“In June as part of my work with The CROSS Project,  I had the privilege of setting up a 24-7 prayer room in a local school” writes Rachel Senior. “It was a Catholic college where prayer was already a part of school life, but for one week was about to become a lot bigger. We were blessed with an amazing space which we transformed from a slightly dingy and rarely used class room into a light, open and creative space where the students could explore prayer and talk to God.

The students loved the room, heading down, not only in the allocated slots during lessons, but at break and lunch too, spending time at each prayer station and really engaging in what the room had to offer.
One station, a bubble lamp entitled ‘prayers to heaven’, was covered in post-it notes- many of these prayers were heartbreaking. As the week went on we realised that it was a space for so many of the students to lift their hurt and trials to God. A few stood out to me in particular; one about a difficult  decision over whether to re-connect with birth parents, one from a student who had lost a family member in Afghanistan, and another wishing that they had known their parents.  So many students off-loaded and handed all of these burdens over to a God who cares intensely for us and will stand with us through the tough times.

The Head Teacher came to look around one afternoon, subtly slipping in with a group of students, and he echoed our feelings about the room- it was a room where sorrow was released and showed another, usually hidden, side to the identity of the students, a theme which they are looking to explore through the collective worship in the next year.

While there was this atmosphere of pain, the room was not a sad place, just peaceful and reflective, showing the strength and resilience that God can give us- through tough times we can live full and fun lives, enjoying and thanking God for all he has given us, humour, love, family, friends, school, pets, the world, and, as one young man prayed ‘thank you for farts’.

You can get more information on Prayer Spaces in Schools and how to do this stuff where you are from Mandy Moo – mandy@prayerspacesinschools.com