. She had received many letters from the children that had received her blankets. Betty had label her blankets with her name and address. Betty had influence far and wide in the mission fields not only did she support and encourage others for operation cover up. But just recently 3 of her blankets went into Myanmar (Burma) along with a numbers of slippers.
Betty has served for 6 years in Taranaki, and will be sadly missed.
Pack Month.(August/September)
Coordinators all over new Zealand are counting and packing goods to be shipped to Auckland where they are combined with other items, recounted, and pack into wool bales. Then packed into 40 ft Containers, checked by SGS (an international inspection company that issues a Cargo Verification Report that is accepted by overseas customs officials) then sent the port. To see what goes into this go to the Gallery Page.
Inspiration out of the South
There is an elderly gentleman (89 years) who 50 years ago, produced garments and blankets on knitting machine for his family of five children. The machine was duly ‘mothballed’ when his family had grown and there was no further use for his skills. The said gentleman was visiting another area a couple of years ago, and read in a local newspaper about Operation Cover Up.
He return home, retrieved his very old, and as you can imagine ‘dated’ machine, replaced missing parts and got it up and running. A miracle in itself. He then ‘purposed built’ a room at the end of his garage and set about producing blankets with amazing results. He was able to acquire enough wool from a local factory to keep him going, but then even more amazing he ‘mechanized’ his machine and now can make one blanket a day! What an inspiration he is to all of us.
Christchurch Oncology Department help out
The Oncology Department at Christchurch Hospital has donated around 33 blankets which have been knitted by patients and volunteers while awaiting treatment. A box of wool and needles in the waiting room and is picked up by willing hands. Wonderful to know that some people can still consider others while going through difficulties themselves.
