You may remember a few weeks ago we featured a post from a ‘Big Brother’ Prayer Room in Sheffield. Youth worker Joel Toombs (who played the part of Big Brother for the week) recently sent us some feedback on the event, here are some of his thoughts:
“Our decision to run a Big Brother House in Sheffield this summer was about praying out loud with our lives… Praying visibly, living authentically, being purposeful and inventive but humble and in the help of the Holy Spirit…. This kind of prayer does three things: it shakes the church from its cosy little hide; it says to the world “we are unashamed enough to let you see us do what we do;” and it of course achieves its aim of connecting with the heart of our maker for all the things we are breaking our hearts over.
We just need more and more and more creative ways of engaging with both prayer and youth culture at the same time! Why should we be embarrassed or quiet about the way we want to live and the values we hold and the things we are expecting and praying for? So this was us being who we are and trying to provoke more prayer in ourselves, our youth community, our churches and the wider community in general – and letting everyone and anyone see us do it! This was certainly not a ‘look at us, we’re great at praying’ – this was much more a ‘we really need a kick up the bum to get us going ‘cos we don’t pray enough, so let’s jump in the deep end ‘cos it’s about time we stopped pussyfooting around.’
This is what Andrew Wardrope, 17, who was helping to be ‘Big Brother’ had to say:
We had no delusions it would be easy – 24/7 prayer is hard stuff. Especially when there are only 7 of you locked in a small house over a 5-day period with no phones, no entertainment or any contact with the outside world. But how would you feel doing that knowing that the whole time you are being streamed live over the internet?! That’s the Steelroots Big Brother project in a nutshell.
The seven housemates were all between the ages of 16 and 19 and were desperate to experience God in a new and challenging way, whilst also serving others through the sponsorship scheme. (So far we’ve raised over £2400 for the Grassroots trust to sponsor Tanzanian children through secondary school education. That’s twelve kids covered for a year and counting at £15/month for everything they need… this will actually and tangibly change their existence! Have a look at the www.grassroots.org.uk…) We had a live-streamed launch night event to send them into the house and their progress was followed by viewers on the Internet who could watch and listen to the housemate’s discussions, challenges, worship times and general silliness too! The Housemates set up a round-the-clock prayer rota so that someone was in the prayer room at all times.
‘Big Brother’ set challenges for the housemates every few hours. Some were for laughs such as face painting and composing songs about each other. However some were more thought provoking. On the third day they could only eat Ugali; an African maize/porridge substance and had to remain silent for a 6 hour period. But as custom in all good youth work, a chocolate cake was given as a reward for each successfully completed challenge through the week!
Housemate Alex (16):
“I’m writing this the day after I exited the house, having just had one of the most peaceful sleeps ever. Looking back on the last 5 days it is hard to understand how so much could have fitted into such a short amount of time but I suppose that’s what happens when you dedicate five straight days to near constant prayer!”
“The first day entering the house was a bit surreal; the cameras, the environment and the anticipation of constant round the clock prayer. With the help of the Lord we seized the initiative and the whole group headed straight for the prayer room and we had an amazing time of worship and prayer using both secular dance music and classic worship songs.”
“We had many amazing times like this both as a group and also on our own but it was on the last night that I really had a breakthrough; hearing one of the others teaching from the bible and telling me things I never even knew, answering my questions about parts of the bible I found it difficult to see the truth in (Mathew 12:30-32). I retreated to the prayer room to get some more time with God and as I entered another guy told me to read Psalm 33, the forth verse of which says ‘for the word of the lord is right and true’ this really humbled me and broke my heart, it showed me that although I can’t contemplate the whole of the word, it is still true. I felt like God was telling me to lose my arrogance, lose my pride and become humble before him as a simple servant, so I did! I really felt like God broke my heart that day and reconstructed it out of stronger materials.”
So not only were the Housemates genuinely connecting with God, it was also something of an experiment in modern monasticism! The fellowship of the Housemates and their routine together teaching them as much as their time in the prayer room:
“Another thing I really must comment on is the fellowship. The camaraderie was second to none – we discussed everything and anything into the early hours of the morning, we were at each others side within the quickest of shouts. We worshiped, prayed, suffered, studied and loved together how much better could fellowship get!”
“Today we had some interesting grub – we had some Tanzanian food; we had some maize based product – which is absolutely repulsive. I just physically couldn’t eat it. But then an hour down the line I felt really bad because if people in Africa are eating this day in, day out – and yet I couldn’t even eat it for one meal… I couldn’t bring myself to eat it for one meal… I just felt like… like I let myself down really. It was just a bit selfish not to just endure it. Just do it. It was quite hard, cos I do like my food!”
Each of the Housemates are still benefiting from their time in the House as they reflect on what God was doing in them at the time – as well as what they were doing as they brought others to him in prayer; and the whole community has become aware that there is a community of young people on their doorstep who are motivated and passionate about doing something locally to change the world globally; because of their faith in Jesus.”
