Prayer Shawl Ministry
April of 08 was our unofficial beginning of the Prayer Shawl Ministry at Kenton Church. We began with a month of classes held each Saturday morning from 9 to 12 with Rita Majors lending her expertise as instructor for knitting and crocheting. After the classes ended several people began crocheting and knitting prayer shawls. Several shawls were blessed and given to individuals suffering loss of family member or suffering illness and were well appreciated.
January 23rd of 09 was the first blessing of prayer shawls during the worship service. This coincided with the commissioning of our parish nurse and Health Ministry Cabinet. Since that time we have had several other prolific crotchetiers contribute their labors to the ministry for which I am very grateful. At this time we have distributed many prayer shawls and received numerous positive comments regarding the impact of the prayer shawls on peoples lives.
When prayer shawls are being made the one making the shawl is praying for the individual to receive the shawl usually it is unknown who will receive the shawl though sometimes they are special made for an individual with a specific prayer concern. The shawl is then washed with hypoallergenic detergent and dried with hypoallergenic fabric softener sheet to avoid static. The shawl is then sealed up in a bag a placed in a basket at the church along with the gift bags prepared with a sheet of cardstock containing the history of prayer shawls one side and scripture readings for different prayer concerns on the other side. Enclosed also is the Pastors card as well as the Parish Nurse’s card with numbers to contact with concerns and needs.
