Prayer 48 - 12th June - 14th June 2015
Dear Friends,
First of all, such a big thank you!
Thank you to everyone for the way in which everybody contributed to Prayer 48. Whether you delivered cards, or moved chairs, or welcomed visitors, or served refreshments, or prayed on the rota, or came to the services, thank you. Thank you for being part of Prayer 48, 2015; it could not have happened without you.
And what a weekend it was. We sent out thousands of prayer request cards, each one a witness to our concern and to the love of God in Jesus Christ. We received hundreds of prayer requests, and every request was faithfully prayed at least once. We prayed continuously for Sudbury and its people over that 48 hours.
We cannot tell how our prayers may be answered, but we believe that God will have heard those prayers and will answer; that our time of prayer will be a real blessing to this town. We had a steady stream of visitors to the church who engaged with the different prayer activities. Our visitors were of all ages. 120 children from St Gregory’s and Tudor primary schools visited over the course of Friday and many more sent in their prayer requests. The labyrinth was a particular favourite with visitors of every age; some visitors spent a long time at the different stations and some came back over and over again.The various different services were also well attended and it was an opportunity for many to experience ways of worship which they had not encountered before. Many found the quiet healing service on Saturday to be very moving and we hope we may be able to repeat this on another occasion.The Thanksgiving Service on Sunday was a lovely end with St Gregory’s School Choir singing their hearts out for us. Many thanks to them and to Tom for all the hard work that went into that.
Greg and Jackie sent a delicious cake to help with our celebration.
We did of course miss them both very much over the course of the weekend, especially as we learnt just beforehand that Greg would now be receiving only palliative treatment for his cancer.
But it did mean that the weekend gave us the opportunity to be together to pray for him and for Jackie, for the love and peace of God to surround them both. It was a great comfort to be together over this time and lift them both to God. The weeks and months ahead will be very difficult for Greg and Jackie and their family, but I know that they can count on your prayers and support. It will also be a difficult time for St Gregory’s. Greg’s wonderful ministry has touched so many people, all of whom will be grieving. But I am quite sure that this time of real affliction will bring out all the strengths of our loving church family, and will produce real, hard won spiritual growth.
As so often, the apostle Paul has been there before us.
“Our suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit he has given us” Romans 5 3-5
With all my love and prayers for you,
Helen
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