GOD'S REDEMPTIVE LOVE IN OUR SUFFERING

Robin continues (see June 15th post) to tell us about the prayer stations she created for our weeks of prayer. She says:

Another station the Lord laid on my heart was a suffering station. I did not have any particular ideas in mind, but I knew the Lord had commissioned me to do this. So I set about to talk with people about it. One of the first people I talked with was Trish Wiesling. In our conversation she mentioned something about a weaving; immediately that reminded me of a weaving idea I had seen at a children’s historical museum. Next I talked with several people who had been through some very poignant suffering and took notes about their experience. It seemed fitting to use "speak bubbles" (like in cartoons) to communicate about the feelings and process of dealing with suffering. Angie Warren offered the book “Streams in the Desert” to be used at the station. Frederick Moor built the wooden frame for the station. Several people offered fabric scraps. Judi Clark helped me wire and bead the speak bubbles to the frame. Angie Platten offered a frame and paint. Bit by bit it came together. Collectively three beautiful weavings were completed over the two weeks. It is a testimony of God’s love and redemption to use this station for His glory in our lives. -- Robin

I thought it would be helpful to explain how the station "worked," in terms of the weavings. Below the frames, or looms, there were baskets of strips of cloth. Each basket had strips of the same color, and each basket was labeled with a different type of suffering, for instance, "abuse," "death," or "persecution." The idea was to come before the Lord and allow Him to speak to and reveal to and minister to you, and then weave a strip or strips into the corporate weavings that represented your own suffering experiences. Another one of my deeply moving "snapshot" moments was seeing a young person who had recently gone through incredible loss come in and spend time in front of the suffering station. I know this was just one of many who came through the doors and were ministered to by the profound "meeting-place" this station created between ourselves, our pain and loss, and our Comforter. -- Paula

(The photos above show the sign on the station, the empty looms and station on the first day, the baskets of cloth stips, and the full and finished corporate weavings as they currently hang in our sanctuary foyer)