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a prayer for Colombia

Tuesday, September 27th, 2016

Yesterday Colombia’s government and Farc rebels signed a historic peace deal, bringing to an end a 52 year conflict, which has claimed 260,000 lives and displaced eleven million people. It’s a day of celebration in the Sanctuary, as well as in Colombia, because for the last four years this peace process has come onto our prayer board again and again…. at first it seemed to voice only an unlikely, left-field hope but now…

On Sunday, the general population will vote on whether to ratify yesterday’s peace-deal and – if they do – then the hard work of national forgiveness and re-building can really begin.

Colombia want to send a message to the world – fighting is not the way to win, and we pray that they will be heard in the places that most desperately need to grasp this truth and to believe that peace is not only possible – but essential – for the nations experiencing the most entrenched conflicts of our time.

We also pray that all Colombians will be able to do the hardest thing of all, described so poignantly by the Farc rebel leader – that they will be able to ‘disarm their hearts’. It is these words that have inspired our prayer for Colombia today – one, we hope you will join us in at this key time:

A prayer for Colombia

Oh Lord our God, source of all life
and every gift that is good –
how can we praise you for this?
For weapons laid down
and pens taken up to draw out
a clear and peaceful path ahead;
for fists unclenched
and opened out
to shake the hands of those they once threatened.

Oh Lord our God, source of all wisdom
and every decision that brings shalom –
how can we thank you for this?
For leaders who realise
that the hardest work lies ahead
as Colombia seeks to forgive and re-build;
and for a nation longing
for a fighting, competing world to hear
that their long years of conflict only made everyone lose.

Oh Lord our God, source of all reconciliation
and every relationship that is right –
can we raise our faith to ask you for more?
Let every vote marked down
by a precious, Colombian hand
be matched by a disarmed heart
ready to voice the mourning that must be heard;
to be generous with forgiveness, repentance and restitution;
and most of all, to move towards “enemies” with love.

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the brewing and blessing goes on…

Friday, August 5th, 2016

It’s lovely that we’re still receiving feedback and encouragement in response to our Brew up… and Bless! creative outreach give-away and feedback for Yorkshire. Here are three new responses from the last couple of days that are just our cup of tea!

On Wednesday, one of our gift-givers sent us this image – entitled ‘the perfect brew’ which someone he knows who had received a gift had forwarded on to him. Great to see the tea-bag and magnet in action in a setting that really suggests it’s a proper cup of builder’s tea!

And then on Thursday, this article was published by the Ilkley Gazette, which is an edited version of the release we sent them – the author of the prayer got confused, but the author is so thrilled with Alison’s work, she’s more than happy for her to get extra credit!

And then today, we received a thank you note through the post from someone we’ve never met who lives in North Yorkshire! He had taken the trouble to write to encourage us because he knows (we don’t know how!) one of the shop-keepers we gave a gift to on Yorkshire Day, who also received a YouAreLOVED card on Valentine’s Day…

Anyway, here’s just a bit of what he said:

“What a wonderfully kind gesture to present [person’s name he knows] with your innovative gifts and prayer card to celebrate Yorkshire Day. Your ‘Loved’ gift a few months ago was met with equal gratitude. I personally feel that this is a positive and much appreciated way of bringing Christianity in to the community.”

Wow!

At the Sanctuary we have a little phrase – encouragement is the currency of the kingdom – and it is so true. People have no idea – especially those who proactively take so much trouble to find our contact details and get in touch just to say thank you for something – how much difference it can make to our work, or how often it is timed so exquisitely to arrive just when it’s most needed…

Like two weeks ago, when after a very difficult day, we received an email from a lady who lives miles away and drove past our lighthouse window on the way back home from visiting a relative in difficult circumstances in the Lake District. We couldn’t believe that after driving all that way and in such a challenging context, she took the time and trouble to find out who we are and email us about how our window had helped her to sense God’s peace and transform how she was feeling as she sat in slow traffic on the hottest day of the year coming back from such a hard time.

It is pure gold to hear these stories. It’s not why we do anything we do. But hearing what God is doing to reach out and bless people above and beyond how we could have possibly planed or imagined is just wonderful. It’s like a treasure trail of blessing! He is so good and creative, and so, so kind to encourage us by giving us yet more glimpses of his work through us and beyond us.

We hope you’ve enjoyed hearing these stories too… happy weekend! Someone put the kettle on…

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a lesson in sparrows

Monday, July 4th, 2016

Last month, two of our team (Fiona Schneider and Liz Baddaley) spent some time in Zermatt, Switzerland with ICS. Mountains and mission… it was a great week all round as people from many nations were touched by God’s love. But as Liz sat eating lunch in the town square one day, she learned one thing in particular she felt everyone connected with the Sanctuary would appreciate hearing about when she got back…

“Sparrows are common. Everyone knows that. They’re not on the list of must-see sights to take in anywhere you visit. But they’re special to me.

I’m an all-round animal lover and these small garden birds are no exception. They are so intricately crafted, and make such distinctive, delicate movements with their heads. And you rarely get very close to them before they fly away in fear.

84 has been my favourite psalm for years because it expresses such longing and delight to be in God’s presence, and sparrows make an appearance in it… they are described as having found a place (together with the swallows) right by God’s altar – they are valued and welcomed right in; how much more so then are we?

Jesus talks about sparrows too, saying that God loves them enough to know when even just one falls – and urging us therefore to know just how much more deeply we are loved… for we have so much more value.

So sparrows have become associated for me with our access to God’s presence and our preciousness to him – seeing them is like a promise with bones and feathers on. And this has only been increased since I formed a worship busking duo with Anya Faull called sparrow song – partly inspired by these scriptures and partly by the fact that sparrows are not song birds, so any melody they could offer would have to be a supernatural gift to them… and those who heard them.

So as I sat eating my lunch in the town square of a beautiful Alpine town, it was unsurprising that although they had none of the mountain grandeur or fresh, foreign appeal of my other surroundings, a number of sparrows coming seemingly impossibly near to me literally made my heart sing. Because after all, as I have shared, they have great value to me.

I couldn’t believe how close they came! Schooled in getting a feast of bread scraps from the array of delicious deli sandwiches being eaten by different visitors, they knew it was worth the risk to wait for food only centimetres away from my feet. And the braver ones were soon on the seat next to me, and on the back of the bench courageously edging even further towards me.

I loved feeding them the flakes from my crispy bread – and of course they came even closer still then. And stayed.

I got to watch these sparrows in a way I had never done before and it was one of the highlights of my day – and even my whole time in Switzerland. Because it delighted me to be so close to something I place such worth in…

It was special in itself, but it was also a moment of seeing with greater clarity just how much God delights when we choose to come close to him – just how much his heart rejoices to share good things with us.

But my admittedly somewhat whimsical reflections were soon interrupted by stamping and shouting.

It was coming from another bench in the park area – or more accurately from the couple who were sitting on the bench. They had some tame sparrow visitors too, but there was no delight in it for them. They saw the sparrows as inconvenient, or perhaps even as vermin.

I could tell this because their hearts betrayed themselves every time one of the tiny birds came close. Their faces were twisted into angry frustration and they stamped and shouted so that the sparrows fled.

I genuinely felt grieved in that moment. And it just struck me again, deeper than ever, that our actions towards things – and people – come out of how our hearts value them – or don’t value them.

I didn’t have to try to be nice to the sparrows – I didn’t feel I was doing them a favour or engaged in an activity that was ‘the right thing’; I was just genuinely just delighted to spend that time with them, give them a feast and see how close they would come – and all because of their deep worth to me.

It was such a clear picture of how people treat each other on the basis of how they perceive – as precious and intricately created or as an intrusion on, or distraction from, their own agenda…

And lest you think for a moment I am holding myself up as any kind of example through this lesson in sparrows, I’m still searching my heart over a strong suspicion that I would not have been half so overjoyed if my peaceful lunch-break had been disturbed by someone made in God’s own image, rather than by a few little, brown birds.”

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prayer points for such a time as this

Monday, June 27th, 2016

Since Friday’s EU Referendum result was announced, our headlines have been full of momentous news as the impact of the decision to leave the EU reverberates around the UK. At such a time of shaking, it’s more important than ever that we – the people of God – remember to trust in him. He alone is our unshakeable foundation, the only true solid rock for ourselves, our nation, and every nation to build on.

As we respond to the following headlines from the last few days, and the current and emerging situation in the UK and beyond, including:

the Brexit result itself and its direct implications for our nation
the ramifications for the EU, Europe and the rest of the world of this result
the resignation of the UK’s Prime Minister, David Cameron
ongoing resignations and leadership struggles within the Labour Party and shadow cabinet
continued instability in the financial markets, here in the UK and worldwide
divisions within the UK, from the individual household up to the national level – and everything in between
a sharp increase in racist abuse and threats, especially towards EU citizens currently living in the UK.

the following areas for urgent prayer are coming into focus. Please join us over the next few days and weeks in:

praising God that he is constant, faithful and totally reliable, choosing to trust in him always
praying for reconciliation in damaged relationships at every level – between families, friends, churches, communities, the regions and nations of the UK, EU member states, and every nation in Europe and worldwide
interceding for an end to racist attacks and militant nationalism
asking God to raise up strong, visionary and righteous leaders in all spheres – but especially in government – and to give them huge wisdom
crying out that people would turn to God in their confusion, fear or anxiety and that they would receive his hope, comfort and love
asking for God’s protection for the most vulnerable in our society, especially those who will be hardest hit and least able to cope with the predicted economic downturn
lifting those whose current work or situation is directly reliant on EU funding or other arrangements
thanking God for the beautiful diversity of nations and cultures across the world, and praying for any nations and international people groups that are likely to be negatively affected by the UK’s decision
praying for God’s light and hope to deliver and lift any fellow Christians who are feeling particularly weighed down with a sense of heaviness or despair following the events of the last few days, particularly if this is preventing them from praying or discouraging them in their work to spread the gospel and/or bring about justice and peace in this nation or internationally
praying for the church in the UK – and across Europe – to arise and be distinctive by:
- repenting of where we have put our trust in the things and systems of this world ourselves, rather than hoping in God
- demonstrating a healthy way to lament or express righteous anger where needed
- showing that unity and diversity can be embraced together through the love of Christ
- choosing to be peace-makers, visionaries and active, sacrificial agents for change in our nations and beyond
- boldly witnessing to the sure and certain hope we have in Christ in all situations.

You might also find the written prayer we published on Friday helpful – a prayer for today… and the days ahead

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lions do not belong in cages

Tuesday, May 31st, 2016

Last Thursday we had a special time of prayer lifting up young people facing exams and their surrounding pressure, inspired by the time of year and this deeply concerning headline in our news. One of our pray-ers, Lisa Debney, shares the richness of that time and its insights through these powerful reflections and written prayers which gather some of how we were led to pray in order to fuel more. (You can also download the written prayers separately from our resources library)

Lions do not belong in cages. The majority of people would agree with this. They do not thrive, they lose interest in life and sometimes to relieve their boredom or express their frustration they will damage themselves against the bars. Their desperation leads them to harm themselves. The joy of their existence is gone.

Sadly exam stress places many of our young people in a similar position. Instead of metal bars their cages are formed and created by a structure of lies that masquerade as truth “just one grade higher and the world will value you that little bit more”, “work harder and you will be a better person”, “look how well your friend/cousin/sister/brother did!”, “success in exams leads to a successful lifestyle” etc.

These lies can seem well-meaning, some can even be meant as encouragement, but the underlying message that your worth lies in your academic achievement and your identity is bound directly to your CV is corrosive, not to say wildly misleading, assaulting a young person’s self-esteem.

Unfortunately the assault can come as a bombardment from all sides, family, school, social media, and headlines in the newspapers. A lot of our young people would probably relate to these lines from Psalm 62:

“How long will you assault a man?
Would all of you throw him down…?
They fully intend to topple him…
They delight in lies.
With their mouths they bless,
But in their hearts they curse.”

These curses disguised as blessings close around some of our young people until like caged lions, desperation causes them to harm themselves and in extreme cases makes them wish to leave life altogether. Last Thursday (26 May) headlines across media sources cited exam pressure as one of the major causes of suicide in teenagers. As we have already said, lions do not do well in cages…

So how do we help them break out? How do you begin to destroy a cage of lies?

Perhaps simply with truth. The truth spoken by another Lion who is wild and abundant in his love and delights in bringing freedom to his children. The Lion who comes to ‘give life with joy and abundance’ (John 10:10). The Lion who seeks to play with his children, who are his pride (pun intended) and his joy.

He doesn’t brand his children with labels, our worth is born out of our relationship with him and that is given to us freely even before our birth. It is certainly not related to our academic achievement – it is unlikely there will be CV check before we are admitted to heaven. The idea is wonderfully ludicrous and yet we still place such importance on it and even as adults look to our work credentials and accolades to define us and give us worth.

We all desperately need to hear the following put so succinctly by Philip Yancey:
“There is nothing we can do to make God love us more and there is nothing we can do to make God love us less.” (What’s So Amazing About Grace? 1997, p71)

Let’s find ways of sharing this with those struggling with exam stress and academic pressures at the moment. Through thought, prayer, conversation, action, whatever opportunities are given to us.

During our prayers at the Sanctuary it became evident that Psalm 139 was such an important key in the cage unlocking process. Here is a reflective reworking of it thinking particularly of young people at exam time.

Psalm 139 (sort of)

Lord you know me,
everything I am and think.
You know when I sit down to revise
and when I get up out of the chair
because I can’t take in anymore
and I need a break.
You know what I’m thinking,
all the ways I try to cope,
the words on the end of my tongue,
the ones I bite back and the ones I don’t.
When I feel on top of the world you are there,
when the lows hit hard you are there too.
Even when I walk into an exam room you are there,
you are the hand I can hold on fast to
even though I like to think I don’t need one.

On the days I want the dark to close around me
and wish away the light, you’re still there
because my darkness isn’t darkness to You.
When I wake anxious in the middle of the night
you can choose to make the night shine like day.
The light and dark are the same to you,
knowing that helps me feel calm.

You created my innermost being,
you put me together in my mother’s body.
And even though I doubt it
after a day of scrolling through picture perfect faces,
I am fearfully and wonderfully made
because I’m made by you and that’s enough
to give me worth. Please help me to believe it.

Every day of my life is precious to you.
You cared enough to think about each one
of them before I was even born
so on the days when tomorrow is too
much to think about, I don’t have to.
Thanks, it makes it easier.

Sometimes I wish you would
come and slay this enemy,
the one that calls me worthless
and makes me doubt your name.
I hate it, but you know that already.
I’ll leave it in your hands.
Help me see beyond this moment
to the future. Though most of all
right now I’d just like you to lead
me through the next few days
Which way do we go? I’m glad you’re here.
Could you just keep holding my hand?

And here is another prayer inspired by that special prayer time last Thursday from Lisa and one of our other pray-ers. But it’s not just for our young people. It is for all of us.

An unlocking prayer

Lord Jesus, how we need you.
You came to set us free
but we keep building cages
around ourselves
and around each other.

We raise the bars so high
– again and again –
demanding the results we want
and grading each other
on our own, faulty, definitions of success.

Lord Jesus, how we need you.
Come and show us what we are doing
when we set standards which lock and enslave
even those we are so desperately seeking
to most protect, nurture and release.

Lord Jesus, you know how each unique one is made
and the purpose and context in which their gifts will thrive.
Show us how to dismantle the lies we have raised up.
And how to set each one free to reach your potential for them
with your glorious, life-giving, character-building truth.

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the surprising joy of interceding for the world

Wednesday, April 6th, 2016

One of the questions we frequently get asked by people hearing about the Sanctuary – and particularly its outward focused rhythm of prayer – is how our hearts cope with all the heaviness of interceding about the brokenness of the world every day. But our experience of sharing God’s heart for the world and each one in seven billion he so loves is radically different from the reality those asking this question must be imagining. In fact, it has surprised us too…

Firstly, sharing God’s heart means coming close to God and lingering with him long enough to be able to listen to – and catch – his heartbeat.

It is therefore first and foremost an act of intimate worship – of choosing to prize and prioritise what matters to him… of letting the conversation be led by him, as he shares who he is and who he loves, with us.

It cannot help but be infinitely intimate and precious. Because it’s about close discipleship and a desire to be closer still; and the more we encounter him of course, the more we get to know what he is like. And knowing him is the greatest joy we can experience.

In seeking to bless him and others through interceding with him, we find we end up receiving greater revelation of who he is, and a deeper sense of his presence with us.

He confides in us as we listen; and then we get to see what he has spoken become reality. And this leads to more worship and closer fellowship still… and so much joy.

This shouldn’t surprise us of course, because the whole reason we wanted to share his heart in the first place was because we were caught up in a life of worship and wonder that led us to seek more of his heart and company.

But it does surprise us. Again and again. Intimacy between us and God leads to intercession for others – we learned that at the start of this journey. But intercession leads to intimacy – and we’re still processing and marvelling at that truth.

Secondly, sharing God’s heart primarily means sharing his love

It is about catching his passion for each precious person in the world, rather than developing a focus on all the problems of the world.

It is about always looking at everything through the perspective of the one who knit each one together in their mother’s womb, the one who placed his image in each one, the one who died for each one, the one who is pursuing each one – the one who values each one (including us!) infinitely more than we can imagine.

This love does include many tears over one individual’s heart-break or another’s distance from him. It does lead us to anguish at the turmoil of nations and the relentless barrage of suffering that this broken world will continue to face until he returns.

But none of this is our central focus. Love is our central focus.

1 Corinthians 13 tells us that love always hopes and it always perseveres. And it also tells us that love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth.

The truth is that God passionately loves each one in seven billion alive today – and all those who have gone before and will come after. And this truth sets us free. It enables us to see through smoke and mirrors rhetoric and complex or desperate situations to the infinite value of people.

It enables us to care about what happens to these people – and if that is suffering, yes, to mourn.

It also leads us to marvel at the God whose heart is so desperately torn between returning to end all suffering now, and holding back so that none might miss out on entering into the end of suffering forever…. The God who is so endlessly merciful and hasn’t given up on us or walked out on us, even when so many reject the incredible free gift that he offers to put everything right, or exploit others who he died to win that gift for.

Thirdly, sharing God’s heart means an expansion of ours – and a huge increase in our reasons to rejoice as well as our reasons to mourn.

We are told to mourn with those who mourn and rejoice with those who rejoice. Why? Because this is a huge part of love and it is a reflection of what God does as he comes alongside people.

But it’s funny how often people forget the second half in respect to God’s heart towards the world, and us catching it as we intercede with him.

People ask God to break their hearts for the things that break his. This is a great prayer! But how about also asking him to make our hearts celebrate the things that thrill his?

There is a lot of rejoicing going on in the heart of God! Because there is so much to rejoice over in his world:

Beauty and births; creativity poured out and callings taken up; people discovering, responding and returning to their God; hearts being softened to undertake generous acts of mercy or extraordinary feats of courage and bravery; people who love him and want to worship him by sharing his heart and interceding with him.

His government is increasing without end. He has won the victory forever and his kingdom is breaking in all over the place now. He has a worldwide church who are being transformed into his likeness day by day. His mercies are new every morning.

And so the more we share his heart – the more we look out at every one in seven billion with his love – the more we have to rejoice over, as well as weep over, too.

But very few people ask us how each of our small, individual hearts cope with all that rejoicing! Especially when it’s rejoicing for nations that spills over from the heart of God and is simply too huge for our smaller, imitative hearts to hold.

Sometimes, it really does feel as if our hearts will burst with the weight of joy – as well as sorrow – because others’ stories and his-story become part of our story too…

For example, last week, Myanmar elected it’s first non-military leader in fifty years. Change has come slowly and surely to this nation. And it was an incredible day for its people. But it was for us too…

Because we had asked a bishop from Myanmar how we should pray for his nation, and listened to him share his heart for slow change (inspired by one of the trickiest scriptures in the Bible about slaves obeying their masters – therefore dissolving the system through grace by creating subversive equality).

We had followed his request to pray for that again and again and again – and discovered the wisdom of his words as other nations sought rapid regime change. And then of course we had caught just a fraction of God’s heart for them and their heart for their nation. So we have been overjoyed at the events in Myanmar over the last few months. These are not abstract, answered prayers, they are sing out loud moments.

We have had so many like this… sometimes the breakthroughs are so huge, and so long-prayed-for you are crying again (that certainly happened with the COP21 International Climate Change Talks in Paris last December) but with tears of joy and relief and amazement and poignant, redemptive triumph on behalf of some of the world’s poorest and most powerless nations and people.

Lastly, we have discovered again and again that it is simply not a negative thing to enter in to suffering with people – or with our Lord

It is an act of worship again. And it is also deeply Christ-like for it is a form of incarnation – even in prayer.

We are told that part of our privilege as followers of Jesus is to share in his suffering. And as it is his suffering that won our redemption and our joy, it is unsurprising that there are beautiful and life-giving results in sharing the heart-break of both God and the people he so loves.

To continue on from here, would invite a whole new blog article, and we think this one – from Sarita Hartz – says much of what we would want to, and more besides, brilliantly.

So we’ll draw our article to a close with just one quote from hers:

“Suffering is not a bad word in our vocabulary. It is our teacher, even our friend, creating caverns inside us to hold more of God’s love. God uses it to mature us, to build character, to build reserves of empathy.”

And a conclusion that yes, it really is a joy to intercede with him every day. Whether for individuals or nations, it’s not something to cope with, but something deeply precious that is transforming us. Like most things of worth, it’s not easy and it is certainly weighty – but it’s not heavy.

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today’s song for Syria…

Tuesday, March 15th, 2016

One of the most precious worship songs to our praying community over the last year has been Chris McClarney and Brenton Brown’s Beauty for ashes. The lyrics are simply stunning as they stand and have spoken deeply to many of us individually in our journeys with God. And the song has become almost the title song we associate with our fledgling ‘worship busking’ ministry sparrowsong. But today in worship this song, with slightly amended pronouns and tense, came to mind to use as a prayer to sing over Syria on the five year anniversary of the start of its conflict. Would you join us in raising your voice with this song?

This is how we adapted the words this morning:

God of the new beginnings, God of the second chance,
Your grace an endless river, your love an avalanche,
There in our darkest moments, all hope burnt to the ground,
That’s when your mercy finds us, that’s when your love comes down.

You turn our mourning into dancing,
You turn our sorrow into praise.

You give us beauty for ashes, beauty for ashes,
You give us beauty for ashes, beauty for ashes.

Oh please give them beauty for ashes, beauty for ashes,
Please give them beauty for ashes, beauty for ashes.

Love meet them in the ruins of all their past mistakes,
Love walk them to the river, love break apart these chains,
Love speak a new tomorrow, open their eyes to see,
Love wash away this sadness, love come and rescue them.

Come turn their mourning into dancing,
Come turn their sorrow into praise.

Oh please give them beauty for ashes, beauty for ashes,
Please give them beauty for ashes, beauty for ashes.

(Original words and music by Chris McClarney and Brenton Brown, CCLI 7040551 copyright Thankyou Music – new words adapted slightly in tense and pronouns to apply today only to pray for Syria by the Sanctuary and not to be recorded or reproduced without permission from the copyright owners of the song.)

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#YouARELOVED! – Valentine reflections

Monday, February 15th, 2016

Today has been a day to pause, reflect, give thanks to God and celebrate all he has done – through our #YouARELOVED! window, cards and gifts this weekend, and through all of the Sanctuary’s work over the last five years… Here are some brief testimonies, and just a taste of our joy, at all God is doing in, among and through us:

As we look back over the last few days we are celebrating:

everything going so smoothly practically, being so led by and soaked in prayer, and there being such a sense of love and joy in all the preparations and in our team – especially, ironically in the seven of us who set our alarms for 5:30AM to go love bombing with the roses yesterday morning!
being able to source Fairtrade roses from Marks and Spencer so that no one in our supply chain was exploited in order for people here to receive the love we so wanted to freely give.
realising how special it is to find you can easily think of 100 organisations and businesses who go the extra mile to care… all in one small town. And being very thankful to live somewhere where love and trust are truly growing.
reaching thousands of people who live and/or work immediately around us with such an important message on a day that touches a real point of need through the combined activities of footfall and drivers passing our windows, 100 teams at caring organisations or especially kind businesses around town receiving cards, 100 individuals receiving a white rose and thousands more seeing, and passing on, communications on social media.
inspiring quite a number of individuals and churches elsewhere in the country to start thinking about similar activities they could do to reach out in a similar way.
going out and about around town and being beautifully surprised to see quite a number of our cards again because they have been proudly and publically displayed in the shops and public services who received them!
receiving quite a lot of thank you tweets from card recipients too… including some where people were clearly very touched. One person even said it had made their day and they had shown it to all their customers…
…and being amazed at the level of interaction from people on social media (including our highest ever retweet number) around the rose giveaway, with people from all sorts of different backgrounds being touched by the idea.
reaching and encouraging lots of people all over the country who also desperately needed to hear the #YouAreLOVED! message by sharing our activities and pictures online and on social media.
gaining some really helpful insights and ideas for similar, future activities.
hearing the beginnings of answered prayers in stories that connect it all together, all around town in an extraordinarily beautiful way, like this one:

Today we met a lady for the first time who we had heard about previously because one of our other pray-ers had met her at the church next door during our Christmas holidays…

she had gone in there for the first time because she had seen our Narnia window and it was very significant to her because her husband (who only very recently passed away) had loved it and recommended it to her, and she had been so struck by the character of Aslan.

Dial forward to this Valentine’s this year, when she was obviously feeling the loneliness of bereavement, went back to the church and was prayed for to receive a confirmation of God’s love for her…

…she also got permission to take some of the petals that had been used in a symbolic act of prayer away with her and so flowers were on her mind…

she left there and went to a local supermarket (who had an assistant who’d received a rose) and the lady selling her the shopping said she felt led to give her a rose and handed one over.

(When she told us this, one of us even remembered placing that exact rose on the doorstep of this supermarket!)

When she read the message attached she received that confirmation that had been prayed for the previous day, and when she read about who it was from, she made the connection with the Aslan window and was amazed it had come from the same place…

..so she shared this experience with the volunteer in one of the local charity shops who she knows this morning…

Well that lady said she had goose bumps and told the first lady she’d never believe this but she had something to show her…

…and handed her one of our cards, because we’d written individual thank you notes to all the teams of volunteers in all the charity shops in town. This lady then said she’d have to visit the Sanctuary some time!

In the next shop our first lady went into, she told the growing story again and the shopkeeper there – who we’d meant to send a card to but had somehow got missed – was really moved to hear about it.

At this point, she decided she could wait no longer, so she came and knocked on our door. But not before she’d read that message from God a third time in our window in massive letters – YOU ARE LOVED!

When we got chatting and heard her amazing story, we were able to provide some rather special icing on the cake… the petals she’d been given at church had been lent to the church by us – and we’d first bought them for our story window: The Blossom-Maker, another allegory with a type of Christ in it… just like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe!

So we gave her a copy of that story to take away along with a new, fresher rose; the goose poem she’d also seen and enjoyed in our last window because she was aware of the Celtic church using the wild goose as their symbol for the Holy Spirit; a card with our prayer rhythm times on it to share with the lady at the charity shop and a card we wrote there and then for her to take back to the shopkeeper who we’d meant to write to all along.

She was overjoyed at – and with – it all! And so were we…

But then, just as she was about to leave, the very person who’d given her the petals and prayed for her to receive a confirmation of God’s love for her at church yesterday walked through our front door returning the whole bag of petals to the Sanctuary.

Wow.

All of us – Sanctuary volunteers, the heroine of our story, and the blossom-returning pray-er were a bit dumbstruck by this point!

Here at the Sanctuary, we did everything we did for Valentine’s because of listening prayer and then we had prayed and prayed again and again… for the window, for the cards, for the roses, for the people receiving them, for the people they would share with and on and on and on.

And we had especially prayed for the connections between all the related initiatives, we’d prayed for the right people to receive the roses, we’d prayed for the recipients of roses and cards to share the love, and we’d even prayed for this very lady we’d never met because we’d heard about her at Christmas.

This is just one story; one trail; one example of how God led us to do something and we sowed a seed and then he just took it and grew and multiplied weaved this incredible, blossoming story of unmissable loving pursuit all over town and all over one precious lady’s heart and interactions…

We’re thanking and praising him with so much joy.

And we’re trusting him for all the others – the ones where just he and the people involved know all the links – because we’re beautifully well out of the way of most of the special moments of connection between him and people that we just know are happening all over our town!

(Note from editor – added 18 Feb – the #YouAreLOVED! initiative has subsequently been picked up by The Ilkley Gazette on page 4 of their printed newspaper and on their website here.)

And as we look back over the last five years (as it was our birthday too yesterday!) – and especially over the last twelve months – we’re full of thanksgiving to have:

been led so clearly at every stage of the journey.
learned so much about who God is and grown so much in our relationships with him – and our understanding of his heart.
seen our community of pray-ers grow so much in confidence and expectancy to pray, creativity to share what God has shown us through new resources, art and creative gifts, and gentle boldness to go in his name.
seen our community grow in their depth of fellowship with God and each other… as well as in numbers.
been staggered at God’s confide-nce in us and the incredible answered prayers we have had as a result.
crossed the three quarters of a million mark on unique visits to our website this month.
witnessed month after month of web stats reporting high downloads of many resources from our 400+ strong free online resource library for outward focused worship.
heard from lots of different organisations, churches and individuals all over the world that our resources are making a difference to the way they pray, the way they think about justice and mission, and the way they step out for God in action.
developed some wonderful partnerships with like-minded organisations focusing on prayer, justice and mission.
reached such an exciting point with the songs project.
launched sparrow song.
seen one of our newest pray-ers come to Christ!
added such wonderfully fortifying new members to our five strong Management Group.
overcome so much fear with stepping out bravely with our art of love made known activities to reach out.
witnessed a discernible change in the spiritual atmosphere in our area, including a growing interest in who we are, what we’re doing and who we stand for.
enjoyed such wonderful ongoing support from everyone connected with the Sanctuary’s community – near and far – and from All Saints’ Ilkley who continue to make our space at 6 Church Street available to us rent free.

Well done for reaching the bottom of this avalanche of thanksgiving! To us it feels like just a taste of the joy we feel today as we look back and scratch the surface of all our brilliant God has done.

It’s with a great sense of expectancy that we wonder just exactly what might be coming in our sixth year…

Posted in Journey update, Pray with us, Reflections | Comments Closed

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