Week 4 - news from The Station

Last week I wasn't at the Quench cafe so I have continued with this week being the fourth week.

The three prayer stations this week involved using scrabble pieces to identify feelings which people could pray about, looking at newspaper clippings and prayerfully considering the content of those clippings, and writing the name of individuals who required healing onto sticking plasters which were then added to a 'gingerbread person' type outline.

Once more, the dilemma over how much I should intervene reared its head. When one person was talking excessively whilst another tried to engage with one of the activities, it was difficult to determine whether to intervene. Who says that prayer has to be quiet? Maybe this individual reacted to the activity when she was talking loudly in ways that I hadn't considered? In the end I stood back and hoped that God would be the one to intervene.

Someone told me very clearly about why he had chosen a newspaper clipping about money and the need for money but also how it can be abused. He gave this a lot of thought and his clarity on the subject was good to see.

This made me think about the word's from Isaiah 40 - 'You who bring good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah, ‘Here is your God!’' Not all the newspaper clippings presented good news but this person identified a positive message.
We have a message which is good news, not that it's enough to say this but we need to live it so that people can see how lives can be changed and transformed. Encouraging people to come into 'The Station' from the cafe still isn't easy though it is still fairly early days; I have seriously considered putting it into the cafe itself in order to eliminate the fear and anxiety of going into a separate room. 'The Station' should be a place where people feel they can stay a while instead of rushing through and I need to give this further consideration.