Over the last 3 years we have held 24-7 prayer weeks on the University of Surrey campus, in the “24-7 Tent” – a small gazebo/marquee pitched in the centre of the campus where students could come and pray and ask questions.  We loved the tent, but cold and wind were not its friends, and after dozens of students had spent time in there over the years, it was beginning to show its age.

In conversation with friends over a Starbucks coffee, after a 24-7 prayer week in the tent, we started dreaming of what we could do next, attempting to outbid each other on the most ridiculous idea for a prayer space, and not thinking through any practical or financial implications, I came away with a frankly wacky idea. What if we could have a ‘mobile’ prayer room? Something that you could somehow ‘dump’ somewhere and just see what happens? Like – converting a caravan?!

Seven months later, a grant for £500 won, one failed caravan conversion attempt and a whole group of wonderful volunteers all helping out – I was applying the last coat of paint to the inside of our ‘prayer caravan’ at 11pm on a friends’ driveway, the night before Freshers Week was to start, ready for our first prayer week in the caravan on campus. I wasn’t sure what my expectations were for the week, but God blew them out the water.

Over the course of five days well over 200 students must have spent time in the ‘prayer caravan’ as it had now been named. It could well have been two or three times that figure, we just don’t know. During the nights particularly, the caravan was packed – people kept coming in and asking questions, asking to be prayed for and doing artwork and prayer requests on the walls. The people we met and stories we’ve heard are too numerous to tell, but here are just some:

“I took the first night shift at the mobile prayer room/caravan on campus & arrived at about 11.30 and at the time there were three students there chatting about various things and at around 1.00am they all left me to read and pray. After a few minutes another three freshers rocked up and after a very brief explanation began to scribe their prayer on the walls! Once they had left I had about 40 mins or so before the Student’s Union bar poured out and I was greeted by at first another three second years who were chatting and painting, and they were shortly followed by around 30 others! Not all of these were in the caravan as they couldn’t fit but we did hit double figures before the space ran out! There were a few who were writing prayer up on the walls, some who were asking questions, others who were enjoying a sofa to sober up on, and others who had no idea what it was all about and were just intrigued. Quite a few said they would come back again and some even said they wanted to sign up for a slot or two!”

“We were walking to the takeaway pizza shop on campus when we saw three students trying to break into the students union through the roof wanting to see the gig currently going on. We watched this hilarity then invited them back to the caravan for pizza & prayer. All  seemed really touched by God when they entered the caravan. One started asking loads of questions about God as soon as we got in, and we had a really good conversation with him about religion versus relationship amongst other things. The next guy asked us to prayer for him and the third guy picked up a Bible and started reading Mark’s gospel with me. He was really surprised the bible wasn’t the boring, dead book he expected! Our conversations with these guys flowed so naturally & they initiated all the questions about Jesus”

“I booked a slot in the Prayer Caravan for Thursday lunchtime, so I rocked up and began praying and looking around at the various words and thoughts people had drawn everywhere. I noticed a couple of my workmates passed by as I sat looking out the window and hailed them from the doorway! I invited them in to take a look around, they were really interested and sat down for a chat. One of my workmates expressed how she was feeling really fed up and stressed with work, so i offered to pray for her. She noticed that someone had wrote on the wall, “If you could ask God one question, what would it be?”. She said hers would be “Are you real, God?” I told her that maybe she should ask Him for herself! After this, she had to go back to work and me and a friend prayed and asked God for any words he had for my friend. 3 scriptures came to mind quite clearly. Psalm 29, Jeremiah 29:13 and Revelation 3:20. They speak about how awesome Gods voice is and how he waits to be invited into our lives. I’m going to give these verses to my workmate and hope and pray she finds them encouraging and that she comes to know a God who is absolutely real!”

“From 11pm until 5am, there was not a single dull moment. Students came flooding in and out constantly and we came into contact with around 60 people throughout the night. Some stayed longer and we managed to have long conversations, others to come in to grab some sweets and leave.  Either way, I know that God softened all those people’s hearts to come into the caravan”

The few times during the week when I was on my own in the caravan, I would simply be blown away at what I was looking at. It was the first time I had been in a prayer space that had been visited by mainly non-christians, and the artwork reflected that. One particular (slightly drunken) scribble that will stay with me from the week was this:

“You are specially chosen. I didn’t choose Birmingham [Uni] but glad I am at Surrey because I would never ended up in this little van where I have found my destiny. What do you believe – destiny or science? I believe in destiny”.

What really struck me as I towed the caravan back from the campus, was the hunger from students for ‘spirituality’. Not many argued with us about supposed logical explanations against Christianity, most came looking for answers. It felt like a generation truly lost – not one that had found the ‘wrong’ thing, but rather hadn’t found anything at all. The power of prayer to a living God was simply too attractive, and if it takes a bright red caravan to help them get there, then so be it.

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