freedom

Aung San Suu Kyi:
- democratically elected leader of Burma
- held under house arrest for over 13 years by the military dictatorship, for campaigning for human rights and democracy in her country
- currently on trial charged with breaking the terms of her house arrest, after an American man swam across the lake and refused to leave. She is being held in Insein prison, which is well known for it's abuse of prisoners, bad conditions and use of torture

Aung San Suu Kyi is 64 today. In her words: "Please use your liberty to promote ours"

The struggle for democracy and human rights in Burma is a struggle for life and dignity. It is a struggle that encompasses our political, social and economic aspirations.
Aung San Suu Kyi

here's why...

Just as young people need relationships, they need prayer. Young people are ripe for prayer because the core human struggles are so apparent in adolescence. Teenagers stand at the threshold of adult desires, with hearts that are soft and awake. Questions of identity and feelings of longing and suffering are breaking open in young people for the first time. They cry more often. They fall in love easily. They crave and seek friendships. They're inclined towards the ecstatic. We teach young people to pray so they'll know they're not alone; so they might find the source and endpoint of their restless desires; so they might find comfort and healing within an increasingly heartless and destructive world. To invite youth into prayer is to invite them to discover God within the heart of human experience.

Mark Yaconelli
Helping Teenagers to Pray

orison

Last week I was working at Jubilee International High School in Addlestone, Surrey, running an Orison Prayer Space in their theatre.

Orison is a creative, interactive experience during which pupils are invited to stop and think about various issues, using activities, video material and installations to inspire and encourage them to pray.

This week we ran 4 zones:

Image Zone
Mirror cubicles in this zone gave pupils a chance to stop and look at themselves, thinking about what they do and don't like about themselves. The mirrors were surrounded by positive quotes about image for pupils to read to themselves.

Using Isaiah 49:16 "see I have written your names on the palm of my hands" there were two large images of hands on which pupils could write their names, giving them a sense of belonging and a reminder that they are known personally by God.

A table nearby was covered in tiny paper people. Pupils used these to represent where they fitted within their crowd of friends or class at school, and then to think about how they would like it to look and how they might pray and act to bring about these changes.

A looping video played constantly in this zone, showing lots of human faces, interspersed with quotes about seeing God's face. Pupils were asked to consider how they judged people on first look.


World Zone
This area was full of activities and information to encourage pupils to pray for the world around them, linking in with the citizenship curriculum and also a reminder that prayer goes beyond the personal and emotional.

A large map of the school catchment area soon became covered in prayer flags as pupils found their home, wrote a prayer and stuck a flag there. Around this, pupils used post-it notes to attach prayers to newspaper articles, world maps and photographs of children from child sponsorship programmes in Kenya, Tanzania and India.

Google Earth was also available in this zone, on a touch-screen computer. Pupils were able to search for any area of the world and look at satellite images as they prayed for it. One of my favourite moments in this zone was seeing 3 year 5 boys kneeling in front of the table, praying for safety at Thorpe Park as they looked at satellite images of it!


Sorry Zone
This zone used 2 activities to tackle the issues of forgiving and being forgiven.

Using magnadoodle children's toys, pupils wrote, drew or represented things that they were sorry for before wiping them away as they said sorry - an action symbolic of the way in which God forgives our sins when we say sorry to him.

Tables in this zone had large glass vases of water on them. Pupils sat at the table and held a vitamin tablet in their hand as they thought about situations in which people had hurt or upset them. They then dropped the tablet into the water and as they watched it fizz, thought about the feelings and emotions related to these situations and imagined them fizzing away too as they forgave.


Bubble Zone
The bubble zone (pictured above) was a relaxed area, with cushions and bean bags scattered around a papered floor. The centrepiece of the area was a tall bubble tube. Pupils were invited to sit and relax here, watching the bubbles rise as a symbol of our prayers going 'up' to God.

Pupils wrote prayers directly onto the floor or on post-it notes which were stuck onto the bubble tube.

View this article in full on the Grassroots website

oldest fish finger ever?

01052009422
Originally uploaded by rachwarwick

This is Rotty - the fishy fish finger from frinton.

He was a prop at FAB Summer Camp 1995 - preserved for 14 years by a large amount of varnish. He doesn't smell, except of varnish and, as you can see, his high quality cape, safety goggles and crash helmet have protected him well.

blog silence?

... can only mean I'm making noise elsewhere!

The lack of postings here is directly related to the undeniable fact that I've been sucked into the phenomenon that is Twitter.

It's been a while but the reason I'm posting this here today is that, as well as personal banal twitterings, we've been using Twitter as a communication vehicle for the pray for London network.

And this week, as I'm sure you've noticed, is a BIG week for London, with the G20 summit taking place right here on our doorstep. Huge issues are being discussed - the current economic situation, climate change... mind blowingly massive decisions need to be made, on a scale that makes me glad I'm not one of the 20. BUT... we need to remember that those at the G20 summit are there as representatives of all of us and, as such, we have a responsibility to stand with them in prayer, asking God to give them wisdom, perspective and courage as they make decisions with global impact.

Micah Challenge are running a 7-day prayer guide for this week, with short simple things to think about and pray as the summit takes place. It's well worth a read - why not download it and stick it in your toilet for daily reading?

If that's not your way, we'll be tweeting the prayer guide through @PrayForLondon on Twitter so sign up, follow us and get praying!