Justice prayer room

Eight days ago in downtown Helsinki, a group of us gathered together to decorate/re-arrange the meeting hall of a Christian student organisation with material, rugs, paper, books, and lots of other stuff. We were preparing the place for a 24/7 Prayer week on the theme of Justice. For a few hours the room was a blur of chaos and creativity as people were hard at work. But when the time came for the first prayer slot at midnight, the place was transformed.

The first area was focused on the question "What is justice?", and written below that question were many parts of the Bible that deal with the subject. You don't have search very hard in the Bible to find out that God is passionate about justice, and seeing these verses written on the walls helped me see that this is something we can't ignore. We had several different areas in the room which focused on a variety of subjects.

One section focused on praying for the nations with a world map and facts about different injustices that plague our world. Written about this was the line - Jesus, Hope of the Nations. As you hear more about the injustices in the world, you can very easily end up depressed and hopeless. But Jesus is the hope that never fades; He is the only complete solution. I have been learning that these heartbreaking stories of injustice must not paralyze us, but must drive us into prayer, into crying out for God to intervene.

Other areas included: prayer for children (who are so often the innocent victims of injustice), prayer for our cities and areas in particular need, a wall of fame with the names of heroes of the faith who inspire us (especially in justice issues), praying for those who cause injustice (human traffickers, dictators, etc), that God would bring his love and transformation to them, and then prayer for the environment. On a few evenings we also had people sharing about some justice issues, such as abortion, immigration and emigration, human trafficking, and the environment, and one evening we had a worship and intercession gathering.

Yesterday, while taking taking down paper from the walls and returning the room to something like its original state, I was reflecting on a week well spent. The whole week was filled with people praying, and, looking through the paintings and phrases written on the walls, you could see that many people had been impacted by the time. I know God has also challenged and encouraged me through the week. The challenge now is not to leave these as simply memories, but to allow them to change our hearts and actions as we continue our daily lives.

At this point I'd like to direct you to my Myspace page, where I recently put a basic recording of a song I wrote based on Isaiah 61. I wrote it a few months ago, and I figure it fits pretty well with this theme of justice.
Listen to it at: http://www.myspace.com/bonoa