Snakes, Ladders and Photos

On the way to 5 Senses to Prayer Book 2 - #11

Hi friends

So it’s early Wednesday morning and I’m finally finishing the Virtual Prayer Room… but better late than never!

Today’s prayers are old ones, but they are relevant to me this week, as my Dad has had to go into respite care for two weeks as my Mum is unable to care for him due to her own health challenges. Dad has Altzheimers and while he retains long term memory, he has problems with his short term memory. We set up his room with many photos of his family and when we visit he loves to look at the photos, make little jokes and talk about memories from earlier days. I’m constantly amazed how a sensory prompt can unlock language and conversation. It’s also grounding. It brings him back to a calm space where he feels more connected with the world around him. This calms and settles him. Prayer works this way too. When we don’t know what to pray, and when we can’t find the words, we can sit with a sensory prompt and let our prayers emerge. Prayer allows us to connect with God and to feel surrounded and protected. Prayer grounds us and calms us.

Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

Phillipians 4:6-7 The Message

Dad and I play a lot of board games together and Snakes and Ladders is an old favourite. I know I’ve shared this prayer in our Virtual Prayer Room before but it’s an apt one for me in this strange week. It’s been a week of more downs than ups, and while this prayer is written as a confession prayer, it could easily be adapted to a prayer of petition and supplication. Let God know your needs and your wants, your worries and hurts and frustrations, your joys and delights and dreams.

Short promo for our upcoming Stroll for Your Soul co-written with Janice from The Prayer Bench. Stroll starts this coming Saturday and offers 21 days of emails. It’s not too late to register. You can read more about it on our website and sign up using this form. I’m really looking forward to the spaciousness this annual experience offers. Janice and I wrote it so long ago, that it feels fresh even to me. I’d love to have you join us.

Wherever you are on your journey I pray you’re walking with God’s presence.

On the journey

Caroline

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Photo Book Prayer

Sense of Sight – Intercession (I.SI.6)

Who are your people? What are their needs? When we are close to people, we know their needs, often better than they know their needs themselves. Whether you have friends, neighbours or relations who you call ‘your people’ – these are people you can pray for quite specifically. Make a prayer photo book with photos of ‘your people’.  As you turn each page and look at the photo of one of your ‘people’, pray for that person and their needs.

Getting ready checklist

·       Blank scrapbook

·       Digital Camera or scanned photos

·       Laptop/Printer (optional)

·       Photo paper or printed photos or use a photo book print company

Further suggestions and adaptations on using this prayer

Prayer Station

Take photos of everyone in your group and put these on a looping PowerPoint presentation on a laptop or screen at a prayer station. Provide enough time between the photos changing for a one sentence prayer to be said for each person.

Individual

Create a prayer photo album from photos you already have on your computer. There are places where you can get photo books printed from your digital photos so why not invest in a prayer photo book and keep it somewhere handy to pray on a regular basis. This is a great visual way to help very small children or elderly with memory problems to pray for their people.

Small Group

Work together to make a group photo book or display of the group. Ask individuals to email a photo of themselves or begin an event taking photos of each person. Make a digital photo album of your group and have this playing at your gatherings as a prayer reminder to pray for each other. As new people join your group invite them to provide a photo to join your prayer photo display. Only display photos where the person has provided their permission for the photo to be shared.

Large Group

Take photos of those who can’t make it to the gathering and project these as you pray for those who are sick, shut-in, living out of town or unable to come to the gathering. Only display photos where the person has provided their permission for the photo to be shared. Keep those absent in the minds of the larger group.

Key

Equipment (** Able to be found/purchased without too much difficulty)

From the... (Stationery drawer, Specialty store)

Preparation (3 Pre-planning/gathering/constructing required)

Suitability (PS, I, SG, LG)

Visual Images - Static, Projected, Live Props

·       Cameras old and new

·       Photographers in action