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Linda Post Bushkofsky, executive director, is working on a prayer shawl to donate at the Ninth Triennial Gathering. |
Women and girls across the church are invited to engage with the Ninth Triennial Gathering theme, of many generations, whether or not they are attending the gathering in Charlotte, N.C., this July.
Prayers are invited for the participants and the presenters, that the experience may strengthen and challenge them in their faith walks.
On a more tangible level, women are invited to gather in-kind gifts, make prayer shawls or participate in a quilt challenge. Downloadable fact sheets for each of these three projects are available.
In-kind gifts
Women and girls can focus on one in-kind gift or collect all of them. It can be a congregational unit project or it can involve the whole congregation. Participants are invited to add in a local component by giving a gift in their community for every gift given to the triennial gathering collection.
Will 2011 giving be exceeded? At that gathering, participants collected $10,420 in gift cards, 11,160 minutes of phone cards, 600 health kits, hundreds of school supplies, 58 clothing support kits and nearly 800 bags of socks, all given to Spokane, Wash.-area agencies and ministries. In addition, participants made 80 quilts on site that were given to Lutheran World Relief.
Prayer shawls
“Over 2,200 prayer shawls were made and donated in 2011 at our Eighth Triennial Gathering,” reports Linda Post Bushkofsky, executive director. “Can we exceed that number this year?”
Shawls can be made by women working alone, or women can gather together regularly to knit or crochet the shawls. “Imagine women and girls of all ages, gathering in prayer, learning from and with each other, creating beautiful shawls together,” says Post Bushkofsky. “It’s a tangible introduction to our gathering theme, of many generations.”
Quilt challenge
Quilters of all abilities are invited to create a quilt interpreting the Ninth Triennial Gathering theme, of many generations. The challenge comes not only in interpreting the gathering theme but also in working within certain rules. New to the challenge in 2014 is the requirement that all quilts must include the challenge fabric. To obtain a fat-quarter of the challenge fabric, send an email request to [email protected], or call 800.638.3522, ext. 2730.