WAHNEETA SEGREST

Age: 88

Community connection: Prayer shawl stitcher

Contact: Call Trinity Presbyterian Church of Port Neches at 722-4491 for information or to make donations to this ministry.

Quick Quote: “Lord God, you know the maker of this shawl prayed to you each time they touched it. We thank you for giving them the talent and the patience to enter into this ministry in such a tangible way.”

PORT NECHES —Most days Wahneeta Segrest’s lap is covered in soft, homespun yarn, as her needles generate rows of stitching that transform into prayer shawls.

Hardly a day goes by that she doesn’t start, add to or complete another shawl designed to warm, console and rejuvenate a body who needs it. If she didn’t pick up the yarn, there would be a gap in her day.

“It’s something you get used to doing. It’s like going to church. If you miss a couple of Sundays, you feel like you’ve missed forever,” the Nederland woman said.

At 88, Segrest is a deacon at Trinity Presbyterian Church of Port Neches and a main producer in the Prayer Shawl Ministry. She prefers crochet, but Doris Parsons, 73 of Nederland, switches from crochet to knitting to ease arthritis pain. The women supported then-pastor Gaither Bailey’s trip to a Houston workshop that started the seniors —and Bailey himself —on the ministry. Now Bailey has moved on to Kentucky and the church is seeking a new pastor. Being able to knit or crochet is not a criteria for the job, Segrest said.

Even though the time commitment to make the shawls is now routine, the focus is not.

“Each time we pick it up, we pray over it,” Parsons said.

Segrest said women get shawls and men get lap robes. Recipients are those who are ill, in retirement settings or have lost close family members.