Last Saturday, from 10am to 10pm the MBC sanctuary was open for prayer. Through words, silence, art, music, movement, dance, food, song and more, all ages were encouraged to have a conversation with God.
The day was themed around ‘Abiding’ and there were 4 zones linked to different understandings of abiding. One zone focused on abiding memories and God with us on the journey, another zone looked at what we cannot abide, a third zone encouraged us to simply ‘abide’ in God and a fourth looked at the theme of kingdom and who we abide by. People were encouraged to move around the zones at their own pace or indeed just ‘to be’ in the space. A variety of chairs and cushions were dotted around the room as well as space to move.
There was also testimony, mission stories, mindfulness, sung worship and movement/dance opportunities lead from the front throughout the day that people could choose to engage with on whatever level they wanted. People prayed for those who were sick, they prayed for their city, the places where they lived and worked, they meditated on Jesus as the vine, they heard personal testimony from mission and prayed for persecuted Christians, they used globes to think about the wider world and they sang songs and picked up flags to declare God’s love and faithfulness.
There was a welcome stream of drinks and snacks available, including a ‘banqueting table’ with fresh bread, fruit and cake under a canopy of vines. A book was left by the entrance/exit for people to write their thoughts in as they left and it will be a reminder of what God was saying throughout the day.
Some people dropped in for a short time, others stayed for the full 12 hours, some came on their own and others came with friends and family members. A number people have given feedback and words that came up quite a lot were space, peaceful, safe, freedom, grow, colour, unity, connected and ‘spring up’.
The whole day came out of discussions in a home group hosted by Abi and Sam Tillie around 24/7 prayer. The group want to thank everyone who helped to plan, facilitate and take part in the day.
For more information about prayer days/nights see www.24-7prayer.co.uk
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