Did you watch the final episode of The Sopranos tonight? We did. I have to say it reinforced my decision to stop watching about two seasons ago. Tonight's episode left me thinking, meh. No big deal. The guys liked it, though. They've continued to be fans all along.
Yesterday brought a big ceremony to honor the newest guided missile destroyer to the fleet - the USS Kidd was in port at Galveston. It is named for the Admiral of the USS Arizona, attacked at Pearl Harbor. The completion of the destroyer was delayed about a year, due to damages suffered during Hurricane Katrina.
A group of women began meeting once a month at Lakewood United Methodist Church here in Houston with the purpose of quilting about seven years ago. You may have seen the church on tv sometime. It is a huge place, one of those megachurches you see stories about. The pastor, Joel Osteen, took over the church leadership from his father who started the church. It has grown leaps and bounds and is now located in a former athletic arena. Osteen is the best selling author of one book on faith and has a couple more on the way to being released.
This program at the church, one of tons of programs available, is called Prayers and Squares and it is known as a quilting ministry. They've made nearly 2,500 prayer quilts for sick babies, adults and those need. The women use an assembly line method with 35 to 40 sewing machines set up and ready for use when the quilting volunteers arrive.
Each quilt is sent off with a note, a prayer enclosed, and the church's name. The notes state: "We have prayed for you and asked God to protect and comfort you. May you feel His nearness and the loving presence of His peace.
The quilts are made of 100 percent cotton fabric and most of it is donated to the project. Since March, Prayers and Squares has made 165 quilts for wounded soldiers in Texas hospitals, according to the Houston Chronicle.
"I understand why we are there, and I support our troops and our president, but these injured soldiers need our help. If we can give them one little thing...if we can put our arms around them and love them...that's what these prayer quilts are doing. And it's what God wants us to do." So said one quilter who feels the project is her calling.
Lakewood is an Evangelical Christian church. Remember when a certain loud-mouth bully on a network morning chat show stated that Evangelical Christians were just as dangerous as Islamofacists? I don't know. When I think of Islamofacists I don't have a vision of a quilt in my mind.
Maybe it's just me.
6 comments:
That sounds like a neat ministry.
And, really, when's the last time an Evangelical detonated themselves anywhere in the world? What a baseless comparison...
Thanks for some good news, PP!
Just started watching Soprano reruns, I've a lot of catching up to do. I've been starving since the Godfather :)
It's good to feel you are wrapping your arms around a wounded vet, however you can. The quilters should feel that way. I hope we can wrap some of them for life. I'm talking about the amputees and burn victims.
Our World Trade Center and Flight 93, even the Pentagon provided little example of why these people suffer so for us. Most of them died.
I wonder if anyleft wing org.'s have done anything for our wounded?
Thank you for telling about the "Prayers and Squares." That's a wonderful thing to do. Yes, we are a dangerous lot, aren't we.
I am having issues with the ending of the Soprano saga. However, I'm greatly enjoying poring over the message boards for whackos and theories and all manner of interesting "coincidences" I never would have caught on my own.
Don't stop believin'. That's what the man said. ;-)
I so agree with what Beverly said... I find hope in my faith that this world can never crush... no matter what!
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