After our time in Africa, the thought of a 24hour prayer and
worship service kind of worried me a bit. Flashbacks of shouting, knocking people over, “deliverance,” and pouring
anointing oil down the throats of the pregnant kept me from being too excited about
coming, but it turns out that working with a movement of worship and prayer can
be a tremendous blessing.
Not
to be confused with the drink of the same name… “store in a cool place, consume
in a dark place.”
The goal of Burn is to create a self-sustaining 24 hour, 7
days a week, “platform of worship” across the nations. “Burns,” as they are
called, are broken into 2hour slots where worship teams or individuals come and
sing praises, while the people in attendance pray, paint, dance, sing along, or
whatever God has put on their hearts to do in worship.
Our ladies during their set… The angels were
singing.
Because the Berlin chapter is relatively new, they currently
only have one 24hour session every weekend, which allowed us the opportunity to
take our worship to the streets the rest of the week. The afternoon we arrived we were taken to a
park in the heart of Berlin, where a burn session was taking place. Between the two of our teams (Judah and RC),
we have quite the crew of musicians, singers, and songwriters. Throughout the week we were able to do
“worship sets” in parks, at a coffee shop, walking downtown streets, at a new YWAM
base, at the house, in our contact’s flat, at a church, and during the 24 hour
burn session. Because I do not fall into
any of the above categories of musically inclined people, during our sets I was
able to talk to people in the parks about Jesus, pray with the people I met,
intercede on behalf of my team and others, prayer walk, read Scripture, swing
on the giant swings in the park, and hand out cups of Apple Soda to the addicts
in the park that might have been thirsty.
Jordan McGuffin and Alana Serna, playing for Jesus in front of a
remaining portion of the Berlin Wall.
Probably my favorite thing about our time here in Berlin has
been the prayer room in the basement of Lindenhof (well, and the Doner Kebab I
got from a street vendor). I think for
the first time in my life, I have been able to get away from absolutely
everything that could distract me, light some candles and just pray. What a joy it has been to feel a burden for
the people I have prayed for and to trust that the God of the Universe is
listening to my prayers and working them according to His good pleasure.
The
Doner Kebab… The picture just doesn’t do
this thing justice. I got mine with chili sauce and cheese.
The
enormous swings at the park are not for children.
For those of you who haven’t caught a glimpse of “Lucy” in a while…
Standing in front of the future House of Burn, maybe?
The
Brandenburg Gate in Pariser Platz…The French are always getting hosed.
All
those years of baseball practice for this? Okay, so I didn’t spend all of my
time “being spiritual,” I spent some of it completely frustrated that I can’t
hit anymore.
