The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

None are exempt from experiencing hardship. As Helen Keller so aptly stated, "All the world is full of suffering. It is also full of overcoming."

In my experience, "over­coming" happens most quickly when we realize that we are not alone. Assuring people that they are loved, cared for and most of all not alone, is what the Waitsburg Prayer Shawl Ministry is all about.

Initiated by Joan Helm and sponsored by the First Christian Church, the Prayer Shawl Ministry began in the fall of 2009. Helm, a retired teacher, had spent time each year instructing fifth graders in Pam Conover's Waitsburg classroom in the fine art of knitting. After Conover's retirement, Helm found her interest piqued by the Deb­bie Macomber book, "Back on Blossom Street", which included a pattern for a prayer shawl and the inspir­ing quote: "Knitting a prayer shawl is 'putting legs to your prayers.' It is an outward re­minder that someone cares." Years ago, Helm herself was touched by the gift of a shawl when she lost her hus­band of 41 years, Jim.

Before starting anything "official", Helm recruited four ladies to aid her in responding to a need that had come to her attention: knitting scarves for the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Boise, Ida. The sense of accomplish­ment and fellowship enjoyed by this small group was just the motivation she needed to organize a full-fledged Prayer Shawl Ministry.

Today, Helm oversees Monday morning and eve­ning groups, working with ten ladies. She says that at least five of the women were previously non-knitters.

"Joan makes me feel like a success even when I'm ripping out rows," quipped one knitter.

New knitters are required to make the same knit-cov­ered hangers that Helm's fifth-graders did, before tackling their first shawl. The rectangular shawls are made with yarn donated by individuals or purchased through a Prayer Shawl Fund. Helm, an avid cou­poner, keeps a sharp eye out for sales, making the money stretch as far as possible.

Helm estimates that the group has donated more than 80 shawls. Most are gifted anonymously, and there is nearly always a stack at the front of the church sanctuary so that members may help themselves to a shawl for someone in need.

"Sometimes you might feel awkward visiting some­one you don't know well or that is not a church mem­ber," explains Pam Conover. "Taking them a shawl is a good opening and shows they are cared and prayed for."

Top: Joan Helm helps Pat Largent knit a shawl. Above: The finished products.

Shawls are not only given during times of distress, but at times of welcome and celebration as well. New­comers to town and parents welcoming a new baby have been some of the more joy­ous recipients. A soldier suf­fering from PTSD was given a shawl and instructed, "You are under a new Commander and this is your flak jacket!"

One particularly memo­rable recipient was a former Starbuck superintendent who was severely injured and lost her significant other in a tragic tour bus accident in Egypt. Interviews with her, on TV and in the Tri- City Herald, showed her in a wheelchair with the shawl on her lap.

A Walla Walla ministry even contacted Conover when they were short a shawl for the family of a local pilot killed in Afghani­stan.

"I know how good it would make me feel and what it would mean to re­ceive a shawl," said Cindy Standring, when asked what prompted her involvement in the ministry. That is the sim­ple, yet profound purpose of this group: sharing the love.

For more information on the Prayer Shawl Ministry, contact Joan Helm at 337- 6318.