The Friday Finish - Scrapbooking to Card Joy - Finding God, "Red Bird gave me..." - Brushy Fork & Leadership - Hidden Finds - "Breezy" dresses & Christmas
- Tim Crawford
- Sep 19
- 7 min read
September 19, 2025
Turning Scrapbooking Interest into Card Making Joy
There was joy in the room this week at The Cardinal Café and Craft Center that’s sure to be passed along to the elderly needing an encouragement when nobody’s coming around. The service project underway was an idea that the participants at the Red Bird Mission DeWall Senior Center wholeheartedly joined - merging love for crafting to produce greeting cards that can brighten spirits at area nursing and rehabilitation centers in southeastern Kentucky.
Tammy Adams, Red Bird Mission Elderly Ministries Coordinator, explained why the DeWall Center took a “field trip” to Queendale and the Red Bird Mission Craft Center.
“We're crafting these cards to give to nursing home residents in two or three surrounding counties. Once we’re done making them, we’ll deliver them. We’re here at the Café for a little field trip because their Maker's Corner has all kinds of designs, stamps, and other things that we don’t have at our center.”
Patricia who started coming to the Center in May explained how she got involved with the card making project,
“One day, I walked in, and Tammy was doing scrapbooking. She asked if I could scrapbook, and I said I’ve done a little, but not much. She invited me to join, and I thought, "Why not?" It’s been a great learning experience!
“It’s been eye-opening! I’ve learned how to use a tool called the Texture Boutique. I thought it was a purse at first, but Tammy showed me how to use it to create textured paper. Now, I'm cutting and folding paper like a pro, making beautiful cards.”
The card project aims to fill the seasonal gaps when those in care centers may be forgotten. Tammy said,
“The DeWall Center group of senior citizens will be giving them to nursing home residents as a little pick-you-up kind of thing to let people know they still care about them, and they're not forgotten. We're not going to take them around a major holiday or anything because everybody does stuff at Christmas. We're going to do off season deliveries, and we'll rotate nursing homes every six months.”
Finding God - “Red Bird gave me so many things…”
How Red Bird impacts students for lifelong ministry
Following is the 2024 testimony of one international student that came to Red Bird Christian School in 2014 when the dorms reopened.
“At Red Bird you don’t find many things, but you can find Jesus,”
this is what the pastor at the local church said last Sunday, and I can’t agree more with this.
When I was 14, I started my journey to study in the USA. My teenage heart was seeking two things - speak fluent English and find God. I remember the day before my voyage started, I took a Bible and prayed
“please take me to the place where I will be able to understand this book.”
God heard my prayer and took me all the way to the beautiful mountains of Eastern Kentucky. There, a local boy (my husband today) gave me a small notebook as a gift and the note said
“write your prayers and what you learn from the Bible here.”
I started digging into the word of God and my prayer was heard.
Red Bird gave me so many things: knowledge of the Bible, fluency of English, the love of my life, international friends, loving teachers, a new culture (I love all the locals), being able to see and breathe natural beauty, and promises that I am seeing fulfilled.
I want to share a promise that is really amazing to me. When I was 16, my dorm parent gave me a beautiful desk to do my studies. I remember reading my Bible at that desk and this promise from God came as I was reading Mark 5:21-43,
“you will marry Jairus and your daughter will be named Talitha.”
Isn’t this wonderful? Now the promise is being fulfilled and I am in awe!!!
Lastly, I want to praise God for letting me go back this past week to Kentucky; it was the best way to remind me of all the promises of God and the mightiness of His power. Soon, I will post pictures of the baby shower as well (it was so lovely!). Thanks for reading a little of my testimony 💓God Bless You💓
After service in the US Navy in Hawaii, Jairus and Fernanda were sent along with another family by their church, Ko’olau Baptist Church, to the Rio Grande Valley in the McAllen, Texas area to begin a church planting ministry among English and Spanish speaking communities.
Double Your Homecoming Challenge Gift
Your gifts during the 2025 Homecoming Challenge are helping us to prepare more Christian leaders like Jairus and Fernanda to impact the world. Matching funds continue to be committed and released meaning that your gift to Red Bird Christian School during the 2025 Homecoming Challenge will have a double impact for our students. Give online today, or mail your check payable to Red Bird Mission, Inc., 70 Queendale Ctr, Beverly, KY 40913-9607 marked “2025 Homecoming Challenge”.
Brushy Fork Builds Leadership Skills
Red Bird Mission’s Community Outreach Director, Tracy Nolan and Grants Manager, Karla Roberts had the opportunity to attend the 2025 Leadership Gathering on Wednesday and Thursday, jointly hosted in Berea, Kentucky by Brushy Fork Leadership Institute and Berea College Appalachian Fund. This event devoted to celebrating service-driven leadership, strengthening organizations, and empowering communities across Central Appalachia brought together community leaders, nonprofits, and innovators for two days of learning, collaboration, and vision-building.
Mike Hogg, Director of the Institute, led interactive workshops to help grass-roots rural impact agencies like ours fully grasp the concept of what it means to be "Rooted in Service, Rising to Lead, and then Bearing Fruit within our communities." The event featured a variety of sessions and workshops that allowed Tracy and Karla to participate in opportunities to connect; explore strategies in service and collaboration; discover new tools to grow Red Bird Mission’s outreach such as AI and storytelling; and above all, hold those powerful conversations with others.
Tracy reported that the annual regional training offered by Brushy Fork and the partner displays for the Appalachian Fund was “a huge success!” Tracy said,
“This was a fantastic opportunity for Red Bird Mission and Clinic staff to network with other agencies, learn new skills, hear inspirational messages, take part in folk dancing, broom making and to bring back valuable resources and opportunities for the individuals we serve.”
Tracy and Karla came home with new connections, new skills, and new questions to keep exploring. Most importantly, they came back inspired to think about how we can embrace change without losing the heart of what makes Red Bird Mission strong...”Rooted in Service, Rising to Lead!”
Hidden Finds, Lasting Impact
Red Bird Mission's (RBM) Community Store has a way of bringing you inside for basics and leaving with a piece of someone's history. Between everyday dishes and framed prints, there are items with real stories attached. Some handmade, some from family homes, all priced to be used again. That's the kind of treasure you find here, practical with a past.
First clue from the treasure trail are two vintage Mexican folk art gourd dolls. Handmade, hand painted, all that bright patience baked into every tiny face. Before you ask, “no, they’re not waiting on the shelf.” They’re home with me now, sitting pretty with my other trinkets, guarding stories of the past.
The next items will make you feel the weight of time. Antique furniture from the late 1800’s into the early 1900’s, the kind that remembers how a house once sounded. Boards that heard prayer, laughter, arguments, lullabies. You could let them breathe exactly as they are and honor every scuff, or you could roll up your sleeves and restore them into a second life.
Kaye Morgan from London brought a heartbeat with her. She donated furniture from her grandparents’ old home place on Martin Creeks in Clay County. Among the pieces was a 1908 Lady Washington boudoir desk (sold). Lastly, the oldest still standing in the store is a 1800s rocking chair, a true Victorian Elder. Collectors will see the bones, dreamers will see the makeover. Either way, you'll feel that pull in your chest that says this belonged to somebody who loved it first.
Come and walk the floor of the RBM Community Store and keep your eyes open. Treasures don’t always shout, they wait for you to notice. Every purchase stretches farther than your cart. It keeps the lights on, pays wages for the good folks running the floor, and helps this place keep serving neighbors with dignity.
“Breezy” Dresses & Christmas Toys Arrive
A couple of special donations from a little further away arrived this week at Red Bird Mission Community Outreach.
Trish Boles, our “neighbor” up the road at the Daniel Boone National Forest Redbird District Ranger Station, provided the relay for handmade dresses sent by the Sew and Sews group of the Gulf Breeze Presbyterian Church in Florida. These dresses delivered Wednesday will be given away at community events and to those in extreme need in our area.
Christmas Assistance enrollment is taking place this month, and Linda and Bryce Ellison of Clarksville, Tennessee are doing their part to help stock the Christmas Room at Red Bird Mission. They dropped off toys and other Christmas items Thursday for filling the boxes destined to children and youth living in poverty.
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