Diane Cone is a literalist in the best sense of the word. After reading an April 2007 article in The Lutheran, she decided it was her task and opportunity, literally, to follow up. The article gave a viewpoint on prayer, something Cone has been doing with passion for a long time.
The Lutheran article appeared under the headline “Let us pray for our seminary students.” Cone has never been to seminary — nor college, for that matter — but she knows the value of the ELCA’s theological schools. They’ve provided the pastors for her congregation, Salem Evangelical Lutheran in Fontanelle, nine miles north of Fremont, Neb.
Her current pastor, Robert Hayden, graduated from Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, Calif. A previous pastor, Charles Bichel, now retired, attended Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa.
Because she had maintained cordial relationships with both pastors, Cone decided to start praying for seminarians on those two campuses.
Not sure exactly how to begin, she went to a neighborhood store and purchased a package of eight greeting cards of the “thinking-of-you” variety. In each she wrote a message explaining that, though she had never met the recipient, she was praying for him or her. She included contact information, sealed all the cards and sent them off — four to each seminary.
And then she began to pray.
Over time, two students responded — one from each school. Cone still communicates with one of them, Wartburg Seminary graduate Lori Betz, now serving as a pastor in Wisconsin.
Cone has found other creative ways to make her prayers concrete. “I knit 5-inch ‘prayer squares’ that people can hold onto in times of crisis,” she said. “The recipients know I prayed over them as I made them.”
She also knits prayer shawls for individuals facing challenging circumstances. Some of the shawls are given to parents of infants being baptized. The infants receive “prayer blankets.”
So far, Cone has made and distributed more than 600 prayer shawls and blankets.
Members of her congregation became aware of her efforts when she agreed to tell a “faith story” at worship on Thanksgiving Eve several years ago.
Her family is also well aware of what she’s up to. “In church one Sunday,” she said, “my grandson saw a woman seated in front of us. He said, ‘Look, Grandma, there’s one of your shawls. You made that.’ ”
The article in The Lutheran didn’t get Cone started in a rich prayer life. She’s been nurturing that practice since childhood. But that article she read was the catalyst to turn her attention in a direction it had never pointed before. And it has expanded her world.
