Mocha Moments: Journal of Knitting Hearts ♥

On Saturday July 12, 2008, my Pastor preached a sermon about financial blessings. As he was ending his sermon, the Holy Spirit impressed me to go up for his appeal. I had no idea what his appeal would be and so I slightly ignored the impression. When he made his appeal, he asked 3 people to come to the front of the church. The Holy Spirit had already told me to get up and go, but because I am not always obedient to His promptings, I stayed seated. Two people got up and went to the front. Of course, it was not 3 because I was the 3rd person. Realizing that God was really serious about me getting up, I made my way to the front.

The Pastor issued a Financial Blessing Challenge giving us each $100 to invest into our surrounding church community. I begin immediately to pray that God would show me what He wanted me to do with the money, not realizing that He had already been preparing me for this very day.

So let's go back in time about 5 months. I participate in Sew Crafty Friday, hosted by Shereen . Each Friday, crafters link up to share what they have been working on through out the week. In February, there was a participant, Denise, who was making hats for the hospital in memory of her daughter. I was moved beyond explanation by the concept of donating hats to the hospital. It was not something that I was even aware of. This concept of ministry was heavy on my heart and so I immediately contacted her to get the pattern for the hats. She did not have a pattern and so my journey began to find a pattern to make hats for babies.

As I searched for patterns, I came across and organization called Stitches From the Heart. After reading how this ministry got started, I was further compelled to be a part of something like this.

My first hat pattern that I fell in love with was a knitted hat. The only problem is that I didn't know how to knit. I had never even held knitting needles in my hand before. A lady at my church teaching a quiliting class and is very crafty so I bought some needles and asked her and another lady to teach me. They both have different methods and so I went home frustrated and discouraged. I still couldn't get knitting off of my mind, so I did some searching on the internet and found http://www.knittinghelp.com/ What a wonderful site. They have videos that teach you how to knit and after watching all the video's I made this hat. The pattern can be found here.

In the second service at church, my Pastor explained the challenge and then asked more people to come up and join. My daughter accepted and immediately I thought that maybe God had given me this idea for her. She was not interested at all and decided to invest her money into the animal shelter nearby. After praying for another 30 days, I finally accepted the call that God was laying upon my heart. This ministry was for me and He would equip me to do it. He had in fact already been preparing me for it months in advance.

On Sunday, September 7th, I will begin the first class to teach others how to crochet this hat. Thanks to Bev for providing such wonderful hat patterns.