We will tell the next generation the praise worthy deeds of the Lord, His power and the wonders he has done.

PSALM 78:4, TODAY’S NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION

It’s unlikely that the composer of Psalm 78 imagined people sitting at tables in church basements copying Bible verses in fancy script and pasting photographs into scrapbooks.

But faithbooking is one way 21st century believers are chronicling their faith journeys – for their children and their grandchildren.

Kathy Walker, 62, of Hampden and Lisa Gardner, 40, of Brewer are devotees.

They recently participated in a workshop at Hampden Congregational Church on faithbooking, a form of scrapbooking.

Scrapbooking as a hobby became more popular after Sept. 11, 2001, Gardner said. “People felt compelled to get together and share their family histories and stories,” she said.

Gardner is a part-time consultant for Collective Memories, a Minnesota-based company that sells supplies and teaches scrapbooking techniques at home parties in 12 countries.

“Group scrapbooking has been called the ‘modern-day quilting bee.'” she said.

The Rev. Deborah Jenks, pastor of Hampden Congregational, had never heard of faithbooking before the workshop, but she was “very intrigued by the idea.”

“As pastors, we are trained these days to suggest things like journaling to people as something that can be part of their spiritual journey,” said Jenks, 52. “Faithbooking is a really creative way to expand that, to explore one’s spiritual life and to recount one’s growth and formation in relation to God. … It’s also a way to pass on a spiritual inheritance to your family.”

Gardner and Walker use the faithbooks they’ve created in both those ways.

“My idea was to look at it when I’m low or tired or doing my prayers as something to hold onto,” Gardner said, “and to help me see and visualize my faith.”

Walker also said she would use the book as a way to connect with her faith and the place it holds in her life, especially during February.

“I lost both my parents and my grandmother in February,” she said. “I need things like this so I can go back and remember and shed a few tears.”

Gardner has three sons between ages 8 and 11. She said that the album was a way for her to share with them the importance of faith in their mother’s life.

“Theirs is a different world than the one I grew up in,” she said.

Gardner grew up Methodist in Nettie, W.Va., a small town in America’s Bible Belt. One of her uncles was a Baptist preacher. Going to church was an integral part of her life.

“Whenever there was a service or a revival, you would go,” she said.

Walker had a similar experience, even though she grew up in Ryegate, Vt., next door to one of the most photographed churches in New England. The Ryegate United Presbyterian Church has appeared in countless calendars, picture books and postcards.

Scrapbookers tend to be savers, and Walker apparently comes from a long line of pack rats.

She included in her faithbook a certificate she earned for memorizing Bible verses with one gold star representing each one. Walker also pasted in pictures of herself at church camp and with the teenagers from other states whose summer mission trips included stopovers at the church next door.

On page one of Gardner’s faithbook, she included the first Bible verse she had to learn, John 3:16. As page decorations, she used all the flowers and pastel colors her sons won’t allow her to use in the scrapbooks that chronicle their young lives.

Walker based her faithbook on a rainbow theme. For example, yellow is where she put pictures of her “spiritual team” and mentors, including her parents and grandparents. Her “spiritual community,” including nearly all of the churches she has attended, is the green section.

“This is a wonderful, creative outlet,” said Walker, who retired last year after many years as executive director of the domestic violence support organization Spruce Run in Bangor. “I’m really big into preserving things, and this way I get them out of all those boxes under the bed and in the attic.”

For information about faithbooking, call Lisa Gardner at 989-2165.

Faithbooking is …

. A means to express our faith.

. A way to remember God’s faithfulness and presence in our daily lives.

. An eternal legacy for our children.

. A witnessing tool.

. A permanent reminder of our God moments and his hand in our lives.

. Obedience to God’s command to remember what he has done for us.

www.faithfullyyours.net.