WASHINGTON
CONFERENCE // LIVING GENEROUSLY, SHARING FAITHFULLY
CHEHALIS CHURCH MEMBERS BECOME ETHIOPIAN ‘BAG LADIES’ ADVENTISTS PERSIST IN GOD’S CALLING
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The “Bag Ladies” of Chehalis Church create mats from plastic bags for the homeless.
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e should all go to lunch!” This phrase sent the ladies of a Sabbath School class from the Chehalis Church to lunch in October 2017. While lunching they decided to find a project to benefit children in the local area. The group wanted personal involvement rather than simply donating financially. They wanted to meet as a group regularly while benefiting someone in need, and, most importantly, they wanted to make a difference in a child’s life. After a December meeting preparing Christmas gifts for local foster kids, the ladies decided to start a major project of making sleeping mats from plastic grocery bags for homeless teens. The “Bag Ladies” were off and running! It sounded simple — just cut the bags, attach them to make yarnlike strips (“plarn”) and crochet them into 3-by-6-
foot mats. The truth was a little bigger: It takes about 700 bags to make one mat. A continual pilfering of bag recycle bins is required, and lots of hours (at least nine just to crochet one mat) are spent in the completion of each sleeping mat. Some Bag Ladies cut and “plarn” while others crochet. When the plastic bags began taking over people’s living quarters, one Bag Lady repurposed her exercise room as the “Plarn Center” for the group. Ten mats were delivered by March 1 for 10 homeless teenagers who won’t live in a shelter because they would have to give up their pets. More mats are in process with the hope of making a small difference in the lives of the kids who call a shopping cart home. Earlene Wohlers, Chehalis Church communication leader
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s you drive across East Union Street toward Lake Washington adjacent to Seattle, you will find a Lutheran church open on a Saturday morning and a faithful group of Seventh-day Adventists gathered together to worship God in the Amharic language. You’ll hear voices lifted in a capella harmony and may even be greeted with “Melikami Senibeti,” or “Happy Sabbath” in Amharic. Ethiopian Adventist Church is the newest Adventist church in western Washington. “God is calling us to shine for Him,” says Tammire Darsabo, lay pastor.
Members who sign the Ethiopian Adventist Church charter reflect on many years of praying, planning and preparation for this day.
Following their start as a Sabbath School in 1998, the group grew to afternoon worship services in 2005. They moved from Maranatha Adventist Church to Volunteer Park Church in 2006, requested official “group” church status april 2018
Lay pastor Tammire Darsabo and the church elders are the first to sign the charter for the new Ethiopian Adventist Church in Seattle.
in 2009, launched a low-power FM radio broadcast twice a week in 2011 and became a church “company” in 2014. Their tithe grew from $5,600 annually to nearly $55,000. The gathered congregation in January included a 50-50 blend of Ethiopian Adventists from Seattle and Portland to celebrate the “church status” occasion. An elder from Portland shared his words of blessing: “You’ve come a long way. Organizing a church is not a simple task. I’ve seen and witnessed your journey. The work is not done. It’s just started. Our prayer is for you to continue to proclaim the gospel.” Heidi Baumgartner, Washington Conference communication director
Read more online at glnr.in/113-03-wa_ethiopian