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The past week has been much like the picture above. Blurry. I was ill for the most part, which wasn't so enjoyable but partly good for rest after a hectic few weeks. Gateshead, Nottingham, the prayer week in Bishops, re:Fresh gathering, Flicker prayer pilgrimage, speaking at Elim on 24/7 prayer; it all took it's toll and I half welcomed the time to stop and recoup. One thing I would have liked to have done though is blogged about how amazing Flicker was. We set up a treasure hunt type thing with some reflections for prayer, walking through the old parts of the city centre and ending with a nice chilled out café, and (due the low numbers) way too much cake. (maybe it was the cake that made me ill?! hehe)... Anyway, thanks to everyone who was involved. It was brilliant. I was a 'roaming' steward and ended up walking and running round Gloucester the whole night with one of those 'high viz' vests on. Much fun. I ended up talking to a group of (slightly inebriated) people sat outside a pub who asked about what we were doing. We talked for a fair while about God, life after death, the trouble in their lives that (at first) made them disbelieve in God - then as the conversation wore on, they all admitted that believing was important, they just didn't know quite what - to them, religion had let them down, so we talked about Jesus and life instead ... One guy said he always prayed when he was in prison, and that meant he may be praying the tomorrow night.
'why are going to be in prison tomorrow?' I asked.
'I don't know, but it might all kick off later'. He replied half aggressively.
'well, I'll pray for you that it won't'...he thanked me.
Also last week, myself and Chris met up with a guy with some mental health issues who's been trying to get in touch with some Christians but has found it a little hard. they'd gone to various places but not found anyone who could help out yet.(?!) He's a great kid and enjoys being creative, so we've invited him to come along to our prayer rooms that we'll be starting up soon. It's nice and good to be involved in this kind of work. But as a prayer community, we somehow need to be wise, or aware or somehow discerning about 'how much' and 'what' kind of stuff to take on. If we're meant to be here to take on the 'unwanted' people's of the church, then so be it. But i think there's a lot more to it than that. We may (no, we will) inevitably have to say No the many requests that go along the lines of 'can your group do this..?'...
If we can help we will. But sometimes that help will come as a challenge back to the enquirer. And I think it's right and ok to take that stance so we don't get seen as a dumping ground for stuff that people don't want to take on themselves. When they probably should. We can't be the answer to everyone's problems and discomfort.
There's a lot of good wisdom out there I guess. If you have any, get in touch! It's so good being in touch with others who've been on this road for longer than us. (a big plus of the 24/7 Network Day).
Well, I almost got going on a rant there, but I'll quit while I'm ahead. It's just that as many things develop and we continue to walk this walk, it sometimes feels a lot like the picture - where we can only see a few feet in front of us, unsure of whether we'll go up or down, to the right or the left.
The mist and cloud in the pic is from an epic walk for Ben's stag doo on Saturday. We climbed the highest peak in south wales - Pen Y Fan - and it was awesome, absolutely superb! We all felt John Eldridge would have been proud. Every bit was glorious, and we enjoyed the sunshine when it was there, endured the mist and wind and rain when it came, and battled through the steep climbs and seemingly never-ending rocky tracks. One of the best days in a long time. The fun and healthy 'man-time' and joy together as brothers in the Lord cannot really be put into words. So I won't try. But one interesting thing - I said before that at times, we find ourselves in places that we do not know what's going on and we don't know what's up ahead - but having walked the walk on Saturday I re-realised, that this does not take out the fun. In fact, the stormy weather and lack of vision on saturday was one of the epic highlights of the day!
And I'll just end with a something, that has been itself it's own kind of mountain with it's own mist and cloudy times, that deserves a massive THANK YOU and praise to our awesome God and Saviour, Jesus Christ...
and that is, that I got the funding.
Yes!
A few of us are thinking about going to the Euro gathering in October, sounds interesting. I guess this is a kinda conclusion to the recent prayercasts, but let us not stop praying!
"As the 24-7 PrayerCast draws to a close Pete reflects on how people have responded and some of the amazing stories from the movement in the last week."
Oh my goodness.
On Tuesday evening we had our community meal. we ended up talking randomnly about people traffiking and how it may be affecting Gloucester, and if there was anything we could do. It's such a bewildering and undercover issue that we didn't really know even what to say, let alone know what can be done.
We felt kinda helpless, but we knew we could pray. We didn't even know how to put it into words, so we ended up getting a big piece of paper and just writing words down and lifting that to God...
Chris just phoned me up just now - the front page story in the local news is a story about a massive raid and arrests made in an effort to break up a 'multi million' pound prostition ring. Get the full story here or the BBC article here. They suspect four brothels to have been shut down, where women from Eastern Europe and East Asia were found.
AWESOME!!
We pray these helpless prayers, not really knowing what to say, not knowing what we're talking about, and stuff happens! this is so crazy, this is not a coincidence! The bible says that the Holy Spirit gives prays through us, and I guess if we're in step with him, we'll end up praying "feeble, whispered, faithless prayer invokes a thunderous, resounding, bone-shaking great 'Amen!' from countless angels, from hero's of the faith, from Christ himself" (the vision)
God set these people free!
Hope you're enjoying the heatwave. Love it.
In todays prayercast "Ian Nicholson speaks from Skopje, Macedonia about the ethnic tensions across the continent of Europe. Jesus commands us to love each other so how can the Church model something different in a time when people are looking for someone to blame? Hear the inspiring testimony of the Glasnost community in Skopje and add your ‘amen’ for peacemakers across Europe."
Firstly - wonder of wonders - my car passed it's MOT today - I've never known this happen before - thank you Lord!!!
Ian Nicholsan was at the 24/7 UK Network Day in Guildford. He's ace. And full of amazing stories. He spoke of his recent trip to the Glasnost community in Macedonia, hooking up with the Bower's and the Evans', who have recently sold everything and driven their to live and help nurture the 24/7 bioler room community out there. You can learn more by reading the latest 24/7 article here.
Today we have another 'prayercast' - which is most excellent and I really encourage you to pray and keep praying for our nation and the nations in Europe. The time is now. The site says "Europe has been rocked by the global economic crisis. Fear has gripped nations and markets and the impact is felt in every sphere of society. How can the church pray during this time of instability? Ian Nicholson from Skopje, Macedonia leads todays 24-7 PrayerCast about the after affects of the crisis."
Our little prayer room beside the car park was brought to a moving close yesterday evening. Once again, the day had been packed with load of students and staff coming into pray, chat and chill out. We probably had the most people through, and walking round the different stations at the end of the day, it was simply staggering reading the honesty and openness in the prayers, and moving to say amen to them. ‘May these prayers be like sweet smelling incense to your heart, O God’
We started the day in the staff room today, chatting with staff and looking back over the week. We were so excited about what the day had in store. An excellent chat with the Head master, he just blew me away with his enthusiasm for what we were doing and the difference that he could see in the school already. He said it was the “archetypal multi sensory experience”. Ha ha. Hearing his passion to ground faith in the students’ lives was inspiring though, and we were soon talking about plans to build another meeting room elsewhere in the school, so that the room we’d been using could stay as a permanent ‘chapel’ or ‘prayer room’…it was one of those jaw dropping moments to hear this come from the head himself.
Rushing back we opened the prayer room for the 8.30am tutor group slot for the day. About 15 students and their tutor came in, and after a quick tour and welcome, we all got praying. “Do I just take a bit of bread then?” one boy had moved away from the class and was asking Chris about our communion table. The two of them talked about it, prayed and had communion together. A really peaceful time. God was in our midst.
Break time came and so did Bishop John, he’d come to show support from the diocese to the school what with all the negative press of recent weeks. It was so good to have him along and enjoy the prayer room, have some photos taken with the students and chat about what was happening. This guy is so crazily busy but always gives his utmost support for things we’re trying to do. Three girls were sat in our (one-at-a-time) 'mirror' zone so Chris hurried over to call them out and to stop messing around. he was about to speak when he heard them quietly praying together and all saying a long aaaamen. we let them carry on.
And, we felt the Lord inspired us concerning the recent articles in the local newspaper. ‘What would be the best response to such things?’ well, invite them to prayer room of course! And so we did! And so they came! Many of the staff didn’t think they’d turn up, but amazingly they turned up during lunch. We welcomed them, took them round the prayer room and introduced them to some of our regulars. They took photos, took quotes from some awesome prayers and went away thanking us for the invitation!
For me, and for the school, the significance of this is huge. The upside down ways of the kingdom of heaven were truly revealed. Where else would a school, victim to an almost systematic receipt of negative press actually invite the same paper to bless them with a prayer? So incredible! The story gets printed tomorrow, so I’ll paste a link all being well.
The lunch session was amazing for many reasons. With various visitors throughout the day, we were most nervous about how hectic it might get, especially because it was the last opportunity for most students to come in and use the prayer room. We were concerned about a few individuals who may come just to mess things up, but the last thing we wanted to do was to say to ‘you’re unwelcome’. We committed to welcome everybody, no matter what. So, we prayed about it. We prayed the Lord would only bring those who were really up for encountering him, and if any kids came to mess around then they would have a miraculous encounter with him. And, to our huge surprise, none of them came. We still had loads of kids come through, but it was the most peaceful time we’ve had. It was great to have Clare with us today as well, who had some brilliant conversations; replying to things like “so why did Jesus come”. The student who’d had communion in the morning came back, and I had a long conversation with him outside about his sister who’d run away this week. I won’t go into it here, but I don’t think I’ll ever forget that kids face. His story was really moving, and one of many that the students go through here – stuff that no young person should have to face.
This prayer room has had an impact on many of those kids. And time and time again, both students and staff kept saying that they didn’t want the room to close. By the end of the day we’d had the Head, both deputy heads and the finance officer come in to the room and say “you need a permanent space for this”, and “this is the best room in the school, and I like having meetings in here – but I prefer it like this”. I’ve just heard on the phone that even today they’re dreaming up ways to see this continue.
Chris the chaplain said to me “God has blessed us so richly this week that we can bearly begin to count the blessings. This week has revolutionised and redefined where we are at as a Church of England school”…
Once school had ended, we threw a big children’s party for the staff. Iced ring biscuits, pink panther wafers, fairy cakes, pop, balloons; the lot. Many came in and read the prayers of the week, some added prayers. I was surprised at how thankful everyone was for putting up a simple prayer room. Lots of laughs and celebration, many people amazed at the prayers they read, amazed at the difference in particular students.
And so, we come to the end of an amazing week, but definitely not the end of the prayer room at the school. On Monday, I had no idea what the week would be like, I didn’t even know how our assembly would go. And now, looking forward, I have no idea how it will continue. Having had at least half of the whole school through the prayer room, I’m staggered at how this has been welcomed. But hearing what the students and staff are saying, something will certainly emerge. Something to nurture prayer at the heart of the school community, at the heart of students living life in and out of school, something of the heart of God for these people.
I’m really excited for this place. Thank you Lord for what you are doing. May your Kingdom come, and will be done.
Amen.
A hectic day. we had a little trouble this afternoon with a few rowdy kids. In fact, we’ve had a few rowdy kids throughout the day. a couple of boys pulled down a curtain and we’ve had a few rude post-its on the prayer wall. Nothing too serious though, and apart from that, it’s been a brilliant and busy day…
We started this morning up in the staff room for a tutors briefing, Chris shared some thoughts about forgiveness and loving the unlovely ‘that they might lovely be”, with reference to some of the negative press and a couple of difficult situations here recently.
Back to the prayer room for tutor group time. this was really good, but there was a noticeable difference with these students. These guys hadn’t chosen to come here, they were brought here by their tutor, and it was clear from the start that they felt dragged along. However, I tried to speak excitedly about the zones and introduced them to the prayer room, and once they got going, it was actually a really beneficial time.
Great to see Dan, Rich, Nicki come and visit. Was good to chat with Rich and Nicki from the Bizz about how this could all develop. Then we had an RE lesson come in. Again, the feeling amongst the kids was definitely one of resistance at first. A few of them gave us some trouble throughout, although they ended up writing stuff like “thank you God for everything you’ve done for me and my family, you are everything to me…”! One girl was really hard work, but there we go.
At break we had a couple of girls come in and it was just the two of them for ages. We started chatting and one girl was worried about someone in their family, we all prayed together for her healing. We had just long enough before a little motly crew came in. The girl who yesterday said ‘God knows where to find me if he wants me, he just has to come down’ was fairly chatty again today. God is really at work here I think. “I don’t know why I’m even here. I don’t know why I even stepped into this room” she said today.
“Well, why did you come?”
“I dunno, I didn’t wand to be left outside on my own”. At this, her group of friends turned round to her and snapped “you what?! It was you who brought us here!”…
Yesterday we had this one student in that had been told whilst getting ready for school that his Nan had died the night before, yet he was still sent school. Distraught, Chris brought him to the prayer room, he was able to calm down, Chris prayed for him and he added “Nan x”. He was back in school today and turned up at lunch time and spent quite a while in here chilling out, writing some prayers on the prayer wall.
A member of staff came in to take some photos as well. On being asked to do this she swore quite strongly, but on entering the room she said “wow”. She went on to echo many of the students’ and staff responses that “this should be here all the time”. It looks as though this week will not just be a one off; both the chaplain and even the Head Master have a real heart see this developed.
Below is a picture of one of the many prayers that now cover the prayer walls and different stations. Others include “show me heaven”, “God you’re the best”, “take away the bullies”, “thank you for calming the storms in my life. You bring peace – hurray!”
And finally, we had one student, picking up loads of blue paper that we we’re using to symbolise the waves that Jesus calms, and turning to a friend, arms outstretched and said “I’m going to wrap you in God’s love”…
I’m sitting at my laptop, scratching my head with what to write for today. Not for lack of stories, just with what ones to put, and which one’s may be appropriate. As I said before, there are some kids with difficult problems in their lives, and my brain aches having taken a lot in throughout the day.
We started with the weekly staff service. Chris let me know later that a couple of people came that have never been before, and all who were here were really encouraging about the room. We thought of doing a proper little service, but in the end just let them use the prayer room like the kids have been doing, with a time of prayer at the end.
There was another article in the local paper today, another negative story. This has been fairly persistent and serves no purpose and does no good. It’s something we’re praying about. The most humbling thing was to sit on the floor during the staff service and pray for forgiveness and blessing upon the various people responsible.
Something that’s been unexpected is the impact this is making on the staff. We’re here doing this prayer room yes, but we’re actually here for a much bigger reason. We’re here to serve. After the assembly yesterday myself and Chris (not chaplain) helped put away the 500 or so chairs. A simple thing that happened without us thinking about it as far as I’m aware. But thinking about, it was a sign of why we’re here – we’re here to serve the whole school, and part of that is helping where help is needed, some of it is to make prayer available in the prayer room.
Most of the students from yesterday returned throughout the day with more friends today. Kim was with us today, which was brilliant. We felt a little conscious of the amount of people in the room at any one time, and how that could affect things. Things got a little crazy yesterday, but we want this space to be a prayerful and peaceful place, as well as fun. So, we prayed 5 minutes before lunch that the time would be a peaceful time, that Jesus would calm the storm. Most of the lunch hour today was really calm – lots of kids, but they were keen to participate. When things got a little louder before lunch ended, we stopped everyone and prayed the Lord’s Prayer with them. Awesome.
The girl who wrote ‘needing faith’ yesterday wrote ‘I [heart] Jesus’ today, plus some gutsy prayers for her family. One kid said he didn’t think much of our little mirror station (with various verses of God’s opinions of us) – his friend scowled and said ‘what do you mean?! It spoke to me?!’…and some heavy prayers: ‘help my dad not get angry’, and simply: ‘why???’… A more poetic and inspiring one: ‘my life I give to you’…
One other highlight is of a member of staff (non Christian) writing ‘Make it Good, forgive and lead’…
There’s a whole load of awesome prayers and chats going on. One girl went to leave saying “if God were real he would come down here, I’m here and I’ll be here for the rest of my life. He knows where to find me”
“Hasn’t he already come?” Chris replied.
Stopping and turning round, responding with a lot of attitude “what? He’s come down already?”
The rest of the room seemed stunned. Chris briefly said that Jesus did come and she wasn’t around then. She just stared at him for ages, lost for words. He went on to say why he came then and that he’s still alive today
Amazing stuff. More tomorrow.
some of you will know, a while ago I was inspired by reading Phil Togwell’s blog on running a prayer room in his local secondary school. It had been on my mind for some time and this gave a good encouragement for some exploration.
Well. Today we’ve done it! I’m currently sat on a chair in the middle of our prayer room. I am amazed, bewildered and slightly dazed from the day’s events.
Not least because I’ve arrived to this Monday having had a packed weekend– we travelled up to the UK Network Day for 24/7 in Gateshead…and, what an awesome day! oh I could write loads, even though we were well tired getting home yesterday (so awesome to break the journey at my bro’s in Nottingham), it was just ace. One of the discussions and prayer times focussed on prayer rooms happening in local schools – and it was really inspiring and encouraging to hear that three of us were beginning prayer weeks today.
And here we are.
Starting early in the morning. Myself and Chris arrived to meet the school chaplain – also Chris. Some local people will know that the school has received a lot of hardship from local press recently. The school has a lot of difficulties. Having been rescued from closure a few years ago by the Church of England, it has been on a hard slog to turn round lots of problems. And they’ve done an incredible job, and it certainly doesn’t help with the local press just persistently undermine their efforts. There are still things to work through – exam results are within the lowest of the city, 50% of the students are classed as ‘in poverty’, which means that there is an inevitable colourful and at times very distressing family situations. The police are here most days recently. This place needs prayer.
The three of us prayed and went off to take the all school assembly. It went really well. Chris, the chaplain, was brilliant and Chris, the dude, was awesome with the kids. Throughout the day we’ve received emails, and lots of comments from students and staff that they couldn’t believe how well behaved everyone was, they really enjoyed what the three of us put together.
It’s just coming to the end of the day now. After the fun times at assembly, myself, Chris the chaplain and the head of B&V (beliefs and values) finished putting together the prayer room. We opened at break. We opened at lunch. And we opened when school finished.
About 35 kids have come in. one girl came at break, brought friends back at lunch and came in at the end of school as well. In the morning she wrote ‘needing faith’ on the prayer wall – after school she wrote ‘Jesus saved us’…We’ve set up some real simple stations for prayer (I’ll put some pictures up as the week goes on), we’ve put a bit of effort in but it’s nothing real major. We wanted to keep it simple – but the kids are loving it. We had a bunch of kids come at once during lunch, which was full on. Some came to mess around, but God soon took them by surprise. I hope they come back. One guy said to a friend, “mate this place is paradise”…another said “this is the best room in the school”…on slightly funnier notes, the chill zone almost turned into the ‘pillow fight zone’, and I had a strange chat with one kid that seemed genuinely freaked out what he would do with all his ‘millions’ that he’d prayed for…its good to have a strong faith I guess! haha...
Lots of other good conversations about bullying, families. A whole load of gypsy kids came in and loved the family tree prayer space. Staff have come in because they wanted somewhere peaceful to work, other tutors have come in asking if they can grab the tutor group slots in the mornings.
It’s been really amazing.
Most of all. It’s amazing to have a space set aside for God in the middle of school life. A school that really needs Jesus, especially right now. To know his love, his peace, and his ability to do ‘what man thinks is impossible’, and to calm the waves and storms of this community.
