The Bags of Love ministry, a heartwarming initiative led by Brian and Gwen Sweeney in North Sydney, Nova Scotia, has been bringing comfort to children in need for more than a decade. Started in 2014, with a grant from ADRA and generous donations from their local church and community, this project has touched the lives of countless children, providing them with essential items and a sense of love and care. 

The ministry’s mission is to create personalized bags filled with comfort items for children who have been removed from their homes. Each bag contains a blanket, a stuffed animal, a book, coloring books, crayons, and other small items. The blankets, lovingly crafted by volunteers, are often the first thing a child receives upon entering foster care, offering warmth, comfort, and a sense of security. 

The process of creating these bags involves volunteers sewing quilt tops, assembling quilt sandwiches, and quilting them on long-arm quilting machines. They meticulously select fabrics, often finding great deals and using generously donated materials. The attention to detail and care put into each quilt is evident in the finished product of over 300 quilts. 

One particularly heartwarming story highlights the impact of these bags. A foster child, upon receiving a bag, expressed their gratitude in a heartfelt poem. The child described feeling scared, lonely, and cold, but the bag offered comfort and hope. The poem speaks to the power of a simple act of kindness and the profound impact it can have on a child’s life. 

Volunteers from the North Sydney Seventh-day Adventist Church and beyond come together to create these bags, donating their time, skills, and resources. By providing comfort and support to children in need, the Bags of Love ministry is making a significant difference and it’s your donations that help to launch projects like these and put them into action in the lives of the people in their community.