Wendy loves to quilt. She’s a machine quilter as opposed to those who hand quilt. As a quilter she’s creative – but then that’s what quilting is about. Quilters take pieces of fabric, different colours, different kinds and put them together to form a colourful collage. Sometimes it is an image, sometimes a kalidescope!

To get ideas and see the creative results of others Wendy is often looking through quilting magazines.

Since we were coming to Idaho Wendy had seen some quilting store ads for the Spokane area. Today we were headed to Spokane so we inserted the address into our GPS. It took us off I-90 and into what appeared to be a commercial area…and then past that into a residential area. When our female voice announced “you have reached your destination” we were in front of a very attractive ranch style bungalow.

Just then a man came out to the mailbox – so we pulled up, rolled down the window and engaged him in a conversation. At first it was simply discovery; “are we in the right place, is this a quilt shop”, and his response “this is a virtual shop, you can buy a kit, if you are looking for a quilt shop you’ll be disappointed”.

Then the conversation took on a personal tone. He told us that his wife had been doing this for 18 years and that since he lost his job 20 months ago he had been helping her…”In fact she’s down the basement now – she’s got three quilts due this week for a publisher.”

It turns out he had been in manufacturing and the plant was relocated to Mexico. The pain in his voice was obvious. He was not a young man – as some see young. He was closer to the end of his career than the start. As he turned to go back into the house he commented that he was trying to re-invent himself. We wished him well and headed off but the pain that the present state of the economy is inflicting on millions was suddenly very personal.

We did find another quilt shop in the area and the rest of the day, though enjoyable, was set in the context of one person’s pain.

God knows his pain – and while we know very little else about this family I hope that they have a sense that He cares for them.