Prayer Space in Headington Oxford

On 18th & 19th April, Nick and a group of local Christians organised a prayer space at a local Primary School.  This prayer space was made up of 4 zones, into which small groups of children explore what Christian prayer is.  Throughout the two days the whole school spent 30 minutes in the  prayer space and were able to explore in break and lunchtimes also.

The 4 spaces were:

Thank You – Children could write thank you’s on Post-It notes or make their thank you from playdough.  Children created football goals, family members, pets and a variety of food items.

Sorry – Children could write in sand trays Sorry (or just S for younger kids) or maybe write areas they would like to say sorry for.  Then shake teh trays and the words vanish, just like God forgiving.  They could also explore some plasma balls – where the electrical current connects when you touch it and follows you as you move your hand or finger round the ball.

Please – Children can chill out on comfy cushions and rugs and watch a large Bubble tube.  They can write/draw their worries or what’s on their mind and watch the bubbles like God hearing their prayers.  The variety was wide, from ill grandparents, pets, difficulties with family members or SATs test.  These were mixed in with please can I have an X-Box style requests.

World – Children could talk about people they new in different places in the world and place post-it prayers on a floor map to ask God to look after the people or make a difference in troubled areas.  

2 other options were:

If you could ask God one question what would it be?  This was very popular with questions including:  Do you play tennis? Why do you let people suffer? Who are you?  When’s your birthday? Did you have a party?  Why do we have running water but people in poor countries don’t? 

Palm Of Your Hand – Children could write their name on the palm of a large hand (Isaiah 49 v 16 ) – This was great to see kids choosing to ask God to take care of them.  One child who’s mother had some disastrous news asked if he could write his Mum’s name on it.

Read Nick’s article at the Prayer Spaces In Schools Website.

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