On the 23rd to 30th October 2011, people across Telford shared in a total of 168 hours of prayer for Telford. The Chapel at Meeting Point House was transformed into a prayer room, open for seven days from 8am until 8pm for anyone that wanted to pray for the borough of Telford and Wrekin. The Council supported this initiative through funding, advertising the event to partners and through their weekly staff bulletin and through gathering prayer concerns. We prayed for 7 main themes;

1. Health and healing - PCT priorities; GP commissioning; Princess Royal Hospital.
2. Safer streets - street pastors; Sanktuary; Fire and Rescue service; Human trafficking; West Mercia Police
3. Vulnerable adults - homeless; adults with learning disabilities; older and isolated people.
4. Child poverty – broken families;
5. Business – small business; plight of young people trying to get work
6. Town centre development
7. Youth/ schools

At a time of unprecedented cuts to public sector funding, we wanted to pray for our community leaders, their decision-making and the vulnerable in our communities. A core team of people representing a wide cross-section of churches got involved to plan the event. Each brought their own skills and insight to the event.
In the evenings a prophetic torch was taken out to eight different venues and the prayer swept round Telford. There was an opportunity for churches from across the denominational spectrum to pray together as the whole body of Christ for their community. The 8 venues were;

1. Madeley Baptist
2. Horsehay Methodist
3. In Wellington – the House of Prayer
4. Admaston House
5. Newport Churches together
6. In Malinslee – St Leonards
7. In Dawley – St Paul’s RC
8. In Tweedale – Springfield Christian Fellowship

The night-times were a rich combination of prayer in different forms. Some took place as a silent vigil, others had groups of people praying together around a candle light and yet other nights involved 30+ people, worshipping and interceding for their community. God’s voice was listened for and scriptures were read and prayed over as we sought God’s heart for Telford. In Newport, the Church Leaders gathered together over breakfast to thank God for this meeting of His people.

In the last hour of the week, people from more than 20 different churches collected to
celebrate what God had done over the week. As we listened to what those from each venue had to share, it became clear that another week of prayer should take place. So in March, for 7 days from Sunday 11th to Sunday 18th March 2012, we propose to set up a week of prayer for healing. We are looking for another set of diverse venues where prayer can be based overnight that brings together the Christians of that community.