CGA has concluded and with it, my time in worship track. But my memories of those times will live on. Some of them right here actually.
Here are some of my favorites stories and moments from our Burn Wagon trip at the end of our time in CGA. But first, you should watch this video put together by Stephen who documented our first day (and all the other days) of the trip. It gives a little more background on what the Burn Wagon was to be.
Day 1 CGA BURN WAGON from Stephen Zenner on Vimeo.
The Stories:
Asheville, NC
We went to Asheville to hang out around/join in a drum circle that was going to be happening. The drum circle was initially started as a place for people to come dance and worship witches and witchcraft. No joke.
So, naturally, we decided to take some light into a spiritually dark environment. Several of our group played as part of the drum circle at various times and several others spent time singing praises and declaring the truth of the Lord over the circle. We also had encounters with locals where we were able to share the Gospel, pray, and even offer prophetic words as the Lord showed us.
I sat and talked with a guy named Daniel for about 30 minutes probably. He was pretty inebriated so I don’t know how much of our conversation stuck with him but we were able to talk about Jesus for 20 of those 30 minutes and Daniel appeared to be very receptive. Again, I don’t know how much stuck but I prayed over him at the end of our conversation and wished him well as he went on his way.
Once I started talking with Daniel it was easy. I wasn’t even that nervous to ask him if he knew Jesus. The conversation just flowed.
I was nervous to interrupt though. To start the conversation. That’s the part most of us are nervous about when it comes to evangelism. But if we can get past the initial awkwardness and just approach someone, there’s no telling what could happen.
Ithaca, NY
So Cornell University is a pretty cool campus. We spent an afternoon there with the intention of evangelism. We learned real quick that people weren’t interested in “fly by evangelism.” We got shut down and turned away by a lot of people that afternoon.
But thank God (literally) for people like Liz. Liz understands people a whole lot better than I do. She knows it’s not about pushing an agenda or set of beliefs on people. It’s about getting to know them. Who are they? What has brought them to where they are? Why do they believe what they do?
Liz and I started a conversation with a group of three students and pretty quickly I jumped in with something like, “We don’t go here but we’re on campus because we’re Christians and we’re here praying for people. Can we pray for you?”
One of the guys just left at that point, with an extremely uncomfortable look on his face. The other two looked uncomfortable as well but they didn’t leave. I wasn’t really sure what to do next. The goal was evangelism and they didn’t want to hear it. What should I do?
Well what Liz did was engage them in actual conversation. What are you guys studying? What do you like to do? How did you end up at Cornell? Things like that.
And you know what happened? They opened up. They let down their guard – not all the way, but enough. We were able to connect with each other and see that, at the end of the day, we were just people. People with different beliefs, sure, but people all the same. We didn’t see either come to salvation but we were able to pray at the end, which they were not excited about before.
Thanks, Liz, for showing me that effective evangelism requires relationship.
Virginia Beach, VA
One of my favorite days of the trip was in Virginia Beach. We had an incredible night of worship with a group of young adults and some really incredible stories from our time evangelizing earlier in the day. I’d love to write about it but I can actually show it to you! At least in part.
So here is a link to a Facebook Live video I posted that shows the worship and Stephen and Arden talking about our time evangelizing. The testimony part starts at about 1 hour and 15 minutes.
https://www.facebook.com/drew.dahlsten/videos/10155193817553899/
The rest of the trip was also wonderful but I won’t share all the stories here. Stephen documented every day of our trip though and I believe will be coming out with a video, like the one above, for every day of the Burn. As those come out I will make sure to share them on my Facebook page.
Thank you all for supporting me as I pursue the work the Lord has for me in His Kingdom. You guys are great!
