The name sounds holy enough. Can you imagine kids doing prayer, that quiet thing you do with some dude called God, for 48 hours? I mean, some teens are keen on Jesus, but is it possible to find some willing enough to be part of a prayer room when they’re usually found at the local McDonald's eating each other's food? Well, the answer is a resounding "heck yes"! To some people’s surprise, the idea of a 48 Hour Prayer room available for the typical teen has become a highlight event in my youth group - Blueprint. You’ll find it filled with emotion, iPods, Red Bull and and a whole bunch of sugar. Oh and Jesus. LOTS of Jesus.

The idea of hanging out with friends from church for as long as your parents will allow is exciting enough. But throw some couches, a camera, no sleep, the world’s best fast food chain and super saver specials from the local convenience store into the mix and you can never be too keen. Most of the people turning up were a little apprehensive at first. The idea of praying for any more than a few minutes seemed almost impossible. But what so many of us young ones came to realise, is that the more you do it, the easier it gets. A conversation with God is like any other. Except you just don’t lie. Through these 48 hours, a lot of people encountered a lot of Jesus. Pieces of paper with endless prayer lists and visions, Bibles with verse after verse highlighted,  journals with entries of revelation, and of course the paper on the walls around the room filled with endless scribbles of encouragement and prayer, was reason enough to prove that Blueprint’s got something going on. And this something is mean good.

Of course we weren’t all constantly praying for the whole 48 Hours. God made the Foodtown convenience store for a reason. We just made sure there was always at least one person in the prayer room, which at first was a little hard (some of us figured, "who needs to pray when you’ve got boys?"), but after a fair few God Squads, the whole Jesus thing became cool. Too cool for school even (no really, it did. Persecution is a pain). "God Squad? What's that?", you may ask. It’s when a whole group of us would go in the room and talk. Not like chatty-chat-chat style, but discuss. School. Family. Anything that we were going through. And the most amazing thing from this, was that we all learnt that we weren’t alone in our deeply emotional, yet slightly hormonal and possibly pubescent struggles. The fellowship we all had during those times was awesome. We became such a community. Each person sharing their story. Every other person giving support. Oh yeah. We’re God Squad, alright.

To give you an adequate description of our 48 Hours of prayer is hard. A lot can happen to a lot of people in the space of two days. People came out of the experiences with their lives changed and a definite sense of spiritual maturity. I want to leave you with one thought that, for me, sums up our time of prayer. At the beginning of the 48 hours, the sight of someone in tears would be deeply worrying. You’d find yourself rushing over, hugging praying, and handing out tissues. But by the last few hours of it all, tears and emotional breakdowns made by the renewal of Jesus in our hearts would become the norm. And instead of holding their hand while trying to make sense of the sobs, you just offer a sympathetic smile, pass the tissues and realise God’s in this place. FA REAL.