Many people would rather have a picnic in a Victorian sewer than go to a church prayer meeting. Historically, the church has been phenomenal at turning a dynamic encounter with our omnipotent, relational deity into a snore-fest!

This is a travesty because prayer transforms and changes us. It nourishes and sustains us. When we pray, our minds move in line with the mind of Christ. We see the world more clearly, hear God more closely and experience his love for us and our mates more powerfully. 

So, last Tuesday at 11pm, Miriam and I joined eight students to pray through the night. We met in our church offices and prayed until 3am. The time flew by. 

We prayed and prophesied for each other and we gave one another verses from the bible that were of encouragement. The way we did this was to write everyone's name on the bottom of a paper cup, then mixed them up so we didn't know who was written on each cup. Then one by one, we prayed for the person who's name was on the cup base. We wrote this down on paper slips and put them in the cup. We didn't know who they were, but God did. Once we had prayed for each of the cups, we handed them out and read what people had written. The words, verses and pictures were often very accurate. Especially what we had each unknowingly written for ourselves. 

After this we spent a while writing the names of our friends on a big piece of paper, mainly those who don't know the love of Jesus in their life. We quickly filled an enormous sheet of paper and prayed for them all. 

To pray for the students of York, we did a virtual prayer walk. Having projected Google "streetview" on a big screen, we walked down the streets that students live in, round York Uni campus and through the clubbing area of the city centre. Whilst one person acted as our ‘driver’, the rest of us prayed as we saw the streets on the screen. 

Finally, one of the students there, Polly, said she thought we should ask God for a postcode, search for it and pray for it. So we did, and gradually we pieced together YO17 0RT. Different people have each part of the postcode. Initially, we were disappointed as it was a field in the middle of nowhere. But as our 'driver' zoomed in we discovered that there was a picture of a man sitting cross-legged in this field seemingly deep in thought. Unbelievable! So we prayed for this person and praised God that he had let us find them. 

I hope that you are encouraged by reading this. May it spur you to pray for your university, your town,  your streets or your field! Why not pray through the night? Fast half a night's sleep for God and trust him to provide you with energy the next day. He did it for us.