These scenes aren’t from a puppet show or a storybook. They’re from the stacks and stacks of material that sit on the worktables at Belton Church of Christ.

Every Tuesday morning, six to 13 women sit at those worktables. They have needles, buttons and scissors; they’re sewing. The work stops when the clock strikes noon - or when the buzz of the last sewing machine finally fades.

Sewing: that’s the job of the Threads of Love ministry.

Each week these Church of Christ seamstresses manage to make about 20 tiny outfits for babies born premature. They deliver the outfits to the neonatal intensive care units at Scott and White Memorial Hospital in Temple, the Darnall Army Community Hospital in Fort Hood and Hillcrest Hospital in Waco.

“Each package always has an outfit, blanket and prayer,” said ministry leader Emily Burkhalter of Temple. “Sometimes there’s a hat and a pair of booties.”

The prayer asks God to give strength to the parents.

“Praying can help them through the fear and worry,” Mrs. Burkhalter said.

The prayer’s closing words read, “Bless and keep this little one surrounded with your abundant love and mercy.”

The tags in the back of the outfits say, “Threads of Love.”

“We always try to use bright, happy colors,” said seamstress Estelle Jones of Belton. “We stay away from white. White’s not good. The babies look sad and sick in white.”

Mrs. Burkhalter nodded in agreement.

“We also make these. They’re called positioning agents,” Mrs. Burkhalter said, pointing to a tube-shaped cushion. “They go under the blanket to wrap around the baby. It keeps them cuddled and warm.”

The Threads of Love outfits are also used for stillborn and miscarried babies or ones who die soon after birth.

“Then, they’re called bereavement outfits,” Mrs. Burkhalter said. “It helps the family because they don’t have to worry about what to bury their baby in or where they’re going to get it. The outfits are already there at the hospital. When so much else is going on, it’s one less decision for them to make.”

The Church of Christ group delivers bereavement outfits to Scott and White, Darnall, Hillcrest and King’s Daughters.

The program is not unique to Central Texas. Threads of Love is a national ministry that launched from Baton Rouge, La., in 1993.

“It all started when a pediatrician from Earl K. Long Charity Hospital in Baton Rouge contacted my pastor with a request for help,” said Clinel Davis, the Threads of Love national director on the ministry’s Web site. “She saw a need for tiny burial gowns for patients who were born prematurely and were too sick or too tiny to survive.”

When Ms. Davis heard of the request, she was eager to help, she said, because of a devastating childhood memory.

“One day I was told I had a new baby brother who was born two months early. The next day I was told I didn’t have a brother. I was told he had died during the night,” Ms. Davis said. “I can remember the anguish and the emptiness that I felt.”

She wanted to see her baby brother but wasn’t allowed.

“It was at a time in our society when one was expected to act like such a thing never happened,” Ms. Davis said. “You didn’t talk about it. It was just swept under the rug as if it would disappear. It didn’t.”

Ridden with guilt, Ms. Davis said she felt as if the baby’s death was her fault. She said the pained looks of her parents’ faces still haunt her.

“Through this ministry, I have begun to heal and have been able to turn something negative into something positive,” Ms. Davis said. “The only things needed to make the little dresses are thread and love.”

The Threads of Love Central Texas Chapter took form in 2002 when Mrs. Burkhalter and her husband relocated to Belton from San Antonio.

“I started it because I think it’s a worthwhile thing to do,” Mrs. Burkhalter said. “Seeing as how Scott and White has one of the largest NICUs (neonatal intensive care units) in the area.”

She brings passion and dedication to the Threads of Love ministry because she said it is a job that God prepared her to do.

“I’ve been sewing for 20 years, since I was 10,” Mrs. Burkhalter said. “Never did I expect to be able to sew in service to God and others.”

She smiled, thankful for her skill.

“These patterns are my designs,” Mrs. Burkhalter said while pointing to the tiny outfits, most the size of potholders.

Elizabeth Moore of Belton is another woman who finds purpose in Threads of Love.

“I stay at home,” Mrs. Moore said. “It’s something I can do - something that will be if help to somebody.”

Mrs. Moore is the mother of McKenzie - the 7½ -months-old baby who giggled and grinned throughout last Tuesday’s Threads of Love meeting.

Perhaps it’s that image - the image of a happy, healthy baby - that prevents the women from setting down their needle and thread.

-- With questions or comments, email tlunsford@temple-telegram.com