What started out to be a get-away from cold weather down to Harlingen, TX for Don and Charla Ratliff has ended up a new ministry for Purcell’s First Baptist Church.

The couple spent four months deep in the southern tip of Texas.

While they were there, Charla got together with a group of senior women who made mats for people experiencing homelessness to sleep on from Walmart sacks.

The whole process is very labor intensive from flattening the sacks to skillfully cutting the sacks into precise strips. Then the strips are looped together.

Charla said you loop enough strips together to make them into a ball and then comes the hard part, the strips are crocheted together with the result a three foot by six foot mat that they can sleep on or even use overhead in case of inclement weather.

“These ladies got together one day a week and made the mats. While we were down there, I learned how to make them,” Mrs. Ratliff said.

“When we came back to Purcell I showed it to our women and our SALT (Senior Adults Living Triumphantly) group,” she said.

“Several of them crochet and now we get together the first Tuesday of each month for pot luck and to make the mats,” Mrs. Ratliff said.

She said anyone from the community is welcome to join in around 11:30 a.m.

When she visited The Register late last week, Mrs. Ratliff brought a finished mat, one she is working on and a box full of plastic strips ready to be looped.

“I have sacks not only from Walmart but also Crest, Target, Lowes and Homeland,” Mrs. Ratliff said showing off her box of plastic strips.

“It takes 500-700 plastic sacks to make one of the 3x6 mats,” she reported.

Mrs. Ratliff said it takes her about a week to make a mat from the flattening and cutting to looping and crocheting.

“Some are faster than others doing the crocheting. We have several women in our church that crochet all the time like Karen Jobe. She’s an avid crocheter. It’s a good project for some of our seniors. And, there is lots of talking going on while we are working,” she said with a chuckle.

The ministry is catching on with even a couple of men pitching in to do the cutting with an average of around 40 members attending the once-a-month sessions.

“I’m working on my very first one,” Mrs. Ratliff said.

She’s got a pretty good start on her maiden mat voyage.

Don and Charla were staying at the Fig Tree Resort in Harlingen where about 200 Recreational Vehicles were hanging out during the month of January where she got the idea to bring the project back to Purcell.

Sheriff Landy Offolter said there is a pretty large number of homeless in this area.

“I’m not sure of the number but there are some out there,” he said.

In the near future they might just be resting on a mat furnished by FBC.

Now residents know where they can take their plastic sacks so they can be turned into something helpful for those less fortunate.