Thousands of children are praying for the first time - 30 Nov 2012
...and now the movement is going global!
"Dear God thank you for our people and world and every single thing in the earth. I love you because you are the best." - A child's prayer from a Prayer Space in Sydney, Australia
Prayer Spaces in Schools is going global! The UK has seen 150 Prayer Spaces in schools this year and the movement is crossing borders with schools in Germany, Australia and Uganda catching the vision. The Prayer Spaces in School website is full of amazing testimonies and we thought we would bring you some of the highlights so you can get as excited as we are about Prayer Spaces in Schools spreading around the world.
Middlesborough, UK:
“Praying makes me smile, God is in my eyes.”
One of the most powerful comments I saw posted on our 'Why Pray?' board. The time running a Prayer Space has demonstrated that children need an outlet for their thoughts and worries.
Many of the children found the prayer activity about self-image difficult. The children were invited to look into the mirror and tell themselves something nice. Hearing and reading that God says they are beautiful on the inside and the outside was visibly reassuring for the children and something that they may not have been told in their life before.
Sydney, Australia:
Dear God, thank you for inventing us….
Our Prayer Space saw 200 3-6 year olds coming through. It was wonderful to see the children engage with the prayer activities. Watching the way they engaged was a reminder to keep our faith simple and childlike! Some of my favourite comments to questions like "Why do you think God sand and shells to be different colours?" and "What would you say to God?":
"Because it would be boring if all the same. Because He is creative!
God’s happy because he made us and things!"
"Dear God thank you for our people and world and every single thing in the earth.
I love you because you are the best.
Thank you for all your creation, my family and friends.
I love you because you created a world for us"
"Dear God can you be in my dreams tonight?"
Giessen, Germany:
"When is my dad going to convert?“
Nobody ever imagined that pupils from different grades (5th – 11th grade) would use the room so intensively. A teacher who comes with two different classes is excited about how concentrated the pupils “work” at the stations. Another teacher sits down, closes his eyes and enjoys the atmosphere. God is great and he moves in schools!
Prayer Spaces - a place where pupils and God meet.
Translates: "Help that my mother can endure/bear the stress with my little brother and that she keeps on beeing a good mother."
Gravesend, UK:
“Sorry I’m not good enough”
During the week we saw 24 classes and approximately 500 pupils, plus some 6th formers who participated in the activities during break, lunch and after school time.
The prayer activities focused on self-image, gratitude, forgiveness, asking big questions and justice. There were some common threads running through many of the young people’s questions and prayers... issues of lack of self worth, difficulties with parents and siblings, loss or fear of loss of grand parents, anger toward absent fathers, etc.
“Sorry I’m not pretty”
“Will I ever see my Dad again?”
“I’m worried... my mum is always drunk”
“I always pray to your God and mine... is that OK?”
Sheffield, UK:
Where's the Prayer Space then?
asked a Muslim boy as he walked into the Prayer Space, looking confused. I explained that although this probably wasn't what he was used, the whole room and the activities and the quiet space could be used for prayers today. The boy and his sister came back three times that day.
You can find all these stories and a whole load of resources on the Prayer Spaces in Schools website.
If you have any questions about Prayer Spaces in Schools or are thinking about running your own Prayer Space then email Phil Togwell ([email protected])