Following Thy Kingdom Come Prayer Week, Revd. David Robert’s reflects on a visit from the school and how prayer stations encouraged the children in their personal relationships with God:
June 3rd a hot day, yet the children from the reception class from Llanvihangel Primary School walked the distance from the school to the church. Quite a walk for youngsters, whose enthusiasm only seemed to grow with excitement as they took part in the activities prepared for them. The afternoon in church began with us saying the Lord’s prayer, with everybody closing their eyes and putting their hands together. I was told not every child would know the prayer, but when they have attended for services there has been plenty of volume and that Tuesday was no different.
The prayer stations had been laid out with a plasma ball, map and general work cards to help stimulate thoughts about the Lord’s prayer, which could be responded to either by drawings or written thoughts. The final station had crowns which the children decorated and wore, disguarding their sun hats, which they had worn up to the church.
The noise of children thinking and talking about what to write was deafening, discussing with us the helpers, and where there were words which couldn’t be spelt, the problem was solved by graphically showing their representation, on scratch cards.
The whole afternoon revolved around the Lord’s prayer and what it meant for the children. It was lovely to see them each engaging, giving their own interpretation of what the prayer means to them. It was a purely free and open expression of thought.
Even young children wanted to express how sorry they are for those things they have done in the knowledge that God forgives each of us. It was wonderful to see how creative children think and how they commit that creativity to paper as a tangible reminder of what they are thinking at a particular time. A reminder to each of us that as we say the Lord’s prayer we should be reflective in prayer at all times.
The Rev’d David Roberts