The Barnabas Bear story

The journey of Barnabas Bear from idea to a full time missionary bear in Tanzania started in the summer of 2010.  While recovering from heart surgery, I started to crochet (again if you count the small stint I did as a child with my Grandmother teaching me).  I did this for a couple of reasons:  1) The prayer shawl outreach ministry was one of the few I had not spent time with mainly because they met while I was at work, 2) Good way to hang out with my Mom, 3) I wanted something useful to do other than watch TV while recovering and this was something low stress.

Barnabas Bear

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While as part of the group I asked the question one day what they gave to kids who were sick or in hospital.  The answer was prayer shawls.  I thought surely there was something more kid friendly we could do so I went searching for patterns and gave my hand a try at making a stuffed bear.  Let's say he had a lot of character-a lot of character! But one look and one of the ladies named Lynda took off with it and started making some.  She put some of her first ones in our silent auction for kids related ministries.  I bought a handsome brown bear with just a bit of sparkle to him.  He had the hat and backpack with a little Bible that featured a verse from every book of the Bible.  

That Christmas, she gave me one that looked exactly like the one I bought except the sparkle in the yarn.  Some time next year I took a morning off work and went back to crochet group with a wild idea.  I wanted to make the bear a missionary bear to go with me and others on our mission trips and use him to tell the story to children.  Now he needed a name. We all felt Barnabas Bear was the best because of the way it rolled off the tongue but also because Barnabas means "son of encouragement" (Acts 4:36).  

But we did not stop there, or should I say Lynda did not.  We had two mission teams going overseas that year.  One to Peru where we went every year and one I was leading to Tanzania which was the first time for our church.  So a fundraising idea came to mind.  Lynda made over 100 of the bears for us to take on the overseas mission trips to give out to children we were working with.  So we sold "plane tickets" for the bears which allowed the person who bought their ticket to name the bear and fill out a card for the recipient.  It was a major success with every bear being sponsored for his plane ticket.

One of the great things about even teenagers in the countries we go to.  They are not shy about getting a stuffed animal, they love it.  High school kids could be seen playing with their bears.  

From there we created his facebook page, more little bears were made, the bear I had bought that looks just like Barnabas was no longer a "backup" but joined the mission bear team as Timothy.  Not long after that we had Phoebe their first sister.  Bears were given to Fire Departments for using with traumatized kids, local groups, homeless kids and continued to travel overseas.   To date I know over 500 bears have been given away.

Many people enjoyed working with Barnabas and his friends over the years.  One of the really fun things was to create VBS sheets where we took pictures of the bears acting out a Bible story and used verses under each picture.  This way wherever we go we just get a Bible in their language and trade out the verses.  We did a story of Barnabas preaching from the wall (a small concrete wall at my brothers house) like Jesus' sermon on the mount where Barnabas convinced the bears to go with him on mission trips.  My personal favorite was when I tore said wall down for my brother I got kazoos and stood the bears up with the kazoos in their mouths like they were blowing trumpets around the walls of Jericho. Even did a Good Samaritan version.

The great thing about Barnabas is that he breaks down walls for me.  I am a natural introvert and would probably not meet half the people I do without him.  Visiting Machu Picchu in Peru a Japanese couple came up and wanted to take a picture of Barnabas with their stuffed animal that went everywhere with them. 

Lately one of the folks here a South Korean missionary has loved getting Barnabas out and playing with him every time the group got together.  So I made her one.  My bears still have character, not as much as they used to but still not quite symmetrical.  The smile on her face was well worth the small amount of effort to make it.  If you have a missionary friend or maybe someone who works with kids a lot it might be a big help to make them one.

Crochet Class in Nduguti

It has been a couple of interesting weeks in Tanzania.  Due to my computer being stolen, I am pretty far behind getting items posted to my blogs.  Because this particular story will include some of those travel stories that everyone loves I am doing it first.

The founder of Full Dimension Ministries, Rev. William Makali has been doing what we call Teaching Training and Evangelism Classes in two locations of the Iramba Valley.  This is the same valley our medical and school facilities are located. While at one of the sites called Nduguti, a pastor mentioned wanting to start a program that not only gave women a chance to earn extra money but also would help to build community among women of different churches and families.

William suggested the crochet class that I had done at our site and in Singida.  So at the beginning of all our adventures is this class.  We had 11 ladies sign up.  Each was given a crochet needle and two skeins of yarn to work on the projects taught in class as well as to practice at home.  The total cost for these items was 30,000 Tanzanian Shillings or $18 US dollars so not a bad deal.  I printed at my cost some sheets with drawings showing how to complete some basic stitches, how to turn a row, how to make and increase rounds.

I arrived at our site in Yullansoni early that morning after the normal 1.5 hour mini van ride with 20 something other people in the mini van and 1 hour and 15 minute motorcyle taxi ride called a piki piki.  Then William took me to Nduguti on the sites piki piki for an hour and a half over some of the very roughest roads still around in Tanzania, a country full of tough rocky roads.  As always William wanted to have lunch before we started the class.

The first class was about basic stitches like Chain, Single Crochet and Double Crochet, how to work in rows to make squares and rectangular projects.  Our biggest challenge was the difference between turning with single and double crochets and how you skip the first hole on a double crochet.  I had them practice all three stitches on simple dish/wash cloth patterns.  Normally I talk about how a stitch is done while they look at the drawings, then I go to groups of two and have them watch me do it several times, then all three of us do the stitch several times together, then I watch them do a row.  I move around the class doing this until I feel everyone has it.  One thing I find interesting is they all like to wrap the yarn around one of their fingers several times to keep it under control.  I showed them some other techniques for holding needle and yarn but they all liked that one even though they have to stop a lot to re-wrap their finger.

After our first class was over, William and I headed back over the rough roads to our site getting their just as the sun was setting.  A total of almost 6 hours of travel over the dirt and rock roads of Tanzania.

The next class was held that weekend so they would have several days to practice their stitches at home.  This time I got up at 5:30 am to ride a piki piki to the local bus station (a Balbao tree) to catch a bus to Nduguti.  This is one of the larger buses that normally have 40 or 50 seats and typically have close to 80 or 90 passengers.  It finally arrived at 8:30 am and was full so standing room only for the almost 2 hours it took the bus to get there.

We started with only about 9 students but then everyone showed up as the class went on, but several early showers had to leave early so they did not make the photo.  The young man in the front is the child of one the students and he loved Barnabas bear.  Hear is a video of them playing together:

The second class focused on using our stitches from before to do rounds and specifically we worked on newborn hats and we asked they donate those to our medical clinic so we could give them out on a newborn's first checkup after being born.  

We had some difficulty with the concept of closing a round and then chaining three to start a new round of double crochet.  I thought it would be the pattern of increasing the rounds in an even pattern.  But no they kept chaining three and then closing the round.  At first I thought it was how I explained it but after going around an making sure everyone not only saw me do it but I watched them do it correctly I would find they went back to chaining before closing shortly after.

One of the most important concepts I tried to get across is that crochet is something fun to do together in a low stress setting-no deadlines.  I explained how many churches had groups that got together and crocheted together to make items to give away or for sale.

After the class and managing to get Barnabas back from his new friend. I went to get the next bus that would take me to Singida.  The local bus stop was only a 10 minute piki piki ride and then the bus was supposed to arrive at 2 PM for which I was 40 minutes early.  It arrived an hour and half late.  Then the trip that should take an hour actually took 3 hours fortunately I had a seat for this ride as it was very rough again especially when the driver did not know all his gears and was often going so fast he would slide into the concrete barriers before bridges.

Life here is a lot of fun.

Here are some pictures of the class:

New Program in Tanzania-Crochet Baby Hats

The first baby hats being made my individuals in Yulansoni, Tanzania

One of the things I wanted to do when I started teaching folks here in Tanzania to crochet was to help them make items they could use, could help others, to help their families and to possibly sell and generate income.  Recently in a discussion with the founder of Full Dimension Ministry in Tanzania, William Makali about encouraging more women to give birth at our clinic and to take advantage of our midwives and doctor on staff sparked an idea.  

Teach them how to make baby hats which everyone around here uses (they keep their babies wrapped and bundled regardless of the temperature outside).  So the idea took this shape:  as part of the class they make an newborn hat and learn how to make other sizes.  The newborn hat would be given to the clinic to be distributed to children our doctor or midwives help deliver.  
This provides many benefits starting with Tanzanians helping Tanzanians and it not being a program with outsiders making things for them.  Why is that important-for any type of ministry to really succeed it requires an approach that allows the people you are trying to help to both build themselves up and help their own community.  Despite the people of Tanzania I work with being a strong people with dedicated family lives that we should envy in the USA, they have not always had the access to items to make their lives better.  If you question the effects of being a crocheter give it a google under crochet health effect and check some of the results.

Another benefit is that it helps our medical clinic with incentive for expecting mothers to use the medical knowledge available to them and their children.  The last big benefit is that the crocheters can make sizes for older children and give, trade or sell them at their choosing.

These are the kind of programs that make me excited to be involved in mission work.  Simple, hopefully as effective as we think it will be, and integral to a community working together to make themselves stronger and better than they would be if we just did things for them.

I do want to say a big thank you for the starting needles and yarn to help kick this program off from Mauldin United Methodist Church's Prayer Shawl ministries.  This allowed us to propose this program without cost to the ministry (taking it away from other areas) or to the people wanting to learn.  

Soap Saver

So certain things are really important here in Tanzania.  One of the big events i shared with everyone on Facebook was the purchase of my very own bath bucket to use in the village area.  There I take a bath in the latrine that has only the latrine hole in the floor (yes it is a squatter) for water to drain in.  This is the only place to take a bath on site and you basically stand over or near the hole and pour water on yourself from the bucket.  The soap up and wash it off with the water.  

After I had finished with the small soaps from various hotels and was about to purchase a regular bar of soap to use at the  village I was thinking about everything else I have seen on that floor of the latrine (both ladies and men's side).  I realized that even though soap is technically self cleaning and I am a person not normally afraid of a little dirt, that I had no desire to use that soap again if it was on that floor or it could be just like the flashlight in 2006 when I was sick in the middle of the night and lost my grip on the flashlight.  There was a strange glow from the bottom of the latrine for several days after that.  Once it goes in the hole it is gone.

So I decided to make myself a soap saver.  I did a simple design so others may have come up with the same design on their own but I just did this on the fly one afternoon.

I used some of the yarn the group from my church sent me on a spool so I don't know the type or weight and a G size crochet hook.  I made mine to the bar of soap I was taking out so you may need to adjust the size if your bar is different.  

Chain 12-in the second chain from the hook SC in one side of the chain.  I do this until the end and then work the other side of the chain creating a round of 20 SC.  This is round 1.

For Rounds 2-15 I do not join the end of the round with the beginning but just keep going.  SC in each stitch for every round.

Round 16-SC in every stitch but join the last round to the beginning stitch in the round with a slip stitch

Round 17-Chain 4 then DC in second stitch from where you started chaining.  **Chain 1-skip a stitch and DC in the next stitch  Repeat from ** until you get to the beginning chain and slip stitch into the third chain of that begininng set of this round.

Wrist strap- Single crochet into both the remaining chains of that beginning stitch to anchor the strap.  Then I chain 50, and cut a long tail-at least 4 inches.  Weave the chain in and out of the openings of round 17 (this allows you to cinch up the sack basically).  Then I wrap the strap around my fist and SC in the chain where I can make the end chain met back to the rest.  I then SC in the next 5 chains, tie off and weave in the end.  This allows me to slip it over my fist to my wrist and cinch up the soap in the soap saver.

Variations-make a longer chain and loop for going around your neck or to hang on a shower head.

A good week for Crochet in Tanzania

My main blog www.steveandbarnabas.blogspot.com talked about this being a good week in Tanzania and I wanted to share how that translated into the crochet work being done.

First was the great news that as Rev. Makali was going around to set up Training classes for local pastors, he found out that news of our crochet classes at the medical clinic had spread to other areas and they were interested in having classes at the same villages as the Training classes.

Then a couple of the ladies who had gone through the classes shared some of their work:

The one of the young ladies tried to describe a cap she wanted to make.  the best I could figure out was that she wanted to make a beret type hat.  Having never done a beret and not having internet in the village I decided to just try and make one using some of the scrap yarn sent by my church in the US.  I think it actually worked out well and was the entire ball of scrap yarn.

That week I also got to make my first Frisbee from the nylon string sent by my church and a newborn hat in a dog theme.

So it was a fun week of crochet in Tanzania.

Door Handle Pocket

This idea originated from an article in Crochet World Magazine (August 2013-volume 36 number 4 page 27).  Their version was made for a standard door knob and had several pockets plus they used a stiffer nylon cord.    I have a door lever and only needed one pocket.

So I started with the security ring from a Coke Zero bottle cap and Kenyan 4 Ply Yarn and an F size needle.  I single crochet around the ring.  Normally it takes 32 single crochets to cover the ring.  

After the single crochet round I close the round with a slip stitch into the first single crochet then I chain 3 and do a round of double crochet.  After that round I close the round with a slip stitch in the first double crochet of the round and then chain 3.  Then double crochet in the first 9 stitches past the chain of 3 then chain 3.  The next row I do one double crochet in the 2nd stitch and then two double crochets into the next stitch and continue that patter across the row.  Next row I again do 1 double crochet in a stitch followed by 2 double crochets in the next stitch.  You should have 23 stitches in a row now.  

The next row I start with the chain 3 and double crochet in the second stitch and in the next 2 stithes.  Then do a half double crochet in the next 4 stitches, followed by single crochet in the next 7 stitches followed by half double crochet in the next 4 stitches and double crochet in the last 4 stitches.  This row should make it straight across instead of curved.

I do 24 rows of double crochets with no increases or decreases.  

Then I fold up the bottom 10 rows and work a double crochet through both hole in the front of the fold and the back of the fold.  I work that to the bottom and close off.  Start another line and double crochet in both holes of the front and back fold on the other side starting at the top and working down.

Chain Lace Hat

The Chain Lace Hat.  Let's start with the story of how this hat came into being (at least my version of this hat as I am sure their are others out there).  I was trying to find out what type of projects the ladies in the valley would want to learn how to make.  I was expecting practical things (or I was projecting what I thought they needed-that is a mistake missionaries make a lot).  What they asked for was unexpected.  They wanted decorative stocking caps that were more like lace in appearance but not necessarily protective.  Please understand that description went beyond my Swahili skill level and the English level of my translators.  We basically went through pictures and they said what all they liked.  It took about an hour in total.

So then I figured out how to make the various components they wanted.  In making this pattern I used Kenyan 4 ply yarn that is fairly small and an F size crochet hook.  I adjust the pattern to fit the individual head I am shooting for so gauge was not done.  This particular hat was done for a young girl (10-15 years old).  

I started at the bottom and worked to the top which is very different from most stocking caps that I do.  The ribbed band is made by chaining 11 then double crochet (dc)  in fourth from hook and dc in each chain after that for 8 sc.  Chain 3 and turn but I worked in the back loop to create the ribbed effect as I dc in each stitch back across.  I did 67 rows of this and then as I went back across I worked the dc through the original chains that started everything and the last row to join my work.

I then chained 7 and then slip stiched into the end of the fourth row.  I repeat this all the way around doing it  17 times.    The next round is chain 7 and slip stitch into the 4th chain of the previous round.  The third round is done the same as the last round.  The fourth round I do 5 chains and slip stitch into the 4 chain of the previous round again.  The fifth round is 5 chains ans slip stitch into the third chain of the previous round.  The sixth, seventh and eighth round are the same as the fifth.  The ninth round is 3 chains and slip stitch into the third chain of the previous round.  The tenth round is 3 chains and slip stitch into the 2nd chain of the previous round.  The 11th, 12th and 13th round are the same as the tenth round.  The 14th round is 1 chain and slip stitch into 2nd chain of the previous round.  The 15th round is a decreasing single crochet stitch (insert hook into first stitch and pull through a loop then insert in second stitch and pull through a loop then yarn over and pull through all three loops.  I continue this until it is closed at the top.  This would work really wear with some type of adornment at the top like a fuzzy ball or flower tied into the top.  After I close in the top I tie off and work in my threads.

It was a quick project with the majority of time on the ribbed band.  For ladies with larger hair than the girls here in Tanzania  I would recommend making it bigger in the chain stitch-possibly doing 9 chains to start with and then doing the 7 chain stitch for a while before decreasing down to hold the hair in. 

Magnet snap closures using metal bottle caps

Magnet and metal bottle cap found on road

So one of things that are difficult to get here are buttons at least in Singida.  So as I was trying to work through some projects that would require closures I looked at a couple of ideas like strings I could wrap around some type of crochet adornment or actual crochet buttons.  But then I looked at some magnets I have here for science experiments.  I thought-use washers and create a magnet closure.  Those are fine but as I was walking into town one day I saw a bottle cap for an Fanta Passion drink.  HMM!  New idea.  Bottle cap magnet closures.  As with most of my brillant ideas (laugh here if you want) I realize others have done them before and normally I go search online and give them credit but I did not find any with the first couple of looks.

Sew in Bottle cap with logo showing

So basically the idea is simple.  If I am sewing something like a backpack then I want a closure on a pocket that is not hard to open.  Then attach a bottle cap to the covering flap and the magnet to the underneath piece.  For this example I am doing it from scratch.  The sewing is a little rough because I was just trying to show the product.  Some of you with sewing machines that do things like button holes will find those work good for the top piece of the bottle cap piece.

sew magnet in between cloth pieces

Basically I fold the cloth over and sew up the sides to create the flap.  The cut a hole smaller than the bottle cap and as round as possible.  I did not do it in the exercise but to dress it up sew the edge of the circle around the bottle cap.  Then place the bottle cap inside the flap showing the face in the hole you have made then sew around the bottle cap closing both pieces of cloth to keep it in place.  Do the same thing with piece underneath except don't cut the hole to expose the magnet since it is not decorative.  Just sew it into place between the two pieces of cloth.  

The flap and underneath piece

Now they should stick together.  If your magnet is too weak to go through both pieces of cloth cut a small hole in the back of the bottle cap cloth just to make it easier for the metal to come into contact with the magnet.  Another way to make it work better is to flatten the bottle cap down at the edges.

Hard to see but the underneath piece "stuck" to flap and hanging by the magnetic connection

Coke Zero Bottle Tanzanian Doll

Trying out some different ideas based off an idea for jewelry where you crochet around rings.  When attempting this I looked around the room here in Tanzania to see what I had I could use for rings.  The security ring around the bottle neck of a Coke Zero (you know the one left after you twist your cap off).  So I had done a couple pieces of jewelry (future blogs) and thought why not start a doll dress and keep it in size with the bottle the ring came from so it could be attached back onto the bottle.  Before I get into the making of this a picture of the final product-be warned I am horrible at faces for dolls and bears.

This is already mounted back onto the bottle.  The ring with the crochet dress will only snap onto the first part of the threads not all the way back to where it used to be but that is good for the doll's head to fit on.

So I start with a security ring from a water bottle or soda.

Make a slip knot to start with and then crochet double crochets around the ring. (note you can do single just treat the ring like it is the space you insert your needle to draw the loop through the previous stitch there just is no previous stitch just the ring)

You want to fill the ring with crochet stitches so that the ring is no longer visible.

After you fill the ring, slip stitch with the first double crochet on the ring to close the circle then chain 3 for the height of your next row (if you do something over than double adjust for the correct height).  Then double crochet in a round as normal.  Note you may need to occasionally decrease stitch to keep it from becoming too wide.  On my specific pattern I did this on the dark colors because they hid it better and never on the first or the last round of a color as you can get an odd look on the color switch over.

The patter I chose to do for the doll dress was a Tanzania Flag pattern since that is where I am at.  Their color pattern is large green triangle, small yellow band, medium black band, small yellow band and large blue triangle.  For the dress I did 7 rounds of double crochet (including the original around the ring-if you do a single crochet you may want to not count that one as it will not be the same size).  2 rounds of yellow double crochet, 5 rounds of black double crochet, 2 rounds of yellow double crochet and then 7 rounds of blue double crochet.

Then the dolls head-you can do these in any patter of doll's head you want.  I did a simple head as follows:

Chain 4

slip stitch into beginning of chain. then chain 1 for height

1st round-2 each single crochets in each of the four chains

2nd round -2 each single crochets in each of the 8 single crochets

3rd round-1 single crochet in the previous round single crochet, then 2 single crochets in next single crochet of previous round-repeat for round

4th round-1 sc, 1 sc then 2 sc in the first three stitches repeat for the round

5th-7th round-1 sc all the way around (no increase)

8th round-4 each sc then a decrease stitch repeating all the way around.

At this point I stuff the head.  Since I don't have any stuffing available here and the key is to make these like they will here when I get the pattern the way I want it, I used really thing shopping bags or the plastic wrap around the toilet tissue paper.  

Now continue to decrease stitches quickly to get it to close up.  Then tie it off.  I cut a long tail on the finishing string so I can use it to center the head into the ring of the dress.

I chose to use the dress green to sew the head on to the ring but since I technically stitch from the inside of the dress (the dress is turned inside out  in pictures) it should not show but I wanted to be safe.  I stitch into the string on the back side of the ring.

The mount onto the empty bottle the ring came off of and it will stand on its own.  I want give you face or hair directions since my work here is never really that great.  

I plan to do a USA flag later using some of the white very small beads I have found to do the stars.  Will show you that one when I do it.  Will also do a different head and use single crochet.

If you don't want to do one this big it works smaller as well just go ahead an let the dress flare out as you do rounds (no decrease stitch to keep it tight)

Same basics as above just 2 rounds of green, 1 each yellow, black and yellow, then 2 round of blue.  This one decorates the top of a my plastic container I keep electronics cables in.

Hope you enjoyed