The Story
How Prayerful Pieces, LLC Began
The other day, I reflected on my birthday and shared something about my life that really only hit me after I posted it. I wrote that I had accomplished all of my adolescent goals for adulthood by the time I was 30. That statement, written from humble wonder, sparked a little flame to expound on and that led me here: Prayerful Pieces, LLC.
This sweet, small business I started in my 31st year of living has been such an adventure in just doing the next thing God gives you to do. I want to share how I got here. I want to give you a little history and help myself remember what God has done!
Backing up to early 2017, I was driving down Wedgewood Ave. on my way to a weekend shift at a hospital in Nashville. I clearly remember my hands on the steering wheel and thinking that I had already accomplished all the goals I had in mind. I was the nurse administrator for a developmental agency in the town I lived in. My little family had grown and we had built our custom home. Our families were close. Ministry was fruitful. Life was full and we were healing from a wounded season.
And I popped on social media to ask the logical questions of the day: What do you do when you have achieved all of your “goals” or met all the expectations of those around you?
A friend responded and challenged me to prayerfully reevaluate my goals. I realized there was one goal we had put far off. We had always felt led to move to Ireland. We had a mission trip coming up to serve local churches there a few months later. I began to pray that the Lord would direct my steps again.
And He did.
By January of 2018, we were living in Ireland. It was a fruitful year. It was not easy but it was good. I started writing the heart lessons and moments I saw before me, as to never forget what God was doing.
Then our visas were denied for the second year of our commitment in 2019. We asked the Lord to show us what was next. Since then, He has faithfully and demonstratively directed our paths. He led us to places of service and healing, of pouring out and filling up. He has given us new dreams and goals.
When 2020 reshaped the pace of life for so many people, the Lord led us to a ministry change. We landed in a new town serving alongside people we love dearly. Ministry and life in that season looked different from the past 9 years as things slowed to more intentional movements for us. I was thankful for that slowdown and the opportunity to be a stay at home mom for the first time while we welcomed our fourth daughter into the family.
And I got out my sewing machine. I started to quilt and sew again. The girls got to be involved and put their hands to crafting. I began to pray about how my hands might serve the Lord in prayer and serve my family as a supplemental income. One conversation led me to reach out to see if anyone needed memorabilia quilted together for a keepsake. Another conversation led me to Proverbs 31 to be reminded of this resourceful, godly woman’s textile savvy. The next conversation led me to form an LLC and become a business.
By December of 2020, Prayerful Pieces, LLC was up and running! This was a goal I never actually dreamed up. I just kept praying and asking the Lord to show me what to do next. He showed up every time. He led me with His Peace like a pillar of cloud in the day and a pillar of fire in the night. He always has. It is so like Him to do so.
I realized that the past 10 years have been defined and refined by learning to follow Him better. Seeing that following lead to places I did not expect has been a blessing beyond what I could have asked or imagined.
But, that isn’t the end of the story for Prayerful Pieces, LLC.
By January 2021, the Lord gave me words to say. I wasn’t sure how to say them. He had been building them up in me for years and I had treasured the lessons in my heart with reverence. Then, God showed me how to share them and I began to write them down. They flew from my fingertips onto pages of writing with an easy peace. I knew they were first for the women of my local church.
Off I went to meet with the pastors and ask about sharing this collection of stories. I was ready to go by office depot and print off some packets. Maybe host a bible study! Something fun and light.
At the quilting table, I was praying about these stories and felt led to put them in a book. Fun and light was not the direction. Deep and sincere was the heart. The Lord then reminded me of a woman whose short biography I had just read and her devotion to writing for the church. Her story seemed familiar to my own, an encouragement to my new writer soul.
The next conversation I had at a play-date with one of kiddos offered me five minutes of advice that turned the whole situation in a new direction. I ended up leaving that moment realizing that my prayerful quilting had set up the funding to actually self-publish a book on prayerful moments!
The pastoral staff was supportive and I was encouraged to move forward. With beautiful cover art from a dear friend and thoughtful revision by an amazing group of women, Prayerful Pieces became a place for works of word and hand.
We shared Prayerful Pieces: Storied Moments of Tending the Heart with the women of my local church in the fall of 2021. It was humbling to receive their experiences with the words penned in a season of moment-by-moment obedience. I am still floored by the initial impact of those words.
This is now the work of Prayerful Pieces, LLC. As I head back into my passion as a full time registered nurse, my family is still committed to what Prayerful Pieces, LLC is doing. With my online shop filled with quilts, stories, table runners and devotional pages, we press on.
I love this little business that has been slowly building in the background. It’s a goal I never had, a blessing I did not know I would need.
I surely hope it blesses others and shines as a light in the darkness.
As always, In the Love of Christ,
Hannah
