October, Connacht’s month of prayer is over, and here in the west we are slowly but surely relearning the art of sleep.

Counties Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim and Roscommon each hosted a prayer room at some stage during the month, ensuring that the prayer was spread as widely around the province as possible. It was fantastic to see churches in this part of Ireland uniting to pray, yet at the same time the diversity in the way prayer was approached in different areas was fascinating.

The month kicked off in Sligo with two separate events. The first was a prayer trail in Calry Parish Church. This was intented to be an introduction to 24/7 prayer for the congregation as well as a place where parents of children attending the adjoining creche and primary school could come and spend some quiet time alone with God. A variety of RE classes from the parish’s schools also attended during the week and the pupils seemed to find the time spent in prayer to be a worthwhile and challenging experience. Sligo’s second event was a prayer space for all the churches and the local community which was initially intended to take place in an empty shop but due to a variety of unforeseen circumstances took place in Sligo Methodist Church. It was here that we held the October gathering, where we were delighted to see a full church and a wide variety of age groups. It was especially encouraging to see young people from some of the youth groups in the town getting involved in drama, prayer and readings.

Week two of prayer in October took place in Carrick-on-Shannon, Co. Leitrim. Here, local Christians decided to use the stage of St. Mary’s community centre as their prayer space. During the week, as they prayed on the stage, just feet away from them a variety of activities such as Irish dancing, line dancing, yoga classes and Active Age groups took place. It was wonderful to see prayer happening right at the heart of the community and it provided many opportunities for conversations and fun.

Boyle, Co. Roscommon hosted their prayer room in the Family Life Centre. The centre is situated in the former Church of Ireland rectory and the front room is still used as the parish room. Hence, it was felt that this would be the perfect location to meet to pray for the local area and beyond. Each morning and evening, the local rector organised a short prayer meeting in the prayer room, and once again the children from the parish school made use of the space as part of their RE lessons.

The final prayer room of the month took place in Ballina, Co. Mayo. The theme for Ballina’s week was “Boiler Room”. This was due to the fact that the churches in Ballina are in the process of undertaking a variety of outreaches and it was felt that the prayer room could be a way of inspiring people to pray for the mission that is taking place in the area. On the Friday night, our month of prayer drew to a close with a time of worship and prayer for the town and our country. It seemed fitting that this took place on the evening that the new president of Ireland was elected.

One of the main things that we learned during the month is that God is always in control even when we cannot understand what is going on. Often we were faced with what seemed to us to be disappointments but as we look back we can begin to see God carrying out his plans through everything that happened. We are learning to discern the difference between our own ideas and God’s ideas and this is probably one of the most valuable lessons there is. As it says in Isaiah chapter 55 verse 8: “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine” NLT. How wonderful to know that we are serving a God who has greater plans than we could even dream of.

Amy McCrea

It is hard to believe that its only a matter of weeks before we draw to a close our what if? year of prayer and already we are asking what next? and we are excited to share with you where we feel called is leading us into for 2012 …

During the Olympic and Paralympic year, 24-7 Prayer and Alpha are in partnership, jointly inviting the Church to fill an entire year with continuous, night and day prayer.

From 1st January 2012 until 31st December 2012, we’re going to pray in the UK and Ireland like we’ve never prayed before.

In the year when the world will come here for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, we believe God wants the Church to ‘rediscover God’s compassion for the world’, and to ‘receive again God’s call to go into all the world’.

Building on recent, unprecedented years of non-stop prayer in Scotland (‘The Big If…’) and ourselves in Ireland (‘What If…’), we’re going to pray together… hundreds, probably thousands, of prayer rooms of every denomination, in schools, colleges and universities all over the UK and Ireland, praying for days, weekends, whole weeks or more. And not just prayer rooms… we’re encouraging people to pray in all kinds of ways, in all kinds of places, during this one year – prayer groups will gather in communities and workplaces, people will be prayer walking every local street, others carrying prayer stakes and planting them all over the UK and Ireland. Prayer, in all kinds of places, prayer that spills out into mission and justice. Come and join in!