It was a big enough ambition for the Barrow Anna Chaplaincy project – to coordinate the knitting of 700 holding crosses that were to be individually wrapped and delivered to all Barrow care homes, assisted living and sheltered accommodation. But God had even bigger plans than that in mind!
It didn’t look that way, though, when, with just two weeks to go, the team were still a way off their target – even with local church and community members knitting away. Anna Chaplain Babs Lowes told us what happened next…
God’s miraculous provision
‘We began to pray for double portions, because that was what we needed, and we trusted in God that he would answer.’ And so the crosses kept arriving, including some ‘we had no idea were being knitted; some were even pushed through my letterbox, from whom we do not know!’
As the Anna Chaplaincy team set about bagging and labelling the wrapped crosses, ‘it became abundantly clear that God had been faithful and we did have some spares,’ says Babs, ‘so we delivered all of the assigned crosses and even filled a bag for the hospital from two large bags. I cannot explain what happened, except that these two bags appeared to be bottomless.’
‘All I can say, is that the maths just did not work out. It reminded me of the miracle of the loaves and the fishes… We can account for 700 crosses but our faithful God enabled us to deliver approximately 1,000.’
With God ‘moving in the midst’ the team were able to deliver their holding cross gifts throughout the whole Furness peninsula, including to a homeless shelter and a hospice.
Read the full story and download the knitted crosses pattern on this Anna Chaplaincy blog.
For a constantly updated collection of resources, reflections and stories from around the Anna Chaplaincy network, curated by Debbie Thrower, go to the Anna Chaplaincy blog page.
