The idea of creating prayer scarves and using the profits to support the victims of human trafficking seemed to come out of nowhere. I was visiting overseas for work, and while we were there, my family and I rented a cottage on the shores of a shining lake. Every day, I would walk beside the lake reciting words from Psalm 23 – “he leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul”. Suddenly the words “still water scarves” came into my mind, and I saw the concept of a beautiful scarf, a prayer scarf, with a verse from scripture and beautiful New Zealand artwork. I imagined the scarf being an expression of praise and a blessing for the person wearing it.
But how do we know when God has put a call on our hearts? It seemed a very strange and unexpected thing for me to be called to – I’m a teacher, not an artist or manufacturer or salesperson. I didn’t know how to make a scarf or how to sell one! How did I know this was from God and not some fanciful idea of my own?
Eddie O’Connor, who is an Ignatian spiritual director and a teacher of Christian meditation, advised me to take one step. He said if this was from God, doors would open. And they did! I contacted five New Zealand artists, asking if they would donate their images for our ministry. I hoped one of them might reply – but to my amazement they all did, all enthusiastic about being part of this work. One of the artists led me to a graphic designer who offered to add the Bible verses to the images.
Then I found someone who could make the scarves. When five beautiful scarves arrived, I felt very vulnerable showing them to people – what if no-one else shared this vision? But God is faithful – it was a joy to see people respond, to see them catch this idea and ask how they could buy these prayer scarves for friends and family.
Eddie describes our work with God as a dance: God plants an idea, and we take one step of obedience. God responds and we again take one more step. We are called, as Eddie says, not to be passive observers, or to force something through our own volition; we are called to the dance.
So, will you join us in this dance with God? This week we celebrated the Feasts of All Souls and All Saints. One idea you might consider at this time is buying two scarves: one for yourself as a gift from someone who has passed on to glory, and one to gift to another person you would want to wrap in a prayer.
Perhaps you know a young mother who would love a scarf for herself or her baby (our scarves are big and make beautiful baby wraps).
Perhaps there are people you love who could receive a prayer scarf as a very special Christmas gift?
Could you tell others about our work or promote our website on your Facebook or Instagram page (here’s the link to our site: https://stillwaterscarves.org/).
Do you have ideas about other organisations who might promote this concept – or could you bring helpful skills to our team? Most of all could you pray for us and for the victims of human trafficking – millions of women and children need our help.
We are all called to the dance with God. And even when we take the smallest steps, we can make a big difference when God is our partner.
We will be visiting the parish to sell our scarves on the weekend of the 29th/30th October and again on the 6th November at the Cathedral and 12th November at Our Lady of Lourdes.
To read more about Still Water Scarves, visit our website here: https://stillwaterscarves.org/.
To contact us, email Lisa at l.emerson@massey.ac.nz