We love stories of generosity and compassion. Recently we chatted to Sharon who is part of Medway Vineyard, about their exciting project, Wonderfully Made.

School uniforms are expensive. A couple of years ago, God started to highlight to us the struggle many families have around providing uniforms for their children. Ill-fitting and absent school uniforms can have huge long term consequences on educational attainment. We shared this with one and lady in the church who had recently become a Christian, and she told of how as a child she had been mercilessly bullied for wearing a shabby, ill-fitting uniform and she got to the point where she wouldn’t attend school.  One day a bag appeared on her doorstep and in it was a new school uniform.  Now years later she realized that Jesus had provided that wonderful free gift which meant she could return to school in dignity.

We loved this story, and so we began to dream about what we could do to serve these families. God reminded us of Psalm 139:14, ‘I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made’, and so we decided the name for our ministry would be ‘Wonderfully Made’.

Our commitment was that we would provide a uniform from good quality second-hand uniforms in the first instance and where this wasn’t available, we would purchase a uniform for everyone who was referred to us. God started to open doors at a rapid pace. 

We had a team of people eager to serve in this project, whether washing, mending or delivering uniforms. We made connections with social workers, teachers, family liaison officers, and charities. The demand was immense and to this day it just keeps growing. 

Since we began over 2 years ago, we have provided almost 1000 school uniforms.  This blows our mind. Last year, we were nominated for the Pride of Medway Awards in which we were finalists. As a result of Wonderfully Made, some referrers and even school uniform workers have tuned in to our online church services. 

One single mum messaged us after we’d delivered her uniforms to say that she and her two sons were dancing around the living room praising Jesus. A single dad messaged to say, ‘thank you from the bottom of our hearts. It has been a tough couple of years and we really appreciate your care and help’.

If you’ve got a story about blessing your community during this season, we’d love to hear it! Email us at [email protected]