because the old group is only accessible to members of the cambridge university network (and we want to be open more widely than that!), we will be transitioning to a new facebook page:
please join (by clicking 'like') at this link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cambridge-Prayer/164175126955951
Monday, November 22, 2010
conclusion
so the prayer week finally wound to an end on saturday evening, with three of us meeting for the final hour to ask that God would continue to raise up night and day prayer in cambridge.
thankyou so much to all of you who were involved -- i was hugely encouraged by the way 25 portugal place constantly seemed to be overflowing with people from a huge range of places (representing over a dozen churches, both universities, several generations, and at least four continents...) and i hope it blessed all you who were involved as well.
an especial thankyou to the eight people who helped with doorkeeping duty -- welcoming in all-comers to the house of prayer. it couldn't have happened without them. (and if anyone else is interested in helping next term then please let me know).
grace and peace,
peter
thankyou so much to all of you who were involved -- i was hugely encouraged by the way 25 portugal place constantly seemed to be overflowing with people from a huge range of places (representing over a dozen churches, both universities, several generations, and at least four continents...) and i hope it blessed all you who were involved as well.
an especial thankyou to the eight people who helped with doorkeeping duty -- welcoming in all-comers to the house of prayer. it couldn't have happened without them. (and if anyone else is interested in helping next term then please let me know).
grace and peace,
peter
Friday, November 19, 2010
well done prayer warriors!
1. thankyou thankyou thankyou to all who have been involved in making the prayer week thus far an astonishing success. .
2. if you're free today around lunchtime, i would highly recommend that you try and join us at 1pm for food and at 2pm for prayer (we meet every week at someone's house, and this week are meeting in the prayer room) -- it'll be a great chance to get to know someone of the *real people* who have been 'consumed with zeal' for God's house of prayer (cf. psalm 69:9, john 2:17) in cambridge.
3. tomorrow evening from 7-8pm we will be bringing this week of prayer to a conclusion. please please join us if you can for the finale :) and if people are up for it, we could then head out for dinner somewhere together.
grace and peace,
peter
2. if you're free today around lunchtime, i would highly recommend that you try and join us at 1pm for food and at 2pm for prayer (we meet every week at someone's house, and this week are meeting in the prayer room) -- it'll be a great chance to get to know someone of the *real people* who have been 'consumed with zeal' for God's house of prayer (cf. psalm 69:9, john 2:17) in cambridge.
3. tomorrow evening from 7-8pm we will be bringing this week of prayer to a conclusion. please please join us if you can for the finale :) and if people are up for it, we could then head out for dinner somewhere together.
grace and peace,
peter
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
prayer week update: #2
a few typical moments in a week of non-stop prayer...
-- waking up on monday morning,
having spent the night sleeping in a sleeping bag in the upper room of 25 portugal place (for "i would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the LORD" Ps.84), i wandered down to the prayer room -- and was astonished and delighted to find that the walls, which had been covered in blank white paper, had whilst i slept been covered in painted prayers and bible verses -- in at least three sets of different handwriting.
-- monday evening ~10pm, and according to the website there is one person signed up to be praying in 25 portugal place.
but in reality?
downstairs in the prayer room there are four students (involved with SPEAK) interceding about international issues of injustice and praying that righteousness would roll down like a never-ending stream; upstairs in the upper room there are about a dozen more (connected through Manna) studying the Bible to see what it has to say about study, and then joining together in worship; meanwhile in the kitchen, two Holy Trinity students prepare to lead their 'Risky Living' small group the next day.
a couple of hours later, and every member of each one of this eclectic mix of groups Christians has disappeared, and although the website claims that two people are signed up to be praying in the prayer room, no-one has showed up. and so i, in the house on door-keeping duty, take the chance to spend a most refreshing hour in the presence of the living God. and the next morning someone apologises to me for accidentally signing up on the wrong night.
-- tuesday 7pm,
at the prayer room with my daily supper of a few bread rolls and some (tinned!) fish, and two strangers come knocking on the door. their names are lucy and chinan, and they turn out to be from rugby, where they are involved with the Rugby House of Prayer, and being in cambridge on a matlab course for a few days they had googled 'cambridge house of prayer' and found our website. and oh, the encouragement of people you've never met coming alongside you to lift up to God in prayer the same burden that you are carrying.
-- tuesday midnight,
and the prayer room is filled with the excited rumblings of eighteen people gathered, eagerly about to go out into the streets of cambridge and bless any thirsty cambridge clubbers by giving them a free bottle of water as they came out of cindies. a quick briefing and time of prayer, and the first two teams head out onto the streets, while the other stays back to cover them in prayer. twenty minutes later and the teams cycle round, the pray-ers heading out, and half a dozen returning with stories of the variety of responses to their attempt to share the freely given love that God has given to us. and so it continues, until 3am, cindies having closed up shop, when we re-congregate to close in prayer and finally head to bed -- anticipating various interesting conversations the next morning as people in lectures say 'hang on, weren't you one of those people handing out water last night?'
-- waking up on monday morning,
having spent the night sleeping in a sleeping bag in the upper room of 25 portugal place (for "i would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the LORD" Ps.84), i wandered down to the prayer room -- and was astonished and delighted to find that the walls, which had been covered in blank white paper, had whilst i slept been covered in painted prayers and bible verses -- in at least three sets of different handwriting.
-- monday evening ~10pm, and according to the website there is one person signed up to be praying in 25 portugal place.
but in reality?
downstairs in the prayer room there are four students (involved with SPEAK) interceding about international issues of injustice and praying that righteousness would roll down like a never-ending stream; upstairs in the upper room there are about a dozen more (connected through Manna) studying the Bible to see what it has to say about study, and then joining together in worship; meanwhile in the kitchen, two Holy Trinity students prepare to lead their 'Risky Living' small group the next day.
a couple of hours later, and every member of each one of this eclectic mix of groups Christians has disappeared, and although the website claims that two people are signed up to be praying in the prayer room, no-one has showed up. and so i, in the house on door-keeping duty, take the chance to spend a most refreshing hour in the presence of the living God. and the next morning someone apologises to me for accidentally signing up on the wrong night.
-- tuesday 7pm,
at the prayer room with my daily supper of a few bread rolls and some (tinned!) fish, and two strangers come knocking on the door. their names are lucy and chinan, and they turn out to be from rugby, where they are involved with the Rugby House of Prayer, and being in cambridge on a matlab course for a few days they had googled 'cambridge house of prayer' and found our website. and oh, the encouragement of people you've never met coming alongside you to lift up to God in prayer the same burden that you are carrying.
-- tuesday midnight,
and the prayer room is filled with the excited rumblings of eighteen people gathered, eagerly about to go out into the streets of cambridge and bless any thirsty cambridge clubbers by giving them a free bottle of water as they came out of cindies. a quick briefing and time of prayer, and the first two teams head out onto the streets, while the other stays back to cover them in prayer. twenty minutes later and the teams cycle round, the pray-ers heading out, and half a dozen returning with stories of the variety of responses to their attempt to share the freely given love that God has given to us. and so it continues, until 3am, cindies having closed up shop, when we re-congregate to close in prayer and finally head to bed -- anticipating various interesting conversations the next morning as people in lectures say 'hang on, weren't you one of those people handing out water last night?'
Sunday, November 14, 2010
prayer week update: #1
beloved pray-ers,
just to let you know what has been happening in the prayer room so far...
we started things off by eating together: as promised i had come with five (plus one actually, sainsbury's selling such things in packets of six) small rolls and two tins of sardines, and fortunately Christina had also brought some more substantial fare -- lamb kebabs and pita bread and some home-made cookies -- which fed the gathered multitudes (/handful) most enjoyably. i shall be in the prayer room every evening with such food and would warmly welcome company (if the same strategy is good enough for Jesus on multiple occasions, it's could enough for me ~ mark 6:31-34; 8:1-9).
the prayer room was then open for eleven hours last night, and by my count eleven people came, from an impressive total of nine different churches (including two who aren't even currently living in cambridge! such is the irresistible urge to come and be in the presence of God...), some who had signed up, some who had not. and there was the whole range of modes of biblical prayer: at one point a group singing hymns (cf. ephesians 5:19), at another point two were gathered in the name of Jesus to pray (cf. matthew 18:20); sometimes the prayer was like Jesus groaning in fervent supplication (cf. hebrews 5:7), sometimes -- i have to admit -- it was more like disciples in Gethsemane trying to stay awake to pray but not quite succeeding.
my personal highlight was perhaps the moment when there happened to be seven of us in the prayer room simultaneously, all from different churches, and so in an unplanned moment of profound symbolism, we identified with the 'seven churches' (revelation 1:4,20) which represent the one people of God (1 corinthians 12:12) and each person prayed a blessing for the church of someone else, and then together we asked that God would unite us for the glory of His name.
then, this morning, myself and my good friend andy henman (who has for many years fought the good fight in derby with YWAM, but has recently been called by God to come and help us here in cambridge to pray) had the chance to speak briefly on bbc radio cambridgeshire about the Prayer Week (we appear about an hour and twenty-five minutes into the show).
meanwhile, the prayer week was paused from 7 am to let people sabbath with their various congregations -- but we shall be carrying on from 11pm this evening until 8pm on saturday, hopefully with no gaps.
grace and peace,
peter
just to let you know what has been happening in the prayer room so far...
we started things off by eating together: as promised i had come with five (plus one actually, sainsbury's selling such things in packets of six) small rolls and two tins of sardines, and fortunately Christina had also brought some more substantial fare -- lamb kebabs and pita bread and some home-made cookies -- which fed the gathered multitudes (/handful) most enjoyably. i shall be in the prayer room every evening with such food and would warmly welcome company (if the same strategy is good enough for Jesus on multiple occasions, it's could enough for me ~ mark 6:31-34; 8:1-9).
the prayer room was then open for eleven hours last night, and by my count eleven people came, from an impressive total of nine different churches (including two who aren't even currently living in cambridge! such is the irresistible urge to come and be in the presence of God...), some who had signed up, some who had not. and there was the whole range of modes of biblical prayer: at one point a group singing hymns (cf. ephesians 5:19), at another point two were gathered in the name of Jesus to pray (cf. matthew 18:20); sometimes the prayer was like Jesus groaning in fervent supplication (cf. hebrews 5:7), sometimes -- i have to admit -- it was more like disciples in Gethsemane trying to stay awake to pray but not quite succeeding.
my personal highlight was perhaps the moment when there happened to be seven of us in the prayer room simultaneously, all from different churches, and so in an unplanned moment of profound symbolism, we identified with the 'seven churches' (revelation 1:4,20) which represent the one people of God (1 corinthians 12:12) and each person prayed a blessing for the church of someone else, and then together we asked that God would unite us for the glory of His name.
then, this morning, myself and my good friend andy henman (who has for many years fought the good fight in derby with YWAM, but has recently been called by God to come and help us here in cambridge to pray) had the chance to speak briefly on bbc radio cambridgeshire about the Prayer Week (we appear about an hour and twenty-five minutes into the show).
meanwhile, the prayer week was paused from 7 am to let people sabbath with their various congregations -- but we shall be carrying on from 11pm this evening until 8pm on saturday, hopefully with no gaps.
grace and peace,
peter
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