Dear Friends,
You have seen the pictures – a scene of utter devastation after the earthquake, and now there are people picking through the rubble, digging with bare hands, listening for the voices of any survivors, and then: a small gap in the rubble and a glass of water is passed through. Someone has been found alive and will in time be rescued, but in the meantime, their gruelling thirst can be quenched.

I believe this is a parable for the state of the soul: buried under the debris of our oh-so-busy everyday lives, its voice drowned out by many wants and needs, our souls get cut off from the Water of Life and are thirsting. When we start to dig, and listen for that still small voice, and dig again, we can make contact with the deepest needs of our souls and can create a channel through which God will pour untold blessings into our lives.

Over the course of our history, vast numbers of people have gone on retreat, have engaged in silent prayer for a day, a week, even a month, and have discovered that rich blessing. Few of us can or want to afford the time to go on such an extensive retreat, but at Broadway, we are now planning to run a Retreat in Daily Life. This is part of our special efforts for the Vision4Life Prayer Year.

It will encompass six weeks during April and May, when the participants will set aside a small amount of time, anything up to an hour, every day for different ways of praying and listening to that still, small voice within. The rest of the day is just normal everyday life, yet I like to think with a heightened awareness of God’s presence – finding God in all things.

Once a week, each participant (pilgrim, as we like to call them) meets up with a specially trained prayer companion for half an hour to talk through the experience of last week’s prayer and together work out where God will lead the pilgrim next. The first and last sessions of the retreat are group sessions lasting an hour and giving opportunities for praying together and sharing some insights.

I have now found seven fully trained prayer guides, who will travel to Walsall from as far afield as Wolverhampton, Lichfield and Tamworth and give their time to us free of charge. Each guide will be able to accompany up to three pilgrims, making it a maximum of 21 pilgrims. I have advertised the retreat in Church Links, so that people from other Walsall churches will be able to come as well.

On March 22nd, we will have a Taster Evening, where anyone can come along to try out whether this kind of prayer suits them, and after that we will sign up participants and allocate them to their individual companions. The retreat itself will be on Monday evenings, from 12th April to 17th March.

I sincerely hope that a good number of you will make use of this opportunity and find the blessing of which Jesus spoke when he said, “Those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”

God bless you all,