(Seguin) — If you live or work in Seguin, then there’s a pretty good chance that you’ve already come across a reminder to pray. Red and white heart signs that have the word “Pray” printed across the middle are beginning to spring up on local lawns thanks to an effort to bring folks together.
Spearheading that effort are the students and staff at First United Methodist Church Weekday School.
School Director Michelle Belden says if they were going to fundraise, then they wanted their efforts to benefit more than just their campus.
“We just started selling about three weeks ago. We had been talking about it this year to do it. We thought there was a lot of craziness going out in the world and we had heard of another school in another area of Texas that did it and so then we just thought this was the time that we needed to get them out there for people to pray for everything that is going on right now,” said Belden.
Belden says after the first sign was spotted in town, it didn’t take long for the message to spread elsewhere.
“Oh, everybody just thinks it’s amazing right now.You have people coming and purchasing them that they asked their neighbor where they got there’s and our school is not only local to Seguin. We have people in New Braunfels. We have people around and so they are just everywhere and people are just coming. We have some in Luling. I actually just took a trip this weekend to McAllen, Texas. I’m from the Valley and on my way down, I saw one off of (Highway) 77 and then I was coming back up 281 and I saw one on (Highway) 281 and those are like Corpus area, Kingsville area. They are everywhere,” said Belden.
Belden says their hope is that the message on each sign reaches as many folks as possible. She says afterall, we can all use a reminder.
“We just want it out there for people to look at when you can pray anytime of the day, anywhere and it’s just a reminder out there, a sign of hope for our community with COVID, with the election with everything just kind of crazy right now. I just think that’s what we need is to pray. It’s just a reminder out there. We are a Methodist Church but it’s for everybody. Every religion prays so it’s not specified for a certain religion. It’s out there for everybody. You pray whether or not you are Methodist, whether you are Catholic. It’s just something that is out there for everybody to see,” said Belden.
Plus as a bonus, Belden says each sign comes with its very own special blessing.
“Our kids, actually, we blessed them in our chapel with all of our students. We have 112 students right now and they all prayed over the signs so we hope that it’s a blessing to everybody that has them,” said Belden.
Signs are $10 each and can be purchased at the church or school offices. The signs will be available Mondays through Fridays from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. or in between each mass on Sunday. Cash and checks are accepted. Signs can also be purchased via the cash app Venmo @school@fumcseguin.com. First United Methodist Church is located at 710 N. Austin St.