Sometimes God’s awesome timing is enough to just blow me away. I’ve been praying about finding a way to get more plugged in to my church and figure out what my spiritual gifts and ministry would be. The next thing I know I receive an email from church – sent to all the ladies – wanting to know if anybody was interested in starting a prayer shawl ministry or greeting card ministry. Seeing as how I’m a rather crafty person who just happens to enjoy knitting, crocheting, stamping, etc., how could I possibly not be excited?
We had our first meeting this week and rather than fracture the group we’ve decided to put all the crafting under one umbrella and it will be called the Mission Crafts Ministry. And I will be the layperson leading it, with one of the ladies on staff helping me.
Now sometimes when you pray for something, God will answer that prayer a bit differently than you first thought. My intention was never to lead a ministry, but since it’s something I’m very interested in, coupled with the fact that the other ladies there were adamantly NOT going to lead, my fate was sealed. And as I was driving away from church that night I couldn’t help but smile and think “Thy will be done.”
Our first objective is to try and have 75 scarves knit before July 25 to send with a group from our church going on a mission trip to Peru. The staff person already had 8 finished and after a quick stop at Michael’s for Homespun yarn (on sale this week for $3.99!) I’ve got one scarf about halfway finished.
And even more fun is that I’m going to be meeting one of the ladies from our church at Starbucks one evening to teach her to crochet. I love to knit and crochet and love even more when somebody will let me teach them and share my hobby.
If anybody has a similar ministry at their church – or knows about one at a friend/family member’s church – please leave me comments with any helpful hints. I’m really excited to see where the Lord leads us with this!
Congrats on your new ministry. Isn't it wonderful when we get to combine our passions with ministry? I always figure God wired us a certain way for a reason. Anyway, I thought I'd pass on another crafty ministry that our church has done. We make up "Welcome Baby" bags for every new baby in our congregation. It has a little baby quilt or afghan in the bag and also a little album for scrapbooking that we are able to get quite cheaply through a local store. Women in our church can either knit or crochet these afghans or make little baby quilts and then I put together the bags and attach the "Welcome Baby" tag in pink or blue depending upon whether or not it is geared for a boy or girl and we keep about 4 on hand in the church office so that our pastors who visit all the new moms in the hospital can grab one of the bags as they head out.
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