Have a friend with a recent diagnosis or a family member who has been in treatment a while?
Sometimes we aren't able to physically help or we live too far away to provide a meal, so we have to put our full efforts into prayer.
Do you have some go-to verses you turn to when you're praying over someone with a specific health need?
My friend and fellow Bible Quilter, Fran, constructed a list of scripture references a few months ago and our mutual friend, Mary Jo, formatted them into a set of flip cards.
I printed out a set onto cheerful yellow card stock to keep available for those on my prayer list. Recently I pulled them out to finish up a BQ page for a long-distance friend.
I had already used her "go-to" verse because I believe it's powerful to join in corporate prayer together, claiming the same scriptures over a situation. I incorporated a photo of one of my own favorite verses and embellished with some of her colors.
When my sister-in-law was facing cancer, I made a BQ page to focus my prayers over her and gave it to her as an encouragement. I invited some family friends to join me and to share their pages with Audra when they felt like the timing was right. Taking a photo with the pages helped personalize the outreach of support and using the same sunburst template showed our solidarity on her behalf.
We adopted yellow into our pages to brighten Audra's spirits as she navigated surgery and treatment. I found handwritten scriptures from my Mom and our mother-in-law to add onto my page for even deeper meaning. Although the pages were made to support Audra, we all benefited from digging into scripture and praying to our Lord when we were uneasy about this harsh diagnosis for our loved one. It helped us feel unified in supporting her from near and far.
In the meantime, Audra was rallying her own scriptures as she embarked upon her treatment journey. She identified all her concerns and side effects then gathered verses to combat these. After she made beautiful #biblequiltjournal pages for both chemo and radiation, she distributed them to her prayer partners so we could join in collective agreement with her.
I added a ribbon to mine so I could hang it in my devotional corner and have it visible throughout the day. I set an alarm on my phone for her treatment times so I could renew my prayers at those specific parts of the day.
These pages were so powerful for all of us praying upon Audra's behalf. I'm happy to report that Audra is on the other side of treatment and has been given an "all-clear." And she has gained quite a testimony re: the power of prayer!
Recently I tweaked the path template as a page for anyone to use for a Journey of Healing page, which can be adapted for any particular situation and modified for the individual involved.
If you or someone you love is challenged with a health issue, this might be an additional tool in your arsenal to cultivate scriptures into a personalized prayer resource.
By the way, this template could also be used as a way to document one's grief journey and many of these same types of outreach can be used to comfort those suffering loss.
Sometimes we can feel helpless to know what to do when a loved one is suffering, but joining together with a friend to talk it out and develop a plan of mutual support is a great way to move forward.
"For where two or three gather in My name, there am I with them"
If you have other ideas for how to use BQ pages to support others in time of need or have some go-to resources of your own, please share with us in the comments!