This is my friend, Stephanie, who has such a heart for the Lord and is always engaging with her friends to encourage them in their faith.
My boys fell in love with the chicken & dumplings that Stephanie brought over for a family meal during my Mom's struggle with cancer. This is just one of the ways Stephanie extends the love of Christ to others - - - delivering nourishing meals and tokens of encouragement throughout a family crisis.
Stephanie and I both lost our sweet mothers within a couple weeks of each other, so we shared that heart-wrenching tender walk of grief together. We supported one another through the first year's milestones of mourning and released a mutual sigh of relief when we passed the one-year anniversary of our mother's deaths a couple months ago.
One thing I've learned about Stephanie is that she is "all in" regarding her family, friendships, and creative pursuits.
Stephanie created a beautiful Bible Quilt Journal page of her Mom's favorite verses, which she shared at her mother's memorial service.
Earlier this year Stephanie set up a luncheon for one of her friend groups and shared her Bible Quilting journey with them.
"We were called the Monday Night Live Group because we always met on Monday Nights due to the Hubs watching Monday night football and we were Monday Night widows! lol! Over the years this has had to change, but we still are the MNL Group! We have met for close to 30yrs.
This display was encouraged by the importance of "dwelling" in the dark places or hard places because that is when Light comes to comfort and lift our souls!
This was a hit!!
Thank you again for following the Lord to continue on with this ministry.
May the Lord bless it mightily and His Word spread in areas unbeknownst to many! Love you!" ~ ~ Stephanie
Stephanie set up cute tables full of BQ supplies for her friends to use.
She included colorful stickers and sparkly jewels for them to decorate their pages.
Each of the ladies personalized their pages, adding their own special verse onto their friends' pages for a beautiful collection of beloved scripture.
I loved hearing Stephanie's vision and collaborating with her ahead of time to generate a set of templates that would be especially meaningful for this dear group of friends.
Stephanie has graciously shared this design to become a #biblequiltjournal template, called My Cup Runneth Over, which is now available online.
In this period of social isolation due to the pandemic, I figured this would be a beneficial time to release this set to give all of us an opportunity to reach out to our friends and sisters-in-Christ.
Wouldn't it be fun to log in to a Zoom or FaceTime call with your girlfriends and share your favorite verses with each other? Then each of you would have a beautiful reference to pray for one another's families during this heavy emotional season.
Or, maybe you'd like to do a "progressive BQ party" by mailing a set between you and some friends? Each person adds their verse & embellishment, then mails it to the next person who adds her verse...gradually it makes all the rounds and everyone has a copy to keep. You can forward other tokens of encouragement while you're at it!
During this stay-at-home season, we can all use a little happy mail, right??
"My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends."
John 15:12-13
If this set is not your "cup of tea," then you might like this coffee cup design instead:
How do you nurture your friendships, especially during this time of social distancing??