As I’ve said, it’s become clear that this journey is about two things: making rosaries and developing a prayer life. Today’s update is about the rosary-making.
After receiving this rather unconventional call I admit that I was pretty excited. I LOVED the idea of making rosaries, again because I have always loved rosaries and because I love anything crafty.
But my excitement soon turned to terror: I didn’t know how to make rosaries. Plus, I don’t have a natural talent for choosing colors and designs (I really have to work at it). I don’t know the first thing about beading. I don’t (fill in the blank). There were many reasons that I could come up with for why I was not up to this challenge. But I also knew this made me the perfect candidate for such a call from God.
So I dove in the water, so to speak. I did a lot of research and decided to start by making Anglican prayer beads, thinking that these would have broader appeal to my fellow Protestants, and realizing that rosaries are technically harder to make. I then started checking out the local bead stores and got a 5-minute lesson on how to make prayer beads. I tried my hand at it and was shocked when it actually worked and no lives were lost. Who knew?!? The following weeks were spent creating more designs and overcoming various crises of confidence.
My church was having a community-wide yard sale on September 12th and had invited local crafters and other vendors to have booths as well. I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to introduce the beads on a small scale. But once I got set up at the sale I worried that this was the wrong venue for the beads, not just because people were primarily there to find a bargain on household items, but also because this was the heart of Southern Protestantism. We Methodists are not, generally, the prayer bead type. Nor are our Baptist and Presbyterian neighbors. How well would these beads play in Canton, GA, much less Peoria?
Rather than feed my fear I used the time, sitting alone at my booth, to pray, and to have faith that, if this really is what God is calling me to do, then eventually the beads would find an audience, whether today or some other day. But I didn’t have long to worry. Within an hour we had sold 2 sets, both from the Icon Series, and by the end of the sale I had sold 2 more sets and gotten an order for a CUSTOM set (how cool is that?!?). And more importantely, I had seen that there were many people who were open to the idea of using prayer beads to enhance their prayer life. All in all, the day was way more successful than I had anticipated.
So that’s where I am, so far. I’ve posted pictures of the bead sets I’ve created (on the page titled “Our Prayer Beads”). My next step is to set up a page on Etsy.com to introduce them to the rest of the world, and hopefully, to begin to sell them in earnest.
I’ll keep you posted. One bead at a time.
