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April 18, 2005
Opening times and latest news
Latest Boiler Room Update
Our next week of 24-7 Prayer is Sunday 8th May (starting 8pm) to Sunday 15th May.
*. With immediate effect we will be open *Monday to Thursday every week from 10.00 a.m. til 4.00 p.m.* as a minimum.
With effect for the week of 18th April, we will be having times of prayer on:
*Monday from 12.00 noon til 1.00 p.m., *
*Wednesday from 7.00 a.m. til 8.00 a.m. and *
*Friday from 8.00 p.m. til 9.00 p.m.,*
These are open to anyone who wants to join us.
Our aim, hopefully from the following week - 25th April, is to have daily prayer times.
Weekdays: 7:00 - 8:00am and 6:00 - 7:00pm
Weekends: 9:00 - 10:00am and 10:00 - 11:00pm
For more read on...
Dear Boiler Room Friends,
Well, the last couple of weeks have been great - we have had the launch for the new Boiler Room in Caversham - and hope those of you who were able to make it enjoyed the time, and were able to look around the new building. Following the launch, we ran a week of 24-7 Prayer here and have had some great feedback from those involved. Thanks so much to all who took part.
Our next week of 24-7 Prayer is Sunday 8th May (starting 8pm) to Sunday 15th May.
From our perspective, it's brilliant to have the building up and running and people coming in to visit, pray, chat etc. So we're now really keen to continue with that, and we look forward to receiving more pray-ers and more visitors. To that end, we wanted to let you know our *Opening Times*. With immediate effect we will be open *Monday to Thursday every week from 10.00 a.m. til 4.00 p.m.* as a minimum. You can drop in during those times or book a slot by giving us a ring at the Boiler Room on 01189 461245 or call the Venue Manager on 07766 307593. We expect to be able to increase these open times in the near future. We can also potentially arrange slots outside these times, so please phone us on the same numbers and we'll see if we can help.
With effect from next week (18th April), we will be having times of prayer on:
*Monday from 12.00 noon til 1.00 p.m., *
*Wednesday from 7.00 a.m. til 8.00 a.m. and *
*Friday from 8.00 p.m. til 9.00 p.m.,*
These are open to anyone who wants to join us.
Our aim, hopefully from the following week - 25th April, is to have daily prayer times.
Weekdays: 7:00 - 8:00am and 6:00 - 7:00pm
Weekends: 9:00 - 10:00am and 10:00 - 11:00pm
However, this may take us a little time to organise staffing etc. If there are any groups at your church that you think would like to take
this opportunity to host a prayer slot then please let us know as soon as possible. (01189 461245 or annie@24-7prayer.com )
As we have been praying and talking many of us feel that God is challenging us in the areas of mission and work with the poor.......
Since we've re-opened we've been encouraged to re-establish contact with a few of the young people who used to visit the Boiler Room, we need to work out how to serve and care for them this time round.
We've made it a priority to be friendly to our immediate neighbours and to take time to share about what the Boiler Room is about. We have so far had an interesting and positive response from the local community.
We have taken some time to prayer walk in town during Friday night to assess how we can pray and also how we can serve and reach out to those coming into Reading for the nightlife.
We've had some initial discussions about how we can partner those working with the neediest people in our communities.
We've begun to think and pray and talk with others about how we can support all that is going on in the local community in Caversham.
So watch this space and we will keep you informed with regard to our response to that, and also how you, if you would like to, can be involved too. Do get in contact with us if any of the above grabs your attention.
Finally, as a team, we feel the Boiler Room is here to serve you and your churches, so please do get in contact with us if there is any way we can help. We are happy to talk about making the building available for you, your groups or for activities with your church. We can also sort out visiting your congregations and/or giving support to prayer where you are. Just let us know if we can help.
Some useful contact numbers/email addresses:
Lorraine@readingprayer.com
annie.bullen@24-7prayer.com
andy.freeman@24-7prayer.com
Gosbrook House, Reading Boiler Room: 01189 461245
Lorraine Joslin: 07766 307593
We do appreciate you working with us
The Boiler Room Team
11-13 Gosbrook Road Reading RG4 8BT
Posted by andy at 02:15 PM
April 12, 2005
Let the praying begin ... and it has!
It's been great to see some of you popping into pray and getting used to us being here (even if it does seem a long way away from the Town Centre, once you get walking you realise what a nice route it is through the park ... mind the swans though! At the last Boiler Room you had to mind the geese - maybe this one is like having an 'upgrade')
The atmosphere here in the prayer rooms is lovely - it's as though God has been waiting around in there, waiting for us to hang out there and find Him with an "Oop, there You are ... wow."
Speaking of which .. I should really pop in there again today!
Posted by lorraine at 12:56 PM | Comments (1)
April 03, 2005
Prayer week finishes
So our first 247 week in the new building is over and it's been great. To check out the photo's just click here
Our next 247 week is 8 - 15 May.
In the meantime, you can book times to come into pray or we'll have specific opening times, which we're going to arrange at our team meeting on Tuesday and then we'll let you know
Andy
Posted by andy at 08:45 PM | Comments (3)
April 01, 2005
Latest 24-7 Prayer Slots Update
If you'd like to spend some time in prayer during the last two days of our week of 24-7, here are the remaining slots as at 14:00 on Fri am:
FRIDAY
14:00-16:00
20:00-21:00
22:00-23:00
SATURDAY
02:00-21:00
Plenty of choice!
Until 21:00 Friday please contact peter.ward@24-7prayer.com, after that andy.freeman@24-7prayer.com.
Thanks!
Posted by curve at 10:35 AM
Lucy Burnell's Indian Travels
Hey everyone. You may know Lucy Burnell, one of Reading's finest, who is currently in Delhi, India working with a charity called Asha. Today I discovered her blog and thought you might be interested. Check out http://themindoflucy.blogspot.com.
Posted by andy at 09:20 AM
2am in the prayer room
Some days I get a strong reminder of why I love what I do. Last night was one such occasion. We're doing a 24-7 week at the Boiler Room and I had 2am last night - might sound like a nightmare - but it was wonderful.
Getting up was quite hard. Karen and I stayed up late watching our Alias series 3 DVD. It's compulsive viewing and one of those where you just wanna watch one more episode. So when I got up it felt like I hadn't slept long. That was the hardest bit.
But a walk, a cup of tea and a quick chat with Ian, who I was taking over from, and things began to fall into place.
I get a bit ritualistic about my prayer times - I wanna have my bible, my journal and celtic daily prayer with me, I take time choosing a CD, I light lots of candles; trying to pray for someone with each candle. Then I try and wander round the rooms - what have people been praying, writing or drawing - I love joining in with what they pray - a sort of wordless corporate prayer.
When I grew up as a Christian I remember people talking about 'breaking the sound barrier' - about people praying out loud for the first time - as if this was some sort of initiation right. Now I understand why - in the sit in a circle prayer meeting you sort of need to hear the prayer to join with it and say 'amen'. But here in these little prayer rooms we seem to have discovered a new form of corporate prayer, where someone can pray through a painting on a Saturday and have a profound effect on someone at 2am on a Wednesday morning, provoking a loud amen.
Last night was lovely, I spent lots of time writing - thoughts, prayers for people. I find writing helps me enormously. There was a world map on the wall, I began to consider just how staggering it was that people were running prayer rooms and starting Boiler rooms throughout the world. With post it notes in hand I started to cover the map in prayers - friends in Canada and Ibiza, prayer rooms in Colorado and South Africa.
Rbr_prayer_week_1_006
Before I knew it I heard a car pull up outside and my couple of hours was up.
The walk home was funny - I felt a lightness in my steps - I love time with Jesus. There is nothing, nothing at all, like it.
Posted by andy at 08:39 AM
Reading Boiler off and running
Well after an immense amount of work (my team have been amazing) we opened Reading Boiler Room Mark 2 on Saturday night.
What can I tell you about the launch and the opening.....
# We opened with paint still wet on the walls but with the place looking amazing.
# Loads of people came to our launch event, we felt so supported, not the least by the 2000 pounds given to us. Pete and Danutia led the evening, Lorraine spoke amazingly, Sounds of Salvation led the worship - a ska band - so incredibly good. There was such a sense of God as we prayed.
# We had so many messages of support.
# We all got very tired
# The prayer rota filled up quite fast, and it felt so easy to pray there.
We're now into our first prayer week and it feels so good.
Posted by andy at 08:36 AM