Children's Prayer days

 

I run prayer days for a single church or group of churches. I am also available to train leaders in children and prayer too. We can tailor what we do to suit your needs. 

 

Prayer Day’s are filled with all kinds of activities around the theme of prayer, with the main focus on engaging in prayer. Prayer day’s usually begin at 10am and end at 4pm. The church is expected to provide drinks and light refreshments at the start and finish of the day. The children can bring their own packed lunch.

 

Prayer day’s start and end with light refreshments as people arrive and leave. Once everyone arrives a game is played to help the children relax and get to know one another. What follows is a mixture of worship, prayer, teaching and fun based on a different theme each time. Unlike adults, who compartmentalise their lives and get “serious” about religion, children see no contradiction in worship and playing a game together. 

 

After the opening games session the children gather to worship God, led, if possible, by a group of young musicians. Involving young people in leadership is very important because ministry is as much for children as for adults.  

Arts, crafts, drama, videos, teaching, testimony, bible readings and the sharing of information lead into a time of prayer. On one occasion all the children were encouraged to think about words that started with each letter of the alphabet to describe God. Then the children, in small groups, made “Praise Posters” using the words that they have suggested. This was followed by a time of prayer in their groups thanking God for who He is. 

 

On another occasion everyone was given a pebble. The children wrote or drew on the pebble the things that were troubling them. They then walked to a lake where they prayed together, asking God to deal with the things on the pebble. After the prayer time all the pebbles were thrown in the lake to symbolise casting their cares upon God, and together the children thanked God for taking their problems. Finally, a pebble was skimmed on the surface of the lake to remind everyone that when they pray it is like ripples moving on the water – the effect goes on and on. 

 

On yet another occasion we did creative things using balloons. Each child wrote a prayer request on a small piece of paper that was inserted into the balloon before it was blown up. The balloon were all thrown into the air and bounced around over the heads of the children so that they were mixed up. They were then all burst (we needed to be sure this did not cause a problem) and the prayer requests recovered so that each child prayed for another child’s request.

 

The children are taught not only to talk to God but to listen too. These times help the children to build their own relationship with God and to become serious about Christian things. 

 

When children pray, they expect God to answer their prayers and He does. Miracles happen when children pray. A pastor’s wife was healed of a mental illness when a group of girls prayed for her. A deputy Headmaster became a Christian after his pupils had prayed for him. He now leads worship in his church. Godly children are the most untapped resource of prayer today – a resource that needs to be released within our churches.