No Fixed Abode

I got back late last night from my trip to the Saxony region, Germany. God answered prayer through His very generous people for me to make it there, especially as it didn’t look like I’ll make it until just a couple of days before it started.

The 24-7prayer International Leaders Gathering in Dresden was full of lots of exciting people including many friends, old and new. The schedule was also pretty packed but there was still time to hang out in bars with friends, have a nosey down into the old town with all its slendid but dark buildings, and even enjoy some very tasty German kebabs. Most of the weekedn every had a slightly shell shocked expression of tiredness, excitement and from being overwhelmed by the way every conversation seeemed to include a new person, from yet another differnet country, happy to be your friend. Fighting for title of most fun of the weekend are the worship sessions and the end of gathering party down a local bar that the local 24-7community had hired out.

After that late night on the Sunday we got up very early on monday morning and left our hostel to make the adventurous pilgrimage out to Herrnhut. Having tagged along with a prayer guy from the Netherlands we were unexpectedly offered a lift from the station to the village of Herrnhut, some 11km away, by a local family who were expecting the dutch guy but not two extra random tag along travellers from Manchester. And then on arrival to the quaint little village we were offered free accomodation. One of the local churches had got hold of an old hospital and were turning it into a prayer house and missions training centre, there was a spare guest room that they just assumed we would be using. The unhesitant and unrequested hospitality was absolutely fantastic and very challenging. They went even further by giving us the only key to the prayer tower by the local Moravian cemetary, called God’s Acre, and also by making sure we knew how to get into the chapel in nearby Berthelsdorf, where revival had fallen upon the local and very prayerful congregation some 300years ago*. And then even further by inviting us for dinner and also breakfast, the latter we were able to turn down - not wanting to be a burden.

After a day walking around the local villages etc we had one of the best night’s sleep that I have had in a long long time. In the morning, after another trip to a german bakery, we met up with Noel and Barbara Bell. South African born but living in Australia for last 50 years these great-godparents of the modern prayer movement, pushing the age of 80, had a great memory for names of people involved with significant prayer moves around the whole planet. We met them over dinner on the previous evening as we listened to their exciting stories. They were kind enough to share some time with us in prayer and gave us encouraging and challenging words from God.

And then began the trek back to Manchester. Arriving back to a wet and windy city, we are excited and inspired about prayer again; ready to be available and make the opportunities for God to move. Hoping that we can see this city praying continuously. “Living as if it all depends on them, praying as if it all depends on God”!

(*Count Zinzendorf welcomed Moravian refugees onto his estate. This community then, under encouragement from Zinzendorf, prayed 24-7 for 100 years! The move of God that followed impacted the entire globe. Missionaries who were sent out fomr this community included John Wesley, founder of the Methodist Church, and others who helped see in the Reformation)