Decorating the prayer room

A year of planning and it's finally arrived. I confess I didn't expect this prayer room to take so much planning, but I am so grateful that Nancy has been here every step of the way to get the prayer room going.

A quick story of how this got started. Last year was my first year on staff at North Heights and I really wanted to have a prayer room. Since I am the High School Coordinator at North Heights I was planning on doing something for the youth. When I was 16 I had read this book called Red Moon Rising by Pete Greig and my heart was stirred for a 24-7 prayer room. That was 7 years ago and it was dream that has never died. Naturally my first year at a church I siezed the opportunity to make a prayer room.

However, as I began praying about it I felt like the Lord was telling me to wait on the prayer room. "Seriously Lord?! It's my dream to do this. Why do we have to wait?" He didn't say why I needed to wait. He rarely gives an explination for his direction.

A few months later a lady named Nancy came into our office talking about a prayer room. She had with her Red Moon Rising and had explanied her heart for a church wide prayer room. In the middle of the meeting I got up and went to my office. I returned with my worn, beaten copy of the same book and put it on the table. "This has been my dream for 7 years" I told Nancy. She looked at me intently and said "It's been my dream for 7 years also." At that moment we both knew that God was saying that THIS was the time for the prayer room. God had wanted me to wait because my vision was too small. We were doing a 24 hour prayer room and we were going to invite the entire church.

Orignially I had wanted to the prayer room at the Arden Hills campus, not the Roseville campus. The AH campus is larger, newer and that's where I do all of my programming. However, Nancy, Gina and some other people had a meeting at the RV campus to see if there were any good spots. We decended into a room below the RV sanctuary called the Garden Room. The room itself was insignificant and the decor wasn't the best. However Nancy turned to me and said "I believe this is where God wants us to have the prayer room." I looked at her skeptically. She continued, "The Garden Room is the first room that was ever built at North Heights. This is where the Sunday school ladies came and got their first pastor. This is the birth place of our church." At that moment I felt the Spirit hit me and tears came into my eyes. It was no accident that this was the place that God ordianed for our prayer room. "This is the room" I said.

That was last February. Now the room is being decorated and made into something completely beautiful. We've got communion, a Kneeler, a private little room we're calling "the knook". We've got a wall full of newspaper current events, a place for people to write their prayers on sticky notes, a world map with the locations of all the NH missionaries, a space to create art and a little children's section. All of the hours for our 3 day prayer room have been filled. In the evenings we will also have acoustic worship of which I will be leading the Friday night 7:00-10:30 slot.

May the Lord come and speak to us.
-Amy Soba