Sunday 23 May 2010

My Town, My Country and the World

We returned from our trip Thursday and our feet have not touched the ground since. Before posting on our trip thought I'd post on this weekend first. Have a particularly busy week coming up but will hopefully get my photos sorted.

This afternoon the market place in the centre of our town was a place of praise and worship as Christians from various denominations came together to flood the town with prayer and worship as part of the ongoing World Day of Prayer. Just over a week ago we were seeing temperatures of 54 degrees but this week it has 'hotted' up and today we were sweltering in 86 degrees. Not conducive to sitting/standing outside in the sun for 90 minutes so many were using up every bit of shade possible. Ironic that some of us were standing outside the 'Iceland' store. I think they sold lots of ice lollies today!

Our town is certainly in receipt of much ongoing prayer as many regularly walk the ring road praying. Added to this lots of the youth are out on Saturdays praying for people personally as they go about their shopping and then there are the Street Pastors out on Friday and Saturday nights 'till all hours of the morning, offering help and praying for the over inebriated young people as they leave the nightclubs.

Thousands will be coming together at the local football stadium in a couple of weeks to pray for our nation and the world at large.

Tomorrow we begin 24 hours of prayer.


















Then yesterday was the launch of a new venture at Pilgrims Hall. (Lots of posts on Pilgrims Hall if you click on my sidebar). The Christian bookshop in the local town had to close down due to the widening of the road at the junction where the site was. It has been sorely missed so together with the owner we have gone into partnership and are running a Christian Bookshop at Pilgrims Hall.







There is nothing that Paul, seen here, does not know about Christian book selling having been in the business for 30 years, buying selling, supplying, wholesaling and writing books himself. We are not embarking on a serious money making venture but offering a service to the community and bringing in more people to these beautiful and serene acres. It's now time to ceremoniously cut the tape.


Starting small and will build up when we know what people want.












I have posted many photos of this place in the past but before leaving will take just a few to add to this post. The Wysteria is in full bloom but only on the Pagoda. It did cover the side of the house until we had to have it removed a couple of years ago as it was seriously beginning to damage the brickwork. The Hall is a listed building and we had no choice, the work had to be done to specification costing us £65,000 (pounds). A real faith venture in these financially difficult days.



The Hall is used by many groups and churches so on a day like today there are always people taking time out in the grounds to study, meditate or pray.









13 comments:

Patsy said...

This is so wonderful that your town is joining in on Prayer and the Hall is lovely.
Patsy

duopastorale said...

Exciting ventures! we have street pastors which is going well, and also street healing as you know. Photos from Pilgrim Hall are lovely. It's been a great weekend!!

Anonymous said...

Pilgrims Hall looks like such a special place. Hopefully more people will use the grounds when they come to buy a book but come away with a lot more.

Cousin Pam said...

How wonderful to know people are praying for your town. We have the same in our town but no street pastors.....yet!
Lovely photos as always. I love York - so much to see and do, and the photos of the grandchildren are so special. Only another 2.5 weeks until mine arrive - ash cloud permitting!!

Betty said...

The pictures are beautifula and what an event to see.

Willow

Sara at Come Away With Me said...

Barbara, I can look at these photos of Pilgrims Hall and recall every detail of the personal tour you gave me one warm summer's day just a year ago.

I smiled when I saw it was 86 degrees for your day of prayer...so much warmer than we were here in Los Angeles!

a woman who is said...

I love seeing pictures of your town. Especially of the town praying! I love your Pilgrim hall. Your town seems to have so much community going on.

Street pastors, that is a new term for me. Sounds like a great idea!

La Petite Gallery said...

I am so amazed a whole town praying that is just fantastic..
The Hall is so nice,

yvonne

zetor said...

What a lovely hall, unfortunately our church has no such building. Wonderful to see so many people praying. Prayers here for you all.

Willow said...

Hi Barbara,
Having walked the streets of your town, I'm happy to know that others are prayer walking there!

I hope the book shop venture will be a blessing to the people of the community.

Vee said...

It's exciting to see so many out praying on such a hot day. What a commitment. I can not imagine the same sort of determination in my corner. The grounds look wonderful. And I'm glad that there will be a Christian bookstore. We have none within a hundred miles and there used to be three. Wishing lots of success with it because it is wonderful to be able to pick up something that one needs today. Looking forward to reading about your trip, but you do sound busy so take all the time that you need.

Charm and Grace said...

A very inspiring post. I loved seeing your pictures of those gathered for the specific purpose of prayer, and I loved seeing the new bookstore. The wisteria is like a dream... so sad they had to remove it but I can totally understand. It is much too aggressive. Beautiful post, Barbara.

Blessings,
Christi

Sue Seibert said...

Wonderful. Our present president doesn't want us to celebrate World or National Day of Prayer. In fact, he is not celebrating Memorial Day, either. What have we Americans gotten ourselves in for? Hope it will be over in two more years!