The team and some of our wonderful volunteers recently led prayer spaces at La Mare De Carteret Primary School.
This was where PACE was able to use a classroom for a few days for up to seven sessions/groups a day for classes from Year 2,3 and 4 to visit the prayer space for half an hour a session.
The room was set up with colourful drapes, strings of lights, relaxing music and prayer stations.
This is to encourage students to reflect/pray and to show them that there are many different and creative ways to pray.
The group was split between three table leaders.
We had a station with water and paper lilies. The water had stones at the bottom, we spoke about how worries are heavy like the stones that sink to the bottom. When we open up and talk about our worries and let them go, they feel lighter. The children were invited to write or draw their worry on the paper lily and fold it. They watched as the paper lily floated and slowly opened up. This was a great visual example of how it is beneficial to open up and not keep our heavy worries bottled up and weighing us down. The children loved watching the lilies open and had the opportunity to talk about the topic of worries. This station also covered how Christians believe we can bring our worries to God.
The next station was about acts of kindness and showed different scenarios like finding a £5 note on the floor of the supermarket and then different choices of whether you would keep it or hand it in. Other scenarios involving friendship and how to treat others was also included. This station also covered how Christians believe that God wants us to be kind.
There were three other prayer stations covering the importance of saying sorry and recognising how difficult that can be, by writing out something we may want to say sorry for or the word sorry and throwing it into the sorry bin. Being brave and writing on the letter of your name ways that God can help us to be brave. The importance of being a light for others and exploring what “Jesus is the Light of the World” means.
The teachers thought it was very needed for the children to have space to reflect and be still.
The children enjoyed the drawing and colouring and reflecting and being introduced to new ways to pray.
