Over the last few years, a growing movement encouraging prayer rooms in schools has been spreading across the UK.

24-7 prayer have been exploring how to engage students and staff, helping them discover prayer through a variety of creative and contemplative ways.
A few weeks ago, a small group of people from 24-7 Prayer and the local Redcliffe College ventured into a school here in Gloucester, called Bishops College. The school is relatively small, just over 500 staff and students. And yet, over half of the students are classed as “below the poverty line”, many from broken homes, many with learning difficulties.  This place needs prayer. This place needs the love of God.
This was our third week of prayer within a year at this school. And strangely, the prayer weeks come at significant times. The school was told that it would be closing by the end of the year, to be merged with another school in the city. Whether that’s a good or bad decision (the debate continues here), this has been a difficult time for all involved. And for us – opening a prayer room – we really didn’t know if we’d see anyone, or whether talking about God’s love was something anyone wanted to hear about when life isn’t that great at the moment.
We built a large tree sculpture, inspired by Jesus’ story of God’s Kingdom being like a mustard seed, growing to become a shelter for the birds of the air. Below it, we scattered small focal points around the room; poems, questions, creative and artistic responses. Our theme was God’s love, and we prayed that if people came, that they would find God’s love as a haven, a safe space.
We probably shouldn’t have been surprised, but people came, again and again; students, staff, governors, prayer triplets, church groups, vicars, atheists, Muslims. We had nearly 400 visits through the week.
And for sure, not all of these visits included a life transforming experience with Jesus. In fact, much of what we praised God for was very small in our eyes. But just like the seeds that look small at first, we were continually amazed at the prayers being planted, and we trust God to nurture these little seeds. Reflecting on it now, I remember Paul saying “I planted, and Apollos watered – but God gave the increase.”

Please God, grow these little seeds into flowers that flourish for you.

A few highlights:

• The hundreds of friendship bracelets made for each other and tying them to the letters G-O-D.
• The prayers and conversations, especially with students who wiped away their fears on a small whiteboard.
• A student wrote in our guest book “I love this room, wish I could stay longer, I’m glad I can stay in God’s love forever”.
• After pressing their thumb in ink and adding their print to a simple prayer, a student stood up with a radiant face and said “I’m in the family of God now”.

These responses and prayers are not just something for this school, but amazing prayers and conversations are happening all across the country. Small groups of people taking over a classroom and transforming it into a sacred space, where students and staff can explore faith, prayer and consider situations in their lives; reflect on their relationships with others in ways that are simple and unthreatening. People of faith and no faith have been profoundly moved by these spaces.  And they can be used to greatly add value to R.E. lessons and requirements of the curriculum.

If you have some links at your local school, then why not give it a go as well!
If you’re interested in finding out more, you can email schools@24-7prayer.com or visit the web pages on the UK site: http://uk.24-7prayer.com/