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“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms” (1 Peter 4:10).
Earlier this year, Carol Fisher, a member at Good Shepherd, West Bend, Wis., gifted Matthew Mueller, the new pastor at Good Shepherd, with a hand-embroidered stole for the Easter season. Mueller was touched by Fisher’s gift. “I put it on there in the office, gave her a big hug, and thanked her over and over again,” he says. “Now she is Carol, the lady who made my stole, forever to be remembered.”
Fisher has been attending Good Shepherd since 1953, when the church was first built. She recalls standing in the yard of her Indiana Avenue home listening to the construction crew break ground on the new building. With three babies born in three-and-a-half years, Fisher and her husband were deeply immersed in the world of parenting young children. Still, Fisher was determined to use the gifts she had to serve her Lord. So she got to work.
“If you see a need or are asked to do something for the Lord, you do it, because the Lord is behind it,” she explains. “I was raised this way. My mother was a wonderful example. I would always see her cooking food for one of the dinners or washing church linens. Whatever she did, she did it with joy.”
Fisher learned sewing and embroidery from her mother as a young girl. So armed with a sewing machine, an abundance of materials, and a deep love for her Savior in her heart, Fisher made baptismal napkins, altar linens, children’s costumes, classroom drapes, and more. She also hand-embroidered stoles for many of the pastors who served the church.
Now, at 94 years old, she is working hard to complete one more project. “Pastor Mueller’s set of stoles is my goal right now,” she says. “I rest oftener than I used to, but I’ll keep working on it. When every stitch is done, praise the Lord!”
Author: Forward in Christ
Volume: 109, Number 10
Issue: October 2022
