This contemplative prayer station uses situations that have actually happened to prompt honest thought on what our response would have been and how God may have wanted us to respond.

Directions for Leadership:

Post each situation (below) around a room or closed off area where people can walk around and read all the different posts.  Also post the directions periodically around the room.  Or you can set it up linearly; one long row with the directions at the beginning.  Along with each situation look for a picture that can go along with it in some way, this helps make it a little less abstract.

Prayer Station Directions:

Around the area are various situations.  All the situations actually happened that there are no right answers to these situations.  Before you start reading, ask God to be with you in truth and grace, and to be open to God’s transformative love.

Situation 1:

I was driving along and saw a road side stand with strawberries. Pulling over to get some, I remembered a conversation with some friends about the complications of immigration and how when we buy from illegal immigrants it can make the situation worse.  It was obvious it was a Latino family running the stand and only the teenager could speak English.

Would you have bought the strawberries anyway, or walked away?  Or something else?  Is your response something Jesus would have you do?

Situation 2:

While walking downtown, I stopped to look in a window, which was near a black man standing by his car.  As I turned, a white man was walking past us and I heard him say to the black man: “You are in the way, Boy.”  And continued walking.  (Boy is used as a derogatory term left over from when white people viewed black people as less than human, an opinion obviously still around.)

Would you have said something?  To which person?  How would you have responded, if at all, to this?  What would be the Christ like thing to do?

Situation 3:

Last winter, while taking the exit off the freeway to come to church, I saw a homeless man standing with a sign.  As we came up to the stop, I was better able to read his sign.  “Homeless: need shoes.”  We were already 5 min late and our lateness would be noticed.

What would you do, if anything?  What do you think God would ask you to do?

Situation 4:

After a nice dinner with some friends, I was walking down Main St. and there was a man passed out on the side walk, up against the building.  The guy was obviously drunk.  I paused, and shivered a bit (it was cold that night) and looked around.

What would you do, if anything?  What would the Holy Spirit be nudging you to do?  Would you do it?

Situation 5:

I was out shopping the other day and I saw an Arab woman and her husband, both dressed in traditional Muslim clothes, walking by.  I was about to continue on when I realized there was a group of young guys following the two, making crass jokes about Muslims and terrorists.

What would you do, if anything?  What does Jesus teach us to do for others, especially those who are hated on?

Situation 6:

I was walking down the street in the middle of the day and all of the sudden I hear this guy yelp and a gunshot.  I turn and see this guy ducking back and forth behind a tree as another man fires his gun over and over at him.

What do you do?  Yes, it’s complicated!  How does Jesus feel about our lives and the lives of others?  Is it that black and white?

Situation 7:

One night I was talking with some friends, one of which was a woman who was very overweight and always fluctuated in clothing size.  It was raining out and as I looked around I realized she had no coat, and probably couldn’t afford one.

What do you do, if anything?  What do you think Jesus would be doing if it was one of his disciples?

Situation 8:

I was eating dinner on the porch of my apartment and the neighbor guy, who is always high on some drug or another, came over to me.  He said he didn’t have enough cash to go grocery shopping till tomorrow (yet somehow had enough cash to get some pot ten minutes earlier) and wondered if he could have some of my dinner left-overs.

What is your answer?  What do you do?  What, if at all, are you convicted to do once you ask God?