Week 8 - finding my way through the labyrinth

I keep reflecting upon how The Station fits in with the notion of emerging church. Could this be church in its own right? I think that potentially it could, but we are a long way away from this. There is no reason why the people who come to the Quench cafe couldn't experience it as their church. Someone described the cafe as being a community cafe with Christianity on the edges, I like this. 

I did three prayer stations on Thursday - the first was simply a pot of bubbles and people had to think about something they wished they hadn't done or were worried about. Blowing the bubbles was a symbol of the freedom that God brings and that he is a God of forgiveness.

The second was a large piece of paper and on the top it said 'If God was here today what would you ask him'? The third was a finger labyrinth and as people slowly traced the path to the centre, I they were asked to think of a person or situation.

Response was generally quite low on the whole, but a few interesting things happened. I  asked two women to go and take a look at The Station who hadn't been in there before as far as I knew. Later I talked to them both and one commented on the fact that she already knew and understood what was being asked of her and that she prayed every day. The other said that she wasn't religious and that they didn't do anything for her. Later on, a child came to have a look at the stations with her family. She started to colour in the finger labyrinth but when I talked to her about what she had to do she was really interested and started to trace the labyrinth with her finger.

The first woman couldn't see any advantage to spending time with God because she said that she already did this and wasn't open to exploring this further, the second was closed for different reasons and the little girl was completely open to doing the activity even though (possibly) she didn't fully understand what she was doing.

As Andy Freeman in Punk Monk says, 'sometimes we can't fix the problem, but our prayers can move mountains. Our actions must be accompanied by passionate and persistent prayer.' I need to keep praying and asking God to show me the best way of making connections with the people in the Quench cafe so that they can feel safe but can also connect with God.

Week 6 - fizzy faith

Today was another busy day in the Quench cafe though fairly quiet in The Station.

In my conversations with people in the cafe I was looking out for anyone going into The Station but I don't think that I made enough effort to be pro-active in promoting it throughout the morning. I have to confess to feeling that people are now thinking 'oh no here comes that woman again, wanting us to do stupid things with play doh and vitamin tablets (more on this later) and although I wouldn't allow this to stop me telling people about The Station, it certainly does lurk at the back of my mind. Maybe persistence is the key, and this reminds me of how easy it is to give up when things don't work out as planned.

As it has been the second week of the school holidays and there have been additional people and children around, we decided to just do two prayer stations so that there was room for an overflow table for the cafe if the hall become too full.

The first station was fizzy forgiveness, previously used and very simple but also very effective in encouraging people to think about anyone who has hurt them and as the effervescent vitamin tablet fizzes in the water they are encouraged to get rid of the hurt they are feeling and begin to forgive the person.

The second station was based around the theme of being thankful and people had to look inside a box at a variety of different scenes, including a forest scene, snow capped mountains, a sunset and a picture of colourful fish. They then had to think about who it was they said 'thank you' to when they saw such beautiful scenes in creation.

Both were very simple prayer stations but encouraged people to think a little more about where God fitted into their lives.

Like last week, there was a bigger take up for the prayer stations from the children than the adults, though this wasn't helped by the fact that the overflow cafe meant that the vestry wasn't as quiet as it would have otherwise been and therefore wasn't conducive to quiet reflection and prayer.

As people shared with me during the morning about the activities and parties they had been involved in over the course of the recent Diamond Jubilee weekend, I couldn't help wondering how many people gave thanks to God for the things that they did and the events they attended. How easy is it for us to take each day for granted? How often do we really turn to God and thank him for our conversations, for the fun that we have with family and friends, for the beauty of his creation as we look out of the window? How can we encourage those with little or no faith to see God in the ordinary - in the laughter of a child, a piece of music, the news on TV? The effervescent tablet soon stops fizzing in the water and disappears and we, almost as quickly, forget to give thanks.

Jesus said 'I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.' There are many people who definitely don't feel that they live life to the full, for whatever reason. Recognising that a glorious sunset is a part of God's creation may seem small and insignificant but can be a step towards an understanding of the vastness of a God who at the same time cares for each one of us, loving us because we are his (very) precious children.