Stephanie Meek, member of Christ Church in Coseley came along to the 'Praying for Dudley' event in Priory Park as part of our Pentecost celebrations. Here she reflects on the experience:
Having been at Christ Churchduring the Morning, I did the usual thing of buying a parish magazine,squeezing it into an already overflowing handbag and scurried off to see to therest of the days affairs, namely my son and dog!
Full of the wonders of theLord, singing at the top of my voice Come down o love divine, all the wayhome thankfully within the confines of my car - so as not to disturb thelocal folk. I didnt give another thought to the magazine until whilst jugglingthe roast potatoes and the other accompaniments that traditional Sunday lunchbrings! Given, it was by now just after 1pm, the advert in the magazine I wasstaring at was promoting a Praying for Dudley event fairly local to me (andset in what one can only describe as the jewel of Dudley, also known as PrioryPark) which started at 2pm. You have never seen Sunday Lunch served so quickly!
Cant say exactly why I wasdrawn to such an event, I am certainly no evangelical and much prefer to prayprivately. This said, I just knew I had to attend and of course there was onlyone to accompany me yes thats right Maisy our beloved dog. She had beenvery ill a few days prior and so it seemed entirely appropriate as the eventwas in the open air that Maisy should be my plus 1 for the afternoon. Grabbingthe picnic blanket (purely for our comfort, clearly still stuffed from theSunday roast), we arrived at the Park to the beautiful sound of Thine Be theglory, which for me very much set the tone of the whole afternoons event. Setin the back-drop of the Priory ruins, we positioned ourselves somewhat awayfrom the stage and main throng of folk yet still felt very much a part of thewhole thing.
Part way through the event,there was an open invitation to link up with a few different people and sharenot Holy Communion as I am accustomed to, but indeed an Oat Cake (gluten free,meaning everyone could join in). Maisy at this stage in the proceedings, wasmost interested.the thought of food being shared in one of her favouriteparks well you can imagine this was heaven on earth for her! Indeed, it wasin this act of sharing that having sat alone with Maisy for quite some time, Iwas amazed to find out that very near to us had been a man with his family. Ittranspired that the man had gone to both my Primary and Secondary school, aswell as attending the same church - albeit at slightly different times, givenour age difference - how about that for a coincidence or was it? Further chatrevealed that his Aunt had worked in the post office next door to the butcher'sshop my Father had owned throughout my childhood. Talk about God moving inmysterious ways!
This amazing coincidenceaside, for much of the event, I felt so consumed by holiness, that I simplystared at the beautiful surroundings the historic ruins - stone shaped by alifetime of past memories, the tremendously tall trees that appeared to leadto heaven. Brought back to Earth, I became aware of one of the anecdotes sharedby one of the numerous Faith leaders. One in particular was talking about whatprayer and praying meant for him and how prayer doesnt always feel like it isanswered or indeed if it is, then it often isnt the answer we were hoping for!This resonated with me on a very personal level. Just a few days before, wouldhave been my Mums 72nd Birthday and instead of showering her withgifts and love I spent it quietly staring at her beautiful rose and wonderingwhat she was doing on her special day within her heavenly home. Sadly, havinglost her the previous year, no amount of prayer had saved her - much to mycomplete devastation and so could resonate on a very personal level with thewords of the Pastor when he spoke about knowing what it felt like to feel thatprayers go unanswered.
Yet, this said, being in thePark at such an event, made me strengthened in my resolve that I wasnt aloneand could honestly say that I felt the prevailing power of the Holy Spiritmoving in that most beautiful place on what had started as a very ordinarySunday
