Prayer Room

Since we moved to Louisville, I have been working a lot on a prayer room project with a friend of mine. Southeast Christian Church is a large church here and they have started a prayer room this year. Below is the "almost" finished product, a collection of stations in one room that encourage different aspects/exercises in prayer. It turned out really well, we think! The stations will change again in about six months. The first picture is the welcome station that explains the importance of prayer and how the prayer room is set up.
The station below is one about calling forth the next generation of believers in Christ. I painted this mural that represents the faceless adolescents out there who have yet to commit their lives to God. You can see red writing over the painting where kids from the youth program wrote prayers for their friends and future followers. It was really cool to be a part of that project and watch the college and high school kids interact with something I had the opportunity to create.
The next station is an encouragement of the foundation of a spiritually healthy home. It's kind of hard to see, but I drew the blueprint of a house on the wall in black marker and the foundation is a graphic of cinder blocks. So many people have wounds from their fathers growing up. This station currently is focused on recognizing God as the Perfect Father of our homes. Provider, trustworthy, integrity - words like these are written on the cinder blocks so that we can see what a father truly is. Despite what people often experience in their earthly father, God is everything a father should be, and the soundest Foundation upon which to build a home.
Below is a picture of a missions station, where scriptures are provided for people to pray over different countries. The map is a dry erase board, where you can mark the countries over which you are praying.
I love the next station. This is the "Jonah" station, where people are encouraged to ask themselves what their "Ninevah" is. When God asked the prophet Jonah to go to Ninevah, he ran away. There are things in all of our lives that God is asking of us and we do not want to acknowledge it. So this is a station where people can write their "Ninevah" on a card and release it to the Lord. The green thing on the table is a huge fish sculpture with an open mouth that holds the blank cards, representing the whale that swallowed Jonah as a result of his running from God.
This station is called "Hands Extended," where people write prayer requests and attach them to the wall. Other members of the community come along and pray for the requests put up. This creates a thicker dynamic of prayer in the body, as many people pray over each request, not just the elders or a prayer committee.
The next station is simply a cross with chairs and pillows. People can sit at the foot of the cross and deepen their relationship with Jesus, acknowledging the sacrifice He made for our sins.
Here is another angle of the cross, over which I painted "follow me..."
The final station is focused on prayer over the immediate region here in Kentucky. That is Sarah in the picture, a new friend of mine. :) She made a map on a table of all the surrounding counties. People are encouraged to pray over the land and place push pins over the area they prayed for.
This was a long post, but I've been hard at work! It was such a neat project and I thought it turned out so well, you guys might want to see it! It's a wonderful idea to create a space like this in a church, giving people a place and things to pray for to encourage such an important discipline.