“Thank you God for the Bible”

Ben Cavan – Ballycrochan Presbyterian Church

Having run prayer space with Kilmaine Primary School in the past, Ballycrochan Presbyterian Church attempted the same feat in 2022. Sadly, icy weather postponed that! We didn’t allow this to send ‘chills’ down our spine and so ran prayer space at Easter. We were enriched by the resources available on the prayer space website, as well as wisdom from those who have run prayer spaces in the past. Having run ideas by the Kilmaine staff, we opted for 7 activities: Fizzy forgiveness; Prayer map; Quiet corner; Pipe-cleaner people; Leave it there; Thankful ducks; and prayer wall. These were chosen to show the children as many aspects of prayer as possible, including forgiveness, asking, thankfulness and reflection.

Over the week we had around 540 pupils join us, the majority of whom were unchurched. In spite of this, every pupil from P2-P7 engaged with the activities and asked some very telling questions. Similarly, the staff also engaged and were very enthusiastic about what we were doing. Parents/carers also had the opportunity to view our prayer space on Thursday afternoon, many of whom showed up and seemed to enjoy themselves. One highlight has to be a P2 child who, unprompted, wrote a prayer saying ‘Thank you God for the Bible.’ 

With this being the first prayer space I have run, I can only thank God for its success and would recommend for any church to give one ago. My prayer is that everyone who came through the door can remember what they learned.