Telling our stories with fabric squares.
I recently squeezed in a trip to Seattle to lead five events/workshops using art to tell our stories. The first gathering was with my team traveling to Peru in August. We used four fabric squares to tell our stories. Then, we prayed for each other as our stories of hope, violation, betrayal, loss, hard and hardship came tumbling out. We grew closer as we became careful listeners to each others’ stories.
Putting our “stories” together.
Finally, we put all our “stories,” which were 8 inch square cards, together to form a beautiful tapestry. We saw how each of our stories mattered for the whole story – God’s story. I then took one square away, and we saw that God’s story is incomplete without all of our stories.
Questions to ponder from Mark 2:1-12
For the next several workshops, I used the above format after teaching on the Mark 2:1-12 passage. I asked participants to think of not only their immediate needs, but perhaps their deeper soul needs and people they can bring to Jesus for His care.
Answering the questions.
A participant’s work.
A participant’s work.
A participant’s work.
After a time of collaging the answers to the questions, each person turned to their neighbor and shared their work. Each listened carefully to the other’s story. Then, they prayed for each other. It’s amazing to me to watch as people take time and care to hear each others’ stories and pray.
