SCRAPBOOKING: Lay minister to hold 11-hour crop

By Michele Deluca/delucam@gnnewspaper.com

April 04, 2008 02:54 pm

— IF YOU GO
WHAT: “Scrapbooking Your Faith”
WHEN: 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. April 26
WHERE: Community room at the Summit, 8929 Williams Road, Wheatfield
MORE INFORMATION: Call 283-3225 by April 21
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WHAT: Scrapbook convention
WHEN: May 29-31
WHERE: Buffalo Niagara Convention Center, Buffalo
MORE INFORMATION: Visit ckscrapbookevents.com.

Q&A
Scrapbooking lay minister to hold 11-hour “crop”

Kathleen Ordiway remembers when she was a young girl, holding tight to memories by tucking away little treasures into a scrapbook.
As a woman, she does much the same, helping others to use scrapbooking as a tool to cherish their memories. As a lay Baptist minister, she also uses scrapbooking as a spiritual tool, to help women document their faith. She’s planning a scrapbooking “crop” April 26, and she talked about it with Niagara Living Magazine.
QUESTION: What is it about scrapbooking that draws so many women?
ANSWER: When you scrapbook, you lose all track of time. You’re just drawn into it. You’re putting down your history on paper. When I was a kid, we used to put things in scrap books like napkins from dates or tickets from the movies. This is like that, only better. I even teach people how to care for their pictures so they last longer.
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Q: Your upcoming session is putting a spiritual spin on scrapbooking. Can you tell me about it?
A: My workshop is called “Scrapbooking Your Faith.” It’s designed to help women use scrapbooking so that family and friends can look into your book and see how God has touched your life.
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Q: You call them “crops.” What happens at a “crop?”
A: I’m going to be teaching a page. The layout will be the same, but the journaling is done from the heart. Mostly we’ll be working on our books and then we’ll stop for a while and talk. People definitely make friends. They also realize they can open up their eyes and see God, that he isn’t just in the four walls of the church.
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Q: So, you’ve planned 11 hours for this scrapbooking event. Why does it take so long?
A: You need that much time at a crop. We’re serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. The only thing I ask people to bring are photographs. You can start off with five or you can bring in 150. If you’ve never scrapbooked in your whole life, I’ll teach you how. I’ll provide some supplies, but TJ’s Scrapbooking, a new store on Military Road in Niagara Falls, will have a table with scrapbooking supplies for purchase.
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Q: You also hold women’s retreats. Can you tell me about them?
A: I have been leading women's retreats since September 2001 on all different topics (including “Styles of Prayer” and “God’s Handprint on Your Life”). I am also a licensed lay minister at First Baptist Church of Niagara Falls and I’m in the preaching rotation at our church, and every six weeks I’m the preacher. I’ve also been invited to speak at women’s events in other area churches. I love doing the seminars and the retreats. I hope to do them on a full-time basis someday.
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Q: You’re holding a scrapbook. Can you tell me about some your favorite pages?
A: We were at Disney World and a rainbow appeared after a rain shower. I made a page with the pictures and wrote a verse from the Bible, “Look upon the rainbow and praise him that made it.” Then I wrote about how rain is ever present at Disney, but you also get the good times, too. I also like this page of my daughter’s wedding. I wrote about how we had this joyous day, even though the day before the wedding my daughter’s grandfather had died. He had wanted to be at the wedding and he was so sick that there was no other way he could have made it there. We felt him there all day in spirit.

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