The Advent Experience: Waiting in Prayer

This week at FUSION Gathering we focused on waiting in prayer.  As a group we traveled to different places around the church and participated in several prayer experiences.  We sang Christmas carols and read different parts of the Christmas story in Scripture at each prayer station.  Then, we had a different prayer experience at each station.  At the first station we prayed about people, places or situations we would like to lift up in prayer, wrote those things on strips of construction paper and then stapled them together to form a prayer chain.

 At the next station, we talked about how many people write letters to Santa this time of year.  Instead, however, we wrote letters God...sharing our hopes and fears, our joys and our sorrows as we sat under the Chrismon tree in the sanctuary.  Once we were done, we sealed our letters in an envelope and placed them at the base of the cross on the altar, knowing that God has already read our words and is present with us in those things we wrote about.

At the next prayer station, we read about the angels appearing to the shepherds.  We made angel ornaments to hang on our Christmas trees to remind us of the angels who proclaimed the good news that Jesus had been born.  We, too, are called to proclaim the good news!

At the last prayer station, we prayed about what character(s) in the nativity scene we most identified with right now.  Maybe it was the worried but joyous Mary or Joseph.  Maybe it was the anxious and excited shepherds, making their way to see the baby who had been born.  Maybe it was the magi who had journeyed far in order to see the holy family.  Maybe it was the angels who were proclaiming the good news.  Or maybe it was the animals who may have been wondering at the spectacle that was happening in their stable.  After praying about it, each person was invited to color and write their name on that character and place it in the nativity scene, symbolically entering into the Christmas story themselves.

Throughout the prayer stations and experiences, we were able to dig a little deeper into the Christmas story and discover various ways of praying as we wait and prepare our hearts for the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.