PAUSE is our prayer space which we run for a week at a time in Wokingham Secondary Schools.

Following a talk at my church I was approached by an ex-teacher who felt moved by what was shared and although she’d never been involved with Soulscape before wanted to join our team. We got the ball rolling and the rota confirmed. 

During one of the sessions, she noticed a student at our Remembering zone; where we reflect on the importance to remember our friends and family that have died or things we have had to say goodbye to. It says to take a token and drop it into the water. As you do, think about some of your favourite times. We suggest they might want to say thank you to God for their time together. 

Instead of dropping the token into the water, the student took a few steps back and threw the token into the water. Our volunteer could have taken on a more teacher like role and told him off for not doing what was asked! Instead, she went to stand alongside the student and asked why he was using the token in that manner. He replied, ‘when my stepdad was ill, we knew he was not going to be around much longer. He said whenever I feel sad or think of him, I should try to have fun and I think he’d find this way more fun’. 

Young people engage with prayer activities in different ways and surprise us all the time! PAUSE gave this young person space to express how he was feeling and gave him a space to talk to someone about it.