Out of Prague.

One week in Prague was enough. I have such mixed feelings about that city. Parts of it are so beautiful, so surreal, a fairytale city. Other parts are neglected and dirty, coming out of the train station in theses places is like stepping back into communist Prague. The scars of communism are far from healed in this place; they are all over this city still. Even in the beautiful parts , you can still feel it. I feel like the city is so fake, they make the wall and structures look beautiful, but they’ve neglected the hearts. This city restores architecture, but not hearts; they’re trying to make the hurt go away on their own, not realizing that the only way the city will ever really be changed is with Jesus. It is so obvious looking into they eyes of the people, no one is investing and encouraging them; there is no hope, but this is why there is no hope: there is no Jesus (obviously Jesus is in Prague, but this is something different). In the States (and most western countries) people have heard the gospel, they know of the Cross, they’ve been told the Story. Wether or not they choose Him is another story, but at least they have the option. Here in Prague, most people haven’t ever heard, they have no idea who this God really is, this God that desires them, pursues them, romances them. Because of communism most people under fifty haven’t really even heard about this good, loving God and His Son. People haven’t really shared the gospel; they haven’t sown seeds of hope. When you look into eyes, you see that there is no hope waiting to be grown.
In the middle of the night during our burn (twenty-four hours of worship and prayer) a few people on my team were talking about this, and it really hit me: people have never heard. Over and over again I could hear the Lord say, “They’ve never heard. They’ve never heard. They’ve never heard.” I realized that I don’t care about seeing healings, I don’t care about getting words of knowledge, I don’t care about outreach stories. I just want them to hear. I want to share the greatest love I will ever know, I want to plant seeds, I want to give hope. I want to share Jesus.


I'm going a little out of order, but I will be posting more on Prague, Berlin, and Herrnhut soon.

spilling berlin

I've been in Berlin for six days already, and it makes my mind race. The atmosphere here is way lighter than I expected; I definitely feel more free here, and much more at home and welcome. The people seem much more laid back and friendly here than in Amsterdam, but the one thing I've noticed the most in this city is the intense spirits of creativity and expression, it's been impacting me so much, my mind can't stop racing! Creativity is written all over the people here, you can see it in their eyes.

The first night here, we were participating in a Burn(24 hours of prayer and worship), and I was so overstimulated and overwhelmed, I spilled all my thoughts of Germany into my trusted little DTS notebook, and here's what came out (I'm copying this verbatim, so please excuse any grammatical errors, it all came out so fast...)

" Into Berlin. I am so completely overwhelmed here. I instantly loved everything about this place. I can really say that I haven't seen anything I don't like about this place. The only part of our trip that I didn't love was the first leg of our train ride, which was still in the Netherlands. The train nito Berlin was probably one of the best traveling experiences I've ever had. Really. Smooth ride, spacious, first class, beautiful. I was so overwhelmed by the scenery. I love springtime delicates. I love delicate little springtime flowers, tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, crocuses, magnolias, lilacs, dogwoods and those flowering bushes that set the landscape ablaze with yellow to match an egg yolk. I love the softness of springtime. I love little new green leaves, the bright green ones that are young. They're just so green being full of new life, and they're all soft and thin so the sunlight shines through tem adding so much depth to the tree.

Getting off in Berlin was so amazing. The station (and what I've seen of the city) was so light and clean, in the natural and the spiritual. (oh, on the way in there was so much excellent rubble, beautiful abandoned buildings and crazy graffiti).

Chuck's (our contact here) house is unreal, an old hotel turned community home. I want to be connected with this home/ministry for quite some time. Something about this place is just so beautiful to me. It's so open and welcoming, I feel like Germans don't hate Americans, the two cultures seem very similar to me, but Germans are just cooler. I just really love it here.

I'll say it again, I am so overstimulated here; my mind was going wild on the way here (the Burn). I am really fascinated by the lights, the sounds, the colors, the patterns, the movements, the contrast, and the vividness of everything (because of how clean it is.) Transportation is DreamWorld. It's excessively colorful and polished, the artificial light does something strange to everything, it just seems very surreal, or filmed, or dreamt. The movement on the U Bahn and the S Bahn is odd too, but in a really good way. It's like many separate pieces that move around each other, rhythmically, but not fluidly. It's not a smooth movement, but it's so fascinating and mesmerizing. This is DreamWorld.

We're at the Burn now, and I just can't take it all in. Jackie captured it best, I think, in her little shaking fit of joy saying, "Capuccino! Milk! Blueberry cobbler! Art! Music! Friends! Ahhh!" The atmosphere here is so right, I feel at home instantly, and I'm sure it's because our DNA is so similar. I feel welcome here and I feel free here. Things just flow here. This place will be bringing some change and breakthrough for me. It is going to be a healthy environment to be in; it's one of those places that creates means to go deeper, and it fuels the hunger because it's Christ-centered and free of striving. So beautiful. Jesus, let's do this. I love you. I'm ready for change."