24 Stories of Prayer: #1 - Drunken Strangers & Street Fights in Switzerland

Published: April 29th, 2008

What great strategy did Jesus give us to take His world by storm?  Susanna Rychiger and the 24-7 Community in Thun learn the daily challenges of living out a simple command to love your neighbour…

"You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand. Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.”
(Matthew 5:14-16, The Message)

How do you choose where to live? For some people it’s all about the house – whether the rooms are big or the garden’s pretty. For some people it’s all about the bank account – where they can afford to be. For Susanna and the girls in the 24-7 community in Thun, Switzerland it’s all about the neighbours.

The neighbours in question are a music bar and a homeless shelter, because the ‘No Limitz’ community and discipleship house is situated in Thun’s nightlife district. When you talk to community leader Susanna, you quickly realize that she didn’t take the house on because it had a nice garden or anything like that. She took it on so that there would be prayer right in the heart of that neighbourhood.

“I just moved in with the heart to disciple young people, have a house where we could pray and party and learn to live in community again. My dream is that the young people will learn to share their lives, not only within the house but also outside; that they will serve the poor and build relationships with the people that go to the local bars etc.”

24-7CH (24-7 Prayer in Switzerland) had its first prayer room in April 2000, the first country outside the UK to do a week of 24-7 prayer. 8 years on, with over 2 years of non-stop prayer behind them, and they’ll tell you it’s not an easy country to pray in. Lots of people are wealthy and comfortable. Lots of people don’t have that hunger for God which draws them to their knees. Yet, in spite of its image, Switzerland does have its desperate places, and Susanna and her community have planted themselves in one of those dark corners.

“If God only used our community to change one thing, we’d want it to be that the young generation would be reached and could learn to live again – have a good party and not destroy themselves. We want to make a difference!”

So how do these dedicated women make that difference? Surely there must be outreach programmes, evangelistic activities and social action initiatives? Well no, apparently not. They just live there and they pray there. No complicated formula; no new strategy; just a rhythm of prayer.

“As a community we have one early morning prayer time– Swiss-crazy 6-7am – and two evening prayer times. Then we have one evening which everybody has to attend, and sometimes that will be a prayer meeting as well.”

They really are a living example of what Jesus meant when he challenged his followers to ‘be’ the light of the world. They don’t do light, they don’t manufacture light … they are light. They are who they are, they live where they live, they pray whatever God gives them to pray, and he shines through them.

“The word of prophecy that always sticks out is that this is a house of light! It will attract people because of the godly light, and that has already happened. Some drunken people rang the doorbell in the middle of the night, and we invited them in. We are still at the very beginning, but we are dreaming that this will happen more and more.”

In many ways, the No Limitz house embodies some of the earliest lessons God ever taught us in 24-7 Prayer. Once we’d all started enjoying the richness and wonder of being soaked in God’s presence in a prayer room, he started to make us uncomfortable again by telling us we had to go out there and be the answer to our own prayers. For the No Limitz girls, their simple prayer life isn’t a comfortable option. When you’re shining out light, you can’t hide away and stay safe. You have to welcome the people that get drawn to you, no matter who they are.

“The one recurring theme for us is that we don’t live for ourselves. This place in itself forces you to think about your life and what you do with the things God gives you. To live in a place like this helps us to see the need in our city and in our nation. It is great when the drunk people wake us up during the night, because then we remember what our call is.”

Perhaps the very simplicity of this lesson is what makes it so difficult for us to learn. We can hardly believe that just by being somewhere and praying there we could actually make a difference. We can hardly believe that our feeble human prayers could be all the fuel God needs to turn us into a blazing light that brings hope to a community. We haven’t really grasped the awesome truth that God lives in us, because we are more aware of our weaknesses than of his love and power.

Susanna and her community have started to learn what it means to be God’s own living space. They know they’re vulnerable – a house full of women in a rough part of town – but they know what it means to be walking, living, breathing temples of the Holy Spirit and citizens of God’s Kingdom.

“The other thing that always comes back to us is that we reign with him. We don’t have to be afraid, even if there are fights in the street, because we reign! God is above everything!”

If there’s any formula to be learnt from the Thun community it’s this: that when you choose to move yourself and your prayers into a place, you take with you the presence of the living God, and that presence brings the poor, the broken and the forgotten to your door. If that door is open, then transformation can begin.
 

Lyndall Bywater lives in a community in the historical city of Canterbury, England.  The Bywater family is made up of her husband Phil, Hugo (the black lab guide dog) and Oscar (a black cat with attitude!). Phil is an accountant and spends his time auditing other people's accounts, while Lyndall works for the Salvation Army and spends her time persuading people to pray. (We leave it up to you to decide which is the easier job!) Lyndall has been a great friend and champion of 24-7 Prayer and now serves on an International Team resourcing and championing prayer within the movement.

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