Tomorrow, on 24/7, a group of 18 of us will begin an 8-day tour of five places in Finland, with another team member meeting us in Tampere, our first stop. It seems crazy that it's starting tomorrow - it's been on my list of things coming up for nearly a year now. I'm really excited about the tour - we have an amazing group of people, and the tour is focused on prophetic worship and intercession, which i'm pretty passionate about. It's such a privilege to be part of this tour and to be part of what God is doing here.
Your prayers for the tour would be more than welcome, as we will be leading a number of gatherings and the logistics of moving 19 people around Finland, feeding them and giving them a place to stay are not simple!
We have a blog for the tour - http://burntourfinland.blogspot.com/ and it'll probably have a mixture of Finnish and English posts.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
The epic roadtrip
It's now a few weeks since we returned from our Eastern European journey. The trip was truly amazing - so many sights, sounds, experiences and encounters. I thought I'd just share a few thoughts and stories from the trip.
On the very first day of the trip in Tartu, Estonia, we spent a couple of hours worshiping and praying with some local Christians. At some point we began praying for the city and the nation, and then it suddenly hit me that we'd have to opportunity to do that in every place we would visit. I felt so privileged. And throughout the trip we worshiped and prayed in so many places, including while in the van on the road.
One of my favourite stories was from Kaunas, Lithuania. We were singing and worshiping together in a park, and a lady and her son (called Tomas) came and listened. The lady asked if they could stay and listen, as Tomas (who was blind) loved music. So we continued worshiping, and ended up praying for Tomas and his mum. Then we asked if Tomas would like to play my guitar. So I formed the chord shapes, and Tomas strummed the guitar, and he was so happy. After a while, Tomas began to sing as he played the guitar. It was a truly beautiful moment.
We met so many amazing people on the trip. Despite not sharing a common language with many of them, we were really able to connect with them. This included a group of older people in Hungary at the place we stayed, and kids at a pre-school run for Roma children in Skopje, Macedonia. And at the Balkans Connect gathering in Ohrid, we met loads of people with such similar hearts to ours. It was awesome to stand with them in praying for their nations and for the Balkans region.
Perhaps the best part for me was the community traveling together. It was so great to travel with such an amazing group of people. We spent lots of time praying together (whether for each other or the places we visited) and worshiping together (including ukulele worship in Toivo - our van). And of course we ate together, spent hours and hours in the van together, and went through the odd stressful moment getting lost. It was an intense time, but really good, learning to love each other even when we see each other's weaknesses.
I really loved Eastern Europe, and I hope I'll be back there again soon.
On the very first day of the trip in Tartu, Estonia, we spent a couple of hours worshiping and praying with some local Christians. At some point we began praying for the city and the nation, and then it suddenly hit me that we'd have to opportunity to do that in every place we would visit. I felt so privileged. And throughout the trip we worshiped and prayed in so many places, including while in the van on the road.
One of my favourite stories was from Kaunas, Lithuania. We were singing and worshiping together in a park, and a lady and her son (called Tomas) came and listened. The lady asked if they could stay and listen, as Tomas (who was blind) loved music. So we continued worshiping, and ended up praying for Tomas and his mum. Then we asked if Tomas would like to play my guitar. So I formed the chord shapes, and Tomas strummed the guitar, and he was so happy. After a while, Tomas began to sing as he played the guitar. It was a truly beautiful moment.
We met so many amazing people on the trip. Despite not sharing a common language with many of them, we were really able to connect with them. This included a group of older people in Hungary at the place we stayed, and kids at a pre-school run for Roma children in Skopje, Macedonia. And at the Balkans Connect gathering in Ohrid, we met loads of people with such similar hearts to ours. It was awesome to stand with them in praying for their nations and for the Balkans region.
Perhaps the best part for me was the community traveling together. It was so great to travel with such an amazing group of people. We spent lots of time praying together (whether for each other or the places we visited) and worshiping together (including ukulele worship in Toivo - our van). And of course we ate together, spent hours and hours in the van together, and went through the odd stressful moment getting lost. It was an intense time, but really good, learning to love each other even when we see each other's weaknesses.
I really loved Eastern Europe, and I hope I'll be back there again soon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)