Indonesia Indonesia Indonesia ….

What can I say? Month 9 is going well, Natalia, John, and I are still going strong over here! God has been speaking some really good stuff to me lately and I just want to take a couple minutes of your time to share it with you.

Living in a dissimilar culture really opens your eyes to new mindsets, new paradigms, and new ways of doing EVERYTHING. It does not take long for you to figure out that; just because you were taught to do something one way, does not necessarily make it the correct way. This has been quite a humbling experience for me.
But then…. You also see everything from an “outsiders” point of view, which can get sort of dangerous for your pride sometimes. You think, “wow, look at all the things that are wrong in these churches, so much that MUST change in the people!” It is so easy to get in the judging mentality when you are coming from a different part of the world, where, like I said, everything is done so differently.
God has been pushing me to take that frustration I feel from seeing these different problem areas in the church here, and turning it into INTERCESSION for the people. Our job is not to “change” people, but we are called to give grace, grace, and more grace. This is why we are here. We are in Indonesia to see a shift in the atmosphere, to see these people fall to their knees in repentance, and to let the Holy Spirit do what He wants to do. Yes, it has been very difficult to get the churches here to understand the concept of why we “Burn”, but then again, it is going against so many of their cultural walls they have built around themselves. We all have done this. But we knew this was not going to be an easy task…if we thought that, we would not have come over here for a full year. We are not discouraged; we are just going to keep fighting. Pray for us…. Fight WITH US.

We have been doing a 24-hour Burn here in the city twice a month, and it has been going decently well. Our main focus right now is to build as many relationships as we can, to disciple and pour our hearts into. The Indonesians here are the ones who will be able to make this spread around the entire Country. We will be leaving in 3 months, and we need them to get a heart, passion, and LONGING for this. We know that God wants this here, and we know for a fact that it is needed here, so we are going to work our butts off to see this happen.

I am just being honest with all of you; this is what it looks like over here. Some days it is VERY hard for us, but then there are times when we see our vision becoming reality, and it just reminds us of why we are here and how worth it this all is.

Please Pray :
-    That we will get new ideas and supernatural wisdom on how to portray this new concept of Worship and TRUE intercession to Indonesia.
-    That we will have favor with the Pastors here, and they will catch this vision to spread it to their congregations. If they get a heart for this, they have the ability to teach and preach this to many more people than we ever could.
-    For MUSICIANS from the younger generation to rise up and be leaders in the community.
-    For a special grace to fall on Natalia, John, and I to finish out these next 3 months as strong and as fervent as ever.

Thank you all for your prayers and support. We want Indonesia to come alive again! Please partner with us in contending for the lost and broken here in this Nation.

JESUS REIGNS IN INDONESIA  **

Brit

Hello friends

Hello family and friends!!! Having just passed our 6 month anniversary (can’t believe that it’s already been that long!), God is putting us in a time of reflection. Looking back at our time here, we are just so humbled and awed to be a part of the fire that God is spreading across the nations! He has done so much for our team and we are so grateful to be in the army that God is rising up.

“But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.” Job 23:10

Our first 3 months in Bali seemed to fly by. We spent most of time there learning so much from people, experiences, and God. Bali was our training ground and God used those moments to equip us for later months. We were able to come alongside with missionaries there who were church planting and serve them in the goal that God placed in their hearts. It was an awesome jumpstart as we were able to connect with local churches (especially Abbalove) and share our heart for this nation. A few trials came forth in the 3rd month as both of our boys, John and Rob, caught parasites. John recovered shortly but Rob’s kidneys and liver began to fail and had to return home for recovery. During this time, God really refined our team and we became closer through our struggles. (We miss you, Rob!) It was while all this was happening that the Lord started calling us in a new direction. So we turned our ears, put our trust in him, and packed our bags!

“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshiper will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshiper the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:23-24

Life in Borneo, Indonesia was a whole new world for us! We were introduced to no air conditioning, hand-washing clothes, cold water, and a need to learn the Indonesian language. Thankfully our God is good and gave us the grace we needed in our transition period. Over the past 3 months, we have truly seen the favor of God. Our main connection here has been Vecky Tumion; a leader of Youth With A Mission (YWAM) all over Indonesia. Through him, we were given a place to stay and connections with many churches in the city of Pontianak. We have been able to share our vision for this nation with local pastors, worship leaders, and intercessors. They have really caught onto our heart for worship and intercession. They see a need for it in their country and we are here to serve that need. After two 24 hour Burns in Pontianak, another church 5 hours away heard the things that God has been doing and invited us to teach and bring the Burn to their city. As of today, we have done four Burns in this island. Each time we hold a Burn we see more and more breakthrough, but we are still begging God for his children to receive and deeper revelation of freedom, creativity, and a worshipers heart.

“….Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop- a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. He who has ears, let him hear.” Matthew 13:3-9 (parable of the sower)

Since we realize that there is still much work to be done in these people’s hearts, we have made a list of goals for the next 6 months to ensure that the Burn is sustained here and continues to grow after we leave.

- Building a Team: We want to make sure that this is not an American thing; we need it to become a part of their hearts. Our vision right now is to raise up a team who we can disciple and impart             ourselves into.
- Building Relationships: To make the Burn Borneo long lasting, we have to build deeper relationships with pastors, worship leaders, and intercessors from around this island.
- Building a Structure: For the past 3 months we’ve been having an Indonesian do a lot of the scheduling and planning for us; but now we are going to push past the language barrier and be even             more involved.

We have really prayed about these goals as a team and feel that these are imperative for the ‘tiny seeds of praise we bring to spring up before the nation.’ Isa 61:11

This month we have had a short-term team from the states and the founder of our organization, Sean Feucht, visiting us. They have brought us some much needed encouragement and FIRE during their time here. We are so blessed and happy to have them travel halfway across the world to join with us in our mission.

We just wanted to take the time to personally thank each and every one of you for sticking with us for the past 6 months. We have been through many hardships but we have also seen the mercy and kindness of God and we really believe it is because of many of your prayers. Thank you so much for putting your time, concern and support into our team. We are so grateful for all you do- we are happy to be fighting the good fight with you all.

Jesus Reigns in Indonesia,

Burn Team Asia
Jeremiah 1:10

Brittany Ecklind
John Parks
Natalia Baker

Sitting outside by our water well with my little guitar on this cold and rainy night, I am struggling to hear my own voice over the muslim man screaming over the loudspeaker in the nearby mosque. Sometimes it is easy to forget that you live in the “largest muslim nation in the world”, but it does not take long to be reminded. The sound of this foreign language blaring into my ears that I, and most of the Indonesians in this country, do not understand, is piercing.
As I was singing out to the Lord… in my frustration, my heart went out to those people bowing before deception and blinded by the generations and generations of this idol worship. Just the street we are living on alone, has hundreds of these people who just live their lives with no purpose; no drive. Wow, who am I to be fighting this war? Who am I to ask for the souls of this Nation?
I will keep on waiting, seeking, and knocking. I will keep on singing, even when it is difficult to hear my own voice.

The Burn that we held last weekend in Singkawang, went extremely well. God bombed me with His overwhelming presence to the point where I felt like I could not even handle it. I encountered Him on a deeper level than I have ever entered into in my whole life. I was in my own little world for about 20 minutes… being lifted into the arms of the Almighty. He was whispering in my ear over and over again… “ My Glory will cover the earth, as the waters cover the Sea!”.  I am waiting for that here in Indonesia. I am contending for this place to be thick with HIS presence and Glory alone. It’s going to happen so soon. He is working on us, getting us ready for it.

Please keep Burn Team Asia in your prayers this week especially. Sean, Nathan, and Elise (our short term team), is arriving in a couple of days. Sean will be here for 9 days, and the other two will be staying for almost the entire month of September. It is such a blessing to be able to have them come and give us a little boost! We are needing some love and support right now… about to hit our 6 month point in Indonesia.
The churches are very excited to meet the Founder of our ministry, and we are so pumped to see their reactions when Sean releases the Fire! Haha. Seriously though, We are really expecting big things in these next couple of weeks. God has been stirring among the people here, and they are ready to go deeper.

Please email us with any visions, dreams, or just a little encouraging word. We are in constant need of back-up from our prayer warriors back home ☺

Thank you, and I love you all…..

Brit

First off, I want to let you all know that my wonderful sister Leah is visiting me here in Indonesia for a WHOLE 10 DAYS! God is so good to me, and really opened some crazy doors to get her here! We are having such a beautiful time together, and its so good for her to be able to see what we do here! Good times

This past weekend was BIG for the prayer movement all across the world. We feel privileged and honored to be able to be apart of it here in Borneo. On Friday and Saturday we had our second 24 - hour Burn, at around the same time all the Burn Directors along with thousands of other believers were gathered in DC for the Call. Then again just yesterday, August 18th, around ONE MILLION believers came together in Jakarta for the “Call Indonesia”, the first time anything like that has ever happened in this country. It is truly astonishing to be watching these places all around the world seeking the Lord and repenting for the sins of humanity. What a time we are living in!

I am not going to lie, it kind of gets hard after about 12 hours straight of worship and prayer that you can’t understand. But God is faithful and gives our team the strength to press through and keep going strong. He is very good at reminding me of the importance of what we are doing during those long hours. Even though we feel so lost at times, we unite with the people through the spirit of the Lord who has NO language barrier holding Him back.
As we keep going with the Burn, the people here are understanding more and more of what “vertical worship” is. We are definitely in the small beginnings of this thing, but we have seen improvement and there are moments of encouragement here and there.
Agung, a 25-year-old guy from a local church played in our first Burn a couple of weeks ago. He was only supposed to be the back up guitarist, but by the end of his 2 hour set he was wailing on the microphone from the deepest parts of his heart. You could tell that he just could not hold it in anymore, he had so much passion built up inside and he FINALLY had the freedom to be able to sing it out. He came again to this last burn and led his own set….. FIRE was on that guy. The whole time he was singing, me and Natalia kept looking at each other and laughing because of how happy it makes us seeing this guy really understanding the freedom in worship. We saw it “click” ! And we are believing this same thing for all the people in this city!
This week the team and I are in a city about 4 hours North of Pontianak, a church here heard about the burn and wanted it. So we will be here for the week, doing a “worship seminar” then a Burn this Friday and Saturday. God is really spreading this thing ☺

Please be praying :

- that the people who we speak to this week will catch on to our vision
- for wise words to speak
- and of course….. for the FIRE to fall

The first picture attached is of Agung, singing his NEW SONG!!!!!

WE LOVE YOU ALL

God has not forgotten Indonesia. She has caught the eye of her TRUE love and He is still captivated by her beauty. We have so much hope for this Nation, and we are here to remind these people that they have the power to change it. This past Friday, August 1st  2008, believers from all over the city came together for 24 hours straight to worship, pray, and listen for the songs of heaven… the first time this has ever happened in Pontianak! Indonesians are intercessors to the core, and it is so fun to be apart of this. Obviously this was only our first gathering, and we can see that the people here are beginning to understand the vision of the Burn more and more. But now we have seen the areas where they are still kind of stuck in their own traditions and even some religious tendencies! Well, this is one of the main reasons we have committed to staying here for a year, it enables us to really teach the believers here the importance of WAITING, listening, and being creative with their instruments! These are very key points, and for some reason very difficult to get them to understand. But these things take time, and we are willing to do it! Our plan right now is to gather these musicians and intercessors and do a “Workshop Weekend” and show them what vertical worship looks like in a semi-practical way, and get a little deeper scripturally with them.

God is moving here, and we can feel it so strongly.

Our next Burn is on August 15th through the 16th~ and we are expecting BIG things. Thank you so much for praying with us for Indonesia!

Here is a video of one of our sets!  This will give you a tiny glance of what it was like….

(http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v315/brainofcotton/?action=view&current=Movie365.flv)
and i will be sending more photos…..

Sitting in our first Burn here in Pontianak, and it feels surreal. We could have never made this happen on our own, God has been opening door after door, and now tonight it is actually happening! Twenty different churches from all over the city are apart of this 24 hours of worship and intercession! The first time in this city anything like this has happened! It has been going on for only 4 and a half hours so far, and already I am exhausted. Indonesians are crazy intense and just keep going! Hahah I love it so much.
We need your prayers today….

Help us intercede for this Nation today ☺

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7

God has been bringing me back to this verse constantly for the past couple of weeks. I have read it a million times throughout my life, but I am now just starting to realize the power behind it. These are the words of the SON OF GOD! Even when it just 3 people in a little room in the jungles of Borneo, asking God for mercy, He cares. We ask, He provides, we seek, He reveals, and when we knock, He will open up the doors!! That is just the most amazing concept to me. It gets hard seeing all this poverty and people in the most horrid living conditions, but that makes me want to cry out even louder. Indonesia captures our hearts more and more with each day.

We spent the past month doing ministry with a YWAM team from Australia. They were gracious enough to invite us into their team for 4 weeks and treat us as their own. We were able to bring a different type of spirit to the YWAM team, and they loved it! Everyday we would spend time in deep intercession for this nation and the people we were going to minister to. We also did many hours of worship together which truly created a bond between the Burn team and the YWAM team that only God can do. I saw worship/intercession and missions come together in the physical form. There was a very good balance of the two, and it seemed to be 10 times more effective than when they stand alone. Two weeks traveling from village to village really shows you a lot about life. It is crazy how simple they live out there…… but there is something so pure about it. All three of us really enjoyed ourselves learning about this culture, and spreading light into the darkness of religion. Even way out in the middle of NOWHERE, people are going to church only out of tradition. There is no life, no fun, no laughter inside the churches! It was sad to see. But now we see even more specific things to pray for here in Pontianak. We saw those things with our own eyes, now our hearts are in it, so we will keep contending.

Last night we had a very good meeting with a local church. I thought we were meeting with only the pastor, but he ended up bringing over 20 musicians along with him. We were so excited when we walked in that room seeing all those young faces looking at us with such eagerness and expectancy. It is really funny… they think just because we are white and from AMERICA we have a 4 year degree in biblical studies or something! But it is great because they listen very intently to every word that comes out of out mouths, which makes it much easier when you are nervous! Sharing about our vision for this city, region, and Nation is one of my favorite things to do. It is so great to be able to come into this Islamic country and meet with Christians reminding them that this is God’s country, and “ you have power to change it!”.
This generation IS rising up. I believe that things are starting to change all over the world. Prayer and worship are the most powerful things, and we, as the Body of Christ are finally starting to figure out how to use them effectively.

This month we are focusing on meeting with at least 3 churches a week from around the city, sharing with them the importance of Unity among believers and asking them if they are willing to take time to come together to worship, pray, and listen for the voice of the Lord. I am praying that all these meetings will go as successfully as last night! If everything goes as planned, we will start burning together in August! As SOON as we can!

Please be praying for:

-    Super Natural favor with the pastors who are not as open as we would like. Pray that their hearts will be open to this “crazy” new idea of freedom with our worship, and that there will be NO offence taken.

-    Favor with the language learning.

-    And pray the spirit of the Lord will Reign in this Country!~

I love you all, thank you for all your support and prayers …..

Brit

  Two nights ago the lights went out. Our team just sat in the
darkness praying for this nation and interceding on behalf of lost
souls. We sat and worshipped God and exalted his name in a nation
where over half the people choose to look the other way. It was an
incredibly intense time as we declared things over this nation- we
declared freedom, we declared love, and we declared light.

What an amazing time I’ve had over here in just the past couple of weeks!
God has really begun to open my heart to feel his love for Indonesia.
The team and I just got out of the villages about a week ago after
spending two weeks there. We had the amazing opportunity to partner
with a YWAM team from Australia on their outreach and it was awesome.
From the time that I got there to the time that I left I was just
about left speechless. I didn’t want to leave!

The kids were adorable and treated me like I was a celebrity. They
just followed me around everywhere even though we couldn’t talk very
thoroughly, they just wanted to watch me. I had a really neat
experience bathing in the rivers- actually it was quite fun! And of
course all the kids wanted to bathe and swim with us. They all jumped
at the opportunity to help me wash the soap out of my hair!! It was so
cute! At one village I lost my sandals, so I walked barefoot escorted
by the children to the nearest market. One part of the road was
incredibly rocky and really hurt my feet a lot and as soon as the kids
noticed my pain- THEY ALL TOOK OFF THEIR SANDALS AND WALKED ON THE
SHARP ROCKS WITH ME SAYING “SAKIT, SAKIT!!!” (oww, oww). I was so
touched….

In many of the villages the people said they believed in Jesus, yet
they would have witchcraft and objects in their home that were
supposed to protect them. I was so sad to see how deceived they were.
To think that God is not enough for protection. To not have a fear of
the Lord. To not have a revelation of God’s father heart. To not know
the freedom they have in the Lord.

This month, I am especially excited because we are going to be able to
focus fully on the Burn and our ministry of worship and prayer. The
leader of the YWAM base here, Vecky, is going to have us meeting with
pastors three times a week so that we are able to share our hearts and
form relationship with spiritual leaders in this nation. Please be
praying that we are able to clearly communicate what God wants us to
and please pray for favor.

Two nights ago the lights went out. I prayed for light and woke up
the next morning with it streaming in my window. Everyday millions of
souls here are drowning in darkness. Everyday I pray for their
blindfolds to be taken off so they can see. Everyday I pray for God’s
light to illuminate tomorrow….

Thank you so much for your prayers,

NATALIA