Hold a Prayer Evening

Tagged:
One of the core values of SPEAK is our belief in the value and importance of prayer. We believe we have a responsibility to pray for change, both to individual lives and to situations of injustice. To help you and others to grapple spiritually with the issues around drones and war, why not have a prayer event focussed on the theme of peace? It’s also a great way of raising awareness of the issues, and you could get lots of Pray & Post Cards signed as part of the evening too, adding many more voices to the campaign for justice. You could do it with a SPEAK group or approach your church, Christian Union or other group you are involved in and offer to run it with them. Here are some ideas for activities you could do together through the night:

Creative Prayer Stations

1.       Find a map of the world (or draw an outline). Encourage people to light a t-light (provide suitable holders) and place it on an area of the world they know is suffering from conflict, and spend some time praying for it.

2.       A water pistol. Reflect on how war has taken away the childhood of so many around the world.

3.       A place to say sorry: Encourage people to think about and say sorry for the acts of violence in war conducted by military and non-military leaders around the world. Ask them to:

Reflect on the harm caused by conflict

Write or draw this on a small whiteboard

Say sorry

Wipe the board clean with a cloth and thank God for the power of his forgiveness to transform situations.

4.       Borrow some wooden building blocks or lego and make a model of something representing war (e.g. a fighter plane). Have another model of something representing life e.g. a house. Reflect on how the resources used to build conflict could be transformed and used to build peace instead.

5.       Pray & Post Cards: Have some Pray & Post Cards on the armed drones campaign for people to read and pray through, and pens for them to sign them.

6.       Pray for the suffering experienced by refugees. You could represent this either with a food parcel or mini suitcase.

7.       Stories of hope in the midst of war. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1353330/Egypt-protests-Christian... and http://www.frrme.org/about-us-topmenu-21/andrew-white

8.       Dropping a stone into water and seeing the ripples. Reflect on how the small things we do can have a ripple affect. What can we do in our lives? Maybe use a prayer?

9.       Type of draw out verses from the bible that will speak to people about peace such as Matt 5:9 (‘’blessed are the peacemakers…’’), Matt 5:38-41 (‘’eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth’’) and Hosea 2:18, Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land, so that all may lie down in safety.

lizziespeak
21 Apr 2011 - 3:31pm