Swedish Children Fill 24-7 Prayer RoomSandra Palm - 7 Apr 2010

During the spring holidays we arranged a camp for children ages 8 to 14. We spent a week in a beautiful place called Hjälmargården, a two-hour drive from Stockholm, Sweden. The focus was for children to meet with God in their own way, learn to pray and to have a real fun time together with plenty of activities. During this camp we decided to build a 24-7 Prayer Room. About seven children of different ages helped…

There were many lovely creative ideas as we brainstormed and scrambled through the campsite’s large storage rooms where we found everything from ear protectors and sumo wrestling suits, to glow in the dark snowmen. We founds some boots that became a great possibility for identification with people having a difficult time; we suggested that people literally walking in their shoes as they prayed for that person. When done you simply kicked off the boots.

An overhead machine was transformed into an opportunity to see your own shadow, and a challenge to give your “thought shadows” to God (this was a 10-year old’s idea, and so profound that we don’t really understand it ourselves). We used a sledgehammer to give the kids the opportunity to break the things you were angry about before God (no people or valuables involved - we promise). If you wanted to be by yourself with God we had an attic space with cozy lamps and ear protectors to block out noise.

There were so many fantastic creative thoughts, not forgetting to mention the worship expressed through all the art that was painted to Jesus! It took us almost two days to finish creating the room, and we were continually pestered by kids asking when it would be done so they could use it to pray. It was open during the free time between the activities, and children were in the Prayer Room almost constantly. Not all of them would be described as Christians.

God is great! There is a hunger, interest and honesty among a new generation of children growing up in Sweden today. Let’s give them the possibility to spend time before God’s face in their own way!