Hush!

The shared meal continues to be a good time of catching up with each other and relaxing at the start of our evening.

Our worship was in line with this month's theme - "I lift my eyes up to the mountains. Where does my help come from?". We then spent a little time praying out loud and thanking God for our individual stories of times He has helped us. We shared some words that focused us on the bigger picture of God as our creator and the initiator of our fruitfulness.

Safeguarding

We spent some time going over how we can ensure that SoHOP activities are safe for everyone and how to respond if we suspect a child or adult at risk attending SoHOP is in danger.  We also thought through how to respond if in conversation (particularly when we are hosting and getting into more personal conversation with people) someone indicates they want to tell us about  how they or someone they know is at risk of harm.

We all took away a credit-card sized summary of what to do and who to contact:

1.Recognise the signs that abuse might be happening

  If you are concerned or someone reports abuse to you:

2.Listen sensitively and don’t ask leading questions or investigate

3.Don’t promise confidentiality

4.Ensure the person is not returning to a dangerous situation

5.Immediately inform the Project Lead, DSL or Trustee for Safeguarding

6.Record in writing within one hour, using exact words as told to you

7.Don’t talk to anyone else about the concern

8.If a person is in immediate danger, call the police on 999

Prayers

We then went through to the prayer room to pray.

The person leading the prayers said when preparing they felt God say there was nothing to prepare, that the Holy Spirit would make it clear what to do when they got there.

So at this point we just sat in quiet adoration and focused on God. And then it came. A few weeks ago one of our community shared that they felt God was saying very gently "Hush, draw near, there are things I want to show you. Hush." This was such a moment.

So we remained in quietness, with the emphasis on listening to what our Father was saying to us.

Out of the quietness we felt lead to ask God what word was summing up what he was saying to us.

And then some of us shared those words and the prayers that they stimulated.

Some of the words were: deeper; abide; trust; transformation; intimacy. (there were others, but I didn't take notes and can't call them to mind now.)

Summary

So we need to continue in the discipline of stillness and quietness. Not because stillness is an end in itself, but that in that stillness we wait on God and get filled with his vision and inspiration and we get moved to pray according to his will: "Thy will be done!"