Pants for Jesus
As an addendum to “Big Pants“, here is what John and Suzi Parker have done with some of the XXXXXXL surgical pants that were delivered to a hospital near Port-au-Prince, where there are NO XXXXXXL people:
“A follow up to the problem of what to do with 12,000 pairs of disposable, paper surgical pants. One pastor friend shared the Junk for Jesus note with her congregation and they had a contest to see what to do with the pants. One of the good suggestions was to give them to children to make kites. Great idea, since the pants are waterproof. And there’s usually plenty of wind here. Another was to make banners with crayons. But I think we at the hospital came up with the best idea. We had another shipment from Food for the Poor, and this time is really was food. We wanted to give food to everyone who came to the clinic, but didn’t have any way to distribute the food, as most of it came in cases. So we took the XXXXXL pants, tied a knot in the waist, to make a bag, filled the bags through the legs of the pants, then tied the pant legs together, and handed out easily carried bags (pants?) of food. Now we only have about 11,500 pairs of disposable paper surgical pants left. We’re open to more suggestions. Keep those cards and letters coming, folks! And keep praying for the rebuilding of Haiti.”
This has been an excerpt from Suzi’s post of May 13, 2010.
Watercolor sketch copyright by Lynn Bridge
I tried to imagine what the ‘pants bags’ look like in use!
Lynn,
What a fun post! I can just imagine those surgical pants all tied up to serve as a food containers. Healing no matter which way you think about it. What a lovely watercolor–did you do that from a photo sent back from Haiti by your friends?
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Hi, Hannah. Thanks for visiting! The posts from Port-au-Prince aren’t frequent, but they are funny and poignant and tragic when they do come. I notice Suzi put up a new one yesterday, which I want to read.
The watercolor sketch came straight out of my head; no models, no pictures. I did my best to imagine the pants bags and the shifting weight of the people and how that affects posture.
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Wow, that just goes to show you that a little imagination can go a long way. Thanks for sharing this story.
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Hi, Lynn. Yes, imagination is good; I guess it would have been even better if the people who sent all those huge pants hadn’t done so in the first place, but imagination of what to do with them now is good. You have any ideas? I’m sure Suzi would love to hear them!
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Your water colors are soooooooo lovely Lynn!
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Thanks for your encouragement, Cynthia. I don’t claim to be a watercolor painter, but I will become more adept if I keep at it. For illustration purposes, it is hard to beat a watercolor!
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