Emma Nicholson was part of the team from The Matrix Trust getting the first prayer space in a school in Guildford. Read her report on how it blew her expectations out the water and how God turned up to ‘say hello’…
I have heard stories of God meeting with people in prayer rooms all over the world. I have read about the miracles, the meetings and I craved for it to happen in my town. And now I sit her reflecting on a week of prayer in Christ College, a secondary school in the heart of one of Guildford’s estates.
The word that rings round in my mind is Redemption, Redemption, Redemption. The life that God gives reconciling each and everyone of us in his arms. If I’m perfectly honest my expectations of the week were small- to get young people to engage with themselves, the world and God – and I suppose in that order. I wouldn’t say I lacked faith, I just thought the room would be more of a place of engaging rather than meeting. People engaged but God said hello.
We had a number of zones and stations around the room (which in fact was the school’s new Chapel) with lighting to match. On one wall was a huge map of the world entitled “Your Big Questions.” On one occasion I was standing with a group of girls and one asked what to put. “Anything” was my response – “why is there war? Why are people dying? Why did someone leave?” She then took a post it note and scribbled down – “why did my mum leave…” ouch!
“Is a coincidence wanting to have an older sister then finding out you had one?” was her question to the station “God-incidence or coincidence?”… ouch again. We sat down and talked through these things, she told me of her fears and confusion. Her prayer was this: writing down all the things she felt robbed of, the anger and the pain and then to shred them in the shredder we had in the room. Redemption.
One young person who I knew from a youth club came in after saying he wasn’t going anywhere near the room because he doesn’t believe in God. However he came in day after day. He brought his friends; he laughed and prayed really simple, honest prayers. One of his friend’s Dad had sadly had a heart attack unexpectedly and passed away. She sat in the “identity tent” for hours with me. We talked, laughed, sat in silence and again I felt God saying “I want to redeem you and bring you home.” She wrote down everything she felt robbed off, the memories, the living together and the love of her father. She then put them at the cross in the room on which was written: “lay your burdens at the cross and I will carry them away.” She didn’t walk out the door “born again” but she walked out the door a flickering flame after encountering Jesus.
Throughout the week teachers brought in their RE classes and were surprised at how normally rowdy classes were peaceful. When they stepped into the room they saw young people learning in deeper ways. Even after the first day I felt utterly wrecked and by Friday I was speechless at the lives God had been breathing into.
Oh and the young person from the youth club who’d brought his friends into the prayer room – well he’d actually been banned from the club that week because of his behaviour the week before, but would still come in anyway and swear, throw things and be disruptive. This week however I experienced an utterly changed boy. He waited at the door and asked if I would come and talk to him, which I did. He spoke calmly and positively about school and the fact he had chosen his GCSE options. “They have all been calling me a bible basher for coming into the prayer room this week. Am I?” I asked him if he thought I was and he said “No you’re not…” He then went on to say that actually he didn’t care if they did called him that, because it’s just what you believe and just because he wants to do something with his life he would rather stay in the prayer room at lunch times than hang around and do nothing.
This young person was utterly transformed and I was speechless at the changes in him. He went on to talk about his younger brother who has been in hospital. He spoke of how he had realised he’d not been there for him, not played with him and just generally been a sucky brother. But now he wants to be there, to play, to read him stories and to be a great big brother. When I mentioned that I’d pray for him he said “thank you so much.” He then came into the club and helped me tidy up. Now he’s not perfect – he still got unnecessarily angry and swore, but then again so do I. God is and will forever be breathing into his life because of what he experience in the prayer room at school, and I feel utterly privileged to be caught up in that.
