A short glimpse of Fire Fly

Here is a very short video that I have made of the english band Fire Fly at Rock on the Rock (I). It isn't that long cause the digital camera wouldn't let me :) But you get an idea.

That's a new song that will someday be on the new CD.

The wisdom of Bob

As I told you before I was excited of the seminar of Pastor Bob Beeman on Freakstock .

I love this guy for a long time now. Back in the 80ies and 90ies almost every White Metal CD had a letter written by him advising the listener to buy this CD. Not only because of the superb music but also because of the (spiritual) content. The letters were very similiar and always ended with "...as the pastor of Sanctuary I'm here to pray for you".

But now to the seminar. Bob has pioneered many christian version of musicstyles and founding churches in those cultures i.e. the metalchurches Sanctuary.

He has noticed that we Christians often are afraid of getting dirty. So we found subcultures. But Jesus was different. He was not afraid of getting dirty and unclean. He did not take us out of the world. No, he prayed to the father to protect us cause he would send us into the world.

In the Old Testament the highpriest was only able to go once in a year into the holy of holies with danger of life. But today Jesus lives in us. Regardless of how much dirt or sin we have the holy of holies, the living well dwells in us! We are the temple! Wow!

We are always looking for something new because we are perhaps bored with what we have. We tell the people that Jesus will set them free. But they will look back to us with raised eyebrows wondering "And how about you?" Jesus so many times says that he will set us free. He always repeats himself like going in circles.
"Whom the Son sets free is free indeed" and "For Freedom Christ has freed us". Like he really wants to emphasize it. When Jesus said this (he was serious about it) it has to be possible!

Paul prays that the eyes of our hearts may be openend. Our hope is not based on something in this world but on eternity. Therefor we have to discern the eternal that it might come into our hearts.

But how will the eternal only come into our hearts? Very simple: We cannot do it! And God knows this. Jesus went to the cross because it's impossible. He came therefor that we long for the things of the spirit and not for the things of the world.

Bob knows a lot of subcultures mostly coming out of darkness. The Gothics have experienced much pain and darkness. They have a way to express it in there culture and music. What can really be beautiful. Only the problem is that many search the darkness. Even christians do it sometimes. They ask themselves "How much darkness can I bear and still be christian? How close can I dance on the edge without falling over it?"

But we should ask the question how close can I come to Jesus, how nigh can I come to him, how much can I be like Jesus, how can eternity come into my heart.

It is not attractive for many to go for holiness especially the nonchristians. But what's the meaning of sanctification? Seeking God. Bob said this might be different for everyone of us. Very early God told him (he is now christian for 49 years) not to drink any alcohol (he only drunk alcohol twice in his life - everytime it was communion) and that he should have no wife (and earlier he told us about his many girlfriends - the first with 7 for three wekks :)) That he told us very relaxed like it was very normal.

The best was that he was beaming love, you really believed what he said cause he lived it.

Another thing touched me deeply. He was very honest. He had many hostilities out of the "normal" church who was fighting against him. He was filled with bitterness because of that. Once he was praying about it. And Jesus said to him: "Yes, she is a bitch. But she still is my wife!" That healed him. No matter how many mistakes they church will make, no matter how much sin there is, God is faithful to his church, cause it is his bride, his wife. Heavy! I have to hear this also when complaining about church and being desperate about it (and overseeing my own sin). Ooops!

Really a great man of God. Unfortunately I had no chance to talk to him.

© Foto von Emmanuel

M:M // My prayer team

Yesterday I got an email from our prayer leader for the event in mongolia Chungchi. He send me some fotos from our team. So I want to share it with you. Ohh, it was such a wonderful team :)

Rightmost is Keith, my prayer partner. Next to me his wife Dagmar. In the 2nd row you will find Chungchi and Sarah the co-leader.

Freakstock 2006 // We are... relaxed

My 10th Freakstock is lying now behind me. To answer the question how it was for me this year I have to go back in the past. The last years freakstock has been very disappointing too me. It always had been nice too though cause God is sovereign and has done some mighty things although. But that were things that were independent from freakstock. I often asked myself why I was going there again.

Last year I had the impression that on freakstock the freaks should be set free to go into the nations to reach the freaks there and that freakstock itself should multiply itself into the nations. And I was disappointed cause it did not happen.

I was reconciled a little when I saw that everyone was all of a sudden talking about Jesus Freaks Japan, as we were getting really International (Jesus Freaks Holland and Czechia), everything is translated into English on events now. We even have a full version in English of our magazine (The Sick Messsenger). I realize with this that certain things need their time to grow. As a prophetic man I can see things others are not able to see for a long time. And I have to learn to wait...

Having this in mind I went to freakstock. I arrived there and everything looked pretty cool. But it felt like something was completely wrong deep inside. There were some things that were strange: The setup was very chaotic and one day behind, the staff service was exclusively only for people with a staff ribbon (though there were many other freaks on the ground who served all the rest by i.e. making pizza), for the first time there were less visitors than the year before (about 5,500), the weather went crazy. At the first place there was not much room for the main seminar. I asked myself what is really in center?

Luckily this impression did not remain for the rest of the festival. I had a nice talk to someone of the prayer team. She was watching the JF movement for a while too. For her the shell of the freaks was crumbling, something was breaking up. And that would not look nice at all. But inside something beautiful was spouting. And that changed my vision. I always thought that everything would break down with nothing inside. That gave me hope and encouraged me to wait once again. Though it will be difficult and wearisome.

What have I done this year? It was very heavy this year. I had an exhibition on KunstRasen (the art tent of the festival), then there was a videopresentation of some of my videos and finally I joined again the prayer team. That was a lot of stress before hand.
However the prayer team was great. It was very relaxed though we rocked a lot. We met twice a day. The prayer times were really intense. That was really fun to pray with the others. The benefit of such meetings is that you yourself get prayer and cool impressions. And so it was this time again :)

During the main seminar I had some nice and special impressions for people. Some really fittet like an arrow directly into the target. Wow!

The main seminars were really great. The worship was full of passion and fire (especially with Obadja and Jesusburger). This year everything from the stage was translated into English. It felt a little weird but really was a step in the right direction moving more towards International.

The sermons mainly were about standing up and to go forward. Not letting the others do the stuff, only to pray for certain things that someone would care about things, help poor people, homeless ones etc but do it for yourselve and join in. Jesus came for the weak and the sick to serve and save them. But not that they would stay weak and broken but for their healing and to set them free.
During the last message of David Pierce it felt like birth pains and I had a heavy prayer burden to pray it through what David wanted to happen...

Freakstock always had been international but this year it jumped a great step forward. Many friends from different countries were invited to help shape the festival. The announcements were always mad by them, the JFI Tent was arranged this year by the Jesus Freaks Holland. So this year it was really the Jesus Freaks International tent. And it really was very stylish!

But the cherry on the cake was the international roundtable of emerging and underground churches. That never happened before. People from around 40 nations were there. I so much liked to be part of it. Unfortunately most of the time they were for themselves. You hardly saw them anywhere else. I would have liked to get to know some of them. I could not really talk to even Denny & Maureen (Rock on the Rock) who had been part of the roundtable.

Yet there was some good result. People from the roundtable were giving seminars in the JFI tent. On the first day I saw Andrew Jones though I really wanted to see Bob Beeman. Andrew said something about the history of mission in the last century. Many ideas and impulses came from Germany. On the next day there finally was Bob Beeman. I always liked him. In the 80ies he founded the Metal Church Sanctuary and supervised many White Metal bands. Wow, he really had something to say! But the best was everything he said beamed out of his body. He was beaming love and Jesus. Such a love. So cool! Perhaps I am doing an extra post about what he said...

All in all it has been very cool to have been at freakstock. It was so nice that the main seminar had in the end more room. Jesusburger had all the freedom to play and do what they liked and how long they wanted. I had some nice talks (though I was not able to talk with as many I wanted to talk with). Let's see how freakstock is developing. There's a lot of prayer needed for this - that's for sure. For the ones who have to find out the new directions.

Shortly before we went home on sunday evening I met a guy from Brazil. I sat in the saloon tent and was waiting for my people. I told him from my wish to visit the Zadoque churches and that it never happened. He invited me to stay at his home. Perhaps something will come out of this...

What I missed last year I finally could see this year: Violet Burning. I really like this band. I first saw them years ago at the Flevo Totaal Festival way back in 92. I was very impressed with their gig. They were praying all the time. Michael Pritzl the singer alsways focused us on the lord. The last song the played is very famous among jesus freaks because we sing it often during worship: Clean. Great!

© Pictures by Haso
© Photo of Violet Burning by Emmanuel

English Website of The Sick Messenger online!

Hello folks,
finally it is finished: The English version of the Website for our Jesus Freaks magazine Der Kranke Bote (The Sick Messenger). Here you will find the 2nd full version of the magazine to download now for free.

click

Get in contact with us. We need you and your input. You english speaking people from the nations shall be represented in it too. So we look forward for your articles, cartoons, translations etc.

See you!