Syria: Learning and Prayer Stations

Given the tragic news stories of ongoing war and of 40,000 civilians who are trapped in Aleppo, I decided to re-share a prayer and learning activity I created for a multi-church youth event last February. In this activity, each participant follows a path, learning about the crisis, viewing striking images, stopping to pray, and leaving the paper symbols at different stations as a visible reminder of the enormous number of lives that have been affected. I pray that it might help your group begin to understand the unfathomable scope of this tragedy.

This attachment includes the text for the prayer and learning stations, as well as the paper symbols. It could be used at a youth group, during coffee hour, as a drop-in activity at church, or in just about any size group. The attachment is free to be printed, modified and used for youth or adult ministries (I’ll admit it is not my prettiest work, but it is functional). I have updated a couple of the numbers and added links to several of the sources.

You will need:

Station instructions -download and adapt these as needed

Painters tape or other means of making a walking path

Speaker playing sounds of bombing (optional)

Scissors

Maps

Photographs or digital images of the Syrian crisis – as many as you can

A small box and candle

Paper and crayons for the prayer for children

People symbol printouts for each participant

Organizations that came to our event last February:

UMC Northern Illinois Conference Bishop’s Statement