As she approaches her final year as a student at Southern Methodist University’s Perkins School of Theology, Macy Block has started a project that would help people who need inspiration in their lives.

The Montgomery County resident is working on prayer squares. She plans to give them to patients while she is completing a nine-month internship at Boone Hospital Center in Columbia that will start on Aug. 7.

“These can even go to staff members at Boone Hospital who are needing the same thing,” Block said. “I know that my lead chaplain passed out some prayer squares during the COVID-19 season. That really helped them get through the tough times of caring for so many COVID patients and just continuing to work through the situation that was going on. I think these will bring a good reminder of faith and physically something to hold on to so that they could feel the comfort in their hands and the feeling that hope gives them.”

Block said since she is not crafty enough to make the prayer squares, she asked some of her Facebook friends to help out.

“I asked if any one of them would be willing to make some of these prayer squares and to see if they would be interested in donating their time and their blessings to patients they don’t even know,” Block said.

Block has some prayer squares that were made by Linda Krattli, another Montgomery County resident.

“I didn’t tell her how many I needed,” Block said. “I don’t have a specific number or goal I’m trying to reach. I just told her wherever the spirit leads her is however many she would be willing to donate. It would be helpful, no matter what.”

Block graduated from Montgomery County High School in 2017. After graduating from Central Methodist University in 2021, Block decided to go to SMU to pursue a career as an ordained deacon at the United Methodist Church. She plans to graduate in May 2024.

“I quickly figured out in my senior year in high school that I was really called to ministry,” Block said. “I love the church and I love the Lord. I think there is a big need to love our neighbor as much as we can. I’m really passionate about that. I think that ordination is really the goal for me to serve the Lord and serve the people at the United Methodist Church.”

Block said her 25 hour-a-week internship at Boone Hospital is a major requirement for her seminary program.

“I took a class in January of this year that focused on hospital chaplaincy,” said Block, who plans to marry her fiancé Kaleb Storts on Aug. 12. “I really felt the strong calling to explore that career more. As I continue to explore hospital chaplaincy, I really felt like I could see myself doing that to be a hospital chaplain and to sit with people as they go through a pretty important time in their life. So as I was seeking an internship, I called Boone Hospital and they take student hospital chaplains occasionally. This was the time they were taking students. It worked out that I can be there for nine months and study under the lead chaplain up there.”

Anyone who would like to donate prayer squares can contact Block at 573-825-0806 or message her on her Facebook page (www.facebook.com/