Pray Any Way

The vision of Pray Any Way is to see children joining in prayer with their families.  We want to help children see that prayer is for them, not just for adults, and that they can pray for other people just as much as adults can.  We want to encourage families to pray together and see prayer as a natural part of everyday life.  Above all, we want Pray Any Way to be fun to come to!

At Pray Any Way 2012 the atmosphere was wonderful, even before the event began.  There was a calm sense of the Lord's presence - even in a public hotel.  Families entered through an event shelter, and quickly settled down in family groups.  We played a game, had juice and biscuits, then worshipped God together.  Next we heard the Bible story of Moses and the burning bush and responded to that in prayer as we sat in family groups and prayed "potato prayers", passing around a potato and saying a prayer of praise to God for some aspect of his character.  After this we broke into various active prayer stations with something for every age group, including the pre-5s.  There were parachute prayers, a "holy ground" prayer station, one looking at the names of God, another to pray for your school, a Play-Doh creative prayer station and yet another offering prayer for whole families together. 

Back together we all gathered for another song, then children were invited to pick a word out of a basket and pray for their parents, asking God what to pray for and using that word in their prayer.  Parents then did the same for their children.  It was wonderful to see heads bowed, parents praying for their children and children praying for their mums and dads.  Team members prayed for parents with toddlers who were too young to pray aloud.  Finally, children were asked if any of them wanted to come forward and pray for the planning team, who no one had prayed for yet.  It was very  moving to see children respond to this and volunteer to pray for the adults around the room.  What a blessing!

Did children enjoy it?  Absolutely!  Children said it was "brilliant!" despite it being a Sunday afternoon and having been at church already in the morning.  There was a buzz as everyone left, with children collecting goody bags and big helium balloons on the way out the door. 

Pray Any Way can make a difference.   One mum reported that her three children had volunteered to pray for their auntie over the phone a few days later; something which had never happened before!  May children become the intercessors of their generation!