For many people, knitting is just a hobby. But for one 96 year old Austin woman, it's it a gift that reaches around the world.
At first glance you may find it hard to believe that this joyful singing in the Sudan is somehow connected to this quiet but determined woman some 8-thousand miles away in Austin. 96 year old Mineola Grumbles loves to knit -- specifically caps. Now take a closer look at these pictures, and you'll see the connection. Mineola is a member of Hyde Park Baptist Church and has been making and sending her knitted caps with church missionaries since she retired from teaching nearly 30 years ago.
"I didn't want to just sit around the house all day and do nothing," said Mineola Grumbles.
As for why she picked caps...
"I really don't know why, I just saw a pattern that I liked and made one, and made another and another," Grumbles said.
In fact, last year she made 421 and this year she's over the 400 mark again. Much to the delight of the Christian missionaries from Hyde Park.
"You have individuals who have just received the gospel, who have just received the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior and then to just see them be that much more excited about a hat is just overwhelming," said Rosabei Adame, who made her first missionary trip this year.
Missionaries tell us it's important to give people more than just money and food.
"They need to realize that somebody else thinks that they are special and when you put on a hat that makes you look special and distinct and different. It just personalizes God to them I believe. So Mineola in many ways is a much better missionary than the rest of us," said Robert Gunn, who made his first missionary trip in 1973.
Mineola's hats aren't just seen in the Sudan, but also in Latvia, near Finland and Norway, as well as hundreds of other destinations around the world.
"It's a good feeling. I hope I don't get stuck up about it or anything like that but it's a good feeling," Grumbles said.
Mineola and the missionaries pray the caps can just keep on coming.
"The Bible never talks about retirement and Mineola, if we are not dead we are not done, right, so God still has things for us to do and she's just a real inspiration in that," said Kathy French, who made her first missionary trip in 1996.
"It's a joy first that I know the Lord and that I know how he has provided for me and for my older age and I pray about this, I just want to keep doing it as long as the Lord sees fit to leave me here," Grumbles said.
