[33b] Retreat Day

We took a whole day to pray and think about how we are actually going to begin the house of prayer.

We structured the day around the Hopeweavers daily office, taking time to be still at the beginning, middle and end of the day.

We also had some songs of worship chosen by members of the group, to begin the morning and afternoon sessions.

We deliberately took time personally to wait on God with the questions of the day before getting into pairs or groups to discuss things. Our theme for this was John 15 where Jesus says to 'abide in me, and I will abide in you'. We therefore called this 'abiding time'. 

We also had a net stretched out in the middle of the room as representation of the river of prayer flowing in Southampton. There were ribbons available for us to weave into the river during our times of reflection and abiding.

The proposal!

First we outlined the pattern for prayer for January: 9pm Fridays to 9pm Saturdays. We envisage open access during the day, but the night time will be for people who are part of the community to come and pray for the city. We will need to organise a hosting team to make people welcome and help anyone new to prayer or the House of Prayer get started (if they want it).

We also plan to have our New Year's Eve launch meeting at All Saints in Millbrook. 

What will this look like?

In our first session we used the following questions to respond to this outline of the rhythm for January and start thinking in more concrete terms about what the house of prayer will be like:

• What about arriving at the HOUSE OF PRAYER excites you?

• What do you EXPECT to see at the HOUSE OF PRAYER when you arrive through the doors?

• What do you EXPECT to do in RESPONSE?

• Who do You EXPECT to SPEAK to?

• WHAT would make you COME BACK to the HOUSE OF PRAYER?

What do we need to have in place?

Next we imagined what practical things we need to have in place in order to open the doors on the first day. Each person made a list! Then in pairs we combined our list into one. Then in 4s we combined our list into one. Next in groups of 8 we tried to make one list and identify categories for all the things we had thought about.

Finally we all gathered around a roll of paper on the wall and made one master list of all the different things we had thought about. 

Declaring God's word

To begin the afternoon session we had an invigorating exhortation about declaring God's word in our prayers. This was led by one of the group who uses this in her prayers each day. More of that to come. 

Clues about the venue

Next we waited on God for clues about the venue itself. What will it be like? Whereabouts will it be? We shared these together and noted some similarities! We collected up the clues on post-its and kept them for use later on in our journey.

Prayer time

Finally we prayed in pairs. We did this by sitting in a circle and turning chairs to make the pairs. After each session of prayer one of the pair moved on around the circle to the next person. A bit like a barn dance!! 

Our prayers included praying for young people and asking God about Isaiah 37:30 (click for details), which was a word given to us last Wednesday by Beth from Guildford. 

Thank you!

It was a long day, and most, if not all, were tired by the end of it. Thank you to everyone who gave up their day for this and give their hearts to the work of the House of Prayer.