The knitters, crocheters and card-makers combine their talents to create beautiful prayer shawls and pocket shawls that are blessed by the congregation. Shawls go to members of IUCC and to the friends and family of IUCC members. They are given to people who are ill or hurting but also to those celebrating joyous occasions such as births and graduations.

Recently, Duane and Jeff asked for a shawl for their dear friend James Payne III. Here’s and update on the power of the shawl:

“He was very appreciative and touched and knows that it has been blessed by the congregation as well as being the recipient of your ongoing prayer chain. It was he that suggested taking a picture of it to show his gratitude to you all.

Also, I wanted to give you an update and let you know that your prayers are working. Since we last saw James about a month ago (our travels have us from seeing him recently), he is now able to eat a soft diet where before he was strictly getting fed by tube feeds through his gastrostomy tube. He still has that in place but is less dependent upon it now. Of course, someone has to actually feed him, because he does remain essentially completely paralyzed. However, they have begun Botox treatments to relieve the pain in his contracted left arm with the hopes that it will relieve the contraction and allow his wrist to get to a more functional neutral position. Though still on a ventilator, he is now able to talk around his trach more consistently making communication with friends and family easier. It also allows him to use Alexa to perform commands for him so that he can text and communicate with friends and family as well as allowing him to connect to programs like Netflix, etc, to keep his mind active and avoid the boredom of long lonely days. These are all small miracles. Hopefully, over time they will add up to James hopefully being much more functional and hopefully independent in a wheelchair. We have to hope and pray for that eventual outcome.

In the meantime, thank you for all your love and generosity and keeping James in your thoughts and prayers. It obviously means a lot to him He is a man of faith who maintains a much more positive attitude than either of us think we would be able to muster in the same circumstance.

We are most grateful and so appreciative of our loving church family. Bless you all!”

Learn more about  Congregational Care and how you can share your talent through IUCC.