Right, plenty has happened since I last wrote a blog post but it’s too overwhelming to try and put three missions, Retreat, Formation, Christmas and all the other things into one blog post. So let’s just pick up on the last little while..
We came back to Coventry after Christmas and started on fundraising ideas and planning. That’s not all that interesting to blog about so let’s skip ahead to the next exciting thing.. 24-7 Prayer! Well I know what you’re thinking- “Don’t you already pray like ALL THE TIME?!” or “How is praying 24-7 exciting?!” Well let me talk ya through it.. First we knocked our heads together and planned what to do with the space (the chapel) in order to turn it into a creative prayer room conducive to life-changing intercession and conversation with Jesus. Then we just had to get the resources and make the ‘vision’ into reality. We had such a blast working as a team and making the room practical and beautiful. At 2pm we started our 24-7 prayer time with an hour of praise and worship and a rosary as a team, then the first ‘shift’ began.
I reckon the best way to really explain the 24-7 prayer is to talk you through my 1am-3am shift (mostly because this is how Pete Greig describes the prayer room in his book Red Moon Rising and he’s pretty cool). Well I arrive (5 minutes late and in a onesie but still) and quietly make my presence known to the person before me. After apologising for being late, he hands me the key (which doesn’t actually open anything in there but is a metaphor for you being the watchman on the wall for that hour ((or two in my case))) and then he prays for me quickly and leaves. I take a moment to recognise that I’ve rushed in and I need to still myself and recognise Jesus in the room. After a little while of prayer in adoration, I get up and go to the map where I write a prayer for Zimbabwe and stick it on the map. Then I pick up the intercession book and read the prayers in there, praying into what people have written. I then write my own intercession in the book and go to the art area to add a picture to my intercession to try and portray the image I have, and also to jazz it up a bit. I then follow the ‘river of life’ looking at the saints along the blue fabric (which are there to represent leading us in holiness towards Mary and then Mary leading us to Jesus). So I kneel at the Marian grotto at the end of the river, I ask for her intercession for the intention for that hour (D-weekend South). I then go to my favourite area: the Book Curve. I sit comfortably on some cushions in there and read from the books on the shelf, which are the books each person has left there as recommendations. After a little while re-reading some CS Lewis, a quote jumps out to me, so I write it down on a small piece of paper and peg it up on the line. At this point I spend some time reflecting on the other quotes people have left up there, and appreciating the poems and art people have left around the room. I take a quick wander over to the parable shelf, and spend some time holding the nails and the chain and reflecting on the sacrifice of Jesus and the power in His name to break every chain. I lift the bucket under which is a light, and smile to myself at Jesus’ way of explaining things to those around Him. As I stand in the middle of the room and look at and read all these different forms of creative prayers, I thank God for the talents He’s given the wonderful people I can call my team. I now turn on an album from the music area (as I have no gifting in playing music myself on the instruments there) and pick up the ribbons in the centre of the room and dance freely. Now anyone who knows me knows it takes a lot for me to dance around with ribbons in a onesie at 2:30am-ish when I’ve barely slept (though it wasn’t necessarily the first time). I am just FULL of joy; I can’t contain it and sit still. I’m full of energy and don’t want the time to end! When the next person turns up I just can’t believe it has been two hours! I hadn’t realised it was coming up to 3am and so was still dancing around with my ribbons and whatnot when Matt turns up. I pretend not to be embarrassed and casually pass on the key and pray for him. Then since it’s 3am and I’m not all that tired, I stay behind to pray the Divine Mercy with him. He then goes into the Throne room/ tent of meeting which is a big den type thing, in which you can see Jesus but no one else in the room can see you. I take this opportunity to spend some time in the ‘tomb’. So after I open the door to the old confessional, I have to pass through black fabric and sit on the floor, it’s very cold and completely dark in here, and the point is to meditate on being in the tomb with Jesus. As I step out into the bright, colourful and warm prayer room after a few minutes, I gotta say I feel like I’ve been brought back to life! The time winding down in there was great, but I also have to thank Jesus for the ways in my life in which He’s brought me out of the darkness and tomb I was hiding in, into the fullness of life with Him. I leave feeling more joyous, more faithful and more at peace than I entered and wander back to my room in gratitude.
We came back to Coventry after Christmas and started on fundraising ideas and planning. That’s not all that interesting to blog about so let’s skip ahead to the next exciting thing.. 24-7 Prayer! Well I know what you’re thinking- “Don’t you already pray like ALL THE TIME?!” or “How is praying 24-7 exciting?!” Well let me talk ya through it.. First we knocked our heads together and planned what to do with the space (the chapel) in order to turn it into a creative prayer room conducive to life-changing intercession and conversation with Jesus. Then we just had to get the resources and make the ‘vision’ into reality. We had such a blast working as a team and making the room practical and beautiful. At 2pm we started our 24-7 prayer time with an hour of praise and worship and a rosary as a team, then the first ‘shift’ began.
I reckon the best way to really explain the 24-7 prayer is to talk you through my 1am-3am shift (mostly because this is how Pete Greig describes the prayer room in his book Red Moon Rising and he’s pretty cool). Well I arrive (5 minutes late and in a onesie but still) and quietly make my presence known to the person before me. After apologising for being late, he hands me the key (which doesn’t actually open anything in there but is a metaphor for you being the watchman on the wall for that hour ((or two in my case))) and then he prays for me quickly and leaves. I take a moment to recognise that I’ve rushed in and I need to still myself and recognise Jesus in the room. After a little while of prayer in adoration, I get up and go to the map where I write a prayer for Zimbabwe and stick it on the map. Then I pick up the intercession book and read the prayers in there, praying into what people have written. I then write my own intercession in the book and go to the art area to add a picture to my intercession to try and portray the image I have, and also to jazz it up a bit. I then follow the ‘river of life’ looking at the saints along the blue fabric (which are there to represent leading us in holiness towards Mary and then Mary leading us to Jesus). So I kneel at the Marian grotto at the end of the river, I ask for her intercession for the intention for that hour (D-weekend South). I then go to my favourite area: the Book Curve. I sit comfortably on some cushions in there and read from the books on the shelf, which are the books each person has left there as recommendations. After a little while re-reading some CS Lewis, a quote jumps out to me, so I write it down on a small piece of paper and peg it up on the line. At this point I spend some time reflecting on the other quotes people have left up there, and appreciating the poems and art people have left around the room. I take a quick wander over to the parable shelf, and spend some time holding the nails and the chain and reflecting on the sacrifice of Jesus and the power in His name to break every chain. I lift the bucket under which is a light, and smile to myself at Jesus’ way of explaining things to those around Him. As I stand in the middle of the room and look at and read all these different forms of creative prayers, I thank God for the talents He’s given the wonderful people I can call my team. I now turn on an album from the music area (as I have no gifting in playing music myself on the instruments there) and pick up the ribbons in the centre of the room and dance freely. Now anyone who knows me knows it takes a lot for me to dance around with ribbons in a onesie at 2:30am-ish when I’ve barely slept (though it wasn’t necessarily the first time). I am just FULL of joy; I can’t contain it and sit still. I’m full of energy and don’t want the time to end! When the next person turns up I just can’t believe it has been two hours! I hadn’t realised it was coming up to 3am and so was still dancing around with my ribbons and whatnot when Matt turns up. I pretend not to be embarrassed and casually pass on the key and pray for him. Then since it’s 3am and I’m not all that tired, I stay behind to pray the Divine Mercy with him. He then goes into the Throne room/ tent of meeting which is a big den type thing, in which you can see Jesus but no one else in the room can see you. I take this opportunity to spend some time in the ‘tomb’. So after I open the door to the old confessional, I have to pass through black fabric and sit on the floor, it’s very cold and completely dark in here, and the point is to meditate on being in the tomb with Jesus. As I step out into the bright, colourful and warm prayer room after a few minutes, I gotta say I feel like I’ve been brought back to life! The time winding down in there was great, but I also have to thank Jesus for the ways in my life in which He’s brought me out of the darkness and tomb I was hiding in, into the fullness of life with Him. I leave feeling more joyous, more faithful and more at peace than I entered and wander back to my room in gratitude.
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So that’s the idea. The thing is I can’t fully explain it without taking away from it, as a very large part of the experience (as lame as this may sound) was the atmosphere. We all signed up to slots, and I took one during the day each day and a 2 hour slot in the night, and we continued this for 52 hours until we had to pack down and head to Formation in Essex. I think we all agreed that it had been amazing, and we went straight to the house in Essex and set one up there!
Anyway I’ve rambled on about 24-7 prayer which is only a tiny snippet of the time I’ve had here since my last blog. I’ll just briefly mention Formation which was about Poverty and Social Justice/Action. All the teaching consolidated my feelings that we as a community need to spend time thinking about how we can be authentic witnesses to the message we spread, how we can do good actions as well as praying good prayers. We also spent some time on service projects spread out over London, trying to serve the poor. I was in Soho Square where we served the homeless with a great cooked dinner, and this was a really good way of showing people respect and giving them dignity. To round up Formation I would say that a combination of:
1) Late nights chatting to Hannah about world issues and life plans
2) Teaching on social action and poverty
3) Practical service and discussion of the service projects
…all helped me to form my own ideas on what I need to do practically and what I need to grow in, and how I would like the community to grow .. in terms of CHANGING THE WORLD FOR THE BETTER / BEING THE BEST WE CAN BE / REACHING FOR THE STARS / DREAMING BIG / SAVING THE PEOPLE WHO NEED SAVING / STOPPING ALL THOSE WHO NEED TO BE STOPPED / FEEDING THE POOR / GIVING HUMAN DIGNITY / BELIEVING IN OURSELVES / AIMING FOR THE MOON / RAISIN OUR STANDARDS/ FOLLOWING THAT RAINBOW
Over and out.
Anyway I’ve rambled on about 24-7 prayer which is only a tiny snippet of the time I’ve had here since my last blog. I’ll just briefly mention Formation which was about Poverty and Social Justice/Action. All the teaching consolidated my feelings that we as a community need to spend time thinking about how we can be authentic witnesses to the message we spread, how we can do good actions as well as praying good prayers. We also spent some time on service projects spread out over London, trying to serve the poor. I was in Soho Square where we served the homeless with a great cooked dinner, and this was a really good way of showing people respect and giving them dignity. To round up Formation I would say that a combination of:
1) Late nights chatting to Hannah about world issues and life plans
2) Teaching on social action and poverty
3) Practical service and discussion of the service projects
…all helped me to form my own ideas on what I need to do practically and what I need to grow in, and how I would like the community to grow .. in terms of CHANGING THE WORLD FOR THE BETTER / BEING THE BEST WE CAN BE / REACHING FOR THE STARS / DREAMING BIG / SAVING THE PEOPLE WHO NEED SAVING / STOPPING ALL THOSE WHO NEED TO BE STOPPED / FEEDING THE POOR / GIVING HUMAN DIGNITY / BELIEVING IN OURSELVES / AIMING FOR THE MOON / RAISIN OUR STANDARDS/ FOLLOWING THAT RAINBOW
Over and out.
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