{"id":6242,"date":"2013-09-09T07:25:14","date_gmt":"2013-09-09T11:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/?p=6242"},"modified":"2013-09-09T12:21:58","modified_gmt":"2013-09-09T16:21:58","slug":"summer-in-the-prayer-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/2013\/summer-in-the-prayer-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer in the (prayer) garden"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Abby\"<\/a>If you called in to the Prayer Garden in the corner of Dock Cafe over the Summer, you’ll have noticed (you couldn’t miss it!) an explosion of creativity and energy in every corner of the garden – prayers in different languages, different styles for different reasons and places. \u00a0All the result of Abby’s hard work: she set up some new prayer stations at the beginning of the summer and then watched the garden grow… These are her reflections on the process:<\/em><\/p>\n

Gardening takes time and patience. I know, I tried my hand at gardening last summer! It wasn\u2019t a complete loss but neither was it a glorious success. What I learned through that experience was that gardening can also involve a bit of trial and error. If you\u2019re going to go in for it, then you need to be willing to go through the errors and still put the effort in to try again next time.<\/p>\n

Why, dear people of Dockland, am I spouting these somewhat clich\u00e9d thoughts on gardening? Because this summer, the experimentation was a bit different. This summer the gardening was a prayer garden.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_4147\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I was well impressed when I saw freshly opened prayer garden at the Dock Caf\u00e9 earlier this year! Since I live in Dublin now I\u2019m not such a frequent visitor to the Dock as I might like to be. But every time I do make it back I notice all sorts of exciting new developments and improvements!<\/p>\n

I could see how nicely the space had been prepared: just sectioned off enough from the rest of the caf\u00e9 to give it a secluded feel without being intimidating, cushions, artwork, fabulous faux grass, plus some real live and growing plants, and oh so much delicious blank wall space! Those blank walls\u2026they were just begging to be put to some creative use\u2026<\/p>\n

\"IMG_4139\"<\/a>\"IMG_4133\"<\/a>\"IMG_4126\"<\/a>\"IMG_4119\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And that folks, is how ideas are born: blank walls and a little bit of free time on one\u2019s hands! I asked Chris about using the space during July, since I\u2019d be up in Belfast for an extended visit, and putting up resources for prayer that people could take advantage of any time they visited the garden.<\/p>\n

Chris was open to the idea, in fact completely encouraging of it, and basically said \u2018go for it!\u2019<\/p>\n

\"IMG_4165\"<\/a>\"IMG_4164\"<\/a>\"IMG_4162\"<\/a>\"IMG_4161\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I gave it a bit of thought and prayer and felt that a two-fold theme might suit this first, \u2018prayer theme\u2019 venture for the Dock: \u2018Praying for Belfast, Praying for the World\u2019. July can be a difficult month for Belfast; it\u2019s a time when the city can\u2019t have enough prayer, really. But I also wanted to remind people of other issues in the world, other areas where people are facing danger and deprivation beyond what we are accustomed to in our \u2018everydays\u2019, and to encourage people to remember these places in prayer as well. For this I used resources from two organisations: Open Doors<\/a>, a group that serves persecuted Christians and raises awareness, and International Justice Mission<\/a>, a human rights organisation focusing on human trafficking and sexual exploitation. Both of these organisations provide both the facts and figures and real human stories, in short compelling resources to prompt people to pray.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_4128\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A bit (but not much) furniture rearranging and the prayer garden was then ready for to make the most of those blank walls! There was Belfast wall, with a map of the city around which people were invited to add the names of groups and organisations doing good community work so that visitors could keep these in prayer during the summer months. Then there was the international wall, with a huge world map and a selection of new stories from conflict areas around the world. People were also invited to add their prayers to this map as well. Another section highlighted International Justice Mission\u2019s work and a final section gave people the opportunity to write notes of encouragement to people in areas of persecution through Open Doors.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_4157\"<\/a>\"IMG_4152\"<\/a>\"IMG_4150\"<\/a>\"IMG_4159\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Remember how I said trial and error is an integral part of gardening? There are some things I would probably do differently. Mostly I was just amazed to see how the garden did \u2018grow\u2019 over the six weeks that the displays were up. People added some remarkably touching prayers to the walls and to the tree in the centre of the garden. The Belfast wall metamorphosed to take in the World Police and Fire Games as the prayer garden was used to hold a prayer meeting for volunteers\u00a0each morning. A sampling of the prayers that grew in the garden can be seen in the photos.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_4117\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So, over to you people of Dockland. What might you envision sowing and nurturing in this precious prayer garden? It is a lovely space. It is visited by people from all sorts of backgrounds. How might you invite them to take time, listen to what the Spirit of God is saying and pray those things that are on God\u2019s heart? Any ideas? Suggest them to Chris, I bet he\u2019ll tell you to \u2018go for it!\u2019<\/p>\n

\"IMG_4132\"<\/a>\"IMG_4131\"<\/a>\"IMG_4129\"<\/a>\"IMG_4138\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you called in to the Prayer Garden in the corner of Dock Cafe over the Summer, you’ll have noticed (you couldn’t miss it!) an explosion of creativity and energy in every corner of the garden – prayers in different languages, different styles for different reasons and places. \u00a0All the result of Abby’s hard work: … Continue reading Summer in the (prayer) garden<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chris-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSummer in the (prayer) garden - 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