…was the challenge for our In the zone: pray around the world event this weekend. 24 time zones in 24 hours. All covered with prayer and praise. It was a very special and powerful time but these things are always difficult to capture. Hopefully a sense of the quiet passion and surprisingly joyful atmosphere lingers in these few snaps of ‘prayer debris’ that remained in the Sanctuary come 10pm Saturday night…
We’re getting excited. It’s only two and a half weeks to go until one of our most eagerly anticipated events ever! Join us for In the zone: pray around the world at any time between 8pm on Friday 20 and 10pm on Saturday 21 June.
Phileas Fogg did it in 80 days, but we’re going to be even quicker!
24 hours to pray around 24 time zones visiting every nation to bless and intercede for transformation through creative prayer…
Plus an hour of corporate praise and worship at the start and finish.
That’s 26 hours around the world…
Come along at any point during the day or night on the Friday or Saturday to use our creative space – and the stations laid out individually, in families or groups.(Or join us for the whole thing!)
You can pray in whatever way you find helpful for whatever places are in focus when you clock in. There’s loads to get through and lots of variety in things to pray about and ways to engage with God and his heart for the world – for children as well as adults.
There’s no need to book a slot for this 24:1 and don’t worry… there’ll be tea and coffee available in the kitchen throughout. All we ask is you come in and out of the back door, through the kitchen so as not to disturb others, and to get all the info you need from one of our door-keepers before you start.
If you want to find out more about what countries are on when, or download a poster to help spread the word, check out our events page.
If you can possibly avoid missing In the zone, don’t because we’re expectant of a really special time.
So put it in your diary. After all, you must be free at some point between 8pm on Friday 20 and 10pm Saturday 21 June…
…and if you’re too far away to come, don’t worry – it’s all going to be written up into a resource after the event. So you can run your own wherever you are really soon.
… so wake up and smell the chocolate!
The first week of the fortnight happily clashes with half-term in the Sanctuary centre’s area, so we’re putting on two events to celebrate good taste.
Come along to:
1. Our Good Tastes Fair – inlcuding the great 2014 chocolate vote-off.
Tuesday 25 February – 10am-5pm
Drop in at any point between these times to enjoy free samples and vote on your favourite Fairtrade chocolate.
They’ll also be the chance to take away more information and to pray and/or campaign about related issues while you’re here.
2. Play, pray and trade
Wed 26-Friday 28 February – 10am-1pm each day
We have a growing collection of all-age packs to help famillies play and pray about things on God’s heart – and theirs – at our centre.
You can come and use any of the them during these three mornings, but we’ll be particularly encouraging you to explore our brand new trade related all-age pack – all around the theme of chocolate… and yes, it does involve eating some!
Whichever event you pick, we’re looking forward to sharing the week, lots of goodies – and our hearts for Fairtrade – with you so do come along… you can download posters for both events from our events page here
Meanwhile we’ve got a giant inflatable banana to blow up, several other surprises to make and create… and a lot of Fairtrade chocolate to stock up on!
Today, Valentine’s Day, the Sanctuary’s website is three years old – and to celebrate, we’ve been having great fun at our centre finding new and creative ways to demonstrate God’s love to others.
From the start of the Sanctuary’s journey, our core values – for both the resources we produce and the centre we run – have been all about choosing to love God AND love others… so today, a day focused on love, we wanted to show this love in action.
With a great team from many different local churches, we’ve created a giant art installation covered in prayers “on God’s heart, on our hearts” which is now hanging in the window, catching the eye of passers-by and drivers stopped at the traffic lights.
And we’ve been giving out homemade heart-shaped biscuits to shoppers and staff at local businesses – and even through a bus window to a surprised (but happy) driver!
Here’s how it all happened…
1. The art of love… our artist Barbara creates the giant canvas with God’s heart for the world at the centre:
2. Lifting prayers to the God of love… after a time of worship this morning focusing on God’s heart for individuals, people groups, issues, places, and nations, every heart-shaped prayer written in response was pinned to the giant canvas:
3. A bagful of love… homemade biscuits by eight wonderful bakers from four different churches were bagged, labelled and packed into baskets ready to be taken out in love:
4. And finally, the canvas was hung in the window, balloons strung up outside and the love of God was spread throughout the town of Ilkley as our volunteer team of biscuit givers marched out onto the streets with bundles of blessing:
This birthday, and Valentine’s Day, we have been rejoicing in God’s unconditional love for each one of us – and for each one of his 7 billion precious creations.
Our verse for the day has been John 13:34-35 – “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” As we’ve tried to demonstrate the amazing love of Christ by our love of others today, our prayer has been that those others too will know his deep love in new and life-giving ways.
Today is the Sanctuary’s centre’s last day before taking a summer break. This year, after a wonderful but momentous few months, we’ll be taking a break from publishing online in order to fully rest and recharge.
But we’ll be back – physically and virtually – on Tuesday 26 August. We won’t be resting from prayer and worship of course, but we will be taking more time to focus more in and up than out as we retreat from the front line for the next few weeks.
Thank you for sharing this incredibly special journey with us – see/read you soon! Meanwhile, we’ll leave you with this prayer for real and deep refreshment and restoration this summer:
Father, more than anything today, we thank you for the fact that your presence goes before us,
Behind us and around us – you surround us and hem us in.
Your sanctuary is a moveable love
Which shelters, shepherds and steers us.
Your outstretched, over-stretched wing is not static –
It covers us wherever we go.
And so, as we retreat into rest and refreshment, your presence goes before us,
Behind us and around us all – you surround us and hem us in
Keep us aware of your love beyond these walls,
Sheltered, shepherded and steered by your word.
And may we find restoration in the shadow of your wing –
As you cover us wherever we go.
The Lord bless you and keep you, make his face to shine upon you – and give you peace.
P.S. See our events page and our schedule to find out more about what’s on next term, and to check our opening times for our first week back, at the centre.
We’ve uploaded our new events programme for the Autumn. Visit our events page to take a look.
We’ve published our events programme for the rest of this month through to early July… take a look on our upcoming events page here.
We’re looking forward to the start of 24 hours of continuous prayer and worship with local pray-ers, starting at 6pm tonight at the Sanctuary’s centre in Ilkley.
We’re starting and finishing with an hour of corporate worship and intercession for Ilkley, Wharfedale and the UK as a whole, and then different individuals and groups are taking up the baton throughout the night and tomorrow.
This morning we began our local focus at morning worship by concentrating on blessing our local MPs and councils.
It was really helpful to learn more about local MPs as whole people and to gain both respect and compassion for the experience they bring and the responsibilities they carry.
Similarly, in mapping out just how much local councils are responsible for, we were filled with a sense of compassion – particularly for workers in social services facing policies they may not agree with, distressed beneficiaries and increased workloads.
Lord, in your mercy, hear us and help them.
See you at 6pm tonight 24:1ers!
And for those of you further afield, but wanting to find out more about praying for your local area, check out our Ideas for praying for your local area resource, which came out of the Sanctuary organising a season of united 24:7 prayer for Wharfedale some months ago.
With just over 6 weeks to go, we’re getting excited. The Justice and Worship workshop – an event which co-founder Liz Baddaley has pioneered and developed in partnership with Christian Aid over the last five years – will be hosted by us at the Sanctuary’s centre in Ilkley for the first time.
Calling all worship leaders with a heart for incorporating more intercession and outward focus into their song selection and more – don’t miss out on what will undoubtedly be a ground-breaking and inspiring day.
Once again the prophet Amos’ words are our inspiration: ‘I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music. When was the last time you sang to me? Do you know what I want? I want justice – oceans of it. I want fairness – rivers of it. That’s all I want.’ (Amos 5:23-24, The Message)
In a world full of poverty, those who lead in worship and prayer are looking for fresh ways to connect the church with Gods desire for justice. Come and join us as we explore these themes in practical and interactive sessions. And point you to lots of new ideas and free resources that can help you on the journey.
The focus of the day will be all about how our sung worship can balance pursuing more of Gods presence and continuing to prize intimacy with him alongside incorporating more intercession and outward focus that reflects Gods heart of justice for poor communities and the nations.
Christian Aid’s Steph Cooper and the Sanctuary’s co-founder Liz Baddaley will welcome two more worship leaders / song-writers to input into the day alongside Liz.
Lisa Cuellar is originally from California but she’s now based in the UK. There she is on staff with St Michael le Belfrey, York and continues her ministry for YWAM, who she has been with for nearly twenty years. Lisa has led worship and worship schools in multiple nations and will help us look at incorporating the nations into our sung worship.
Mathew Nathaniel is from Tamil Nadu, India but is working in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, where he is on staff at New Horizons Christian Fellowship. Following his Masters in the same subject, he has pioneered a teaching course in Worship and Justice for WorldShapers Academy and will be unpacking the importance of how the two relate. (He will be joining us fresh from a sabbatical recording his worship album which fuses Western contemporary styles with Indian classical music.)
The event will begin at 9:30 with tea, coffee and a light breakfast and the main teaching and practical input sessions will take place between 10am and 1pm.
However, we will have an optional 2 hour afternoon programme, offering more informal drop-in discussion and then an extended time of worship. The afternoon slot will take place between 2 and 4pm.
This event is free but spaces are limited so book in early through our contact form to avoid disappointment.
You can download a flyer and poster to spread the word to worship leaders you know from our events page.
