UK: London Salvos get to grips with being a Boiler Room - 8 Mar 2005
Just over 2 months ago, Wandsworth Salvation Army in central London, UK, became a Boiler Room.
The launch on 28 November last year was great, it’s always fab to celebrate! But what happens when the dust has settled and the honeymoon is over? How does it feel to be a Boiler Room now? |
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Boiler Room Rollercoaster Ride....
We've been on a swift learning curve since the launch - it has been exhilarating, a bit scary, and challenging. We have seen healing and salvation, We’ve learnt some of the answers to our questions about the Boiler Room. Most of all, we’ve realised that every stage of this journey is going to rise up greater questions, God is showing us new things, and we’re simply walking with him in the process.
One moment that sticks out from the launch that Sunday happened at 1.15pm.
There was a bunch of 24-7 people praying in the prayer room, our cook was encouraging someone in the kitchen (who then recommitted themselves to Christ!)
Our Sunday Guests (local community members who struggle with addictions or social issues, etc.) were sharing a meal with us in the main hall, and another member of the Church was encouraging someone to stick with their Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
A Church leader was sorting a guy out with some food and clothes relief, while the other was directing someone to a hostel in Whitechapel where we’d just found him a bed for the night (Quite a prophetic act since Whitechapel is where the work of the Salvation Army first started). |
....a man came to the Boiler Room because he knew there would be people here who would pray for him....So there we kneeled, among the crates and carrier bags, amid the soup and sandwiches, and met with God.... |
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It seemed to jump out that all of these things were what the Boiler Room is all about, helping people, meeting their immediate needs, and grounding all this in prayer.
There have been many examples of answered prayer since the launch, one example happened just days after, when one of the team members was healed from a back problem. It was a real faith booster!
A week after the launch we picked up one of the 24-7 weeks for 2004's London Year of Prayer. It was a short notice thing, with only 3 days to organise it!
It was a bit manic, but everyone really pulled together and the slots were filled. What’s more, it wasn’t just Salvation Army people filling them, but members and leaders of local churches, as well as contacts around the country.
Unity continues to be a priority for us, and we were able to take another step forward in this at Christmas when we gave the first Boiler Room keys out to a church up the road.
This means they can come in and use the prayer room, etc., whenever they want to - an important thing. The Boiler Room is for the Church in Wandsworth, not just the Salvation Army.
Relaxing and refocusing....
Christmas came and went, with Boiler Room people travelling around the country to family and friends. It was good to go away and think about everything that had happened in the last few weeks, and look forward to the year ahead. We did some refocusing, some listening, and some relaxing!
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We don’t need to bombard God with questions....He showed us that we just need to wait, and to trust him, the other questions will wait, and be answered as the Boiler Room develops. Just as you cannot tell what a baby will look like until it begins to grow.... |
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Already, since then it seems time has flown, its strange to think it’s March already! It was in January we started to realise that we don’t need to try and make Boiler Room happen. We don’t need to bombard God with questions about what we will look like, how everything will work out.... He showed us that we just need to wait, and to trust him, the other questions will wait, and be answered as the Boiler Room develops. Just as you cannot tell what a baby will look like until it begins to grow.
Soup, sandwiches and prayer....
There are many stories that could be told about the journey so far, one day, one of the guys we’ve been working with for a number of years walked into the hall while we were sorting food donations in the prayer room. He said he came because he knew there would be people here who would pray for him. So there we kneeled, among the crates and carrier bags, amid the soup and sandwiches, and met with God.
Getting to grips with being a Boiler Room....
Another example of how the members of the Church are getting to grips with being a Boiler Room took place a couple of weeks ago.
There was a big road accident on the main road that runs through Wandsworth, and a couple of girls from our youth group were on a bus just behind when the crash happened. The first thing they did was to phone in and get people praying. It challenged us all that this was their first thought, and that they realised they could do something about what had happened by praying. The youth are really up for the whole thing, and teaching the adults lots!
We don’t know what this year holds for the Boiler Room, but God does, so we’re trusting him to reveal it as and when its necessary. We are looking at how to develop the rhythms of prayer we have at the moment - for example starting ‘morning prayers’ as well as those we meet for daily at 12 noon.
We have also planned 3 weeks of 24-7 prayer so far: March 20-27, May 8-15 and July 3-10.
So, the dust has settled a bit now, and we’ve been a Boiler Room a while. Please pray that we continue to listen to God and his agenda rather than our own, however scary it may look to us! We don’t want to become complacent and comfortable in this, we want to do what God bids us to. Thanks for your support.
Report by Vicki Adams, one of the team at the Wandsworth Salvation Army Boiler Room. Want to find out more about them? Email: [email protected]
