“Have you, like me, ever wondered if people who sign up to pray really are praying at 3am?” writes Scot Bower. “I have never however take my curiosity as far as suggesting installing CCTV cameras in a Prayer Room… that would be silly wouldn’t it?

For a group of young people in Sheffield this didn’t sound like such a bad idea and they’ve hit on a crazy, creative way to host a 24-7 Prayer Room. From 18th – 22nd July a group of young guys from the Steelroots Youth Community will be locked in the Prayer Room ‘Big Brother’ style, with no access to the outside world except regular BB calls!

Their plan is, of course, to pray hard. But also to raise a heap of cash to sponsor the education of 10 children from Tanzania. For £15 per month associate charity ‘Grassroots Trust’ will cover school fees, books, exam fees, food, accommodation (if necessary) medical costs, extra tuition around exam time and even a bicycle if they have to travel a long way to get there everyday.

Youth worker Joel Toombs (who will play the part of Big Brother for the week) explains:

‘This idea emerged from the desire to do three things…

Firstly, the young people wanted the opportunity to further explore prayer in a Christian context. It follows on from the recent success of providing a prayer space that young people can come and reflect on life and process their thoughts and engage with God through creative and relevant means.

Secondly to harness the privileged position of many in our region for the good of those who could really do with the support; rather than for our own selfish desires as we so often default to.

Thirdly, to be a presence for good within the local community. Steelroots is a group of young people who, motivated by their Christian values, want to inspire and provoke the region by acting with passion for justice and compassion for people.’

There will be fun tasks and challenges for the housemates to complete (not including maintaining the 24hr prayer watch) and goings on will be streamed live on steelroots.org.uk/big-brother each evening, where there will also be opportunity for viewers to donate money.

One of the housemates said:

‘As Christians we want to not only talk about the injustice in the world that tears at God’s heart strings but do something about it. This initiative is about praying like mad and also fundraising like mad. It’s going to be hard but it’ll be amazing to spend so much time in God’s presence praying for him to intervene in our lives here and across the world.’

My favourite part of any BB show is eviction night. Sadly I think they stopped short at having the most unpopular housemate walk the stairs of shame. However there will be plenty of opportunity to interact with Big Brother via the website, on their facebook page or through twitter, so you never know if you have enough cash you may be able to convince BB to evict your favourite  housemate!”