For Phillip, with Love

We make prayer shawls and give them to people who are grieving. We send them to members of our congregation, to the next of kin of soldiers lost in war, to friends who lose their sons all too soon and in tragic, senseless ways.

We never quite know if what we do is something useful. We don't ask people if they want a shawl, we just send them one. For all we know, we could be intruding on someone's private pain and giving them something we think will make it just a little better.

Corp. Phillip Brodnick was killed in Iraq in a Blackhawk crash. We sent a prayer shawl to his mother and one to his father. Last week, we received a check for $100 from his mother for our ministry. She told me in a phone call she wanted to make a donation and we expected to receive maybe $25. $100 for our ministry is enough for 5 prayer shawls, but the way we will do it, we will get 15-20 prayer shawls from this donation.

This gracious and wonderful donation has inspired us to create a program called "For Phillip, with love." Each prayer shawl we make that includes a skein of yarn purchased with this donation will include a note that says: "This prayer shawl made possible through the donation of a soldier's family." in the corner will be the letters FPWL. The yarn we purchase will be placed on the altar during a worship service and blessed.

In the future, anyone who makes a donation of cash or yarn will be able to designate who the items will go to: children, women's shelters, wounded soldiers, even animals and there will be a note commemorating the donation and in the corner will be the FPWL - "For Phillip, with love" because this program started with a mother's love and her desire to pay it forward.