12 August 2005

Herrnhut & Rainbow Family


I´m in Herrnhut now trying to look back and reload what God has been showing me this past months...I came to do that here, I needed some rest after 3 weeks in the mountains at the "Rainbow gathering" and one week at "Freakstock Festival"...I was suppose to come here with a Ywam team from Freakstock, but somehow I lost them and they came without me...I had the feeling God had something stored behind that
:-)...He did :-)I end up coming with some of my "rainbow family": Yuri, Mathias, Nicola,Anna&Jonatas,Kameal(Glorious Undead-London) and Emma(from "Speak"-she met me on her way back from the palestine...she volunteer to drive a truck together with 3 other men bringing Fair Trade Olive oil...isn´t she a warrior or what?!!)...oh, and Amelie of course, that´s Yuri´s dog...so, we all came to Herrnhut in Yuri´s van...I was going to stay and they would all go to a small "Rainbow gathering" in north Czech...we arrived in the night and I didn´t even had the address...silly me I know...I only knew it was an old hospital some christians were restoring to make prayer rooms and so...I e.mail them one month before telling that me and a friend would stay for a week...now it was me and some few more friends...Oh God help us !!!
Thank God we found out where it was after asking few locals in the street...
we were so well welcomed by this small sweet lady named Maren Winter...she was like a precious angle for us...we woke her up (it was 10pm already) and she came down with her tiny sleepy eyes to welcome us...I was sorry for her actually...she had wonderful guest rooms waiting for us...with beds, a kitchen we could use, hot shower, clean towels and even chocolatte bars..can you believe that ?! it was like a 5 star hotel after rainbow and freakstock..eh, eh,:-)
I just found out today this is what they call the "prayer house"...lovely place...
What a blessing..the others end up staying till tuesday morning...on monday Maren went on a "spiritual tour" with us in Herrnhut telling us all about Zinzendorf and the moravian community...

That was so cool for us, after speaking so much about building up communities centred in Christ and so...suddenly God takes us to a whole village that was built around Christ...Cool!!! Very inspiring and encouraging...
We had nice times praying and worshiping too...
I moved to the Hospital after they left, because new guests would come...Emma decided to go with them so I stayed by myself...I think God wanted me for Himself too, after so much time around people...I needed that solitude too...
the Hospital is Huge, is just in front of the "prayer house" and it still has a lot to recover...but it has already few guest rooms, where I´m staying now...I have a kitchen there too...God is spoiling me sooooo much during this trip!!!
He loves us all a lot !!! Yes He does !!! He knows exactly what we need...
I got a cold though, but it was o.k. for me to rest...after they left on tuesday the cold got worst...so, since tuesday till yesterday (thursday) I basicly slept...I did some cleaning to help Maren, but besides that I had no strength to do nothing more....it was like a truck passed through my body or someone beated me...it was all aching... maybe I was also tired from the rainbow and freakstock all together...
But I´m fine now, and Herrnhut is a nice place to rest...
Today I felt better so I spend the morning in the "watch tower" above the moravian cemetery...peaceful place...

I miss the "RAINBOW FAMILY"...these are the ones I got to know better during the rainbow gathering...it seams like I know them for soooo long ...I met some on the way, from Willow Freak (May) till the gathering, but we end up really knowing more of eachother during this time in the mountains...we woke up together, had breakfast together, laugh together, we worship and pray together, we were silly together...well, we were family together...I really love them...

Hajo and Rebecca, what a lovely couple,they have a lot of visions and I do hope they follow them...they want to go and start new things, but somehow God have them stuck in germany for a while...I feel God´s using them to challenge the Jesus Freaks to GO...Johaness was always thinking for us :-) about the practical things we needed to do and he built most of our camp...he´s so good on that!!!...he also came with cool insights for us to pray for during the gathering...Sasha, always "tranquilo" and ready to cut some wood, it was his dream to see christians among the rainbows too, I think he was really glad with how things worked out...Johaness&Clara, another sweet couple, always in the back watching if everybody was o.k...he always brought wisdom in the conversations and she carries an amazing peace and merciful eyes,I love them... Mathias, "the activist",I miss his melo worship, he´s just cool, he hangs out everywhere and with everyone...it was cool when he played an "anarchic punk" song during the "magic hat" (that´s how rainbow provides food for all, by donations of thos ewho have to give)that was a well known german song about peace and everybody joined in...Nicola,sweet and quiet sister but always with some wise thing to say when it needed to be said...she has a wonderful angelic voice and a big sweet heart for people...Tabea and another Hajo came for few days from Stuttgard, they brought us strength on the right time...Tabea loved the Israeli people with whom she had a lot of conversations...she just loves to be around everybody...she felt she was not "doing" enough, but I guess she got the picture...God just wanted her to be herself...Kerstin and Norbi, always in action...I think they learnt to chill out a bit :-) I don´t know, I´m just kidding, they´re just like that...they´re lovely...passionate for eachother and even more for Jesus:-)...Marren , our little sista, she turned 20 when we were there...we had a party with pasta and cake!!!I just loved her presence and her big smile...Frede, her boyfriend came only for a weekend with our pop&mom Al&Tina...he rocked in the first morning, it was great...God blessed us so much during our worship times in our woods in the morning...some would come and just feel something different...some told us they felt "A peace" in that place...one israeli kid that day was amazed to see christian freaks worshiping like that...he took one gospel of John we had in Hebrew...waw...

another day one of the "elders" of the rainbow people was seated in our prayer tent in the meadow while having some tea and told us "- Yah, we need some more of Jesus here, there are too many Hare Krisna and Shiva..." ...What about that ?!!!
Al and Tina (I have to say they´re around their 50´s)are travelling for 6 years I think with a Rainbow caravan in the States...they basicly go from Rainbow to rainbow with a bunch of kids in several vans and just live together with "rainbow people"...ministering to those God has been placing in their hands...They love the rainbows, anyone can tell that...and now God is telling them to come to Europe to encourage and love the Freaks here...They surelly do that well...when they look into your eyes and say Jesus loves you, you can just feel it straight into your heart...I love them...we need moms and pops !!!
Ulli&Steffi with their amazing kids Milan,Melody and Elias were there for the first days and then came back for the last week ´cause Ulli had to work...they have been in the rainbow scene for many years, and it has been 12 years since the last time they were in a rainbow...they´ve been experiencing many communities since then, that´s their passion, you can tell...I believe God has many things to do through them stil,l and I hope they follow their heart´s desire :-)I loved Steffi´s laugh...
Yuri and Amelie(his dog) came from Vienna-Austria, even though he´s italian...a sweet guy, a lover of S.Francis Assissi...oh, and I miss to play with Amelie too...she´s such a funny dog...
Yuri told us that the first time he came to our camp and we were already worshiping, he felt like his feet were lifted from the ground to a celestial place while he was still walking...
oh sweet Umoya (that´s Judith´s african name), I was so glad when she came, ´cause she was not sure if she could...she´s another sister for me...we had so nice conversations...I love the way she loves people...she´s a free spirit too...no bonds...
Talking about free spirits, we met a wonderful woman, Anka, nobody knew her, she just went to the rainbow ´cause she heard christian would be there (I have no idea where she got that from...we didn´t anounced it!!!)...she was just everywhere meeting people and inviting them to come to our prayer tent for worship...she met a christian couple in the village nearby who also came to worship with us a few times...they even invite some of us in the end to spend a day with them, to have shower and make laundry, and cook a lot of meet :-) What a blessing!!!they were sweet too...
We also met Frank, another guy from Jesus Freaks who we never met before...he joined us sometimes...he was quiet and observing...we end up meeting him at freakstock and get to know him better...
Robin and Evelina with their small children Jeremias, Anastasia and Nicole...he´s South African and she´s Polish...he has been in the Rainbow Scene for 20 years...10 years ago he became a christian and since then he has been praying that God would raise up christians among Rainbow people in Europe...he has been quiet discouraged and non supported by other christians and this would be his last gathering because he,and specially Evelina,couldn´t handle it anymore being alone as christians at the rainbows...for his surprise, when he met us, we were around 20 there...God gave them hope for sure...
GOD HAS AMAZING THINGS TO DO AMONG AND THROUGH RAINBOW PEOPLE,NOT ONLY IN EUROPE,BUT I BELIEVE ALL OVER THE WORLD...THE WAY HE SET UP THINGS FOR THIS MEETING TELLS ME SO...THE WAY HE´S CROSSING PEOPLE´S WAYS AND NETWORKING US ASURES ME...THE WAY I´M EXCITED TESTIFIES IT IN MY HEART !!!
we met another brother "ocasionally", Peter, the flute man with his nice dogs, Snoopy and Ginger...he also found us there...he´s a simple loving guy...he also has a heart to live in community as a family...

I BELIEVE WE ALL CAME WITH THAT IN OUR HEARTS, AND I BELIEVE THAT`S GOD`S TOO...I BELIEVE HE`S NETWORKING THE NOMADS WITH THOSE WHO WANT TO BUILD UP MONASTIC COMMUNITIES, WEATHER IN THE CITIES OR THE COUNTRY SIDE...IN EUROPE; INDIA; SOUTH- AMERICA; MIDDLE EAST; AFRICA...SENDS US GOD HERE WE ARE!!!:-)
CHRIST CENTRED, LIFE GIVING COMMUNITIES ALL OVER THE WORLD...YES GOD!!!


Oh, and I cannot forget to mention our "brother Bear" Eric...he´s a guy I´ve been hearing about for 2 years...I´ve been trying to get a hold of him ´cause I knew he has been going to Rainbows in Europe, but it´s kinda hard to know where he is...India, Israel, here, there, everywhere...He´s a nomad...a sweet guy, a worshiper´s heart...it was amazing when he was worshiping...I remember one time after the first "food circle" (that´s twice a day when we all eat together...usually we make 1 or more circles, depends if we were 1000 or more people), Eric started to worship with his guitar, I followed him with a little djembé, Rebecca and Maren were there also...we were simply and naturaly worshiping...people around were joining in and apreciatting...some would come and go...one time I opened my eyes and saw this girl wraped in a blanket staring at Eric with tears falling down her face...It was not Eric´s funny hat that was making her cry, that was sure...the Holy Spirit was touching her...I look in her eyes, she looked also and I gave her a smile...she stayed still for a while and left...we saw her after that and she spoke with Eric ...during that time another woman came behind me and huged me...I kept druming,I pulled my head back and could hear her crying... she stayed for a while...then I recognize it was another christian we met, she was from Berlin and just stayed for few days...she also desires to see more of God´s presence among Rainbows and "out of the box"...

I CAN JUST PRAISE GOD FOR ALL THESE THINGS...AND I KNOW WE DIDN´T SEE ALL THAT GOD HAS DONE IN THESE 3 WEEKS AND YOU WOULDN`T HAVE MORE PATIENCE TO READ IF I`D WRITE ABOUT IT...
IT WAS GREAT AND I JUST WANT TO THANK GOD FOR ALL,BECAUSE HE WAS BEHIND IT AND BEFORE US ALL THE TIME...WE COULD JUST FEEL IT...THANKS FOR ALL WHO PRAYED,AND KEEP PRAYING FOR THOSE WHO WENT TO CZECH AND FOR OTHER FUTURE MEETINGS...
I BELIEVE GOD JUST STARTED SOMETHING THAT WILL GROW BEYOND OUR PERCEPTION...

WELL I GUESS YOU GOT THE PICTURE OF THE RAINBOW GATHERING...


IT`S ALL ABOUT THAT : BEING A FAMILY...
GOD SIMPLY USED US THE WAY WE ARE...WITH THE GIFTS HE HAS BEEN GIVING US...WE JUST WORSHIPED HIM...WE DIDN`T GO WITH BIG STRATEGIES AND IDEAS...WE WERE SIMPLY THERE AS HIS FAMILY AMONG THOSE HE LOVES AND WANTS IN HIS FAMILY TOO...

I will not tell much about Freakstock in this post ´cause it´s already too big...but there we gave a workshop about the rainbow and many Freaks seam interested...we met 3 more who joined the ones who went to the Czech gathering, Anna&Jonattas, and Kameal from London-"Glorious Undead" church...

Love you all
PEACE

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

maninja, this is a wonderful review of the rainbow... i loved to read it and remember all the people and the wonderful time we had there. it was an awsome birthday party you preapared for me. and it made me happy just to be there and share these days with my rainbow family and my holy father. i realy miss you all! and i realy looking forward visiting you in lisbon next year.

Anonymous said...

so glad you are blogging - now i know where to find you

great to see you at Greenbelt!!