By DIANE GASPER-O'BRIEN

dobrien@dailynews.net

Kim Heron ran across a prayer afghan when she was looking for crochet patterns on the Internet.

She ran with the idea and had a friend help her make a prayer quilt.

The prayer quilt, along with prayer swatches of material for your pocket, were a big hit at this past weekend's Multi-Generational Midwest Kansas Women's Conference at Celebration Community Church in Hays.

So, too, was keynote speaker Jan Blurton Cummings, one of Celebration's own who returned home to give an inspiring address Saturday morning.

The theme for this year's version of the conference, in its third year, was "Reflections."

And reflect Cummings did, talking about her faith journey as a youngster to her involvement in her church as an adult.

Cummings, who was in middle school when the Celebration ministry was started in Hays in the late 1990s, now lives with her husband, Andrew, in Dallas, where she is volunteer service coordinator for the children's ministry at Providence Church.

A 2003 graduate of Hays High School, Jan Cummings was active during her high school days at Celebration, where she became director of college ministry while attending Fort Hays State University.

She gives credit to her many years of experiences at Celebration for building a solid foundation for herself, giving her the tools to teacher others about God.

"This is my passion, this is my dream," she said. "If it weren't for Celebration, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing."

Heron, a member of Celebration for about six years, and another church member, Vera Haver, had on display one of their prayer quilts.

Any time you tie a knot in one of the strings, Heron explained, say a prayer for someone.

"Sometimes people just need something tangible (to hold onto)," Heron said. "It's nice to have something you can touch."

Ericka Pfeifer, one of the co-chairwomen of the event along with Vicki Albrecht, said the conference was started in 2009 because there were no events of its kind in the area and that it's hard for women, especially mothers, to get away for an extended period of time.

The conference began Friday night with keynote speaker Patrick McGinnis, a staff member at Celebration and who is studying in the Master of Divinity program at Rockbridge Seminary.

It continued through the day Saturday, with numerous workshops designed specifically with women in mind.

"We were not wanting to take long trips for women of faith," Pfeifer said. "And it's gone over well."

Albrecht agreed, saying there were 150 participants this year, after about 200 each of the first two years, even after the date had to be changed.

And, Albrecht added, they already are looking ahead to next year.

"We get the same response every year," Albrecht said. " 'Please do it again.' "