Prayer in the high street

I guess upon my return the biggest question that I have is "How do we take what we learnt in Ibiza and transfer some of the principles to the UK?"

Over the last years I feel that I have been on an intensive prayer and mission training school. Trying to live a life that is both intimately involved with God and actively involved with the world. We have tried hard to breath God in and breath God out, to have out hearts aligned with His and from this form a place of prayer that connects with the world.

Prayer rooms in the right places are a big one for me, I believe we need to see an increase of spaces where people can connect with God on a regular basis. For me that would mean seeing an increasing amount of permanent prayer spaces in situations were the general public can feel able to drop in and reflect on their maker! Shop front prayer rooms would be a great start with this. Creative spaces that give people the chance to pop in be it for a few minutes or a few hours and connect in a tranquil environment with God.

The UK's high streets are littered with empty shops, I would love to see a move within the church of hiring these shops and making them connecting points with the community.

"we need to position ourselves amongst need"

If shopping is the new religion we need to be there in the midst of it all, blessing the community by giving them the opportunity to sample a different way of being and have a connection point with God.

I have just spent an hour in the a prayer room in the town where I live, in that time had the opportunity to pray with a depressed guy who is living in a hostel and chat and pray with another guy who is working through some issues. It was life giving not just for them but also for me. The place of the church in the high street will inevitably lend itself to connection with broken and damaged humanity. We need more of this.

I want to develop a network of prayer rooms and spaces that are present in the high street and accessible to all.

I am curious as to whether this could work?

24-7 prayer UK

Well I have been in my new job now for 24-7 Prayer about 3 weeks and I am enjoying it.

Still adjusting to UK life, still looking for a car, still trying to find a way of feeling at home in Diss. But all of this leads to the thought "Be still,  Be still and know that I am God." I am often not very still and I sometimes try to be God.....

As this job takes begins to take shape my fears are that I don't end up spending all my time with christians and also that I don't end up feeling like a I work for a PR company whose sole client is prayer!

It has to be about prayer and mission. You can't divorce the two, the minute you do you end up in all sorts of muddles! Right now I am trying to see the woods through the trees, trying to get a sense of what we need to do in the UK to effectively catalyse prayer and mission. Although right now I am just watching, tuning into God, trying to get his heart for this nation! I hope that doesn't sound to grand.

A puritan non conformist scholar and pastor called Joseph Alleine, who was imprisoned on a number of occasions in the 1600’s for his faith said this:

“though I am apt to be unsettled and quickly set of the hinges, yet, methinks, I am like a bird out of the nest., I am never quiet till I am in my old way of communion with God; like the needle in the compass, that is restless till it be turned towards the pole. I can say, through grace, with the church, ‘with my soul have I desired thee in the night, and with my spirit within me have I sought thee early’ My heart is early and late with God; ‘tis the business and delight of my life to seek Him.”

So right now I am making it the business and delight of my life to seek Him. Hoping that God will lead us forward, give us a clear sense of who we are meant to be.

A dream from 2006

I wrote this in a journal in early 2006 and found it again yesterday!

I have a dream.  It’s a big dream - in reality it could almost be an impossible dream -but I am not prepared to live with the word impossible.  I’m going to live for my dream.

The dream is this: it’s of a vibrant, year round, praying and worshipping community here on the island of Ibiza. A community that is passionate about being kind and doing good for others, a community that does not live for itself alone.  A community of Jesus followers who love this island and want to bring His flavours to it.

This community will have a home, a building; it will be a large multi-purpose building, a tool that will define what we do here on this island.

This building will provide a place of refuge and spiritual reflection.

This building will allow us to run a multiplicity of courses.

This building will be actively used all year round.

This building will be a facility for the people of Ibiza.

It will be a place for the young to use after school or at the weekend. It will be attractive to all age groups.

We will host xbox clubs, pool tournaments, relaxation sessions, Spanish classes, coffee mornings and poker nights.

It will be a facility for information and advice about life on this island, an access point for workers.  Not just a place to use the internet, but a place of support when people are in need.

Sexual health and drugs awareness will be issues we will tackle from this building.

It will be a training centre – we could train people in DJing, drumming, guitar, dance, art and cookery… to name but a few.

We will gather people in the building on a regular basis for creative, chilled out teaching and worship services. We will run spiritual discovery courses such as alpha.

In my mind’s eye I see counselling taking place, massages being given, conversations being had, coffee being drunk, all in this building.

It will be the venue out of which summer teams work, the base for our community’s West End summer work.

At its heart it will have a prayer room - it’s vibrant beating spiritual heart will be prayer.  Prayer will sustain it.

The next step is a building.

It hasn't all happened yet but I am so privileged to see some of the dream fulfilled in our time here, Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see!

Kind words

I am not showing off or being proud just thought you would like to see some feedback from a few of the people we have helped this year. It's cool when people remember to say thank you.

Hi 24-7,

I was out in San Antonio a couple of weeks ago with some friends and drank too much. The last thing I can remember is downing some shots at a dark bar. I left my friends to walk back to my hotel which was about an hour away. I must have fallen asleep on a bench because the first thing I can remember is a couple of girls helping me to get some water and offering to give me a lift home. Stupidly I didn’t accept the lift and continued to walk the rest of the way with one flip-flop but I was really touched by their kindness and want to say that I really appreciated their gesture and that my wife gave me a royal roasting when I finally staggered in at 6am. Keep up the good work.

Hi 24- 7

I very much appreciated being helped I didn’t realise I was in a vulnerable state and thought i would never in my life be walked home ever lol , Thanks for spending so much time with me and walking me back to my hotel room. You guys really made a diffrence and made me think twice about taking substances which i stopped taking from after that night, thanks guys.

Hi 24-7 Ibiza

I got far to carried away on my first night out in Ibiza and got to a stage of drunkenness I never been before and don't fancy again. This is what I remember, I wandered out of a club and away from my mates and then was lying in a street being sick and falling asleep then two amazing people came from nowhere and started helping me next thing I'm in a car (vomit van!) then wake up on my bathroom floor. Thank you so so much for what you done that night hate to think what could of happened. I would love to know what I was like that night and how you found were I was staying as I didn’t have a clue at the time. Thank for all you done and keep up the good work:)

Hello 24-7!

I’d like to thank all at 24-7, particularly a group of individuals who helped me out on the west end

I was massively intoxicated as it was my holiday i thought hey! lets go nuts, unfortunately before I knew it i was on the ground bleeding heavily from the hand. Members from 247 literally picked me up, strapped me up and walked my back to my hotel – Dread to think where i would be without them as i lost my friends that night!
 You only really appreciate what these people do when you need them most! Keep it up!

Thanks again! X

Hi 24-7

We had a messy few weeks, one night my friend had a few too many and fell and smashed his head open. While I was calling the ambulance my bag was robbed and it was a horrible night!! You took care of my friend who fell and gave him water and bandages and brought him home safe, thank you so much you also gave him a 24-7 lighter which he treasured! I have seen you care for others throughout the duration of my stay too, wow you do an amazing job keep it up xxxx

24-7

Just want to say thankyou to your team who helped me get back to my hotel the first night i went out in ibiza. Brilliant service your running as so many people lose control in ibiza and its a great thing your doing.

Intercession

Is intercession a specific ministry? I sometimes here people say "I am an intercessor" aren't we all called to be intercessors. A friend of mine had someone preaching at his church at the end of the preachers talk he asked for the intercessors to come forward, no one moved!! This was because the whole church had been taught that they were all intercessors and that intercession was not a specific specialist ministry.

Is there a biblical theological argument to support intercession as a gift or ministry?

The word intercessor can only be found in Job 16 and it is not a specific reference to something that is given to one individual.

Aren't we all called to be intercessors, to bring our petitions, to pray continually. The minute you make intercessory ministry a job for specialists you create levels. You make it difficult for other people and prayer becomes exclusive.

Now I understand that there are people who can pray with ease for hours, there are prayer warriors and there are those who can wait on the Lord with ease. This is more a discipline than a gift. Yes and I do believe in intercession groups and meetings, there's nothing better than gathering together and interceding for something. What we do in San Antonio is intercession, we gather regularly to pray for our area and the people who live in it, we intercede, we become intercessors for that period of time.

I wanted to go a bit more biblical with this but until summer is over I don't have the time. When Paul talks of gifts in the New Testament he never mentions prayer or intercession as gift.

Thats why I love 24-7 prayer it encourages prayer for everyone, you don't need a great musician, you don't need to have a specially dedicated full time building. You can have a prayer room anywhere and pray anywhere it is not for specialists, it's inclusive.

Check out All About Prayer for a little more on intercession.

Feminized Prayer

Sometimes I get worried that people think prayer is for girls! With our summer teams that join us here there are we have many more men than women. my accountant wife tells me 80% of our teams are women! I know this is always true of mission teams in general but it did get me thinking about the feminization of prayer.

There's an organisation called Lydia Fellowship  it's about women praying based on quite a weak link to a bible reference in Acts Chapter 16, their prayer meetings are exclusively for women, I know that prayer is good, that all types of people praying all types of prayers are necessary but I can't help wondering if the Lydia thing is a reflection of something that is wrong in Europe!

Over the last century prayer has been feminized, maybe because as the growth of christianity has happened men have worked and women have stayed at home and had more time to go to prayer groups during the day!! Maybe church leadership has not put enough emphasis on prayer, therefore making it a daytime activity available only to those without jobs. It could just be that with increased wealth and leisure women have chosen prayer and men haven't.


Perhaps it's down to the rise of one or two strong women prayer preachers and intercessor movements led by women. 


I know that times have changed but I even look at the  24-7 prayer international prayer team and I see that 6 are women and there is only one man, and this is quite a modern movement!!!!!!! In the end movements do reflect their leadership it concerns me that if the prayer side of 24-7prayer is all ladies bar one, then maybe we will only encourage ladies to pray.

Believe me praying women are better than no one praying at all. this isn't a chauvinistic post more a frustrated post. I don't want women to stop praying I just wish more men would get involved.

How does that happen?

Praying with people on the street

It's so hot and humid here I had to get up at 6am and go and lie outside! Tracy had been out on the street tonight and has just got in.

We have 19 adults here including Tracy and myself serving the work of 24-7 prayer here in ibiza, 8 of those are our first two week team and they are doing a great job.

People in our world still really want prayer, even if they wouldn't call themselves christians. Even though this is our 7th season I still find myself amazed and humbled by the amount of opportunities we get to chat, listen to and pray with people on the street.

Here's a little bit about how it goes when we pray for others on the streets.

Number one prayer request we get is always "others" people generally always want you to pray for someone else. At first I think they feel it's selfish to ask for individual prayer, often saying things like "I don't deserve your prayers but could you pray for my Granny" or a sick loved one, or friend who is having a hard time.

People often ask us to pray for dead people, we do pray for them but generally turn the prayer to pray for the bereaved family and friends. Often it's like they want us to get a message to their friend or family member, or they just miss them dearly and want us to pray that they will be ok in heaven.

Once we have prayed for others we tend to ask "Is there anything we can pray for you about?" mostly we get prayers about future, meeting the right partner, getting enough money, good employment that kind of thing.

Often as we talk and listen to people it goes to a deeper level, 5 areas that people talk to us a lot about are: guilt, regret, fear, pain, failure. I think this tends to happen because we just take the time, we pray before we go out, we ask to be led, allow the Holy Spirit to prompt and guide us and we don't rush. People are also on holiday so they tend to be more relaxed and also in less of a hurry. This is where you really have to believe God will show up, he does. We get a lot of emotional response as we pray for people and it's always beautiful to watch God show up and start to interact with people who maybe hadn't given Him a lot of thought.

We will also pray for people to be healed, you'll be surprised by how many people won't want you to do that, but we are never frightened to ask! We have prayed for a number of people who have got better.

We work hard at not using religious language. I use certain phrases that I really mean for our generation. I pray for God to smile on people, to bless their families, to help them in work, to provide all they need. I often also pray for peace, people need peace. We do of course ask the Holy Spirit to lead our praying but it does help to have given some fore thought to what you are going to say.

If people don't want us to pray for them there and then on the street we ask if they would like to fill out a prayer request form that we will take back to our prayer room and pray about for them. A couple of tips: get them to write it if they don't want to write it you write it but get them to sign it. You then end up praying their prayer more accurately.

Of course over the years we have had comedy prayer requests like guys asking for longer willy's or some asking if Leicester could win the FA cup. We still pin them on our wall and pray for the person but not the request!!!

These last 4 days alone we have prayed with over 30 people on the streets here in Ibiza.

Break Over

That was a nice unplanned break, just spent a bit of time getting my focus sorted for the season ahead so took a little break.

We have just had a prayer team out for 6 days they were excellent and it was a real blessing to have them help us in getting ourselves prepared and geared up for the summer.

Tonight will be our first night out on the street and our centre opens in about 2 hours for the first time this year. Having done this a few times now, we are pretty sure it is going to be a quiet week as all our first weeks normally are. I like the way the seasons builds and you don't just plunge into the madness.

Our team here is taking shape, we already have 5 people who are here for the summer long and will be expecting 2 more in 2 weeks. Our summer long team is wonderfully large. The only slight frustration is that  Poppy who is moving out here for 3 years, has yet to receive her visa!! Hopefully it will arrive soon, if you're the praying kind please pray that this happens quickly.

Another thing that has been happening here for about 6 weeks is our little growing community here on the island made up of Spanish and British guys. We are really trying to develop a long term resident native community here on the island and it's going great. There's about 12 of us so far, but I have the feeling it will grow.

We meet every Sunday night and run a bi-lingual service, it's challenging but seems to be working, anyway church is so much more than a service so we are hoping that as a community we really grow.

Life is good

What if and what else?

The leader of 24-7prayer in Ireland Adrian Eagleson has just written this little update of the first 4 months of our year of prayer. Adrian is not really this small....

Pop over to the 24-7 Ireland site and check the full article out. Here's a little clip:

"In the year of What if I would not be surprised that we end up with more Holy Spirit collisions and unexpected opportunities that we have not even thought about. We have at this point a plan for prayer rooms up and down the nation, however this might just be the beginning, the donkeys part of the story what God wishes to do in Ireland at this time. More and more we are finding others who we have not been connected with who have a similar commitment to build the kingdom. 24-7 it seems, is simply another way of joining the dots together.

And in all of this we have been amazed by the 80 prayer rooms that have already taken part in our first four months. At our monthly gatherings in Carnmoney, Lurgan, Dublin and Belfast we have heard stories of people encountering God in a new and personal way in the place of prayer. One of my favourites is of a prayer room in a rural part of County Armagh where a woman who has been a Christian for over 30 years felt comfortable enough to pray out loud for the first time in a prayer gathering. This speaks to me of the freedom that can come to our nation through the place of prayer, we can apply it at an individual, community and national level.

We are excited about the opportunity that exists as we travel the length and breath of the island, provoking, stirring and encouraging the fullness of God’s Kingdom.

Yet in and through it all, we will remain vigilant continuing to be committed to what God has called us to, and asking the questions what if and also what else?"

This is worth watching

Come On! // Director's Cut from 24-7 Prayer on Vimeo.

24-7 Ireland

24-7 prayer ireland have a newly revamped web page we are currently under going a year of prayer for Ireland.

"24-7prayerireland in partnership with Alpha are trying to facilitate a year of prayer for 2011. The plan is to get people right across the nation of Ireland (north and south) praying for a whole year as much as possible night and day!! We have sensed God leading us strategically to focus prayer on a particular town/city/county each month and to couple this with a gathering in that particular area each month. These gatherings will allow people to share and celebrate stories, pray and worship God together. Our aim through this way of facilitating the year of prayer is two-fold. First, that this will lead to intentional prayer in each area, uniting the local church provincially and seeing significant changes in the communities represented. Secondly and more nationally that this will catch the imagination of people all over the land as we call all of Ireland to prayer and that through this a increasing movement of kingdom people will be connected and mobilised.

So please join in with us…."

I will be in N.Ireland at the end of February, we are doing a weekend in Newtonards, so if you'd like to get along and hear about what we do and how we do it along with some challenge and teaching around the whole subject of prayer and mission, let me know. In fact I'll put the details up soon.

Visit the 24-7prayer Ireland website to check out all that is going on in this wonderful nation.

Dance Differently

We all dance differently, we have different national dances, different music we like to dance to. At different times we dance to different rhythms.

Some of us were even told it was wrong to dance!

Life is a dance.

Micah 6: 8 "and what does the Lord require of you. To act justly and love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

This is the rhythm that has captured my life, this is the music that I want to dance to.

Mixed up in this verse is a rhythm, a rhythm that is good, a rhythm that is pure.

A multi layered rhythm that I choose to move my life to.

A rhythm of prayer, mission and justice.

That’s why I love 24-7 prayer. It’s a movement, a movement that moves to rhythm of prayer, mission and justice.

The Baseline

The baseline of this movement, this dance, I have chosen to enter is “prayer.”

Walking humbly is a walk of prayer. I may not be great at prayer but the more I tap out this base line in my life the better I get.

Prayer changes things. Prayer changed my life when I decided I would dance to it’s beat. That I would pray more than watch big brother!

Prayer is the beat of all we do, it’s dangerous, can alter the course of our lives, it is a wild, exciting rhythm that we need to dance to.

The Melody

Another layer to this rhythm is “Loving Mercy”

A rhythm of mercy is a rhythm of “mission.” I feel the beat of mercy on my own life and want others to feel it as well.

I want others to dance to the rhythm that has captured my heart.

Therefore I am compelled to go. I will go without, I will live wherever, I will sacrifice, I will push through I will allow the rhythm of mission to move and guide me.

We will dance to this rhythm wherever it takes us.

In Isaiah 6 we see the prophet move from the baseline of prayer and intimacy to the response of “Here I am send me” he let the rhythm move him.

The Harmony

Then I see another layer, another strand, “Act Justly” that strand is “Justice”.

Justice is not just a strand for hippies dancing around a pole in some forest to the beat of some weird African tribal drum.

Justice is an essential part of the Christians dance.

The strand that shows how to do what is right. To move right.

Here’s the justice part of the dance: Isaiah 58: 5-6

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to lose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yokeIs it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?. ”

So yes, we will dance, we will dance with all our might, we will move to this rhythm and we will dance to it wherever it takes us and whenever the Lord of the dance asks us to.

And we dance for the king and His kingdom with the hope that our dance ushers it into being.

I'm going

24-7 prayer are having there international gathering in Edinburgh this year.

This should be fun, if you haven't already booked you should. There are some great preachers this year, especially George Verwer of Operation Mobilization, I like him a lot.

Actually thinking about it I haven't booked in yet, must do that this week.

Edinburgh is not the cheapest city in the world but there are some ok accommodation options on the 24-7 prayer site.

It would be great to see you there....

In the gutter

I love this painting by Banksy and this line from "Gabriel and the Vagabond" by Foy Vance. It has been painted on our prayer room wall. It sums up a lot of what we do and probably is the closest thing to expressing what it's all about that we do here.

Don't you just want to gently whisper hope? Enjoy the song:

Ibiza Bible Preview

The bibles are with the printers and should be ready within 6ish weeks!!! We are basically trying to sell half so that we can give the other half away for free. They cost £5.00 each, that doesn't include postage and package. At the moment I would only like to take orders for 20 plus so if you are in the position to buy 20 of these bibles or more I would love to hear from you.

Here's the blurb that we wrote for the back of the bible and I hope you like the front cover design?

Does Jesus Really love Ibiza?


Totally. We don’t know what you think about Jesus, but we do know that He loves this beautiful island and all who inhabit it. Jesus loves everyone, regardless of race, gender or social standing.

Following Jesus is a bit like dancing. The wrong things that we have done have put us out of step with God and left us in a mess that we can’t get out of by ourselves, but Jesus made a way to rescue us if we follow Him.

Following Him is about catching His rhythm and allowing your life to move to the rhythm of His beat! His dance is a dance of love, mercy, justice, forgiveness, selflessness and sacrifice. It’s a dance that leads us to repentance and relationship with God.

So what you have here is part of the bible that tells the story of Jesus; it communicates His rhythm. The author Eugene Peterson wanted to get the bible back to its roots, to the way we talk when we are not trying to sound religious. Whether you have been reading the bible for years or you’re exploring it for the first time, the Message will surprise you. In it you will read about the love revolution that inspired the women and men who first experienced it to dance to a different rhythm and change the world forever.

“Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly.” - Jesus

Shred your prayer

We have a shredder in the corner of the prayer room which people can shred their prayers of repentance in. Here's the wording once again you have make it clear:

CONFESSION BOX


Micah 7 v 18-19
Who is a God like you, 
      
who pardons sin ...... 
     
......... You will again have compassion on us; 
      
you will tread our sins underfoot 
      
and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.

Take a moment to think about things you have done that you regret, things that you are sorry for.
Write them down, confess them to God. Think about whether you need to do anything to make it right with another person.
Then take your confession and shred it, destroy it – accept God’s forgiveness and ask Him to help you not to do that again.

"I'll face myself

To cross out what i’ve become

Erase myself

And let go of what i’ve done
So let mercy come
And wash away
What I’ve done"
Linkin Park

This a popular part of our prayer room.

Ibiza Season 6

Well this is our 6th season on the streets of Ibiza, 24-7 prayer has been coming here for over 10 years now which is very exciting. Although tonight wasn't very exciting just cold and empty but it was still good to get out and about walking the streets meeting familiar faces and connecting with some new people.

I enjoy blogging after a night on the streets, I don't know why it is, probably because it is cathartic.

What does season 6 hold for us? I'm not sure but it feels like it's going to be a good one. We feel more focussed and ready than we have ever been.

The farm was good in one way it showed us what we did and didn't have capacity for! We are now back doing our core business we did it last year but with a sense of distraction as we tried to do two projects!!!

I remember hearing John Wimber say "keep the main thing the main thing" I like that.

Focussed and ready for season 6 although tonight's episode was quiet I feel it we will be part of a slow burning series that will soon quicken it's pace.

Open house

Matthew 5: 14

"Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand. Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven."

The Message

Needless to say; I like this

Message in a bottle

We popped these bottles up in our chapel yesterday for people to put private prayers in.



If you're going to have things like these hanging in your prayer room you need to put an explanation up this is our one:

MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE
Prayers for God alone to hear
“Just a castaway, an island lost at sea 
Another lonely day, with no one here but me 
More loneliness than any man could bear 
Rescue me before I fall into despair”
Sting 



Write a prayer or a letter to God.
Tell Him your secrets, your longings, your hopes, your dreams, your fears – anything you like really.
Roll it up and put it in a bottle for no one else to read

“You keep track of all my sorrows.
You have collected all my tears in your bottle
You have recorded each one in your book’
Psalm 56 : 8




Original idea, Becky Edmonds stole from Kansas City Boiler Room, blue bottles sourced by Bruce from Davids Pizzeria he drank all the water and was running to the toilet for days.

The Chapel

This feels like the breath before the plunge!

The westend has a lot of energy, people painting, fixing stuff, cleaning and generally getting ready. I love this time of year. We have a prayer team out on Monday and our first summer long worker, Neil from Bristol, arrives this Sunday. Bruce is trapped in Ireland with his Lady friend, he has been there for nearly an extra week because of volcanic ash. It's cool because it's a result for him to spend more time with Christine and get extra refreshed and loved up before the summer.

We have redecorated the prayer room, it still needs one or two finishing touches, but this year we are going to call it "The Chapel" not the prayer room, it's much easier to explain. A word that keeps coming to mind is sanctuary, we really want the chapel to be a place of sanctuary.

In the 1600's hundreds Ibiza was subject to attacks by bands of marauding pirates, the churches adjusted to this by building fortifications so that when the pirates attacked the village could run into the church and hide there as a place of refuge and sanctuary. The church in San Antonio is one of the best examples of this type of architecture. They even had cannons on the roof to fight the pirates off. We want to recapture some of that ancient spirit, the church building as sanctuary, a place of safety, a shelter. Thats our heart for the chapel (the prayer room!) Maybe we should call it the sanctuary, after all a lot of churches call their main auditorium the sanctuary. I think we'll stick with chapel.

Last year we really were a place of sanctuary, we had people who were very down on their luck use the prayer room, many others used it for some quiet reflection, we prayed with people in it, others just sat in there for a while.

In many ways we want it to reflect the heart of God, I love the phrase "a shelter from the storm" this is what we are aiming for with the chapel this summer.