18″ x 27.5″
In 2014, I was supposed to go to Sierra Leone to work for two weeks at the Child Rescue Center as a missioner from Floris UMC, the church in which you are standing. Ebola began devastating West Africa, so I didn’t go. This quilt honors those who did. Patty and Allen Morrell are two such extraordinary people. The Morrells attended Floris before they moved north. They went on their first mission trip to work at the Child Rescue Center in 2003. Patty and Allen love the children and the people there. They have been spending many months each year in Sierra Leone working at the Child Rescue Center. They call it their second home. Shortly before the Ebola epidemic began, Allen was asked to be the acting director. He went home to Massachusetts for the summer and returned in August to take care of the children. Patty followed him in September. They didn’t have to go. They could have stayed home and not exposed themselves to the danger present in the region. But Patty and Allen couldn’t have stayed home. They have servant’s hearts, and their hearts are in Sierra Leone. The orange and black fabric is Sierra Leonean, and so are the beads. The clasped hands in this quilt are symbolic of the brotherhood shared by people like the Morrells with those who live in Sierra Leone. I did get to work with the CRC staff in July of 2015 when I went on my first mission trip.
