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.