Light Night

Last night was Light Night in Nottingham and, as part of the city council's official programme of events, we had hundreds of people through the church.  Although we had an acoustic cafe as our main attraction, we wanted to also have a prayer element to what we offered.  The vast majority of people who come to Light Night are not Christians and some have never been to church before, so what we did had to be easy, interactive and something that introduced God in a positive way.

We had light inspired crafts- scratch art book marks, where the dark is scratched away to reveal the colours beneath and tea light holders made of decorated blank Cds and we also had a few light based prayer stations

The children really engaged with the prayer stations more than the adults did, which surprised me at first, but because their children wanted to do something hands on, sometimes their parents got involved in order to help them.  It was great to see the children really entering into what was there!

They lit candles for people they wanted God to heal or make less sad or lonely (bringing light to their lives).

Another activity was to write prayer requests for those who they wanted God to help:

And we also prayed for places in the city where we would like God's hope and light to shine. 

Looking forward to next year!