Christian Coffee House - Prayer/Chat thread. No rubbish church coffee allowed.

[Madhairday]

With the latest prayer thread coming to an end, we thought we would create a new thread for prayer and general chat too - we had chat threads running for years alongside prayer threads, and we thought it would be great to combine them. I try and collate some of the prayer requests from the last thread in the next few days. In the meantime, dive in! Lurkers/newbies - you are welcome to post. Feel free to start any chat subject about Christianity, church, worship etc, and do share any prayer needs.
Would love to hear from those who were on previous threads and haven't been around for a while, too. Come and let us know how you are.

Waving to @Dutchoma - and @Niminy too. You sent me a lovely encouraging pm once!

Hello @Niminy - so lovely to see you here :)

@erinaceus I'm married to one if it helps, happy to answer any questions too.

Continued prayers for your sister, donhill.

ZenNudist no worries, you need to find something that works for you, and we're very far from Catholic mass on our live stream, you'd always be welcome to pop in if you'd like :)

Hello NVGU! :)

I'm feeling a bit fragile, lonely, missing hugs. Done with this shielding lark :(

Thanks everyone for getting back to me.

@Niminy do you mind if I PM you? I might come back to the main thread after but it’s a bit of a weird situation and I’m a bit shy/embarrassed to be asking. If PM is a problem I can post here instead, I don’t mean to be cryptic — it’s a vocations-related question which is why I was asking if there was anyone who was ordained (but it’s true other MNers views might also be helpful).

Thanks again

You and your sister are in my prayers Donhill.

Yes Zen, they are a lovely bunch. Its mostly an older quite small congregation at our church but as our vicar has two parishes we also interact with the younger folk there and at the local village school, while the online services are very much a joint effort.
And the average age might be older but the outlook is definitely young at heartheart - you should have seen our Star Wars service!

@erinaceus yes, of course, PM me, that's fine.

@Madhairday - shielding is so, so hard. I'm praying for you every day, and sending love.

@Madhairday the peace of the Lord be always with you. ( and 🤗🤗 too because sometimes they're easier to discern whilst here on Earth)

Thank you @Niminy (and everyone else).

Thinking of you @Madhairday — I’m pretty done with pandemic TBH, I’m not in the shielding category but I do live alone and am finding it hard going.

Praying for your sister’s continued recovery @Donhill and for you as well.

@Madhairday - thinking of you and hope the pain of isolation eases a little for you.

@Donhill - praying for continued recovery

We are doing OK. Usual niggles of isolation but my Dad was rushed to hospital last Friday with something unrelated to covid which put things into perspective. He's back out of hospital now and recovering at home but I'd love to go and see him and give him a hug.

It is so encouraging that people of all churches are continuing to worship in different ways, whether it is you tube, zoom, facebook live, telephone or radio/television. Faith can't be smothered by isolation!

I'm glad your dad is OK applesandpears. Such a worrying time and so hard you're unable to go and see him isn't it

Sorry you're finding things hard, @erinaceus - it's a tough time.

Thanks everyone for the hugs and prayers. Right back at ya.

Please can I join? I'm missing church so much, a physical aching pain!

About me: one proper coffee a day but otherwise a Yorkshire tea; hymns; organ; CofE but Ango-Catholic; and lemon drizzle cake with a good white wine (outside of lent!).

I've just had a read through the posts and it's helped in my resolve to pray every day. I'm not very "good" at it - I was hoping to be baptised at Easter but unfortunately that was cancelled. I strive to never take mass for granted again! Peace be with you all.

@LurkerFinallyPosts and also with you... and everyone on here.

Welcome Lurkerfinallyposts, good to see you. I think we all miss church so much because we are made to love one another, that is at the heart of the Christian faith. This isolation cuts across that. It doesn’t cut it out, nothing could do that, but it takes so many opportunities away.

Hello @LurkerFinallyPosts how frustrating that your baptism has been put off. Hopefully it won't be postponed too long. Sad that you are missing church so much. It's not the same but at least online church is frequent and easy to attend. I get to mass more often in the week now which is great. Could this be a bright side for you too? Or perhaps finding a zoom fellowship group to sustain you at this time. I wish I knew how to find similar. But its great to find Christian fellowship here too.

I'm not good at prayer either. At the moment I feel less like I'm talking to God. I feel really tired and like I need to get back to an actual church that would somehow revive me. I have begun the inevitable slide into bad habits now lent is over! I like the idea that all prayer is a response to God. He invites us to pray and He is already listening. We dont have to get his attention.

MHD what can be done? You're doing so well. Keep going. I pressed the pause button after bidding prayers to find time to pray for those here. I pray you are inspired by the holy spirit to pour yourself into your new book. There's not much upside from the current situation but I'm hoping that could be one.

@applesandpears33 praying for your f2f to recover his strength and for you to be supported by God's grace in this worrying time. It's so harsh not being able to help loved ones in need. Thankful that it wasn't covid instead/ as well!!

@erinaceus take heart that we have made it through the worst of the lockdown. More to come I know. May God give you fortitude. I hope this time too much alone has helped you discover new things or given you chance to devote to existing interests. I'm trying to be positive for you but I know that sometimes its all just too hard.

@forgetthehousework a star wars service! what did that involve? Agog.

@Niminy hello. I am always so interested in how people are called to be ordained. I'd love to know what drew you to it. Sorry, I dont mean to pry.

Hello @LurkerFinallyPosts and welcome, I’m new too.

I miss church too, we have Zoom church which I find quite moving but it’s not the same.

Thanks for everyone who offered to answer my question, in the end I had a chat with one of the LLM at my church and they helped but thanks for the offers — it’s lovely to know you are here.

@ZenNudist thanks, yes, there are some advantages in lockdown, I was just throwing a strop (happens some days), mostly I am alright but from time to time I’ve just ... had enough.

Wishing everyone a peaceful Sunday.

Hello all. I have just managed to run the church's first zoom coffee morning which was such a challenge to this technically challenged priest. People seem to be coping but really missing meeting together.

Hope everyone is OK. I'm managing to do spiritual direction by Skype and FaceTime which is helping me with feeling a connection to people as I record the Sunday service to my phone and upload it which is quite lonely.

Happy to answer vocations questions by DM although the process is changing and I might not have up to date info.

I just wanted to report back, after I saw my friend yesterday. I decided to put together a care package for her, after sending for a colouring book and scripture journal from Amazon, I then got some chocolate goodies, bubble bath and some other bits and bobs. She admitted that she isn’t very good at appearing thankful, but she said that she liked them and I really feel they’ll help. We spoke for a while in her garden with her mum, and it was wonderful having such quiet all around us, and the birds singing. She’s invited me to go with her to her church when lockdown is over, and I’m hoping to take her up on the offer. I’ve also bought some postcards with bible verses on them and nice nature photographs, which I’ve been using to send to my Christian friends with messages of hope and encouragement. I’ve also added a couple to my “prayer wall” to focus on myself when I need it (and when I don’t). I’m often reminded of this passage from a Paulo Coelho book and I think that in these times, we need to remember that God needs our hands to do his work:

I want to tell you a story my father told me, he said. A master and his disciple were walking together in the desert. The master was teaching his charge that he could always trust in God, since he was aware of everything. Night fell and they decided to pitch camp. The master raised the tent, and the disciple was given the assignment of tethering the horses to a rock. But, as he stood by the rock, he thought to himself: The master is testing me. He said that God is aware of everything, and then asked me to tie up the horse. He wants to see whether or not I believe in God. Instead of tethering the animals, he said a long prayer, and left the fate of the horse in God’s hands. Next day when they awoke, the horses were gone. Disappointed, the disciple complained to the master, saying that he no longer believed in him, since God had not taken care of everything, and had forgotten to watch over the horses. You are wrong, the master answered. God wanted to take care of the horses, But in order to do so, he needed to make use of your hands to tether them to the stone.

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Gingham that's a lovely idea to send postcards.

A big thank you @RoseForRembrance that video made me cry. Very powerful, and great singing.

Yes, @ZenNudist, it got me that way too, I've watched it several times and cry every time. But I also felt so much hope and empowerment.

I'm going to do a straw poll when my Home Group zooms tonight, is there anyone who hasn't cried when watching the UK Blessing?!

It is just amazing, but tbh I also cry at every choir/kids' dance class etc made like this. Think it must be something to do with the spectacle of lone people each seen in their "natural habitat", crafting something which, when joined together, is beautiful. Everyone pulling together. It is like the church being the body of Christ, but applies to more than just the church, iyswim.

I do blub very easily even in normal circumstances though!

Hi all yes the UK blessing was lovely. I was also sent a virtual choir singing A Mighty Fortress is Our God about a month ago - I found it equally moving.

Our church worship group also did the same thing for In Christ alone - and it worked surprisingly well.

I SO miss singing together in worship.

Yes I love the blessing too and it has brought me to tears a few times. That bit at the end with 'he is for you, he is for you' just gets me every time ❤️

I miss worship together so so much as well. It's great that we livestream and interact together in the comments though, such a good feeling of community and encouragement. But worshipping together is so wonderful and I think this time has made us appreciate it rather than take it for granted - so many Christians across the world can never do that whether due to illness or living in a country it's not permitted. It's very humbling and I think it's made me step back and reflect a lot about the privileges we have in the west.

How's everyone doing?

Good thank you @Madhairday, yesterday I decided to try and organise something for our street and am delighted that neighbours have come on board, from a slow start. Through organising it have met for the first time a lovely lady who doesn't tend to be seen much usually, and have discovered she's now having to shield. Had a great chat with her through her kitchen window and have offered to help if she needs anything. What a blessing.

Am just hoping all goes well when I lead the singing of We'll Meet Again after 9, think everyone's looking to me. I am a singer but could crumple under nerves! Let's hope everyone's had a small glass of something by then!

That's so good @StrawberryJam200! So lovely you could talk to that lady. Our street has been out all afternoon (socially distanced) , I've been out in the front garden with the family, can't go into the street as shielding but it has been lovely. Nice to feel a sense of community.