Welcome! The Start Of Something Great

Hello To everyone who has stopped by.  My name is Toccara Feliciano if you don't already know me and I am here to start an operation that has become an Epiphany to me.  please read the information in the tabs at the top of the blog to get all the information about this Operation.  I welcome you to this blog where I hope if you are able to you will get involved.  Operation Handmade Blessing is here to serve those in ALF and Nursing homes,  I never knew until now what a blessing an handmade item can be to these wonderful people.  Some are there for a short time due to getting hurt or a health condition that they are trying to recover from.  Some will be there for the remainder of their lives due to age and not being able to care for themselves anymore.  They need the extra care and attention being in a place that is not their home.  My local Ministry has created an outreach ministry and we go twice a week to them and bless them with songs, food for those who are able to eat outside food, encouragement, prayer, gifts, love, and attention and bible study for those who have their faith.  We have been committed to this ministry for years and as we are raising up people within our ministry we have 3-4 people who join us that can sing, 1 that is gifted with poetry, 4- that are gifted with teaching the bible to them and prayer warriors who pray for them concerning healing and strength.  We have only one for right now that is talented in Crafting and that is me.  I have been crafting since I was a little girl and never knew why I even had this gift.  I used it as an outlet to my childhood by I love it more now and I am not suffering from my past.  I now know that I was given this God given talent to help others in need.  I can't replace the family that may not come around to see them anymore or give them back their health, or get them back into the home they had known for years, but what I can do is craft and be creative with paper, and crafting. I can bless them with the fruits of my hands.  This is what I started to do and when I saw the smile and happiness on the faces of those I was able to give items to.  God began to speak to me about this operation and told me what I need to do.  Although I am the only one locally who is gifted in this areas so far, I know there are many here in cyber world that are able to help in this area.  You may feel like your gift is not to particular help this cause but you are able to donate some of your talent to someone who is trying to reach those who  are in need.  I also know that I have a lot of talented friends through scrapbooking sites who may be interested and want to join in on this!

I am going to reach all I can to help with this and I am actually really excited!  I pray that anyone who can help you help with this operation.  We will distribute every three months and starting June is the first month we will actually be able to give out a bunch of items.    We are starting to collect now so if you want to participate now is the time to start so we have them ready for June 2011.

I will be setting up a discussion in the forum at scrapbook.com and all my friends from there can sigh up in that group.  It is title Operation Handmade Blessings!  It will be a great way to chat there and post pictures of what you make and to get ideas and things like that.  It is more interactive than a blog.

You can simply sign up by shooting me a comment in the post here following the how to participate instructions located at the tabs on this blog.  Another great way is through scrapbook.com where I spend most of my scrappy time other than in my scraproom.  We will have our own space for this operation there.

Sponsors are a big Welcome.  We will display your shop site name linked back to your shop or store and shout you out each 3 month term you sponsor. This will give other crafts a chance to see your shop and maybe purchase items for their own personal creations.  Sponsorship requires you to send in atleast 5-10 dollars worth of craft items to suite the needs of this operation.  you will shop, or store name and link will be displayed for those three month of each operation.  the more you sponsor the longer your name stays on the top of the site.  (note: you will have a permenant spot on this blog once you sponsor)

Crafters:  You are the heart of this operation and It will bring me great joy seeing you give a piece of your passion to someone who needs it.  Your name will be forever on this site with a link to where we can find you online.  I believe that those of you who will participate will be greatly blessed.  One day we all will become of age where we will want someone to bless us.  Thank you for joining me in this mission to help the elderly!

Get the kids involved this will show how to give back to the comunity, get your students involved if you are a teacher, this can be a great mision for everyone.

Hope to see you on the Operation Field and Mission Field.

Thanks, Toccara