Find the missing piece

A new prayer station has just been installed in our prayer space at St Stephens, Redditch, in the side chapel at the front of church.


















The prayer is focused around jigsaw pieces, reflecting on what we need to complete our life. The words written on the large jigsaw piece include the Trinity & the fruits of the Spirit.

In the basket, the jigsaw pieces available for writing on are an incomplete children's jigsaw from a charity shop.

Visitors can write what they need on a jigsaw piece and then either take it away to remind themselves or leave it for others to pray for.

The Bible verses to help reflection are: 

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  Phil 4:6

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Matt 11:28

The Lord is close to the broken-hearted

and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

Psalm 34:18

plus a quote from St Augustine:

“You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless, until they can find rest in you.”

With the jigsaw theme, it seemed appropriate to have a large, 1000-piece puzzle available for people to add to.

St Stephens is a lovely cool place to spend time - a real blessing during a hot Summer - so we're hoping we'll get lots of help to complete this picture of Noah and the animals leaving the ark.

We've also got a new set of toddler puzzles in the children's corner. An activity sheet might appear if time allows.

The Bandaged Cross

Whilst many of the prayer stations so far have encouraged people to pray for others, we haven't done one specifically for healing so our new one is The Bandaged Cross.














The veterinary nurse in the family supplied us with some wrap-around bandages which were used to cover our large wooden cross.















Visitors are invited to think of someone that's poorly - someone that needs healing. They write the name on a plaster and stick it on the bandaged cross as a way to physically pray for that person.
For some reason I have loads of packs of sticking plasters so I didn't need to buy any new ones.


As always, various Bible verses are laid out to help focus, this time ones on healing.


Although the prayer station is to be available in St Stephen's Church for the next month or so, it was
set up this morning for our ecumenical Messy Church on the Good Samaritan.
In supervising the station, I quickly learnt to invite children by saying "Do you know someone who is poorly?". Starting by saying "Do you want to pray for someone who is poorly?" did not get positive responses.
By the end of this morning, the bandaged cross already has a good number of plasters on it. I'm concerned that the cool air in the church might make the plasters curl off but I'll keep an eye on that.


I wanted a picture of a plaster cross to use on the invitations and instructions
but could only find protected ones online. A simple answer to this was to photograph my own. This image is free for anyone to use.

Celebrating Pentecost

The week before Pentecost, we celebrated Ascension when Jesus tells his followers to wait for the Holy Spirit. It seemed like a good Sunday to start the Pentecost prayer station.

The cellophane ribbons were cut from rolls and hung from a curtain rod. The red fairy lights are powered through USB connections so are plugged into phone chargers on a timer. The ribbons hanging from the candlesticks look pretty but had to be removed as I hadn't realised that these particular candlesticks are used during funeral services (oops).


Visitors are invited to think about people that need the Holy Spirit, including themselves; write the names on flames or doves and stick them on the cellophane with sticky buddies.
As always, they are encouraged to spend some time thinking/praying for those people.

Even with just a few on, the "wall of flames" is beginning to look effective. I'll try to post a final photo before it's dismantled.

Instructions with Acts 1:8

Children's Corner

The same cellophane ribbons were hung from a hula hoop suspended from the ceiling tiles above the children's corner. The doves and flames available here are larger and the ribbons come to just above adult height. I was aware that it was too tempting for children to tug on the ribbons so adults are needed to do the sticking...
I also managed to find a children's book on Pentecost with the story told in rhyme. It's a bit old fashioned but I do like to add to the book collection.

Lord's table

For this prayer station we've been particularly blessed by Karen who used to do a lot of flower arranging. She offered to help and I set her loose on the Lord's table that's in the side chapel (with permission from the vicar).
I'd had the idea of draping red fabric from the cross with a white dove at it's centre but Karen made it come to life with some gold voile and ribbon spiral flames. She also made a foot-piece that finishes it off but I didn't get a photo of that.
The existing real candles have been replaced by (safer) battery candle lights. They are effectively weighting the fabric to stop it slipping off but I think they add to the design.
This table is the focus of the quiet time & morning prayer that happen most weekdays 8.30-9.30am so it will be interesting to get some feedback from those people that attend.

And here's the final curtain of Pentecost ribbons - a lovely, bright celebration!

On His Hand

April 2016

The current prayer station in St Stephen's church is based on:

"I have written your name on the palms of my hands.” Isaiah 49:16

A local printer was commissioned to print the image as large as possible and fix it to corrugated plastic.

Visitors are invited to think about the last time they wrote someone's name on their hand; to write their name on the poster and to spend some time thinking about what it means to have their name on God's hand.

Inspiration for this came from the Prayer Spaces in Schools website.

Prayer Labyrinth

March 2016

Prayer Labyrinth

This was a simple floor labyrinth with a pile of rocks at the entrance. Visitors were invited to pick up a rock, carrying into the centre and then leave it at the cross there, retracing their steps to exit.

The labyrinth had to be created in situ. It's a bit too big to lay out anywhere else.

The floor cloth is 2 DIY dust sheets sewn together. They are an open-weave fabric on one side and thin plastic on the other. This was very handy so that the paint didn't go through to the floor underneath. The concentric circles were drawn with chalk using string around a traffic cone. The horizontal and vertical lines were added and the gaps brushed away to form one pathway into the centre.

I walked the route many times as I painted it in (with black emulsion) as I was paranoid that I would create one gigantic dead-end - not a good spiritual experience.





The top picture shows the labyrinth set up with the cross in the centre with some rocks and with some rocks at the entrance. There are bible verses on the outside of each quadrant:

"See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not see it?" Isaiah 43:19

"Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28

"Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you." 1 Peter 5:7

"Remember the Lord in everything you do, and he will show you the right way" Proverbs 3:6

Once set up, I walked the route, carrying a stone simply to test it. Assigning a particular concern I had, I felt surprisingly lighter after placing it by the cross.

A young boy carried a large stone into the centre, saying that he was carrying for his 1 year-old cousin because he couldn't carry his own.

This prayer installation has had the biggest impact so far.

In the children's corner I added a book on different labyrinths from around the world. I also created some finger labyrinths which I laminated.

How do you feel?

February 2016

The latest prayer station has been installed at St Stephen's Church, entitled "How do you feel".

The visitor is invited to take a glass bead and place it on one of the emoji plates.

There are 4 sad faces and 4 happy faces drawn on paper plates with a couple in between...
After spending some time talking to God about how they feel, they can move their bead or put a new one down on a different plate - how they're feeling now or how they want to feel..

The verses available (on funky foam) are all from Psalms where, of course, you can find most emotions:
Psalm 13
Psalm 23
Psalm 28: 6-9
Psalm 56: 8-13

The back drop and the large faces were made from 3 paper tablecloths from the 99p Shop. The lights were left up from the last station.

The poster advertising it now has "St Stephen's Prayer Space" on it. I realised that our notice boards act as a public space so we get posters advertising things at lots of different places. The previous posters could have been advertising prayer spaces in any local church!

I got a couple of emoji cushions that were everywhere before Christmas. They've been named Chill and Si (thanks Nicki) and have come to stay in the children's corner. They are "guarding" the felt pens and paper plates with an invitation for children to draw their own emoji faces.
The felt pens may be a bad idea and have to disappear but we'll see...
It's the school half-term holiday next week so I'm hoping that parents will pop in with their children at some point.

God so loved the world

The world is a big place but we know:

“God so loved the world that he sent his only son…” - John 3:16

before the title was put up

Text from the directions:

"Stick one or more dots on the maps where you think Gods love needs to be felt:

• Somewhere that needs peace, justice or compassion;
• Somewhere local, national or a long way off;
• Somewhere with people you know or don’t know;
• Somewhere in the news or somewhere that’s been forgotten.

 Spend some time talking to God about that place, praying for it’s needs."

The main picture above was taken before the title was added "God so loved the world" and so looks a bit plain.
The "Come & Pray" signs, with the same text as previously but with a "flag-world" added, have been put up in the porch, the shop and all around the Forum.

More fairy lights have been used - necessary in the winter months when the natural light inside the church is so low. These are the bright, white fairy lights - white being a colour associated with peace. The little stickers are also white for this reason although I might add some coloured ones for greater visibility.

The world and UK map posters were ordered from an ebay store for £3 each but "buy 2 get 1 free".

The map of Redditch can be picked up at the local tourist info point in the Palace Theatre.




My hope is that people will place stickers for their own homes and those of friends and families, with a commitment to pray for them. I'm also hoping that people will place stickers in places that have come to their notice in the news or in other ways that really need our prayers.
People coming to use the prayer station may also see where others have placed stickers and be minded to pray for those places too.

Although my original thought was to encourage people to pray for peace in war-torn places, when visualizing the maps and stickers the concepts of peace in relationships and comfort in times of need got drawn in.

This is a very simple prayer station to set up which was also a consideration for the busy post-Christmas period. 

For the children's corner, there are 2 new colouring sheets, one of the world with John 3:16 around it and one that's a flag colouring challenge. A chart of different flags (from the same ebay store) needs to be added to help with this.




The Christmas-themed books have been removed as have a few books that are either too tattered or too long to be read in a normal visit.

If you're in the Redditch area, do pop into St Stephens, in the centre of the town by the market place, and spend some time praying for the places on your heart. Come when you can, leave when you must.