Prayer in Schools - Raw and SimplePhil Togwell - 9 Apr 2010

A different school, with different students. A different prayer space. Even a few different prayer stations. And yet, the same God present once again, healing and helping and comforting and encouraging, as always.

I spent today in Davenant Foundation School, with my teacher-friend, Drew (Mr Midgely to you), and with Tim Lovell and his team of sixth formers who are hosting two wonderfully creative prayer space rooms. Today was day two of their week, and it's been great already: the hanging-strings are heavy with confession-prayers, the 'World Wall' map is almost covered, and the 'Big Questions' white-board is crammed with all the usual biggies. This is prayer, raw and simple.

Sometimes funny;

Sometimes deep and moving;

But always prayer, raw and simple.

Having been involved with six of these prayer spaces in schools personally, and having talked with friends who've run dozens more, and heard many of their stories, I shouldn't be so amazed when students seem to experience something of God's presence as they pray their post-it note prayers, but I am. In a way, I hope I never lose that sense of wonder and amazement.

Two moments stick out for me today:

During the morning break-time, a sixth form girl came in and dropped her school bags by the door. She flitted from prayer station to prayer station, following the instructions for a few minutes, before I came and sat with her at the 'one in a million' zone. I can't remember exactly what I asked her - probably something profoundly spiritual like, "Are you OK?" (I'm good with 'profoundly spiritual' like that) - but she began to weep.
We talked for a while - I won't go into the details - and then it was my privilege to pray for her, to pray for God to walk with her through this 'desert time', for her to know God's comfort and encouragement, for her to discover and develop slower, healthier rhythms of spiritual life.

And then, for the last period, we had a year 11 class (who were supposed to be a little bit 'tricky', but turned out to be the most peaceful of the lot). Following a few conversations with a bunch of 'lads' about rugby and paper aeroplanes and school uniforms, I went to sit at the 'Be Sorry/Be Forgiven' prayer station. As I watched a girl carefully lining up the pegs and pens, re-uniting pens with their correct lid, and generally 'tidying up', I found myself asking her if this was perhaps her way to bring a little bit of order into a stressful/difficult/chaotic life. She looked surprised, but agreed, and we talked a little bit about handling stress and finding peace. I wrote some words about peace and Jesus' promise to always be with her onto a wooden peg and gave it to her at the end of the lesson... a 'peace peg'.

I've no doubt that by the end of the week there will be pages and pages of small stories like this; answered prayers, words of comfort and encouragement, tastes of God's goodness, unexpected encounters with love and acceptance, and maybe a few more 'peace pegs'. Who knows. I'm just grateful to be in on it, playing my little part.
The kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed... like yeast in the dough... like raw, simple post-it note prayers... like the gift of a 'peace peg'.