Prayer Spaces & Seagull Poo

This prayer, tied onto our Prayer Tree in Frances Bardsley School today, caught my attention. I guess because it says it all... God, we need help.

We opened the fourth Prayer Space week at Frances Bardsley today - the first one (the first of eleven in our Borough so far), in November 2008, was an incredible experience for all of us who were involved. I think it really took us by surprise, in many ways.

We weren't expecting the raw honesty of the student's prayers, nor their enthusiastic engagement with our simple, creative prayer stations. This isn't a 'religious' school, don't forget. Two years (and many Prayer Space weeks, in many other schools) further on, and our experiences are teaching us to expect this raw honesty and enthusiastic engagement.

Young people have big questions about their lives, about our messed-up world, about relationships and belonging, and they want the space to ask them without feeling judged. And they want to be loved, and valued. And, I'm realising more and more, many of these young people also want to believe.

For the first time, we're hosting the Prayer Space across two rooms, which has allowed us to develop some of the existing prayer stations and introduce some new ones. Over the week, I'll post a bunch of pics of the stations, and some of the beautiful prayers that the students are drawing and writing. Here's a few of them...

1. The World Wall... we've used this in almost every Prayer Space so far. And as usual, students have almost covered the world map with post-it note prayers after only one day. Prayers for friends and family around the world, for soldiers in Afghanistan, for animal species on the verge of extinction, for our economy, for war-town nations and disaster zones, and even for the 'celebrities' current camped in the Australian jungle. ;)

2. CRISIS... The school have adopted CRISIS as their charity this year, so we decided to create a prayer station around homelessness, to link in. Students could write a short prayer on a small cutout sock and blu-tac it to the wall. Some of the prayers were beautiful. One girl even asked if there was a way that she could get involved, helping homeless people somehow. I love this. This is a sign of the kingdom of Heaven... as we pray our prayers, God injects compassion into our hearts and we are empowered to become the beginnings of an answer to those prayers.

3. Big Questions... Perhaps my favourite prayer station/zone, the space to ask prayer-questions. The Bible is full of them. Even Jesus asked prayer-questions... and some of his weren't answered as he'd have liked. God, I'm sure, is OK with our raw, honest questions.

4. Prayer (Christmas) Tree... Instead of a Prayer Wall, we've gone with a seasonal tree this year, and it's already covered in prayer-labels of all kinds. Pleases. Thank yous. And plenty of "Help me" prayers too.

A few moments really stick in my mind from today... the year 7 girl who said that when she screwed up the bit of paper that she'd written the things she wanted to say sorry on, and threw it into the bin, she "felt really weird. I felt lighter!" She was surprised. I just smiled.

The three year 10 students I sat and talked with during their Citizenship lesson in the Prayer Space. One of them talked, through her tears, about the hard time she was having with her boyfriend... and that led into a conversation about our value as human beings, and choosing to believe that we're worth more than the way we're treated sometimes. We prayed together at the end.

Another year 10 girl emerged from the Who Am I? zone, which consists of a series of mirrors hanging inside a gazebo-tent with quotes and questions written on each one, looking genuinely surprised. "The wasn't what I expected," she said. "Usually, when you go out, you just look at your hair or clothes, but you don't see yourself. I don't think I've ever done that before." She stuck around all lunchtime to talk with one of the team.

Overall, once again, I am amazed. Amazed at what happens when we make time and space for prayer, for people to connect with God. As we draw near to God in simple, creative ways, something truly, inexplicably incredible happens... God draws near to us.

Here's a few of the things that the students wrote as feedback today.

And my personal favourite. Prayer Spaces, apparently, are not only effective in helping people to connect with God. They also protect you from seagull poo!?

For more information on Prayer Spaces in Schools, check the new website.