A few weeks ago, I helped my friends from re:generation church host the third prayer space in Frances Bardsley School for Girls in twelve months. I confess I'd been worrying that familiarity with the creative prayer space 'format' would mean that the students were less interested and less engaged... I needn't have worried.
We adapted a few of the prayer stations and tried out a couple of new ideas too, which was fun;
The Prayer Wall... the usual - all kinds of prayer on post-it notes. We were surprised at the number of 'RIP' messages on the Wall this time, many for family members.
My favourite Prayer Wall prayer was this one... "Dear God, I swear I saw you in my room?"
Be Sorry... we invited students to write their confessions on scraps of paper and then screw them up and throw them in a 'sin bin' as a sign of saying sorry.
During the reflection/feedback afterwards, it was amazing to hear a few students said that they "felt something" as they threw their 'sins' away... I responded by explaining that in one of John's letters, he says that God forgives and heals us of our sin, and that perhaps this is what they were experiencing? ;)
Big Questions... as usual, we encouraged the students to consider their theoretical/ideas, 'head' questions as well as their personal, 'heart' questions, and to offer these as prayers to God. The Bible reveals to us a God who is not threatened by our questions, not offended and not angered, but a God of compassion who listens... who often weeps with those who weep.
And as usual, the students covered the walls with their thoughtful, angry, heart-breaking questions. I wish I had the space to post them all here, but I don't. Here are just a few...
On the Wednesday, one girl pointed to the Big Questions wall when asked what her favourite part of the room was. She explained, "It was good to write my questions down. I felt like even though I didn't get an answer, I still felt like it was OK... almost like I *did* receive an answer, just by asking my question?"
There are days when Megan asks why her friends have been mean to her at school, or when Poppy feels the loneliness of being deaf and 'different'... I can't always *answer* their questions, but I can wrap my Daddy-arms around them and hug them tightly and tell them I love them more than anything in the world. And in that moment, sometimes they receive "an answer" that removes all the pain and the power from the question. I think that's what the girl at Frances Bardsley meant...
We also had a Where Do You Live? prayer station, a Be Still/Chill out tent, a Be Forgiven zone, the Prayer Chair and a Start Freedom prayer station, all about anti-human trafficking (but I'm going to write a bit about that over the next day or so).
A highlight duing the week for me was a conversation I had with a small group of sixth formers from a variety of religious backgrounds. I can't honestly remember how the conversation unfolded, but having explored 'How does God speak to us?' amongst other puzzles, it eventually got around to Jesus, and what Jesus reveals about God. Inevitably, we found ourselves talking about love - God the Father's incredible, guilt-and-fear-and-pain-melting love.
When the conversation paused, I offered to pray for them all, for God to speak to them individually, and for them to fully experience God's love, God's 'cuddle'. I prayed something short and simple and then looked up, and to my surprise saw that three of them were in tears. Somehow, the divine love we'd been talking about had become a real in-that-moment experience. 'Head' questions had been displaced by 'heart' experience.
The conversations and the praying continued, and here's the incredible feedback that two of the girls wrote on our reflection-table a couple of days later...
"this week... has given me a new start... a new way of thinking..."
"Just felt as if God himself was here..."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
This evening, Ben Poch and I have been sitting in the Liberty Bell pub in Romford, excitedly scribbling plans for prayer rooms in schools all over our Borough on a scrap of paper. In addition to Frances Bardsley School for Girls, five more secondary schools in Havering have booked whole weeks during this academic year so far, and a handful of others still might. A couple of primary schools are possibilities too. It's all going a bit crazy!
And then across the UK, we're hearing of more and more 24-7 style prayer spaces taking places in all kinds of schools. God is up to something. Have a read of Joe Knight's brilliant blog-reports from a school in Gloucester last week. Or Rach Warwick's fantastic quotes, from a school in Chertsey.
Or... perhaps you could host your own? ;) Email us at schools@24-7prayer.com and we'll send you a little resource pack we've put together.
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