Love Our Schools.. Pray for our schools

Love Our Schools is an initiative of Pray For Schools. FCG has been an active and passionate supporter of Pray for Schools for many years, as well as being members of their steering group.

We are pleased to share with you: Love Our Schools. This will take place from 2nd to 16th February 2020 and there are lots of ways in which your church and community groups can get involved.

Here is an extract from their website:

“All through the year hundreds of prayer groups meet together to pray because they want to support their local schools. As we look forward to the new hope that springtime brings, we thought it’d be great to encourage Christians up and down the country to join together to ‘Love our schools!’ “

Here’s a prayer from the resources shared in 2019, written by Lisa Jones, Scripture Union’s representative on the Pray for Schools Steering Group.

Thank you Father for our schools. We praise You Lord, for You are full of love, peace and hope. Please help us to be people of good news sharing your love, peace and hope into schools. Please help us to build good relationships with everyone. Please help us to be peace makers when there is tension and stress. Please help us to bring hope when there is despair and dejection. Please help us inspire others to be joyful when there is much to celebrate. Please help us demonstrate your love.

Amen

Why not get the dates in your diary now? Check out the website for the resources for 2020 in late January.

(photo courtesy of Karly Santiago at Unsplash)

What a year! Festive, the Christian charity working in further education

Over the last few years, FCG has collaborated with Festive who support Christian faith and witness in the UK's Further Education (FE) Colleges & Sixth Forms. FCG work alongside other key partners (pictured below) to support Festive’s work.

They have had some amazing achievements in the last year - you can read all about it, check out some of the students’ testimonials and find out more about their work HERE.

You can check out some of the prayers, resources and materials the FCG has developed to support churches link with further education in their communities.

Join with us as we continue to pray for the work of Festive, for the courage and Christian witness of the students and for the Christian Unions in our colleges.

(photo courtesy of Pablo Heimplatz, Unsplash)

Pray with us at the start of this new term

Pray with us at the start of this new term…

Loving Lord,

We think of the children and young people close to our hearts and know that they are precious in your sight, fearfully and wonderfully made; and so we place them into your hands today. Strengthen and nurture them. Be with them in their coming in and going out, at home, at school, at college, at university, In their sports, activities and clubs, their friendships and their quiet times.

Mould them in your image, forming and reforming, through the positive influence of those whose lives cross theirs, through the love and example of those who care for them, and through the constant love of your Son, Jesus, who walks alongside them each step of their lives, known or unknown. Amen

(prayer shared from the Education Sunday resources from 2019)

(photo courtesy of Milada Vigerova at Unsplash)

As students go off to university for a new term, pray with us...

To help you to pray for students from your churches as they head off to begin a new term in 2020, and to support your church, your young people and family in this time of transition… The FCG Free Church Education Committee launched a range of flyers last autumn that can support you all. Feel free to download, print and share…

• Branching Out - supporting young people who are going to university

• Keeping in Touch - supporting young people who are at university

• Making a Difference - supporting university students in your community

• Home from Home - supporting university students in your church

Join with us as we pray…

Merciful God, we pray for all those on university courses for degrees and vocational programmes. We know this is a time of great change, so we humbly ask that you uphold and guide the students at this time of transition.

Living God, we pray for the parents, carers and church families who are waving off their church / family members who are embarking on university courses. Give the parents, carers and our churches the courage to be brave about this change in their family and church community, as they see their loved ones go on to a new phase in life. Amen

(photo courtesy of Sincerely Media at Unsplash)

Did you get a new diary for Christmas? Here's some dates for 2020 for you!

Ah, the joy of starting a new diary for the new year! There is often a feeling of so much to look forward to at the start of the new year…. We have some key dates to share with you, to help you to be part of the educational year ahead through prayer and Christian engagement in 2020.

2nd - 16th February - Love Our Schools. As we look forward to the new hope that springtime brings, we thought it’d be great to encourage Christians up and down the country to join together to ‘Love our schools!’

16th February - Student Sunday - Join students and churches around the world in February each year to mark the Universal Day of Prayer for Students (UDPS) or 'Student Sunday'. The Universal Day of Prayer for Students (UDPS) is coordinated by the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF), and has been celebrated since 1898, making it one of the oldest ecumenical days of prayer.

10th - 24th May - Pray for Schools Fortnight - The vision of Pray for Schools fortnight is to bring together people from local churches and others involved in education – parents, students, teachers, governors, staff and volunteers – to pray strategically for schools in their area and those involved in them.

13th September - Education Sunday - theme to be agreed. For well over a hundred years there has been an annual recognition of Education Sunday in England and Wales. It is a national day of prayer and celebration for everyone in the world of education.

17th November - Pray Day for Schools - Pray Day is the third Tuesday of November every year when schools across Europe and around the world are the focus of prayer.

Here’s to a happy new year of prayer and community work in our churches, schools, colleges and universities. You can download free resources which the FCG has developed to help you in this work.

(photo courtesy of Essential Living at Unsplash)