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.

Just heard new wine is cancelled. Expected but gutted 😢😭

Thank you @Madhairday - so kind of you. My symptoms are tight chest, headache, sore eyes, shivery at times, laboured breathing. A colleague at work has tested positive but I've not been tested as not severe enough. I'm feeling OK but worried cos of my asthma. Another colleague has the same symptoms and has diabetes.

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."

Hi All

So pleased to have found such a helpful thread. I haven’t read the whole thing but I seem to have picked up that these are the “self introduction questions. So here goes:

Coffee or tea? Coffee
Hymns or worship songs? I like both, if I have to choose, hymns
Band or organ? Traditional hymns need an organ. Worship songs are best with a band.
Flavour/denomination(s)? Plural in my case, I am a joint Baptist and Methodist member of our church as we are a Local ecumenical partnership.
What sort of after church snack? Biscuits most commonly but if there is cake to be had .

Went to Ministry Team on Weds to be told all services cancelled until further notice, which doesn’t surprise me at all but it is going to be very odd.

Church closure, which as an anti cornona measure I totally support, will make it harder to support the vulnerable, the isolated and do the community outreach work which we are good at and is needed just now more than ever.

Praying for you KayakingOnDown and anyone else experiencing symptoms without a definitive diagnosis - the uncertainty is so stressful.

Prayers for you too Rafals - I am so grateful and in awe of all the HCPs, care workers, shop workers, teachers and other key workers who are having to put their personal fears aside to provide these vital services for all of us - thank you

Praying for you too Kayaking. My boys both have asthma so I have been following any reports closely. It seems that non-asthmatic people are suffering a lot of chest pain too, so it doesn't necessarily mean that your asthma is making things worse. The chest pain seems to last 5-6 days. It must be very frightening for you, never the less.

There are also quite a lot of people coming on line to say that they have recovered, after quite severe symptoms, and it doesn't therefore need hospitalisation every time, though clearly you know yourself best.

Take care, and do keep posting.

Hello LouiseCollins - I was just thinking the same thing today about how tricky it's going to be for the Church to navigate looking after the
vulnerable in the community and also keeping its volunteers/workers safe - I don't know what the answer is!

Hi! Hope you don't mind me joining in.

Coffee or tea? Always tea.
Hymns or worship songs? Very tricky, I think if I had to pick it would be hymns.
Band or organ? Band.
Flavour/denomination? Baptist
What sort of after church snack? Love a custard cream

So lovely to find a thread on Mumsnet all about praying for each other and supporting others in faith. It's especially important given everything that's going on! We are currently five days into self isolation (me, my husband, a 9 month old and a 20 month old ) which is interesting! Hope everybody is doing well and finding rest and peace in God!

Just been speaking to my brother. His wife is back in hospital and very fed up. She had gall bladder problems and although that has been removed she keeps having infections that need to be drained. I don’t understand it at all, have never heard of such a thing, but she is in a lot of pain and on top of that now being tested for Covid. Unlikely that she has it but an extra worry for my brother. They are not Christians, so do not have the comfort of a faith, nor can see see the benefit of other people praying for them.
Kayaking I pray for you that the symptoms are mild and that you will make a full recovery within the week.
MHD gutted for you about New Wine. It’s not my scene, but I know how you love it.
Welcome to all newbies.

Very humbled that people would pray for me. Thank you everyone.

Yes @Notverygrownup, I have read lots of reports of chest pain as a common symptom so it's probably not related to my asthma at all. And yes, people do recover. Thanks.

The church and faith communities generally are well placed to figure out solutions to support the vulnerable in our communities. Faith leaders and their teams need to change how they do things which will take a little while to figure out but the church is not closing, as they say.

@Dutchoma I believe getting outside for a walk daily is not transgressive and indeed is probably on balance of things better than staying indoors 24/7 as long as you don't have any symptoms and stay away from others. I'm not an expert but do have a life sciences and statistics background so perhaps parse the science differently to others. That said I believe Italy just closed its public parks, I really hope that does not happen here in the UK but it might. I live in a city with a lot of public parks and I value them hugely for space to be outside, I've only a tiny outside space for the property and many people do not have outside space at all.

This might seem like a silly question but I am going to ask it anyway: I returned to church for the first time as an adult this January and feel a bit lost now that the Easter "journey" seems to be waylaid by the global pandemic. For e.g. I was following the CoE #LentLives booklet (which is gentle) Given Covid19 its daily reflections seem weirdly irrelevant. The booklet has a focus on environmental issues which are of course important and interrelated with Covid19 in some ways. I just feel a bit lost as if I was only just getting the hang of things and I am being tested already.

Is there somewhere/a resource to track the journey of Lent/Easter? For me I need something entry-level, maybe somehow I could check-in daily. I feel like I lost my anchor, I had only just started to make friends at church after a couple of months of going to services regularly.

Ty for any suggestions.

Erinaceus Thank you for your kind comments. I don’t think that is a stupid question at all. You are in a hard place just starting out on your Christian journey and maybe not cared for as a new Christian as you (hopefully) might otherwise have been.
I am a fan of John Pritchard and he has written a book called ‘The journey’. It relates the journey of Jesus and the disciples in Jesus’ last days. It’s a few years since I worked through it, but I liked it a lot.
Might it also be worth sending your vicar an email to ask for some advice as the teaching in the various congregations might differ and the closer you stay to the teaching you have been receiving the better.

@Dutchoma I'm in a similar position to you in that my brother is not a Christian and doesn't understand or appreciate prayer. It's really difficult. I suppose we have to keep praying not only for health but for their salvation and that God would reveal Himself to them. I'm sorry to hear about your sister in law, I hope she gets better soon and isn't in hospital for too long.

@erinaceus I have the YouVersion Bible App and they have a reading plan on Lent that takes you through Jesus' life, the run up to Easter and gives you some ideas for Kind Acts you could do (not all of them are doable now but some of them are just things like send a text message etc). It's called Lent: Remembering the Life of Jesus. Don't know if that would work for you.

Afternoon all. Anyone following the [[https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/join-us-service-daily-prayer C of E prayers morning, noon, and evening? ]]

This was the opening prayer at midday today. So lovely.

Jesus, like a mother you gather your people to you;
you are gentle with us as a mother with her children.
Despair turns to hope through your sweet goodness;
through your gentleness we find comfort in fear.
Your warmth gives life to the dead,
your touch makes sinners righteous.
Lord Jesus, in your mercy heal us;
in your love and tenderness remake us.
In your compassion bring grace and forgiveness,
for the beauty of heaven may your love prepare us
Anselm (1109)

How are you feeling today Kayaking?

Whoops! Made a mess of my link, but I think it still works. And posted too soon.

DutchOma so sorry to hear about your SIL. Prayers for her recovery, and for her and your brother that they may find peace at this time, and maybe the One who provides it too

Ty @Dutchoma for some practical suggestions. It is like you say I feel very much a beginner. You give me some good pointers.

Also thanks @GoofyGoob for app suggestion, I tried a different app and didn't get on with it at all so I will look into that one.

Thanks everyone for being here.

Feeling a bit better! Chest pain comes and goes in severity, but overall a better day than yesterday. Maybe because my husband is now at home and I'm resting a lot more.

My church is setting up WhatsApp support groups for members / adherents, trying to ensure that everyone is in a group and no one is left out. They are fanning out from the home groups - which I don't actually go to, but I've been added to a group.

Kayaking what a horrible thing to be going through. Heartened that your pain abates. Praying for your speedy recovery.

Ds2 started with a fever today which has made us anxious. We are all on edge...

Please can I ask for prayers for a teacher at my dcs school? She is only mid to late 40s and is in intensive care having had a heart attck. What a time to be hospitalised! I worry she is going to die as she has been in a coma all week. Shes a lovely woman with 2 ds who need their mum. Thank you. I know there is so much to pray for right now. I am going to go kiss my kids then pray properly.

Thank you zennudist. Praying for that poor teacher.

Glad you're feeling a bit better Kayaking

Will pray for the sick teacher Zennudist - I agree there is never a good time to have a heart attack but that poor family must be frantic with everything else going on.

Glad you are starting to feel better kayaking. Keeping you in my prayers.

That’s awful Zen. So young as well. Will pray for her and her family.

erinaceus I’m watching Lent in Isolation’s daily videos. www.lentinisolation.com/videos You can leave the Act of Spiritual communion if you want.

I don’t think our church is live-streaming but putting a short(ish) liturgy of the word on FB/YouTube. Hoping they might do the weekday ones as well. Am happy to PM a link if anyone wants it and thinks it will help them.

How awful for that teacher and her family! Will pray.
We had our live streamed church service this morning, was very unusual not actually being in church but it was really good in the circumstances!
Glad to hear that people who were ill are feeling a bit better, will pray that continues!

Oh @ZenNudist I'm so sorry to hear about that teacher, what an awful time. Praying now. 🙏

@KayakingOnDown sorry you're suffering with this. Praying you're much better soon

Our church live streamed this morning and so many joined in, it was lovely.

Just thinking now about if I need to isolate more within the home. :(

Much love to all.

@BlackeyedSusan how are you getting on in all of this? Can your DS still go to school?