As Bob Marley said ‘One love, one heart…’

I have had this song in my head the last few days, it fills me with hope. I pray that we as believers would have one love and one heart. One heart for the lost, one heart for our nation.

There is something that happens when we unite together in prayer, when we agree and ‘amen’ each others hearts to God. We are strong when we stand together in Christ.

One of my favourite things to do when I go into a prayer room is read what people have written on the walls and floor (maybe this makes me noisy!? ha) but I genuinely love reading and agreeing with their prayers. It excites me to see people echoing the prayers that have gone before.

I’ve been reminded over the last few weeks of this passage

‘All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions were his own, but they shared everything they had.’ Acts 4:32

I love this picture of the early church. That idea of them being one in heart and mind really blows my mind and challenges my thinking about what church is. God’s been reminding me that it’s a change from me to us. The unity of the early church is what God calls us to today. The unity of heart and mind overflowing into their actions of sharing everything they had…that is the church. Unity costs, its costs us when we are united because we become involved in eachothers lives. Walking beside people, listening, sharing, giving and praying.

I love prayer rooms because I love the idea that so many people have been listening, talking and being inspired by our Heavenly Father in the same place. That we are connected and our prayers are woven together.

When we are united and love each other our attitudes change, when we love God and love people there is a shift from me to us. To see the bigger picture beyond ourselves.

I had the privilege of spending sometime in Fermanagh last weekend…not a place I’ve been very much but it was one of the most encouraging weekends!

I think so often we can get caught up in what God is doing in my life, in my street, in my town and in my church. (Not that it is bad!) But sometimes it puts things in perspective and helps us see the bigger picture when we take a moment, step back and see what God is up to in other towns, countries and across the world.

After all we are one body and one church.

We are connected regardless of where we live, who we are or what church we go to. As followers of Jesus Christ we are family.

God is moving in Ireland. This makes me excited, that he chooses to use us to be part of his plans.

Being in Fermanagh reminded me of the fact that God never sleeps, he is bigger than me and is doing a new thing which fits beautifully in with his redemptive plans. People inspire me, and the people I met in Fermanagh inspired me. To hear of churches uniting to create a prayer room in a shop in Fivemiletown, to meeting with various people who are seeking God’s heart for their estates, young people, children and people who live around them.

I suppose my heart longs for the unity of heart and mind that the early church had. I saw a glimpse of what that looks like in Fermanagh and it made me hungry for more. What if…. We unite ourselves and strive after His heart. What if… we fix our eyes on Him and pray for His Kingdom to come in our land. What if…

kirsty Dunlop

When we began thinking about creating a 24/7 prayer room back in May the thinking was simply to provide a prayer base for launching our church’s autumn programme, but as the idea germinated it began to evolve into a community prayer space where everyone from our community could feel welcomed and included. Realizing that the Methodist Church’s 24/7 prayer team wouldn’t be around in September we invited Jonny and Beth to a pre-planning meeting in June. This meeting helped formulate our thinking and provided us with a core of volunteers who would creatively think through the ideas and prepare the prayer room.

We wrote to local public figures, the PSNI, and local support and help groups that are supporting families in the community and invited them to provide us with prayer points. We were surprised that many of them took the opportunity to respond and equally encouraged by their comments, some of which include:

“Thanks for sending out this courageous and strong email. I appreciate it and believe God will bless all the work in the community as we tune in to his ways”, “What a lovely idea”, “Please convey to your church my deep appreciation for this act of grace, it truly will make a difference to our community”, “Thanks a million for this”, “…Prayers for our clients, their families and the staff working with them are very welcome!”. Our local MP wrote: “It is great that Jennymount Methodists are thinking of praying about the needs of the local area and I, for one, certainly appreciate that.”

Posters and flyers were designed informing everyone in the community of this initiative, inviting everyone to come; these were posted in local business premises and distributed through letterboxes by a number of volunteers. We have been truly amazed by the willingness of church members to sign up as hosts in the prayer space around the clock, overwhelmed by the number of people who have been through the prayer space and encouraged by comments like

“There’s something really special about deliberately separating yourself from the stresses and pressures of busy-ness. This place is truly sanctuary!” “Needed a little guidance and help with trouble I have” “I have been praying for some time for a 24/7 prayer room in my area…” Someone wrote this prayer: “Lord, soften our hearts to feel the brokenness of our community. Help us to weep over it as you wept over Jerusalem.

Several people revisited the room more than once returning for the ‘peace’ and ‘solitude’.

We ended our week with a climatic finale. We invited everyone from the community to a barbecue in the church car park, after which we released balloons with prayers that people had written attached, symbolizing our prayers ascending to God.

Rev Mervyn Ewing