Monday, April 18, 2011 at 2:45PM This prayer blanket was made in Colorado while I was there on staff for the 2011 One Way Street Denver Festival. Sometimes one prayer blanket triggers a connection with many people in prayer, a powerful support, lifting up the needs of another person.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011 at 11:21AM Whether you're making a prayer blanket, prayer shawl, or prayer quilt, it might be the praying that's the stumbling block for you.
Praying can be difficult or easy, depending on how you frame it in your mind. If you think prayer is difficult because you’ve heard others pray and you think, I could never pray like that, then praying will be difficult for you.
If you see prayer as simply speaking to someone you love, it will be much easier.
God isn’t interested in fancy words, he’s interested in connecting with you...with whoever's praying.
“... Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.”
-The Message, Eugene H. Peterson -Matthew 6
Thursday, March 3, 2011 at 2:21PM Re-Post
Constructing the Prayer Blanket
If you’ve decided to make a prayer blanket for someone by yourself or wish to start a prayer blanket ministry, here are seven easy steps to follow when constructing your blanket. Remember to design your blankets with meaningful and applicable Scripture verses. And try using your imagination to make interesting-shaped pockets.
Step 1. Buy two one-and-a-half-yard pieces of fleece, one piece in a pattern or solid color and another in a complimentary color.
Step 2. Place both pieces of fleece together, right sides out, and line them up. They probably won’t line up perfectly, so trim the edges.
Step 3. Mark a seven-inch border all around the rectangle, using tailor’s chalk. Then cut out seven-inch squares from each corner. You will use one of these for the pocket.
Step 4. Trim down and sew the square on the front of the top fleece (anywhere you’d like) using a blanket stitch with embroidery thread in a second complimentary color. You can use a buttonhole stitch to add interest.
Step 5. Then put the two pieces of fleece back together again, right sides out, so the edges meet. Pin several times across the middle section to hold the blanket still as you cut the edges for fringe. Now cut one-inch widths of fringe on all four sides, cutting up to the tailor’s chalk line you made earlier. Be sure to cut both pieces of fleece at the same time. This gives you a seven-inch-long fringe to knot.
Step 6. Now it’s time to make the knots. I prefer making knots that lay flat and create a border effect around the blanket. To do that, hold your index finger between the bottom and top fringe pieces. Then pick up the bottom fringe and bring it up and around your finger in a counter-clockwise direction, one and a half circles to the tip of your finger. Push the end of the wrapped fringe down through the circle where your finger pokes out and bring it behind the longer fringe. When you tug on the back fringe, the knot tightens. When you tug on the top fringe, you can move the knot up to the top of the fringe. This creates a border around your blanket in the complimentary color.
Step 7. Finally, as you make the knots, pray for the person who will receive this prayer blanket. When you do this in a group, you’ll find that the shared experience of praying together and investing in another person’s life creates a bond with all of those participating in prayer. The Spirit of God is definitely present.
Thursday, February 3, 2011 at 1:00PM The Prayer Blanket Ministry taught me how to pray for others and from that how to abide in His Presence in prayer.
We know God speaks anywhere anytime. It doesn’t matter where we are, we also can pray anytime.
However, habit plays an effective role in prayer, adjusting kinesthetically to the connection with the Almighty Father, as we sense ourselves moving into His presence, inner eyes wide open, exploring, then captivated by His Powerful Presence with a crescendo of unplanned praise playing freely, unstoppable, until a pause between the notes shifts the scene. It takes us by surprise with an orchestra of fresh ideas, somewhere crossing the line between our own thoughts and His, not knowing which is which, not willing to pull back to explore it, not willing to miss a moment of it, held by some mysterious force… when suddenly the phone rings, bringing us back to earthbound lives.
