Quilting a Tapestry of Hope
This time of year in the United States, it’s common for analysts to opine about political conflicts and their impact on the global supply chain. But there’s another cooperative chain making global impact, and Covenanters are right in the middle of it.
Leonid Regheta is an alumnus of North Park Theological Seminary and former Covenant global personnel. Currently he serves as pastor of River of Life Church in Dallas, Texas; he is also director of missions for Hope International Ministries, an organization that serves immigrant communities. In 2022, Regheta spoke with the Companion about his involvement helping Ukrainian immigrants who were fleeing from the war.
Regheta takes seriously his pastoral call as an opportunity to model reconciliation. He’s of Ukrainian descent, his wife is Russian, and the church they serve includes immigrants from both places, so for him the issue of breaking down walls of hostility and division is both personal and practical.
“In our church we also have Ukrainians and Russians and Moldovans and Uzbeks,” Regheta told me in a recent virtual sit-down. “Some Russian families left our church because they weren’t happy with us praying and supporting Ukraine. We also have some Ukrainians who don’t want to come to our church because we speak and do our service in Russian, but for them that’s the language of the aggressor or the enemy. I try to tell everyone, ‘We’re not building borders—we’re building bridges of love and the gospel.’”
Pastor Leonid Regheta boarding a plane during international travel.
Those bridges extend not only locally, but internationally. Through Hope International, Regheta also works with church planters in a variety of European countries across the Ukrainian diaspora—churches primarily composed of immigrants who have fled Ukraine because of the war. These churches have partnered with Hope International in the past to organize trauma-healing events and conduct summer camps. As the winter holiday season approaches, Regheta and Hope International are partnering with several Covenanters to bring Christmas gifts to Ukrainian children.
One of those people is Janie Sheedy, who grew up at Hillside Covenant Church in Walnut Creek, California. One of the pastors there was Doug Stevens, who had a previous connection with Regheta doing mission work with Ukraine. When Sheedy and her husband were planning a trip to Poland in 2022, Stevens put her in touch with Regheta.
“It was the first year of the war and we wanted to do something to help,” she said. “The pastor said the kids could use Christmas gifts, so we ended up schlepping a bunch of suitcases across the world to bring them and pass them out.”
Sheedy said that the experience was very moving. “We saw mothers and grandmothers, traumatized from having to leave their homes, just weeping because they felt like they were being seen, realizing that there were people who cared for them.” For her, the shared moments of prayer through interpreters who helped bridge the linguistic divide were the most meaningful. “It was pretty remarkable to see all these bowed heads and people from different cultures and languages. There was a real heart connection, a real connection with God.”
Sheedy and her husband were so affected by that experience that they decided to do it again. This year they will visit a hospital in Italy where they will distribute Christmas gifts to Ukrainian refugee families with children who are in the process of going through cancer treatment. “My husband and I lost several children to a genetic disease many years ago,” Sheedy explained, “so we have a heart for this. We’re not strangers to hospitals, they don’t really deter us. That’s one of the callings God has placed on our lives, to participate in some of that hard stuff.”
Mary Matas (center in red) with her quilting group from Hillside Covenant Church.
In planning the trip, Sheedy happened to mention it to her mother, Mary Matas. At 90 years old, Matas still likes to stay involved in ministry at Hillside Covenant. She has a quilting group at the church, which was initially formed as a way to support a friend who was battling cancer. After that friend passed away, the group continued, using a surplus of donated fabric to make similar quilts.
“It doesn’t matter who they are,” Matas told me over the phone. “Where they are, whatever their beliefs are. Somebody calls up and says someone needs something—we provide it.” Matas and her friends have created quilts for several new mothers in their community, so when she heard from her daughter that they would be traveling to Italy to help deliver Christmas presents, they decided to add homemade quilts to the gift list. They’d done something similar for the Poland trip, and she heard back that the pastors who received the quilts were very appreciative. Regheta told me the same thing when he mentioned Matas.
“She’s a pretty old lady, but she’s rocking for missions. What else can I say?”
A group of Ukrainian pastors show off the new quilts in 2022.
As the Hillside Covenant quilters continue their work and the Sheedy family prepares to travel with Hope International, you can join in their work by contributing to the fund for Christmas gifts or supporting Covenant World Relief and Development in their partnerships with ministries serving Ukraine.
How can you help?
Join the volunteer’s team this summer
Sponsor kids in the camp ($150/child)
Pray for Refugee Kids