Rosi and Jon hosted our latest 24-1 prayer, from midday on Saturday until midday Sunday... in a tent/gazebo in their back garden. :o)

As a local community we've been trying to develop a daily, weekly, monthly rhythm of prayer.
+ Daily, wherever we are, and with whoever we find ourselves, we pray the Lord's Prayer... many other Boiler Room communities and 24-7 friends also do this.
+ Weekly, we pray on a Tuesday evening, mostly round at Rosi and Jon's, and there's no particular theme or leadership to this... we just come together and pray and see where it goes.
+ And roughly monthly, we pray 24-1, more recently joined by friends from other churches, which has been encouraging. Our hope is that we can grow this to 48 hours soon, and maybe to a full-on 24-7 week by the end of the year.

This was the first time we'd prayed for 24 hours outside... but Rosi and Jon created a beautifully inviting, inspiring tent/gazebo space, full of fabric and sheets, string and sticks, cushions and blankets. There were pictures of close friends who are serving Jesus around the world, and pictures of local schools that we have some connection with... all kinds of things to reflect on, and pray about. As always, an hour in the prayer space wasn't enough...

Megan booked herself in for an hour slot on Saturday afternoon and then persuaded Poppy and Angel to join with her. They loved it, writing their prayers on cardboard and post-it notes.

Emma and I booked the 12 midnight until 2am slot, which we unexpectedly shared with a large number of flying insects, hovering and buzzing around the hanging torchlights. Lovely.

It was wonderful and provocative and challenging to be praying outside... with the cool night air on our faces, with twinkling stars (and a few planets) filling the dark skies, and with the constant hum of traffic driving around the ring-road and the shouts and screams of drunken clubbers heading home... this was, and is, Romford. And it needs Jesus...

Here are a few of the themes and thoughts that different people offered during the reflection time we had together at the end of our 24-1, just before our Sunday-lunch community meal;

* Tim's 'question strips' hanging in the small tent - who are you jealous of? who are you angry with? etc. - provoked some honest reflection
* Ian felt God speak to him as he prayed through the dawn-hour, 6am-7am, about this being a 'new day dawning' for our community life together
* Phil R wrote something for us based out of Psalm 42... "Today is the day, now is the time. Today is the time to rise up... time to run in new paths..." (there's more of this if you'd like to read it)
* a few people felt that we needed to both protect and deepen our relationships, and love and trust in one another
* others talked about us being confident in who we are, and in our identity together... like Joshua and Caleb, we may see 'giants in the land, and battles to fight', but we need not fear, because Christ is in us and with us. It is time to 'cross over'...
* Pat explained that during her hour she'd texted about 20 friends to ask if they wanted prayer, and about 12 had replied. She prayed specifically for them, and has kept the texts to continue praying through the week. (What a genius idea?!)
* she also said, through some tears, that God had spoken to her when she spotted Lewis' scribbled picture, which Ian had labelled "China... fill her sails".

Lewis had been scribbling on some paper with a fat red pen (some went on the paper, and some onto his legs. Ha ha). When Ian saw it he thought it looked like a Chinese banner, with a kind of pictorial text... and then he felt inspired to write those simple prayer-words, "China... fill her sails". A few hour-slots later, when Pat read it, God spoke to her about the young women that her mother had discipled many years ago in China - some of them have been writing to her, to express their gratitude and to tell their ongoing stories of faith.

I am often amazed at the ways God draws on the most unusual and seemingly random happenings to speak with us. Maybe God tries to do it far more than we realise... maybe I just don't 'listen' very much.

Anyway, it's been a beautiful 24 hours. I can't wait for the next one.

~Phil